THE INEQUALITY OF LIBERTY

Sikh Liberty vs. Enlightenment Liberty

The French Revolution:

Seventeen Ninety Eight France: the streets run red with blood as frenzied crowds rush through the streets chanting: ‘liberty, equality, fraternity’ in a semi-religious fervor. The guillotine sings and the stench of despair intermixes with the sanguinary wafts of hope as the elite are continually beheaded while their subordinates cheer. The chant of that fateful day is today enshrined in the constitutions of multiple nations emulating the initial 1848 French constitutional documentation of it. Synonymous with the very concept of Republic today, the same chant is shoehorned into Sikhi and Sikh values to define the Sikh revolution. There is, however, a certain irony in using this template.

Irony:

It is imperative that Sikhs renew their own Gurmat-oriented frameworks to categorize and classify their historical impetus and religious principles without resorting to vacuous and misleading enlightenment era ideological substructures. Otherwise, they risk negating the uniquely Sikh purview of their own heritage. Within the context of ‘liberty, equality, fraternity’-eventually symbolizing the enlightenment-the philosopher Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821) elaborated that it was a supplantation of the Christian trinity endorsed by the elites to enslave the peasantry. However, similar to the trinity this newfound trinity was also inherent with didactic tensions ironically deviating from its Utopian promises.

Liberty:

Maistre argued that liberty was nothing but a rhetorical buzzword designed to incite passions among the peasantry. He based this contention on the fact that human liberty, by nature, delineates restrictions placed upon human freedom to ensure the safety and sanctity of society by barring man from indulging in his feral nature. The price of freedom we pay for residing in free societies, ironically, is an equivocal equilibrium-oriented limitation upon our freedoms thus we can never totally be free. Nor can liberty deliver what the French Revolution promised it would: an almost Marxist freedom from elitism where there would be no societal distinction endorsing a superior and subordinate status.

The Chinese intellectual Wang Hui echoes this naturalistic sentiment presciently remarking in his works that despite Deng Xiaoping’s pro-capitalist, pro-neoliberal pivot in 1989, the Chinese were compelled to witness the emergence of another elite class that much like its Maoist predecessor (that Xiaoping wanted to be rid of) bifurcated society between the power wielders and their subjects dethroning the dream of an equalized sharing of power. This irony is succinctly captured by George Orwell in his Animal Farm, contrary to what revolutions and their ideologues promise they often lead to the emergence of a new elite after overthrowing the old.

An event from the life of the 18th century French Foreign Minister Talleyrand (1754-1838) who managed to not only survive but thrive during the French Revolution aptly summarizes the inherent contradictions of revolutionary liberty. Upon hearing city bells peal and crowds rushing hither thither celebrating victory Talleyrand too joined into the merrymaking crying “we have won, we have won, indeed we have won!” His manservant inquired as to who had won what? The Minister retorted, “I will tell you tomorrow when I know who are the new elites.” Revolutions, instrumental in overthrowing the old aristocracy and order, inadvertently produce a new elitism disinclined to forfeit its newfound privileges.

Equality:

Radical freethinker Evgeny Pashukanis, an apostate from Marxism, built upon Maistre’s denouncement of equality by appending it to a more modernist framework via anthropology. The anthropological framework holds that winners and losers have forever existed in human society and will continue to do so irrespective of the existence and influence of free markets sharpening monetary distinctions because one man’s gain is often another’s loss. The same notion of unachievable equality witnessed Robespeirre’s head roll off the guillotine in the name of equality despite his initial championing and leadership of the revolution. True equality is unachievable as there will always be have’s and have not’s.

But the Judeo-Christian sanctification of professional victimhood, that detracts from true victimhood, has spawned a multigenerational hunger for equality in an universal form. One need only observe the modern democratic state that argues for democratic equality being true equality. As Pareto, Mosca, and Michels substantiate democratic equality is only a facade for electing a club of entrenched elites exclusively barring a pro-peoples leader from rising to the fore. Thus, the embodiment of democratic equality that is voting serves only to perpetuate the very elitism that upholds the inequality that the masses crave freedom from in the first place. True equality, essentially, is a chimera consuming its adherents.

True equality stems from the vacuous enlightenment era liberal proposition of human secularism i.e. the supplantation of the church with the state and the disenfranchisement of faith from being a matter of civic duty to personal abstractions. In this, the age-old natural law of equality stemming from responsibility is replaced with the infamous adage that all are born equal and there is no yardstick to actually measure this equality. Unable to eradicate the contradictions inherent in such a belief, the worshippers of this secularized equality graduate from testament to tyranny to enforce this utopian oneness only to ultimately ingratiate new forms of equality within society.

