Week on, Giani Gargaj addresses two events without disruption
After skipping address at the Akal Takht during the event organised to observe the 41st anniversary of Operation Bluestar on June 6 amid opposition from Harnam Singh Dhumma-led Damdami Taksal, acting jathedar Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargaj has delivered his speeches at the highest Sikh temporal seats twice without any disruption during the key events.
Before June 6, Dhumma had announced that they would not let Giani Gargaj deliver his 'sandesh' (message) during the event, citing that they do not accept him as a 'jathedar'. To avert the clash, Giani Gargaj skipped the address though he raised issues concerning the community in the 'ardas (prayer)'.
After a week, the birth anniversary of Guru Hargobind, the sixth guru of the Sikhs and Akal Takht's founder, was celebrated at the highest Sikh temporal seat. As acting jathedar of the Takht, Giani Gargaj delivered his speech without any hassle.
On Monday, the foundation day of the Akal Takht was celebrated there. Again, Giani Gargaj addressed the devotees on the occasion. He faced no opposition during these events.
However, SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami, who has proximity with Dhumma, did not attend both the events.
Days after 'Panj Pyare' of Takht Patna Sahib challenged the edict issued by the Sikh clergy at Akal Takht, Giani Gargaj put light on the history of the highest Sikh temporal seat to prove that Akal Takht is supreme and no can challenge its supremacy, while addressing on Monday.
Jathedar Gargaj particularly appealed to Sikh youth, warning that efforts are being made today to disconnect them from their Guru through moral decay. He urged every individual to recognise their responsibility and ensure that Sikh youth remain connected to the faith.
He also condemned the vulgarity being spread over social media, days after a social media influencer Kanchan Kumari, alias Kamal Kaur Bhabi, was murdered for allegedly spreading vulgarity.
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CASTE BOOK , SURAJ YENGDE , SURAJ MILIND YENGDE , NEW BOOK , NONFICTION , INDIAN WRITING , INDIAN NONFICTION : Nanded, my hometown in Marathwada, has been home to one of the most radical forms of Dalit politics for over a hundred years. The Arya Samaj, the Hindu reform movement, established one of its earliest centres in Marathwada. Fearing Muslim influence on the subaltern castes, the Arya Samaj started to reconvert the latter by offering janeu, the sacred thread. However, this was not looked upon favourably by non-Dalit villagers, who by way of punishment forcibly tattooed Dalit converts with hot iron rods. Marathwada has also seen a significant presence of Sikhs, Nanded being an important holy place for the Sikh religion. The radical message of mystics and spiritual teachers like Kabir, Raidas, Nanak and Gobind was carried by practitioners of the Sikh faith. In particular, the vision of society that Kabir and Raidas preached found especial resonance among the Dalits of Marathwada. 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My district and region were one of many centres of radical politics. Nanded's representative to India's independent parliament in 1957 belonged to a crop of radical Dalit politicians: Harihar Rao Sonule was our statement of our collective belief in constitutional promise. He was one of the early batch of Dalit MPs from the All India Scheduled Caste Federation who were intent on gaining rights for Dalits in the newly independent country. In our house in Janta Colony, Ambedkar Nagar, Nanded, my father listened to the morning Marathi news on DD Sahyadri—a government-owned satellite TV station. We had a black-and-white 14-inch television set made by a Videocon company. Each morning the same ritual was followed as I prepared for school. One day in 1997 my father held me and made me watch the TV: Kofi Annan was being elected as the secretary general of the United Nations Organization. My father called it Oono—UNO. He wanted me to register that a Black man had ascended to the topmost position of an inter-governmental body, never mind that Annan originally came from the crop of Ghanaian elites. My father perhaps wanted me to see that the UN and other international bodies could not only be accessible to native elites the world over, but could be a space even of Dalit politics. When the Taliban blew up statues of the Buddha, he and his associates protested by petitioning the UN—in a letter written in Marathi. Years later, when I was an intern at the UN's human rights office in Geneva, I was dismayed by its sheer inability to provide nonpolitical solutions to issues of the day…. In the United States, the Dalit cause was taken up by the coordinated efforts of professional class Dalits who had settled there. Their activism began with protests against atrocities within India and led to attempts to hold the Indian state accountable by placing the issue of caste on the agendas of US political and policy circles. Later, activists like Laxmi Berwa and Yogesh Varhade took the UN route that their predecessors like B.R. Ambedkar, N. Rajbhoj and Bhagwan Das had followed. Solidarity represents one way of connecting the Dalit movement with a larger cause. But the desire for international solidarity did not significantly influence the activities of Dalits in India. Their work evolved in response to the radical shifts of Cold War-era politics. The movement was split between left and right. Some aligned with a nativist theory of liberation, while others drew on the left's internationalism. One faction was led by Namdeo Dhasal, the well-known leftist Panther. Left-wing savarna scholars wrote extensively about Dhasal and promoted his image. Raja Dhale, on the other hand, who led the other faction, was primarily known to circles of academics and writers because of his distance from leftist politics. Later he became so disillusioned with the Panthers' leadership that he left and pursued a career in a political party run by Ambedkar's grandson, only to end up dismayed by it. A vast number of Dalit Mahars who identified with Ambedkar and Buddhism embraced Dhale. My father was an associate of his in Nanded and was particularly interested in Dhale's literary activities. They remained friends. My name Surudhay—kindhearted—was given me by Dhale. However, because it was often mispronounced, I shortened the name to Suraj. When I was a student leader in Nanded, I invited Dhale to visit the university and deliver a lecture. He came and the old cadres packed the hall. He spoke but it wasn't an impressive speech. When my father passed away, Dhale paid a visit to my home. I was in South Africa; I rang him to thank him for the visit. In his usual way, Dhale said that he had not done anything extraordinary. 'Milind was my associate, and I paid a visit" was his response. Dhale was known to call a spade a spade. He restricted himself to the activism of literature. He read many books. Whenever my father visited Mumbai, he would seek an audience with Dhale. I recall once we spent an entire day in Vikhroli, the area where Dhale lived. Years later when I was studying to become a scholar, I sought an audience with Dhale. He refused. He said that, like me, he had little time available; it was better that we should not impose ourselves on each other's time. His response made me feel he had become rude and bitter as an old man. A few years later when I spent about eight months in India, I realized why he had spoken in this way. In India, a meeting can easily last several hours. Dhale was also in a hurry to finish what he was writing—as he indicated to me. Also read: A new anthology of writings from south Asia celebrates marginalised voices Over the years, as my name became known in academic and literary circles, reports about me must have come to the attention of Dhale, for he commented to my cousin Nitin that 'Suraj has now become an important person". When Dhale died, the national media reached out to me to write an obituary. I was on the way to deliver a series of talks in Kolhapur. But I asked people to send me some books on Dhale and some of his original writings. I wrote the article on my journey from Aurangabad to Kolhapur, two sites driven by Ambedkar's politics. Dhale was widely read. He was among the first Dalits in the movement to actively pursue Black literature. In his young days, he dabbled in translating Black poets into Marathi. There are many such anecdotes about my father—who was my primary interlocutor to this history—and Dhale that touch my thinking and practice. The global story of caste or the story of global castes thus begins with my experience of growing up as a Dalit. It's also a story of Marathwada, India, which had the audacity to connect with the larger world. That is why the Dalit-Black nexus, which started as an investigation of literature and experience in Marathwada, became a precursor to the formation of an active political solidarity. Excerpted from 'Caste: A Global Story' with permission from Penguin Random House India. The book will be available around 30 June.
