Solitude:
Throughout history great leaders and warriors alike have selected opportune moments to temporarily melt away from the world. During their isolation they have formulated epic plans to achieve their immortal visions and goals. Guru Nanak vanished for three days near the Bein. Guru Hargobind selected to retreat from the Sangats after Guru Arjan’s martyrdom. Guru Tegh Bahadur sought solace in Bakala awhile; Guru Gobind Rai confined himself to the jungles of the Shivalik Hills while musing how best to manifest Guru Nanak’s Khalsa. This solitude allowed them unhindered access to their innermost selves to plan for the upcoming future.
Strategy:
But the Gurus were not the only leaders and warriors to utilize this strategy of solitude. Multiple others like Alexander, Leonidas, Hannibal, Scipio Africanus and even Patton and Mao retreated into seclusion to plan for the future. When Banda Singh retreated to Kashmir he entered into a prolonged period of isolation to plan for the future resumption of hostilities with the Mughal-Rajput combine. Nawab Kapur Singh in the Doaba post-the lesser holocaust also strategized for the future similarly as well as Maharajah Ranjit Singh after his father’s demise. This strategy of seclusion entails simply doing nothing but observing and contemplating the events around us to initiate an original future course. While no two wars are similar, the seclusion strategy is most efficient in prolonged campaigns such as guerilla warfare or centuries long movements which imply greater sensitivity.
Mao:
It would be hard to conclude today that Chinese Communism is the classic Marxism of Karl Marx’s own nightmarish vision. Author Kerry Brown articulates that Communism in China is Sinofied Marxism i.e. Communism altered to comply with China’s emerging ground reality and not the original virulent strain exported by the neighboring Russians. In early 1934 the Chinese Communists fractured over the nature and essence of Marxism with regards to society and military strategy. The more innovative neo-Marxists (God help us) were dethroned by the more radical progressive Marxists (an ironic quandary. Increasing fatalities and the inability to triumph over their Nationalists opponents sent the Chinese Communists reeling.
Enter Mao, a neo-Marxist but also a megalomaniac tyrant. He proposed that the Communists do nothing in the face of the Nationalists and instead retreat spurning American offers of a plebiscite (proposed by General Marshall). The children of Marx at their wits end, the Communists under his guidance retreated from Jiangxi and marched to Shaanxi. A hazardous and treacherous journey exacerbated by aerial bombardment and artillery pursuit over long distances. But the Long March as the Maoists styled it allowed Mao the seclusion he required to plan for the future. After dethroning his opponents, Mao marched against the eroding Nationalists and vanquished them. The rest, as they say, is history.
Utopianism:
But China was an exception. Mao’s Sinofied Marxism i.e. Marxism estranged from its fundamental roots to be transposed in a Chinese perception allowed it to survive Communism’s downfall elsewhere. Karl Marx (Marxism’s originator as you would no doubt have guessed) would have slit his own throat if he had been alive to witness this semi-perversion of all he held dear. While his Utopian idealism of enforced economic equity struck a profound chord among many ill-treated laborers, in reality it devolved into a hellish nightmare wherever it was implemented. Demographers contend that over 65 million individuals died prematurely as a result of states pursuing the elusive Marxist Utopia. China is not excluded from the count.
The Long March Through Institutes:
Mao’s Long March influenced countless budding Marxists throughout a fragmented Europe. No doubt, racial disparity played a part given that the Chinese Marxists seemingly achieved what the European Russians where hitherto unable to live up to. But sudden influxes of Chinese refugees; enforced famines (the Cultural Revolution); wholescale vanishings and internalized strife in Communist nations relayed another more despondent tale. Marxism in practicality was far from Utopian. If anything, it had misread human frailty and enforced minority (the rulers’) consensus on the weakened majority (the ruled). And how best to enforce its tyrannical stringency than to persecute any non-conformists? In this it was no different to any Islamist Caliphate where infidelity rendered one treasonous.
Notwithstanding its frailty, Marx’s most adherent disciple in West Germany happened to be one Rudi Dutschke-an intellectual mired in the self-delusion of his own alleged prophetic supremacy. Initially, Dutschke envisioned leading his own Long March through Europe. But the poor man realized too early that the common European believed him a buffoon let alone the powers that be who thought him an insignificant comedian.