Fraternity:

The current European paradigm defining fraternity, derived from Enlightenment frameworks, divides it into one of two factors: either socioeconomic that is further bifurcated by competition and individualism or nationalism that contrives to unite disparate individuals on the basis of culture and location far transcending divisions of class and status. Nationalism being the more ubiquitous factor that can also incorporate socioeconomics, it is more pervasive and echoes the historical romanticization of history and language by leveraging the Renaissance-era construct of the nation-state. Nationalism, though, is a dual-edged sword.

The inability of global elites to fully comprehend the impacts of globalization and the intermixing of uncivilized cultures with more refined cultures has bred a dissolute admixture of convenience and nationalism. Unable to uphold pristine nationalism, political elites often resort to inciting nationalist fervor to conceal the reverse colonization of the communities and societies they lead. This is currently evident in the United States, the United Kingdom and Punjab. The fraternity offered by nationalism is then a hollowed out shadow of its more pure self where those offered it are duly blinded to the forces of globalization and modernity disenfranchising and dismantling their cultural essence and identity.

The primary failing of modern fraternity is its inability to reconcile individualism with its societal leanings. The agrarian and feudal societies of yesteryear often valued society over the self rooting them in organic nationalist ties with one’s own society being one’s nation and path to liberation. The insidious impact of modernity has emasculated the organic unity of history into an atomized and individualistic existence that values personal allegiances and advantages over the societal whole that roots the individual’s existence and very sense of being. Whatever fraternity is deduced from such a tragic state of affairs, results in betrayal and treachery.

Contradiction:

The innate contradictions within ‘liberty, equality, fraternity’ become conspicuous when examined within the modernist framework they have created. Liberty, as championed by liberals and modernists, implies the individual to be a rationale master of his own affairs requiring no external abstract or transcendental authority to guide him. His passion and self-interest is positioned above that of his society naturally inciting competition and the need to surpass others thus leading to inequality and undermining the modernist notion of equality.

Equality and its champion democracy are devolved into a legal facade to conceal the innate inequalities perpetuated by the aforementioned pursuit of individual liberty. Fraternity, then, is inevitably regressed into a moral fiction conveniently used as a term to blind the masses and misled them. The only element that survives this devolution then is liberty but not liberty in its pristine sense but liberty as the pursuit of individual passions that incites more inequality than it rectifies.

The Sikh Revolution:

We now come to the ideals and principles of the Sikh Revolution that is far more perfect than any worldly fracas. ‘Liberty, equality, fraternity’ were emblematic of the solidarity that the French craved but never fully obtained. The rise of Caesar-like Napoleon put paid to the utopian dreams of the earlier revolutionaries preceding him. The tyranny of men like Robespierre only proved that such a paradisical solidarity seeking to replicate a man-made heaven on earth was doomed to failure as long as man’s passions are promised an outlet under liberty. The socially astute like Talleyrand picked up on this. The illiterate masses suffered.

ਹਉ ਹਉ ਮੈ ਮੈ ਵਿਚਹੁ ਖੋਵੈ ॥ ਦੂਜਾ ਮੇਟੈ ਏਕੋ ਹੋਵੈ ॥ ਜਗੁ ਕਰੜਾ ਮਨਮੁਖੁ ਗਾਵਾਰੁ ॥ ਸਬਦੁ ਕਮਾਈਐ ਖਾਈਐ ਸਾਰੁ ॥ ਅੰਤਰਿ ਬਾਹਰਿ ਏਕੋ ਜਾਣੈ ॥ ਨਾਨਕ ਅਗਨਿ ਮਰੈ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਕੈ ਭਾਣੈ ॥੪੬॥

“Annihilate your sense of self-centered hubris from within. Erase your own self and unite with your one and only Maker. The masses are hardheaded and the Manmukh (unenlightened one) is an illiterate. Live the Shabad (the divine injunctions within the Guru Granth) and partake of your true essence. Know the inside and outside to be all one. Nanak, the flames (of passion) die only when the Satguru’s (the divine wisdom’s) will is carried out.”

-Guru Granth, 943.

