Sangat, Panth and Qaum

Overview

Recall questions on the sangat and its development under the Gurus, the Panth as a qaum carrying the Guru's authority, binding decisions, virtual sangat, N K Singh on the sangat and K Nayar outside Punjab.

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 sangat, and why is it not simply a congregation of listeners?

   Model answer

   Sangat is the gathered community of Sikhs, often called sadh sangat, the company of the true. Sikhs hold that keeping this company is itself a spiritual discipline: the shabad is sung together, langar is eaten together, and rank is deliberately levelled by everyone sitting on the floor in rows.

2. 2

   Trace how the sangat developed under the Gurus.

   Model answer

   Guru Nanak settled a working community at Kartarpur with shared worship and a common kitchen; Guru Amar Das organised distant congregations through appointed local leaders and had a stepwell dug at Goindval; Guru Ram Das founded the town that became Amritsar; Guru Arjun built the Harmandir Sahib there and installed the scripture in it, making the city a centre for the whole community. What began as scattered followers became an organised body with institutions.

3. 3

   Explain what is being claimed when the Panth is described as a qaum.

   Model answer

   Qaum means a people or a nation. To call the Panth a qaum claims that Sikhs are not only a religious body but a distinct community with collective political interests, a claim with obvious consequences in the twentieth century and one that other Sikhs think overstates what is essentially a spiritual fellowship.

4. 4

   How did the Panth come to carry the Guru's authority?

   Model answer

   Guru Gobind Singh created the Khalsa in 1699 and then accepted initiation from the five he had himself initiated, and before his death in 1708 he ended the line of living Gurus. Sikhs speak of authority passing to the Guru Granth Sahib as Word and to the Guru Panth as body, with the community's decisions taken in the scripture's presence.

5. 5

   How are decisions binding on the whole Panth supposed to be taken?

   Model answer

   By gurmata, a resolution of the assembled community reached before the Guru Granth Sahib, historically at the Akal Takht, and by directives issued from that seat. Sikhs disagree about how binding such pronouncements are today and about who may properly claim to speak for the Panth.

6. 6

   Assess whether a virtual sangat is a sangat in the full sense.

   Model answer

   Some Sikhs say yes: kirtan is streamed worldwide, katha reaches Sikhs with no gurdwara nearby, and the shabad is heard wherever it is sung, so a virtual community can be a real one. Others say no: langar has to be cooked and eaten, seva is bodily work, and the levelling of caste and rank happens by physically sitting together, none of which a screen reproduces.

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