I am indeed happy that Madurai Kamaraj University’s Guru Nanak Devji Chair is conducting a series of Lectures on Sikhism and related themes dedicated to the Khalsa Tercentenary Celebrations. The Chair has already organized four Lectures and it has also conducted an all - India Seminar, with the eminent participation of His Excellency, Governor of Kerala Justice Sukh Dev Singh Kang and then Union Minister Sardar Surjit Singh Barnala. Now the Chair has come out with two more special lectures. These lectures are dedicated to Kabir and to the Akali’s Contribution to federalism.

Kabir is almost an unique personality who dared to travel alone into the inter-religious space between Hinduism and Islam. Kabir makes the rarest statement in Indian context that he calls himself as the "Son of Ram and Allah". We know Guru Nanak saying "There is no Hindu, There is no Musalman", but only one Humanity. As well as we know Guru Gobind Singh saying that "The Temple and the Mosque are the same". It is this spirit of unity of God and unity of Humanity that brings together Kabir, Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh. I am happy to know that Bhagat Kabir is revered and worshipped in Sikhism and Kabir’s songs are included in Shri Guru Granth Sahib.

Kabir discovered a new spirituality which is free of formalism, sectarianism and dogmatism. Kabir’s language was pithy and folksy, and he was critical and uncompromising with the religious orthodoxies of his time. In many aspects Kabir resembles Socrates of ancient Greece. Possibly many of his contemporaries - the dogmatists particularly - hated him, as the Sophists hated Socrates.

In Indian civilization there was, and always is, a permanent tension between ethical thinking and ritualism. This contradiction started from the very early days of our civilization. Saints like Lord Buddha, Thiruvalluvar, Bhagat Kabir, Guru Nanak and the Tamil Siddhas make the line of ethical conscience of India differing from the ritualistic line of thinking. Ethical act, humanism, religious piety are the basic aspects of the life and thought of these thinkers.

Let me quote one of the songs of Kabir in Guru Granth Sahib:

It is a call of ethical commitment, a call of truth, a call for "Truthful Living" about which Guru Nanak Spoke.

Kabir holds that human life is very precious and it should be lived purposefully. He addresses the men with very simple questions:

Kabir often talks of death so as to remind us of the meaning of life, speaks of death for the sake of life. He kindles the conscience of man. Death is the great which witness flatly equalizes all.

If you don’t make your life worthwhile, death will triumph - Kabir warns.

Kabir calls God as the "Tree of Life". Kabir deprecates the destruction of life for the sake of any formal worship. His heart was so tender that he could not bear a flower - girl plucking the flowers from a living plant-

For Kabir, the Tree of life should be worshipped as God. This is how Kabir portrays the world rooted in God:

This is the wonderful vision Kabir has developed. This vision is relevant even in our contemporary life.

I am happy that two learned Professors Dr. Tarlochan Singh Bedi (Father of Mr. Gagandeep Singh Bedi, Commissioner of Madurai) and Dr. P. K. Pokker, Member, Kerala Sahitya Akademy and Professor of Philosophy, University of Calicut are going to deal in detail the life and thoughts of Kabir.

The second lecture in the afternoon is dedicated to the recent history of India, its sociology and political science.

The Sikhs are one of the proudest people who led the freedom movement of India. They had many waves of peoples’ mobilization for freedom. The Namdhari Movement, the Singh Sabha Movement and Gurdwara Reform Movement culminated in the formation of the Akali Dal in 1925. It rightfully became one of the inalienable part of the freedom struggle. However, the Akalis had their own vision of the social and political future of Free India. Social equality and Federal India are part of that vision. The Akalis during the freedom movement and after independence stood for these ideals.

Federalism is a democratic principle in countries like India which has an age old multicultural background of different religious, regions and languages. Absence of federalism may give space for the wildly of divisive forces. Federalism is the guarantee to an orchestrated union in India.

The history of Akali Dal possibly has many things common to the history of Dravidian Movement in the South. The scholars must probe into these commonalities.

I am happy that the Guru Nanak Devji Chair is able to bring Dr. Mohinder Singh, President of the National Institute of Punjab Studies, New Delhi, and eminent scholar in the history of Akali Dal, to speak on the contribution of Akalis to the making of Federal India. I am also happy that Prof. R. Venkatarathnam, our Syndicate Member, Professor of Sociology, chairs the session.