GENDER AND RELIGION: GENDER AND SIKHISM

Although Sikh scripture offers valuable insights on gender, Sikh scholarship has not paid enough attention to this topic. The Sikh religion originated and developed within a "doubly" patriarchal milieu. Between the birth of the founder (Gurū Nānak in 1469) and the death of the tenth gurū (Gurū Gobind Singh in 1708), the Hindu society of North India succumbed to Muslim rulers from outside—Turks, Afghans, and Mughals. In the old Hindu caste society women were completely subjugated to their husbands, and under the new Muslim regime women had to stay in purdah. As a result all women, both Hindu and Muslim, ended up suffering from both forms of subjugation. Witnessing the multiple oppression of Indian women, the Sikh gurūs empathized with them and emphasized gender equality in sublime verse. They tried to open up a window of opportunity for women. But the ideals of the Sikh gurūs have been distorted because their lives and their words were recorded, interpreted, and taught primarily by male elites. And so gender becomes a complicated and convoluted issue for Sikhism.

Historical Context

Gurū Nānak's close association with his mother (Tripta), sister (Nānaki, after whom he was named), and wife (Sulakhni) was crucial in shaping his social and religious consciousness, which was then carried on by his nine successor gurūs. Though Sikh scholarship scarcely mentions these female figures, the simple janamsākhī narratives highlight the subtle awareness these women possessed. Mata Tripta is a noble woman who understands her son and can see into his unique personality—much more so than his father Kalu. Even the midwife Daultan is struck by the extraordinary qualities of the child she delivers. And like Mary Magdalene, who was the first woman to have witnessed the resurrection of Christ, Nānak's sister Nānaki is the first person to recognize Nānak's enlightenment. Sulakhni's role, however, is ambiguous, as if the janamsākhī authors did not quite know how to deal with Nānak's "wife."

Women became equal partners in the first Sikh community established by Gurū Nānak in Kartarpur. Both men and women participated in formulating the fundamental Sikh institutions of sevā (voluntary labor), langar (community meal), and sangat (congregation). Sikh men and women listened and recited sacred hymns. Together they cooked and ate langar. Together they formed a democratic congregation without priests or ordained ministers.

The pattern of inclusivity set up by Gurū Nānak in Kartarpur continued on, and women were not excluded by any of the Sikh gurūs from any aspect of religious life. In fact their vital participation in varied dimensions is deeply etched in popular memory. For example, Mata Khivi, wife of Gurū Angad (Nānak II), is fondly remembered for her liberal direction of langar. With Mata Khivi's generous supervision and her plentiful supply of kheer (rice pudding), langar became a real feast rather than just a symbolic meal. Gurū Amar Das (Nānak III) even assigned leadership roles to women. In order to consolidate the growing Sikh faith, he created a well-knit organization and set up twenty-two manjis (groups) covering different parts of India. Along with men, women served as supervisors of these communities.

Bibi Amaro, the daughter of Gurū Angad and Mata Khivi, became a liaison between the second and the third gurūs. A popular narrative recounts that a contemplative Amar Das was totally mesmerized by a verse of Gurū Nānak recited from the lips of Bibi Amaro. When he expressed his wish to meet the gurū who had been invested with such a rich legacy, Bibi Amaro enthusiastically escorted Amar Das to her father, Gurū Angad. Amar Das immediately became Gurū Angad's disciple and eventually succeeded him to the guruship, becoming Nānak III.

Gurū Amar Das's daughter Bibi Bhani had a tremendous impact on the historical development of Sikhism. Gurū Amar Das composed the Sikh wedding hymn (lavan ) for her marriage with Ram Das and later chose Ram Das to be the fourth Sikh gurū. Bibi Bhani is also important because she donated the site of Amritsar to the Sikh community. She had been given this site by Emperor Akbar. It was on this land that her son Arjan, the fifth Sikh gurū, built the Harī Mandir and enshrined the sacred Gurū Granth Sāhib.