Not one to concede ground (or unable to concede ground addicted as he was to fame), Dutschke proposed a new variant on the Long March: The Long March Through The Institutes. This new March, he argued, was a necessity if the Marxist Utopia was to be realized sans the problems plaguing it sociopolitically. At its core was the notion that Marxists by the very logic of them being Marxists were a tier higher than non-Marxists and bequeathed a natural right (he never defined by who) to infiltrate all educational institutes and acquire higher steads within them. Once enough of them were in place the institutes could be Marxified or Marxisied if you will. Education, Dutschke argued, was essential to forming developing minds and by conquering youthful minds early a total Communist generation could be seeded.
Birds of Feather flock Together:
Dutschke confronted humorous reaction after mass humorous reaction when he went global with his conception of a New March. Matters were further exacerbated when he survived an assassination attempt. Deciding to milk it for what it was worth, he made a great show about his pain which was duly ignored by friend and foe alike who were aware of his megalomaniac nature. One individual jumped to his defense. This was Frankfurt School Marxist Doyen Herbert Marcuse. Herbert was so taken with Dutschke’s ideas he in fact articulated them within the United States and even encouraged their worship. At the heart of his crusade lay the chilling summation:
‘Absolute tolerance is only valid when lionized by a leftist Utopia. But tolerating any notions contrary to or dissent from leftist Utopianism is inherently intolerant because it disallows absolute tolerance from being appreciated. To achieve true leftist tolerance we must not tolerate any non-leftist ideas or innovations.’
And to lay the icing on the cake he entitled this thesis as Repressive Tolerance. Now one might inquire how does this word salad even operate? Let us give a few Sikh-related examples.
SJW:
It is undeniable that the Sikh Gurus articulated and emphasized the notion of universal equality hinged on merit instead of conformation (Marxism and total Theocracy) or adherence (nation-state). But this is an equality based on responsibility and not equality by birthright. To paraphrase the classic quote, all men are born equal but that is where equality ends. Let us consider Kabir’s observances housed in the Guru Granth:
ਅਵਲਿ ਅਲਹ ਨੂਰੁ ਉਪਾਇਆ ਕੁਦਰਤਿ ਕੇ ਸਭ ਬੰਦੇ ॥
ਏਕ ਨੂਰ ਤੇ ਸਭੁ ਜਗੁ ਉਪਜਿਆ ਕਉਨ ਭਲੇ ਕੋ ਮੰਦੇ ॥੧॥
ਲੋਗਾ ਭਰਮਿ ਨ ਭੂਲਹੁ ਭਾਈ ॥
ਖਾਲਿਕੁ ਖਲਕ ਖਲਕ ਮਹਿ ਖਾਲਿਕੁ ਪੂਰਿ ਰਹਿਓ ਸ੍ਰਬ ਠਾਂਈ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥
“The supreme Allah installs the divine light in all; all men belong to Creation. From one light the whole Creation emanates so who do we call good and who do we declare bad? People, do not fall into doubt. The Creator is synonymous with Creation and Creation with the Creator. The Creator is Omnipresent and Omniscient.”
-Guru Granth, 1349.
In what sense is Kabir articulating who we can call good or bad? Let us take a look at the preceding and succeeding verses.
Preceding:
ਅਲਹੁ ਏਕੁ ਮਸੀਤਿ ਬਸਤੁ ਹੈ ਅਵਰੁ ਮੁਲਖੁ ਕਿਸੁ ਕੇਰਾ ॥
ਹਿੰਦੂ ਮੂਰਤਿ ਨਾਮ ਨਿਵਾਸੀ ਦੁਹ ਮਹਿ ਤਤੁ ਨ ਹੇਰਾ ॥੧॥
“If Allah lives solely in a mosque than what of the rest of the world? The Hindus claim divinity resides in their idols but both these claims (of Hindus and Muslims) are totally false.”
Now one might naturally ask that if everyone is equal by the merit of being created by a sole Creator why are Hindus and Muslims signalled out?
