The Satkar Committee action has met with widespread outrage by the Sikh community.

To know India’s future, one must look at Punjab’s present. This applies to society, economy, questions of justice, and even religion. A recent example from religion is pertinent here.

A few days back, a self-appointed Sikh group called Satkar Committee reached the residence of an ex-Principal of a Khalsa College in a village in Hoshiarpur district and took away his recension (Bir) of the Guru Granth Sahib. The accusation was the ex-Principal consumes meat and eggs.

It did not matter to the Satkar Committee that the gentleman is an Amritdhari, initiated Sikh, and has been maintaining a Gurdwara at his home for close to half a century. He performs daily readings from the Bir and completes readings of the Bir three to four times a year.

The Satkar Committee action has met with widespread outrage by the Sikh community. The contention posed to the Committee is whether the Sikh religion prohibits the consumption of meat and eggs. The Sikh Rehat Maryada says: Halal meat is prohibited, not Jhatka.

The term Halal – lawful – has a larger significance in Islam, as opposed to Haram – unlawful. In terms of meat, it is Halal when an animal is killed by cutting its jugular vein and draining its blood. During the process, a Muslim will recite a dedication, know as tasmiya or shahada. Jhatka is when an animal is killed in one blow. Sikh Rehat Maryada opines that Halal meat is a painful process for the animal so it prohibits it.

However, the question this raises is not only about the Committee’s actions but a larger one: about the form of society we choose to live in – theocracy versus democracy. While theocracy is a state based on religious lines, democracy is a state based on a common understanding of justice – the Constitution – and regular process of elections.

The issue with theocracy is that no one is ever sure exactly what our religious texts prescribe. So, many self-appointed people or groups come up to claim they are the guardians of religion.

In Islam this happened in last few decades with the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Then with the rise of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. This group is officially known as the Islamic State and also known by its Arabic-language acronym Daesh. This is a militant group and a former unrecognised proto-state that follows a fundamentalist, Salafi jihadist doctrine of Sunni Islam.

In Sikh religion – in crises ever since its inception 550 years ago – many times there have been calls for maintaining purity of its essence. Right from Banda Bahadur’s time which overlapped with Guru Gobind Singh’s and later in Punjab, there came up a Tatt Khalsa – True Khalsa – to differentiate from Bandai Khalsa.

The Tatt Khalsa was revived in 1879 and contributed to the exclusion of many Sikh sects such as Sanatani and Udasi from the mainstream Sikh religion. The puritanical strain continues until date with the Damdami Taksal being its chief proponent in the 1970s to now-a-days with their tussle with Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwale. Then there is Sant Samaj and others.

That is the issue about theocracy sates. Not only that minority religions become second class citizens but that anyone with power can start bullying common people in the name of religion. In case of Satkar Committee, how can one group claim the absolute authority on the vast spectrum of Sikh thought as propounded by the Sikh Gurus and enshrined in the Guru Granth Sahib?

This is similar to what we have seen happen to Sanatan Dharam or the Hindu religion – a term coined by British in the 19th century – in recent times. The rise of Hindutva which now occupies the heart of our democracy from legislature to executive to judiciary to even media.

Hindutva has bullied the sense of Hindu religion as an open and all-encompassing way of life into a very narrow political approach as an election winning formula in a Hindu majoritarian nation. The consecration of Ram Janam Bhoomi temple and the statement on Krishna by the Chief Justice of India in the Supreme Court signify this transformation of democracy into a theocracy.

Like how Satkar Committee behaves in Punjab, India will soon tumble into a many small fiefdoms where temple priests and not the Constitution will dictate how we live. Already we have the most populous state in India, Uttar Pradesh, being run by a temple priest.

Like the Sikhs, will the Hindus also rise up in condemnation of what is happening to their religion? Will they condemn how Hindutva is being misused to acquire and propagate political power and further crony capitalist interests? Sadly, we know the answer. No!