Mata Jitoji and Mata Sahib Devan are remembered as vital protagonists in the rite of amrit initiation. Mata Jitoji was Gurū Gobind Singh's first wife. When Gurū Gobind Singh was stirring water with his double-edged sword in the accompaniment of scriptural recitations at Anandpur during the 1699 spring festivities of Baisakhi (the first day of the Indian New Year), it was Mata Jitoji who added sugar puffs to the bowl. The amrit prepared by the gurū and Mata Jitoji fed the new family of the Khālsā and continues to nourish generations of Sikhs, physically and psychologically. When initiates sip the drink, they renounce their past with all its caste, class, and professional restrictions and claim their new identity with Gurū Gobind Singh and Mata Sahib Devan as their two equally important parents. Mata Sahib Devan was Gurū Gobind Singh's third wife. Tradition has it that their marriage was not physically consummated. Though she was not a biological mother, Sahib Devan became the spiritual mother of the Khālsā.

Gurū Gobind Singh's mother, Mata Gujari, and his second wife, Mata Sundari, are also important in Sikh history. The ninth gurū was often absent and was martyred when his son was only nine. So Mata Gujari had to raise Gurū Gobind Singh as a single parent. She imparted great wisdom and heroism not only to him but also to her grandsons. After the tenth gurū's death, it was Mata Sundari who provided guidance to the Sikhs. She appointed Bhai Mani Singh to manage the sacred shrines at Amritsar and commissioned him to collect the writings of Gurū Gobind Singh. Edicts issued under her seal and authority (hukamnamas ) were sent out to Sikh congregations. Mata Sundari boldly rejected schismatic groups who tried to claim succession to guruship.

With Gurū Gobind Singh one also has the inspiring case of Mai Bhago. She was a courageous woman from the Amritsar district who rallied men to fight for the gurū against the imperial forces. She herself fought for the gurū in the battle at Muktsar in December 1705 and was injured. Thereafter she accompanied Gurū Gobind Singh as one of his personal bodyguards. Sikhs have built shrines in memory of her.

Sikh history is thus replete with excellent paradigms of women leading Sikh institutions of sangat and langar, reciting sacred poetry, fighting boldly against oppression and injustice, and generating liberating new rituals. But this feminizing process was not limited to the family members of gurūs; it was not just for women closely associated with them or for women of the elite. Rather, the Sikh faith opened up a wide horizon for all women, irrespective of caste, class, or marital status. They were all equal partners with men in Sikh practices and spiritual growth.

Scriptural Context

Sikh scripture, the Gurū Granth Sāhib, promotes gender equality in numerous ways. By designating the divine as numeral "One" at the very outset, it discards centuries-old images of male dominance and power and opens the way to experiencing the transcendent One in a female modality. The text offers a vast range of feminine symbols and imagery: the ontological ground of all existence is mata, the mother; the divine spark within all creatures is joti, the feminine light; the soul longing to unite with the transcendent One is suhagan, the beautiful young bride; the benevolent glance coming from the divine is the feminine nadar, grace. Sikh scripture continuously provides readers with a multivalent and complex feminine imagery. This variety in turn presents a host of options through which men and women can become who they choose to be.

Images of conception, gestation, childbirth, and lactation are unambiguously and powerfully present. Again and again scriptural verses remind Sikhs that they are created from the mother's blood, lodged in her womb, and first nurtured by her milk. The Gurū Granth Sāhib is unique in world scriptures in celebrating the centrality of menstrual blood (Gurū Granth, 1022, 706). Shunned as a private, shameful process, menstruation is acknowledged in Sikh scriptures as an essential, natural, creative process. Life itself begins with it. In fact Gurū Nānak reprimands those who stigmatize as polluted the garment stained with menstrual blood (Gurū Granth, 140). The Gurū Granth Sāhib also condemns pollution associated with childbirth and customs of purdah and sati.

The Sikh gurūs were men, but they expressed their love for the divine in the female gender. They do not repress or stunt themselves in male-female dualisms. Feeling the infinite intensely within, they openly identify with the female person, her psyche, her tone, her sentiments, and they trace the transcendent as both father and mother, male and female. Inspired by the infinite One, their verse spontaneously affirms woman's body, her activities, her dressing up, her tenacity, her longing. Throughout the Gurū Granth Sāhib, she is the model in forging a sensual and palpable union with the transcendent. In both praxis and poetry, the Sikh gurūs created an opening through which women could achieve liberty, equality, and sorority.

