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Summary of Question:	Silent Attack On The Panth
Category:	General Sikhism
Date Posted:	Sunday, 7/08/2001 5:22 AM MDT

Waheguru ji ka khalsa

Waheguru ji ki Fateh

khalsa ji
i want to express my worries about the division
of the panth by some selfish people who want to show
their status and economical position even in the panth
and so even being gursikh they associate their surname and
community just to be above the sangat.If u look at the
classified paper,then u will know that there are more
castes and communities in the Sikh column than any other
religion.You can see even Gursikh write their caste and
community like Jat Gursikh/khatri/ramgarhia/Arora etc.
What this shows is that there is a silent and deep conspiracy
by some selfish people who don't want even the Khalsa Panth
to be united.Definitely Guru ji will never spare these traitors
but we also do some work to save our Khalsa panth from these
people who cannot be part of Guru Nanak Sahib's religion.

GurFateh
mandeep Singh Khalsa

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REPLY
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Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Kee Fateh.

Dear Mandeep Singh:

I am not convinced that there is a conspiracy. Nor would I presume to speak for God and Guru and assert that they will be punished by Guru. I agree with you that Sikhs who identify their caste as anything other than family of Guru are not observing Guruji's teachings. Somehow these people feel that they cannot 'make it' (whatever that means to them) without telling the community of their caste and status.

There are several things one can do to fight this. First of all, remind the Sikhs in your family/friends/circle that we are Singhs and Kaurs of the Guru, and not to use any other name (except perhaps, Khalsa) after Singh or Kaur. You could also take out an ad on the same page as the ads you describe above, asking why this is done? One could even be so bold as to contact the ones in the ad and ask them politely why they feel it is necessary to add surname? Do they feel they are honoring Guruji by doing this? I feel sorry for Sikhs who feel they have to do this to 'get ahead' or get status. Additionally, I recommend you and others who refuse to use surnames politely confront members of your Gurdwara who consider themselves to be Sikh and yet use caste surnames. Or create a flyer and hand it out during langar, asking them why they do this and citing Guruji's bani that says we do not identify by caste. What I am talking about is raising conciousness. I do not believe that doing it angrily or meanly will get one a
nywhere. I do think politely but firmly pointing out that caste surnames DIVIDE Sikhs, not unite us, and that it goes against all Guru teaches us, is important. Some people use caste because, really, they don't know better. They actually haven't registered in their minds Guru's teaching about not identifying with caste.

I hope this helps. Guru rakha,
-DKK