In the Sikh conception of solidarity, the community and society comprise the Khalsa Panth. The lay Sikhs work towards undergoing the Khalsa initiation and imbibing the Khalsa code of conduct that is rooted in the Sikh praxis housed in the Guru Granth. The Panth transcends notions of nation and race and is rooted in the exclusivist spiritual precepts of Guru Nanak that furnish it with a sense of shared destiny while emphasizing that every individual Sikh Khalsa overcome and annihilate their base passions. Only then can true solidarity for constructing and forwarding unity be established among communities and societies.

The fraternity of the Khalsa is united by the constitutional matrix of Rehat. It unites and allows the fraternity to effectively judge itself and its own members. Historic texts such as the Sri Gur Panth Prakash and Naveen Panth Prakash elaborate how Sikhs who abused Rehat were often penalized to efface their baseness and pursuit of self-passions. Ratan Singh Bhangu narrates that when the Ramgarhia brothers slew a merchant in Multan and concealed his riches for themselves, the Khalsa penalized them and other Sirdars cursed them for their avarice impacting their reputation.

The French Revolution was conceptualized on the notion that man should be free to pursue his passions because of his intelligence. This notion is the root progenitor behind ‘liberty, equality, fraternity.’ The ultimate failure of not only the French but subsequent revolutions to truly provide liberty, equality, and fraternity stemmed from the innate contradictions of the revolutionary framework rooted in the presupposition that man could master his own fate. The Gurus radically differed from this perspective and provided a divine code of ethics through the Guru Granth and adherence to Akal Purakh to provide true liberty, equality, fraternity.

The Sikh conception of equality stems not from birthright but from maturity and responsibility. One cannot be equal to another unless one is willing to take an equal share of responsibility. Responsibility is the great equalizer.

ਆਪਣਾ ਕਾਰਜੁ ਆਪਿ ਸਵਾਰੇ ਹੋਰਨਿ ਕਾਰਜੁ ਨ ਹੋਈ ॥

“Resolve your own affairs by your own hand, leave others to their fate.”

-Guru Granth, 351.

It is for this reason that one who successfully executes the highest degree of responsibility is celebrated as worthy of being a leader in the Sikh equation for responsibility leads to the truth.

ਤਖਤਿ ਰਾਜਾ ਸੋ ਬਹੈ ਜਿ ਤਖਤੈ ਲਾਇਕ ਹੋਈ ॥

ਜਿਨੀ ਸਚੁ ਪਛਾਣਿਆ ਸਚੁ ਰਾਜੇ ਸੇਈ ॥

ਏਹਿ ਭੂਪਤਿ ਰਾਜੇ ਨ ਆਖੀਅਹਿ ਦੂਜੈ ਭਾਇ ਦੁਖੁ ਹੋਈ ॥

ਕੀਤਾ ਕਿਆ ਸਾਲਾਹੀਐ ਜਿਸੁ ਜਾਦੇ ਬਿਲਮ ਨ ਹੋਈ ॥

ਨਿਹਚਲੁ ਸਚਾ ਏਕੁ ਹੈ ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਬੂਝੈ ਸੁ ਨਿਹਚਲੁ ਹੋਈ ॥੬॥

“Those rulers should sit astride thrones who actually deserve to be on thrones. The worthy rulers are those who recognize the truth, only they are worthy to be epitheted as the true rulers. Do not declare them the rulers of the world who are are attached to others and resultantly drown in pain. Why should one sycophantically adhere to those who will fade away and vanish over time? There is one eternal Master emulating who the Gurmukh becomes eternal themselves.”

-Guru Granth, 1088.

The Sikh conception of equality arises from the truth, liberty stems from self-control, and fraternity from immersion in the word of the Guru. The outcome is a body of men and women divinely enlightened and worthy of ruling over the masses. This is the Sikh Revolution. A revolution of Gurmukhs led by the truly enlightened for the truly enlightened continually warring against the vagaries of the unenlightened masses and the false faiths. Such is the Khalsa, the byproduct of the Sikh Revolution that is far superior to the hedonistic materialists born from the French Revolution.

Finality:

The restoration of Sikh frameworks and purviews can allow us to fully appreciate our glorious heritage in all its perfection and supremacy. The Gurus were well aware of the innate failures of revolutions and designed the Khalsa with safeguards. However, the ignorance of the Boomer generation has derived the current crop of Sikh youth from comprehending their heritage and their mission in this world. But just as the sun of enlightenment dispels the darkness of ignorance, so too will the sun of Sikhi dispel the night of falsity and the Sikh Revolution will shine anew free from all contradictions.