Sikhs have re-adopted the caste system they championed against!

Guru Gobind Singh created an egalitarian religion which believed in one God and ended all castes and religious differences through the Amrit Ceremony. In an Amrit Ceremony, the members are initiated as Khalsa by drinking from a same pot which is water and a sugar (patasa) stirred with Khanda. By this process, the people partaking it become equals and the males remove the caste surname and put 'Singh' and the females put 'Kaur'

But, this form of egalitarism may be just theory in today's everyday masses, especially when they are looking for a marriage partner. Offcourse there are exceptions with the initiated Sikhs with Amrit. Some of them I know by experience, who would not consider caste, but this seems to be a minority. The biggest proof of the plague of the caste system, as mentioned before, is visible twice every week as documentary evidence in the form of matrimonial advertisements in newspapers. 

The picture above is a copy from a newspaper matrimonial section. This is currently the biggest plague that needs immediate fixing. 

In an average Punjabi village today, there is another phenomenon that is very surprising and the antithesis of Sikhism and Khalsa as it was designed. 

This is the phenomenon of caste based Gurudwaras in villages. This means that instead of one common gurudwara, there would be Gurudwaras labelled based of caste and only the people of the particular caste would visit the gurudwara for prayers. There are terms like 'jattan da gurudwara', 'phapeyyan da gurudwara', and 'lubaneyan da gurudwara' which are three different caste based Gurudwaras, among many others. Today, as I write on Guru Gobind Singh's Birthday, i am sure Guru Gobind Singh would be most upset seeing this state of affairs. 

And this caste system is further endorsed directly or indirectly, by some leaders of the Gurudwara politics which either directly use their caste names after the Singh/Kaur or imply it in conversations or through choices. 

So much so that, people have now started to recognise saints, leaders and even figures of the Sikh heritage by their castes and affiliate to those saints who are of their same caste. 

The Sikh religion was created as a relief from the caste based distinctions that existed in the brahmanical society of the times before and during the genesis of Sikhism. Today, it is evident that, Sikhism may not be the sanctuary provided for any person who would earlier want to seek emancipication from caste division and come into the egalitarian fold of Sikhism. 

It almost brings me to tears when I have to confront this reality about the reintroduction of the brahmanical caste system that Sikhism through Khalsa championed against.

The rise of Christianity in Punjab can be linked to this. If we are to assume that the conversions to Christianity are not forced, it will make sense that a villager, of a so called lower caste, got I'll treated earlier by the high caste Hindu and later by the Jat Sikh landlord, finds sanctuary in the name of a foreign 'God' whose faith system is an entry ticket to the egaliatarianism which every Human must have as a Human Right. Something that even the Indian Constitution, and then democratic ethoes of the world demands in today's time. 

A person born in a so called high caste does pure plagiarism by taking credit of some ancestors' life and status. This is despite that fact that even though by occupation and lifestyle the person may not be doing things worthy of the so called high caste. 

The biggest threat Sikhism today has, apart from the Sikhs burning their own house by adopting casteism, is the subtle merging of Sikhism into Brahmanical Hinduism. This path will lead Sikhism into the same path as Buddhism and it will be an endangered religion, or may just seem like a sect of Hinduism. 

Sikhism is a unique and revolutionary religion which challenges everything that is Hindu or 'sanatani'. There may be some similarity to the Adi Shankaracharya's Advaita and Swami Dayanand Saraswati's Arya Samaj both which are linked to the idea of monotheism in one way or the other.

We must refrain from idol worship, including the photos of Gurus, or treating the symbolism of the Gurudwara as an idol and get ourself connected to the message of the Gurus in the Guru Granth Sahib. 

We have an existential threat today as the Sikh religion with caste creeping into our systems and the attack by merging of Sikhism to the Hindu fold. There is a special need to reinvigorate the Singh Sabha Movement and have Singh pracahraks in every village, town, school and university. We must have Sikhs in administrative services, high posts in the government and other places of authorities so that the cause of Sikh identity can be always considered. Sikh youth must be made to connect with Sikh values and external form.