Religious Freedom, Pluralism and the Bhagat Bani

Overview

Recall questions on the bhagat bani in the Guru Granth Sahib, the pluralist reading of Sikh teaching, the boundary with Hindu tradition, Guru Nanak's travels and the yogis, and N K Singh and S B Singh Dalawari.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is the bhagat bani?

   Model answer

   The compositions in the Guru Granth Sahib by devotees who were not Sikh Gurus, drawn from Hindu and Muslim voices across northern India, among them Kabir, Namdev, Ravidas and the Sufi Sheikh Farid, and including men from low-caste occupations such as a cobbler, a barber and a butcher. Their verses stand in the scripture alongside the Gurus' own.

2. 2

   Why is the inclusion of the bhagat bani in the Guru Granth Sahib remarkable?

   Model answer

   Because a scripture is normally the record of one community's own voices, and here the community's living Guru contains the words of outsiders, including men whose caste would have barred them from a temple. Sikhs cite it as scriptural warrant both for holding that truth is available beyond one's own tradition and for rejecting caste.

3. 3

   Does inclusion mean the Gurus agreed with everything the bhagats said?

   Model answer

   Not straightforwardly. The material was selected as consonant with the Gurus' teaching, and in places a Guru's verse follows and comments on a devotee's, so it is better read as recognition of what is true in others' devotion than as blanket endorsement. Scholars debate how much editorial shaping took place.

4. 4

   What is the pluralist reading of Sikh teaching?

   Model answer

   That the one divine is addressed under many names, that no tradition owns access, that the Gurus told people to be good Hindus and good Muslims rather than to become Sikhs, and that Sikhs do not seek converts. The presence of other voices in the scripture and the Gurus' defence of others' worship are the standard evidence.

5. 5

   How do Sikhs disagree about the boundary with Hindu tradition?

   Model answer

   The reform legacy insists Sikhs are a separate religion and resists shared festivals, images and Brahminical rites, while other Sikhs, particularly in families with mixed practice, live more fluidly. The move of the Ravidasia community toward a distinct identity after violence at a gathering abroad in 2009 shows how live such boundary questions remain.

6. 6

   What do the accounts of Guru Nanak's travels show about his dealings with Hindus and Muslims?

   Model answer

   They show him going to the great pilgrimage sites and to Muslim centres and arguing his case there, pouring water in the wrong direction at the Ganges to expose offerings made to the ancestors, and telling a qazi that prayer counts for nothing when the mind is elsewhere. His lifelong companion was the Muslim musician Mardana, and after his death both communities are said to have claimed him.

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