[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 135 (Friday, December 8, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2194-E2195]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PROFESSOR EXPOSES FAKE SIKH SCRIPTURES, HINDU PLAN TO DESTROY SIKH
RELIGION
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HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS
of new york
in the house of representatives
Friday, December 8, 2006
Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, Professor Gurtej Singh JAS is a Professor of
Sikhism and a very widely respected intellectual leader in the Sikh
community. Recently, he wrote an article exposing the Dasam Granth,
which is alleged by some Hindus to be a Sikh scripture. What apparently
was done was to take a few of the writings of Guru Gobind Singh, the
last of the Sikh gurus, and combine it with some sexually explicit
material from a Hindu sect known as Shakat. The aim is to discredit
Guru Gobind Singh and bring the Sikhs into the Hindu fold, according to
Professor Gurtej Singh.
The authors of the Dasam Granth identify themselves within the text,
yet many insist that the work was written by Guru Gobind Singh and
should be equal to the Sikh holy scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib.
Professor Gurtej Singh commented that a leader of the militant Hindu
fascist operation known as the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), which
was formed in support of the Fascists, had commented that all the Sikh
``high priests'' including Akal Takht Jathedar Joginder Singh Vedanti
are on the RSS payroll. Thus, they are cooperating in this effort by
the Brahmins to destroy the Sikh religion. Nice trick in a supposedly
secular country!
Also cooperating in this effort is former Chief Minister Parkash
Singh Badal, who led the most corrupt government in the history of
Punjab. These are the kinds of people with whom the Brahins choose to
ally themselves.
This kind of control over the leadership of the Sikhs is one reason
that they need their independence, to protect their identity and their
safety before the Indians wipe them out, as they seek to do. Over a
quarter of a million Sikhs killed since 1984 proves that. In addition,
the Indian regime has killed over 300,000 Christians in Nagaland, more
than 90,000 Muslims in Kashmir and 2,000 to 5,000 in Gujarat, as well
as Christians and Muslims elsewhere in the country and Tamils,
Manipuris, Dalits, Bodos, Assamese, and other minorities. Tens of
thousands of people are held as political prisoners, according to
Amnesty International. The Movement Against State Repression reported
that lndia acknowledged holding 52,268 Sikhs as political prisoners.
Many of these have been in illegal detention since 1984.
These political prisoners must be released at once and those who
violate human rights must be brought to justice or we should stop all
of our aid and trade with India. And we should put the U.S. Congress on
record in support of freedom everywhere in South Asia in the form of a
plebiscite on the subject of independence, under international
supervision to ensure its fairness. Isn't that the democratic way to do
things?
While Professor Gurtej Singh's article is too long to put in the
Record, the Council of Khalistan did an excellent press release on it.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to add that press release on the Dasam Granth
fraud to the Record at this time for the information of my colleagues.
Professor Gurtej Singh Exposes Dasam Granth Fraud
Washington, DC, December 7, 2006--Professor Gurtej Singh, a
leading Sikh scholar, Professor of Sikhism, and an advisor to
the International Journal of Sikh Affairs, has published an
extensive article exposing how Hindu fundamentalists have
promoted the Dasam Granth, which contains very little of the
work of Guru Gobind Singh, as his writing and as genuine Sikh
scripture, parallel to the Guru Granth Sahib. He exposes the
fact that ``the Hindu plan to drag the Sikhs back to the
Hindu fold'' requires promoting the Dasam Granth and that
this plan has received the support of such allegedly Sikh
leaders as former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal
and the high Sikh ``high priests'' led by Jathedar Joginder
Singh Vedanti. Badal led the most corrupt government in
Punjab's history, selling jobs for money, and regularly
visits Hindu and other anti-Sikh places of worship, according
to Professor Gurtej Singh.
Professor Gurtej Singh writes that Jathedar Vedanti ``was
given the task of actually dragging the Sikh panth into the
fold of Hinduism.'' He notes that Jathedar Vedanti, like Mr.
Badal, succumbed to the temptations of money. In order to
carry out this nefarious plan, Professor Gurtej Singh writes,
Vedanti embraced the Dasam Granth as genuine Sikh scripture,
claiming that it was written by Guru Gobind Singh and was to
be treated as scripture and canon. The Dasam Granth includes
vivid, lewd descriptions of sex acts and other pornographic
and obscene references that were added to Guru Gobind Singh's
writing to make him look bad.
