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Summary of Question:	Jatt's Reign In Sikh History.
Category:	Other
Date Posted:	Tuesday, 4/12/2005 10:48 PM MDT

To begin, I express my gratitude to the website designers of SIKHNET and moderators of this forum. It is very interesting to read the questions, which are legitimate, and the responses that the moderators, you, give to the unadvised. While reading many of the responses, I have seen a critical pattern in your responses. Your perceptions of the world are of Bhapa or businessmen descent. You have disparaged Jatts in each comment you have made to the public and I feel very offended, but that is not the matter to be discussed. I would like to address a unique and different idea to you, Bhapa:

The Caste system of Hinduism that Guru Nanak Dev Ji condemns is different from the system that the Sikhs have adapted. In the Sikh system, we have just divided peopel into different vocations or occupations. A JAtt can be wealthy or unfortunate; a thurkhan can be wealthy or unfortunate and so forth. In the Hindu caste system, all Brahmins are wealthy, all Kshatri are middle class, and all sudras are treated as slaves. It is evident that in our Sikh "castes," as you Bhapas like to refer to it as, there is no division in wealth and thus, it is acceptable to believe in this system.
Since we live in agricultural Punjab, the majority of people are Jatt, and as Democracy teaches us, majority rule. Therfore, we feel Jatts are the greatest section of vocation. In the modern day, all these "castes" are very mobile. Your economic situation can change any time no matter on your caste.
It is disheartning for a Jatt SIKH, and Punjab da Sher, to read illegitimate information about my "janthri"/ vocation. It is known as a fact during the struggle for Indian Independece that 75 percent of the freedom fighters are JAtt Sikh. These fighters include Bhagat Singh, Udham Singh, Kartar Singh Saraba, Ajit Singh and many other unmentioned freedom fighters. Without these Shaheed, we may have not received Independence until other natiuons recognize that British Imperialism is immoral. However, eh rub di baaksh hai, that God has created such great beings to fight for their motherland. As our Jatts were being hanged in the gallows, the Bhapas were receiving money from the British to allow their rule to continue. It is accceptable to say that the Bhapas were loyalists, which increased the amount of time for Independence. In contrast, this is the Bhapa's vocation, to be a businessman, regardless of other issues. Jatts were dying for justice and fedding the nation while others were drinking our blood with our labor.
I can continue to speak about Bhindrawale and other Jatt Sikhs who have contributed to Sikhism to theri abilities, but it will not affect your perceptions of my occupation and the amount of time I must spend on the details of each Jatt contribution is absolutely enormous.
The question I would like to impose on you is, since you are a Bhapa, no doubt, why do you disparage my roots of how my father and his ancestors lived to feed the nation, taking loans that they could not afford, and seeing times of adversity?
"Ji parshadh shathi Amrit Kai, tis thakur rakh mun mahi."
Bole Sohnihaal!

Jatt Sardar,
To Bhapa comrade,
yours truely, Jojhar Jerry Singh B.


==============================

Sat Sri Akal to you too!

This is perhaps one of the most ignorant emails I've seen on this forum. You claim that since the "castes" in Sikhism are not based on wealth, it is okay. This claim is unfounded - just because the divisions are based on vocation (or whatever) does not make it right. You claim that by dividing based on vocation it is acceptable. Consider this: the very fact that you wrote this email claiming pain by some unfounded notion of jatt disparagement on this forum implies that any division based on anything has similar consequences to the Hindu caste system. Read that sentence again.

Moreover, by not understanding the core tenent of why the Gurus abolished the caste system, you propose another division of people which very obviously has the same effects: it makes certain people feel different than others. The way you refer to the moderaters as "Bhapa" clearly shows your level of belligerence and lack of civility. By even thinking that there is some kind of slant on this forum shows that you have already in you a pre-programmed mindset.

I can continue to speak about how there should not be divisions based on anything (wealth, vocation, etc) as that is what the Gurus advocated. But that will obviously fall on deaf ears. My advice to you is to learn Gurbani so you can have a full understandinig of what the Gurus are trying to teach us and why there should not be any division.