Contemporary Context

Unfortunately the empowering scriptural message has not been heeded. The radically uplifting female concepts, symbols, and images permeating the Gurū Granth Sāhib are simply neglected. The fundamentally patriarchal culture of the Punjab has continued to reproduce malestream interpretations, and other factors have produced androcentric attitudes in Sikh society. For instance, during the flamboyant regime of Māharājā Ranjit Singh, male dominance increased, and the practices of purdah and sati, which were condemned by the gurūs, found their way into the upper echelons of Sikh society. The British admiration for the "martial" character and the strong physique of the Sikh men (who were recruited into the British imperial army in disproportionately large numbers) generated a vigorous new patriarchal discourse—attaching patriotism and paternalism to the "brotherhood of the Khālsā." And twenty-first-century globalization is accelerating old patriarchal customs.

Sikh ethics is oriented toward this world. It affirms the body and the primacy of human relationships. There is no priesthood in Sikhism, so both men and women are free to read and recite the sacred verse at home or in public, and anybody from within the sangat (congregation) can be chosen to lead worship. The written laws of the Sikh religion grant full equality to men and women in all spheres—religious, political, domestic, and economic. But it is the unwritten laws that govern daily life, and these are quite different.

Public worship

Women play an active role in devotional practices at home, but leading pubic worship is a privilege restricted to men. Daily ceremonies like prakash (opening of the Gurū Granth Sāhib ) and sukhasan (putting it to rest in the evening) in gurdwaras, the annual celebrations of Baiskahi and gurpurabs (birthdays or death anniversaries of the gurūs), and all rites of passage for Sikh men and women are conducted and administered almost exclusively by men. Gender distinctions do play a significant role because the superior role and privilege of men in public is unconsciously taken into the home, with the result that male domination is reproduced in the family, home, and Sikh society at large.

Rites of passage

In Sikhism there are four rites of passage: name giving, amrit initiation, marriage, and death. Though these rites are theoretically the same for both men and women, they end up being quite different in Sikh practice. For example, both male and female children are named in consultation with the holy book. Sikhs do not even have different names for boys and girls: the addition of the name Kaur (meaning "princess") for girls and Singh (meaning "lion") for boys indicates the gender of the child. This is another great feature traceable to Gurū Gobind Singh, for he freed women from the lineage of fathers and husbands. But this liberating phenomenon is buried under ancient discriminations against girls. The "same" name-giving ceremony ultimately depends on the "biology" of the child: the celebrations are more elaborate and joyous, with huge langars, for his name giving but not for hers.

Sikh initiation is also open to both men and women, and both are to wear the same five symbols. However, Sikh identity has been monopolized by masculinity, for it is the Sikh male, with his topknot or turban, who has come to represent all Sikhs. Boys are privileged in all spheres of Sikh life. Calendrical festivals, like the Punjabi winter ritual of Lohri, are celebrated only in Sikh homes where a boy is born. While parents and grandparents of a boy happily dole out money and gifts around crackling bonfires, the parents and grandparents of a girl remain sad during the cold dark nights of Lohri. Affluent Sikh families have also begun to celebrate the dastar bandhan (turban tying) with great pomp and show. This tying of the turban for the first time is becoming a popular rite of passage for boys.

The obsession for sons is so great among Sikhs that modern technology is abused to abort female fetuses. Ultrasound and other technologies are misused to preserve the legacy, business, property, and status of fathers and their sons. From the moment of birth the son and daughter are chartered out different roles and given a whole different set of obligations. Victims of false consciousness themselves, mothers and grandmothers continue to perpetuate double standards.

Sikh marriages are traditionally a simple and profound affair, but they have become extremely opulent, with extravagant dowries and exorbitant gifts to the daughter and her in-laws for every rite, ritual, and festival. The Sikh scriptural verse stating that "bride and groom are one spirit in two bodies" has no significance. It is taken for granted that the daughter leaves her natal home and joins her husband and his family. When there is a death in the family, it is the mother or wife's natal family that must offer a turban (in the case of a male) or a dupatta (in the case of a female)—and cash accompanies both modes of accoutrement. When a daughter dies, no matter what age or stage of life she may have been at, it is her natal family's responsibility to supply the meal following the cremation. From her birth till her death the daughter is a debit in the family economy.

