Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Are the Sikhs Hindus?

Sir, — Nonica Datta's "Are the Sikhs Hindus?" (March 4) makes interesting reading. She perhaps, rather conveniently forgets that from time immemorial several wrong practices cropped up in the Hindu faith. Brahmins often, if not always, usurped the sole power and authority of leading the Hindu faith, forcing all others to follow them. It was natural that the others revolted. But it certainly did not mean that those who revolted went out of the Hindu faith. Guru Nanakdev was one such person who boldly revolted. The last Sikh Guru, Govindsinghji Sahib, was a devotee and worshipper of Goddess Durga. Hundreds of Sikh friends have told me that Sikhism is a Panth of the Hindu faith.

K.B. Parsai,
New Delhi

* * *

Sir, — That Guru Nanak had rejected the authority of Brahmins has been highlighted. But what has been ignored is that Sikhism has accepted the core of the Hindu theological and metaphysical concepts like the law of karma and theory of the cycle of births and deaths. Any number of quotes can be given from all the Sikh Gurus to support this view. In fact, Sikhism can be said to be double-distilled Hinduism, cleansed of some of its ills.

V. Krishnamachari,
Mumbai

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