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BOOKS
The Sikhlore
Celebrating the many lives of the Sikhs in words
and pictures
By Madan Gopal Singh
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| On religious festivals, people set up community
kitchens to serve free food |
A coffee-table book
exists like a little objet d'art. Its value on the bookshelf depreciates
rapidly. It stays on the table in an expectant transit. One flips through
its pages while waiting to be ushered into a polite appointment. It also
forms part of a somewhat mannered ritual of the middle-class tea ceremony.
It is marked as such by an aesthetic of taste and seduction.
This lavishly mounted volume on the Sikhs falls
within this slot. Its almost square frame seems to ensure a sense of balance
and focus. It has, besides, a rich and seductive visual component consisting
largely of stunning visuals from the now almost legendary Raghu Rai's
portfolio. In addition, there is a small range of archival material carefully
cleaned up, composed and used as an optic lure leading you into a somewhat
idealised, if not idolised, history of the Sikhs.
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THE SIKHS
Text by Khushwant Singh, Photographs by Raghu Rai
Roli Books
Price:
Rs 1,975
Pages: 144
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Both Raghu Rai and Khushwant Singh, the writer
of the text and a popular historian of the Sikhs, are established cultural
icons in their respective fields and their coming together as an authorial
team enhances the value of the product.
The first and the smallest section of the book
brings together a minuscule selection of photographs and slides of paintings
from mostly British sources. For a large part, it overlaps with the main
text written by Khushwant Singh. The last and the biggest part consists
entirely of Rai's photographs the richness of which has an existence independent
of the earlier components.
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An elephant does the heavy work in a Nihang encampment (top); boys
relaxing on an old cannon near the Golden Temple in Amritsar
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The text is marred by a number of mistakes, both
factual and interpretive. A book of this kind is expected to be a gentle
narration. It is not the space for assertive, aggressive arguments. But
this is surely no reason why the act of narration should not carefully
eschew the path of myth-making. Despite Sikhism's attack on the caste
hierarchy, it is impossible to make much headway in Sikh history-writing
if the caste questions within the Sikh lore are swept under the carpet.
It is no use pretending that caste hegemonies have played absolutely no
role in Sikh history. Likewise, in our over-enthusiasm to project the
virility of the Sikhs, we should not be overwhelmed by the mythology of
Sikh supremacy in sports. It is a known fact that ever since the Green
Revolution in Punjab, there has been a visible decline in pan-Indian sports
representation from Punjab.
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On religious festivals, people set up community kitchens to serve
free food
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And I have a problem with Singh's translations.
He translates the first verse from Guru Nanak's morning prayer as "Not
by thought alone/Can He be known". It may be pointed out that the
Guru is critiquing the Vedic methods of self-purification. The soch in
question is a variation of the Sanskrit shauch, which is to do with ablutions
such as bathing and not with "thought" as he seems to think.
His translation of the ninth Guru Tegh Bahadur's sis diya par siraru na
diya is flawed. Firstly, instead of siraru, he uses sir, and secondly,
he translates even sir as "secret". Siraru is dignity and self-respect,
not "secret".
One last question: what happened to the dynamic
Sikh diaspora? Its creative energy and reverse-influence on the contemporary
cultural expressions in India?
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