Professor Gurtej Singh notes that the authors of the Dasam
Granth identified themselves in the text. Yet the Hindus
insist that Guru Gobind Singh is the author and that the book
is Sikh scripture. According to Professor Gurtej Singh, it is
a scripture of the Shakat sect, who are worshippers of the
Hindu goddess Shiva, as it reflects their mode of worship and
their practices. ``It has been a long standing Hindu desire
to bring the Sikhs under the umbrella of the Shakat sect,''
he writes. ``This involves getting them to accept some of the
rituals of that sect as modes of worship.'' He goes on to
write, ``To propagate the dasam granth as Sikh scripture at
par with Guru Granth, has been the aim of a section of the
Hindu zealots and a section of the Media mostly controlled by
such Hindus,''
According to Professor Gurtej Singh, Mr. Sudarshan of the
fascist, Hindu militant
[[Page E2195]]
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), parent organization of the
Hindu fundamentalist BJP, stated that all of the Sikh ``high
priests'' including Vedanti are on the payroll of his
organization.
``We appreciate and commend Professor Gurtej Singh for
doing this outstanding work for the Sikh Nation,'' said Dr.
Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan.
``He is doing his job as Professor of Sikhism. The Sikh
Nation commends him,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``Only about 60 pages
of the Dasam Granth is the writing of Guru Gobind Singh,'' he
noted. ``The rest is later writings that were added and
changed. Guru Gobind Singh gave guruship to the Guru Granth
Sahib and ordered Sikhs to consider the Guru Granth Sahib as
the living Guru,'' Dr. Aulakh noted. ``The Guru Granth Sahib
is the living Guru which Sikhs accept with reverence and
respect. Recitation of the Dasam Granth should not take place
in any Gurdwara,'' he said. ``Sikhs should practice Rehat
Maryada which was published in the 1940s by the SGPC after a
long review and discussion by the Khalsa Panth.''
Dr. Aulakh said that it is very disturbing that most of the
Sikh leadership is under the control of the Indian
government. ``This campaign to destroy Sikhism by means of
the Dasam Granth could not be taking place if we had our own
homeland. We could more effectively stand up to India's
ongoing effort to destroy the Sikh religion,'' he said.
``Without political power, nations perish and religions are
destroyed,'' he said.
India is on the verge of disintegration. Kashmir is about
to separate from India. As L.K. Advani said, ``if Kashmir
goes, India goes.'' History shows that multinational states
such as India are doomed to failure. ``Countries like
Austria-Hungary, India's longtime friend the Soviet Union,
Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and others prove this point.
India is not one country; it is a polyglot like those
countries, thrown together for the convenience of the British
colonialists. It is doomed to break up as they did. There is
nothing in common in the culture of a Hindu living in Bengal
and one in Tamil Nadu, let alone between them and the
minority nations of South Asia,'' Dr. Aulakh said.
``Freedom is the God-given right of every nation and every
human being,'' said Dr. Aulakh. Sikhs must be allowed to have
a free and fair plebiscite on the issue of Khalistan. In a
democracy, you cannot continue to rule against the wishes of
the people. As former Senator George Mitchell said about the
Palestinians, `the essence of democracy is the right to self-
determination,' We must reclaim the sovereignty of the Sikh
Nation,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``Currently, there are 17 freedom
movements within India's borders. It has 18 official
languages, A country having 18 official languages cannot hold
its people together for very long,'' he said. ``We hope that
India's breakup will be peaceful like Czechoslovakia's, not
violent like Yugoslavia's,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``Earlier this
year, Montenegro, which has less than a million people,
became a sovereign country and a member of the United
Nations,'' he said. ``Now it is the time for the Sikh Nation
of Punjab, Khalistan to become independent.''
Dr Aulakh stressed his commitment to the peaceful,
democratic, nonviolent struggle to liberate Khalistan. ``The
only way that the repression will stop and Sikhs will live in
freedom, dignity, and prosperity is to liberate Khalistan,''
said Dr. Aulakh, ``As Professor Darshan Singh, former
Jathedar of the Akal Takht, said, `If a Sikh is not a
Khalistani, he is not a Sikh.','' Dr. Aulakh said. ``We must
free Khalistan now.''
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