1st Son Sikh
I could never find a logical answer as to why Punjabis made their first son a Sikh. Born Punjabi, my parents never had an answer to this too. Arising out of Veena Talwar’s book and three others that I have referred to below I have come to the following conclusion. Am willing to stand corrected and would be keen to know a different view.
According to volume 7 of the History & Culture of Indian People published by the Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan - "Disciples of Nanak called themselves Sikhs derived from the Sanskrit word sishya, meaning a learner or a person who takes spiritual lessons from a teacher. The public called them Nanak Panthis or Sikhs. Panth literally means path or way and it has been traditionally used to designate the followers of a particular teacher or of a distinctive range of doctrine”.
"Singh means devotee". However, today Singh has come to mean Lion & has come to be associated with fighting classes throughout North India esp. in undivided Punjab. The change was brought about the British. One of the principal changes that the British made after the 1857 mutiny was a reduction in the number of Bengali soldiers because it is they who were involved in the mutiny. They were replaced by Sikhs & Punjabi Muslims who had supported the British during the mutiny.
Veena Talwar wrote in Dowry Murder, "By the late 19th century, Punjabis made up 57 infantry units & Bengal (included Bihar & Orissa) fewer than 15". For detailed data read Thoughts on Pakistan by Dr B R Ambedkar in section Great Men of India.
W H Mcleod wrote in his book, Who is a Sikh, "Appreciative of the strength of opposition encountered during the Anglo-Sikh wars & as a result of the assistance which they received from the Sikh princes during the Mutiny, Sikhs were easily accommodated within the British theory of the martial races of India & Sikh enlistment increased steeply. For the British, martial Sikhs meant Khalsa Sikhs, and all who were inducted into the Indian Army as Sikhs were required to maintain the external insignia of the Khalsa". The British paid their soldiers very well, allotted them agricultural land & pension. Other castes like Khatris, Aroras & Ahulwalias did not want to loose out economically so they made the first son a Sikh meaning they had to grow hair etc.
Further Veena Talwar wrote, "To prevent the sort of mutiny they experienced from sepoys in 1857, the British organised religiously segregated regimental units from the alleged martial races, Sikhs, Pathans, Rajputs etc. This severely restricted Hindus of other castes particularly Khatris, who had served in Maharaja Ranjit Singh's forces. Khatris were arbitarily lumped together by the British as trading castes. Many families got around this artificially imposed caste barrier by raising one or more son as Sikhs, chiefly by having them adopt the name Singh and grow hair/beard to match".
The maximum number of followers of Khalsa were Jats who as we know are tall, sturdy and big built people. (Jats are found in modern day Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh and are all tall, big built). Because of reasons listed in the preceding paras other castes like Khatris made one more sons a follower of Khalsa. Today sons of such Sikhs are considered to be followers of Sikhism while sons of the brothers who did not become Sikhs called Monas are considered to be followers of Hinduism.
The Punjab terrorism problem in the 1980-90’s resulted in a deterioration of Hindu Sikh relations. Sometime around 1985 I remember my Delhi cousins telling me of the problem this created for the families of two elderly cousin brothers one of whom was a Hindu and another a Sikh. This happened because one of their forefathers wanted to avail of the economic benefits offered by the British to Sikhs and decided to become a Sikh.
Impact on Names - today anybody with a Turban has Singh has his middle name or last name. Two people with the same surnames could be Hindu & Sikh. Let me explain. My first boss was born Sukhwinder Chadha & has a turban today. Due to the resurgence of Khalsa he wrote his name in Inter office memos as Sukhwinder Singh Chadha to show he is a Sikh but signs cheques as Sukhwinder Chadha because that is his legal name.
Conversely there is another Chadha, school friend Vineet Chadha who is considered as a Hindu because he sports no turban. Non-Jat Punjabis with turban meaning Khatris etc invariably put Singh as their middle or surname because they have to prove they are Sikhs e.g. a girl I might have married had a surname Batra while her father's surname was Singh. Perplexed I asked her how could their surnames be different.
She did not know or probably did not want to answer but a cousin of mine who works with the Indian Air force like her father gave me a very interesting explanation. In the Air force those Sikhs who have Singhs against their name are considered to be true Sikhs, martial race while those with Khatri surnames like Batra are considered inferior. Since her father sported a turban he was considered a Sikh but if he were to be considered to be part of a martial race his surname needed to be Singh not Batra. That is exactly what her father had done.
Unlike a Khatri or Arora caste who needs to prove that he is a Sikh a Jat has no such compulsions. A Jat has Singh as part of his name e.g. super cop K. P. S. Gill. However, note that S stands for Singh but is always silent.
The above chapter gives you an important effect of the British decision to allow only Khalsa Sikhs to be employed by the Indian Army. I believe that the British deliberately drove a wedge between Hindus & Sikhs using modern day connotations, the famous divide & rule policy. This chapter has some examples but they created the divide in a number of ways. That as they say would be the subject matter of another interesting article. Born of Hindu Sikh parents it pains to know how the divide was created.
