Sikh Kirtan by women- the history, the way forward

The Punjab Govt. has recently allowed women to offer Kirtan inside the Golden temple. Despite no religious precedent which decreed excluding them in the first place, where do women stand in Sikhism? How do cultural norms, gender inequality, caste privilege, and religion intersect?

Kirtan

My grandparents used to volunteer at a Sikh school when I was young. They would tell me about the girls in that school who wore turbans like their male counterparts and sang the Kirtan for the prayer congregations every day. It was not uncommon to see women lead Sikh prayers in Gurudwaras and we were encouraged to participate in Langarsewa, which involved not just cooking but also serving the food to the people, and then cleaning of utensils and the Langar hall. The question of gender never even came up in the context of practicing Sikh religion.

I was then, a little surprised to learn that women had not been allowed to offer Kirtan or carry the Palanquin containing the Holy book Shri Guru Granth SahabJi, at the Golden Temple, Amritsar. Now that the Punjab Govt. has intervened to urge the Akal Takht and Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) to do away with this discrimination, it comes at the tail end of petitions and requests by women over decades.

Sikhs are obligated to treat women as equals, and gender discrimination in Sikh society has no religious basis. However, gender equality has been difficult to achieve in practice due to the oppressive influence of social, cultural, and caste-related norms that prevailed for centuries even before the Sikh religion came into existence. Even now, women make up less than 20% of the SGPC members. In the 1990s a group of Sikh women requested to wash the floors of Golden Temple and were denied.

This goes against the basic tenets of Sikhism. The first Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Nanak Dev Ji (1469 AD -1539 AD) was a staunch advocate for an egalitarian society in all forms. At that time, the woman was considered polluted/impure during menstruation and after she gave birth. In this context, Guru Nanak Dev Ji writes, “From the woman is our birth, in the woman’s womb are we shaped; To the woman we are engaged, to the woman we are wedded; The woman is our friend and from woman is the family; Through the woman are the bonds of the world; Why call woman bad/impure who gives birth to kings? From the woman is the woman, without woman there is none”.

He further writes, “If pollution attaches to birth, then pollution is everywhere (for birth is universal). Cow-dung (used for purifying the kitchen floor by Hindus) and firewood can give birth to maggots; Not one grain of corn is without life; Water itself is a living substance, imparting life to all vegetation. How can we then believe in pollution, when pollution inheres within staples? Says Nanak, pollution is not washed away by purificatory rituals; Pollution is removed by true knowledge alone”.

Guru Nanak Dev Ji also introduced the concept of Sangat (holy congregation) – where both men and women could sit together and equally participate in reciting prayers irrespective of caste or social stature, to eat a common meal in the institution of Langar (common kitchen).

The Gurus spoke out against the practice of veil/purdah for women, Sati, dowry, and female infanticide. They advocated for girl child education and widow remarriage. Sikh women were also cast into the role of saints and soldiers just like Sikh men. They could organize men and lead them in the battles.The tenth and last Sikh Guru- Guru Gobind Singh Ji- bestowed a common last name SINGH (Lion) to men, and a common last name KAUR (Princess) to women. Though this was a great effort to eliminate caste disparities, Sikhism even today has not shed off the weight of years of caste surnames and the oppression they carry.

While a lot of work remains to be done to achieve the truly egalitarian society that the Gurus envisaged, many people are hard at work to bridge the gap. It is this effort that has made it possible for heart-warming stories like that of Tasleema Langoo.

The 16-year-old Muslim girl in Kashmir sings beautiful Kirtan to immense love by the Sikh congregations. Blessings and applause greet her whenever she offers Kirtan, she has become a mini-celebrity amongst the small Sikh community in Kashmir. Tasleema is an accomplished teacher and singer of Kirtan in the Valley, and the only Muslim to do so. Members of the Sikh community are full of praise for the young woman, saying she “takes us nearer to our own religion”. She has been able to offer Kirtan in various Gurudwaras in an environment of complete harmony, facing no opposition whatsoever from members of her family or community.

Tasleema belongs to a family of musicians. Her great grandfather used to sing for Maharaja Pratap Singh, while her grandfather, Ghulam Qadir Langoo, was a court singer for Maharaja Hari Singh, the last monarch of Kashmir. Her father, Abdul Majeed Langoo, teaches music at a women’s college. About her love for Kirtan, she says, “Our family is closely associated with music and I get to hear all types of music but, curiously, Shabad Kirtan would always excite me the most. I started helping the students with their instruments and they, in turn, wrote shabads in the Urdu script for me.” As she could not read the Guru Granth Sahab in Punjabi, her father bought her a copy of the Sikh holy text in Urdu from Amritsar.

Her story is a shining example of what can be achieved if we focus our worldview to a language of equality. When we believe God created us all equal, we facilitate avenues for people to come together despite differences, without the weight of the history of our ancestors. Hundreds of years ago, Sikhs fought Mughal forces, but once the burden of differences is shed off, Sikhs and Muslims come together as friends. The similar burden of gender and caste oppression is slowly being chipped away too, now we only need to look forward to greater things to truly live our lives inspired by Shri Guru Granth Sahabji.
 

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