Sikh Rahit Maryada

In its attempt to formalize the message of the gurūs, an ethical code called the Rahit Maryada was developed by Sikh reformers in the middle of the twentieth century. This code provides several rules to combat female oppression. Twice it makes the point that Sikh women should not veil their faces. It prohibits infanticide and even association with people who would practice it, although there is no prohibition against abortion. It allows widows to remarry and it underscores that the ceremony be the same as that of the first marriage. According to the Sikh Rahit Maryada, Sikhs should be free of all superstitions and not refuse to eat at the home of their married daughter. Dowry is prohibited.

Again many of these explicit rules are simply not followed. Out of "respect" for their daughters, Sikh parents will not accept a penny from their working daughter nor sip water in her married home. She is their prized "object," and so the ancient gender codes dating back to the Hindu Manusmṛti text continue to govern Sikh life.

Gender issues in global society

With their enterprising spirit and love of adventure, Sikhs travel to distant corners of the world. At first only men migrated, but after the elimination of U.S. national quotas in 1965, there has been a dramatic surge in the Sikh population, both male and female, all across North America. Sikh women arrive not only as wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters but also independently to pursue education or enter a variety of careers. Like their male counterparts, they are energetic and enterprising, but even in the New World the talents and potential of many Sikh women continue to be stifled by age-old societal norms. How to preserve Sikh identity in the contemporary world is a vital concern for Sikhs across the globe. Threatened by modernity and affluence, patriarchal formulations become even more stringent. Since women are literally the reproducers of the community, the preservation of "Sikhness" falls primarily on them. As a result Sikh women are subjected to manifold restrictions. Control over their reproductive rights leads to the reproduction of the family's identity and that of the Sikh community at large. "Honor" or izzat, which is identified with manliness and belongs to hierarchical and patriarchal systems, has come to be a central code of the Sikhs. Being a model community, Sikhs try to cover up female feticides, physical and psychological abuse, dowry deaths, and even "honor killings."

The economic and social demands of Sikh masculinity are so strong and pervasive that the teachings of the gurūs against objectionable treatment of women go unheeded. The egalitarian and liberating message of Sikh scripture has yet to be applied in daily lives and fully experienced by men and women alike.

See Also

Ādi Granth; Gurū Granth Sāhib; Menstruation; Sati; Sikhism.

Bibliography

For a historical perspective, see Doris Jacobsh, Relocating Gender in Sikh History: Transformation, Meaning, and Identity (Delhi, 2003). For scriptural and theological analysis, see Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh, Feminine Principle in the Sikh Vision of the Transcendent (Cambridge, U.K., 1993), "Why Did I Not Light up the Pyre? Refeminization of Ritual in Sikhism," Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 16, no. 1 (2000): 63–85, and "Sacred Fabric and Sacred Stitches," History of Religion 43, no. 4 (2004): 284–302. For an ethnographic study on the renewed use of the turban among contemporary North American Sikh women, see Cynthia Mahmood and Stacy Brady, The Guru's Gift: An Ethnography Exploring Gender Equality with North American Sikh Women (Mountain View, Calif., 2000). For gender and identity in 3HO, the American Sikh community, see Constance Elsberg, Graceful Women: Gender and Identity in an American Sikh Community (Knoxville, Tenn., 2003). For a literary approach, see Shauna Singh Baldwin's novel, What the Body Remembers (New York, 1999). Diasporic issues relating to gender and Sikhism are taken up by Brian Keith Axel, The Nation's Tortured Body: Violence, Representation, and the Formation of a Sikh "Diaspora" (Durham, N.C., 2001); Parminder Bhachu, Twice Migrants: East African Sikh Settlers in Britain (London and New York, 1986) and Dangerous Designs: Asian Women Fashion the Diaspora Economies (New York, 2004); Christine Fair, "Female Feticide among Vancouver Sikhs," International Journal of Punjab Studies 3, no. 1 (1996): 1–44; and Gurpreet Bal, "Migration of Sikh Women to Canada: A Social Construction of Gender," Guru Nanak Journal of Sociology 18, no. 1 (1997): 97–112. Bhai Vir Singh, the Sikh renaissance writer, created many strong female protagonists in his popular fiction, including Sundari, which is also the title of the first novel written in the Punjabi language.

Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh (2005)