Succeeding:
ਮਾਟੀ ਏਕ ਅਨੇਕ ਭਾਂਤਿ ਕਰਿ ਸਾਜੀ ਸਾਜਨਹਾਰੈ ॥
ਨਾ ਕਛੁ ਪੋਚ ਮਾਟੀ ਕੇ ਭਾਂਡੇ ਨਾ ਕਛੁ ਪੋਚ ਕੁੰਭਾਰੈ ॥੨॥
ਸਭ ਮਹਿ ਸਚਾ ਏਕੋ ਸੋਈ ਤਿਸ ਕਾ ਕੀਆ ਸਭੁ ਕਛੁ ਹੋਈ ॥
ਹੁਕਮੁ ਪਛਾਨੈ ਸੁ ਏਕੋ ਜਾਨੈ ਬੰਦਾ ਕਹੀਐ ਸੋਈ ॥੩॥
“The mud is one but the forms shaped from it are multifarious. Neither the mud nor its shaper are at fault. The one sole truth resides in everyone and is the directing force behind whatever happens. The one who realizes the command of his Master is the one said to be the Master’s man.”
-Guru Granth, 1350.
The critical line, the gist so to say, is:
ਹੁਕਮੁ ਪਛਾਨੈ ਸੁ ਏਕੋ ਜਾਨੈ ਬੰਦਾ ਕਹੀਐ ਸੋਈ ॥੩॥
“The one who realizes the command of his Master is the one said to be the Master’s man.”
This brings us to the current SJW plague. SJW or Social Justice Warriors are an overzealous appendage of the current Liberal (read leftist) Utopianism. Their main aim is to cancel (ergo cancel culture) any alleged offending opinion which runs contrary to their misplaced sense of justice. Their core empowerment is derived from Marcuse’s Repressive Tolerance where Utopian repression should be tolerated by those who it is imposed upon.
In the historic context the Sikhs were prone to incendiary holocausts and genocides. Guru Nanak having foreseen this had allowed his apostles the use of force:
ਆਖਣਿ ਜੋਰੁ ਚੁਪੈ ਨਹ ਜੋਰੁ ॥
ਜੋਰੁ ਨ ਮੰਗਣਿ ਦੇਣਿ ਨ ਜੋਰੁ ॥
ਜੋਰੁ ਨ ਜੀਵਣਿ ਮਰਣਿ ਨਹ ਜੋਰੁ ॥
ਜੋਰੁ ਨ ਰਾਜਿ ਮਾਲਿ ਮਨਿ ਸੋਰੁ ॥
ਜੋਰੁ ਨ ਸੁਰਤੀ ਗਿਆਨਿ ਵੀਚਾਰਿ ॥
ਜੋਰੁ ਨ ਜੁਗਤੀ ਛੁਟੈ ਸੰਸਾਰੁ ॥
ਜਿਸੁ ਹਥਿ ਜੋਰੁ ਕਰਿ ਵੇਖੈ ਸੋਇ ॥
ਨਾਨਕ ਉਤਮੁ ਨੀਚੁ ਨ ਕੋਇ ॥੩੩॥
“Force is vocal, it is never silent. Force cannot be asked for nor given. Force neither lives nor dies. Force is neither within reigning supreme nor in materialism. Force is neither within contemplation and intellectualism. Force is not the secret to renouncing the world. Observe the one who has force within their hands. Nanak none is high nor too low (for force).”
-Guru Granth, 7.
The Creator does not consider one either too high or too low for force and installs it within each and every sentient Being. It is for innovation but also for defense when necessary. It cannot be restrained to a few elements alone or put into play through rigid academic overtures or renunciative practices. The Social Justice Warrior Brigade argues Sikhs must use force to liberate the “oppressed”, “vulnerable” and “marginalized” groups. Are the Sikhs cannon-fodder for Utopian whims? The classic platitudes aside, the Sikh struggle is inspirational for influencing others to arise and stand up for themselves as their circumstances dictate. It is not to act as global enforcers of leftist Utopia.
One must comprehend that Guru Tegh Bahadur never ventured to aid the Marathas-an “oppressed” minority in the SJW definition-confronting the Mughals or vice versa. Guru Gobind Singh never interfered in the matters of the Deccan state by aligning himself with the rebellious Nizams against the Mughals. The Dal Khalsa never gave the Mughals in Delhi a break considering that they were “oppressed”-in the SJW sense of the term-by both the British and the Marathas.
This should dictate to us that while we war against ourselves; against both internal and exterior tyranny we cannot fight another community’s war for them in the name of righteousness and justice. At the most we can inspire them to rise for themselves. Otherwise if they are doomed to oblivion then that is their choice. Obviously counterarguments will be proposed that what about the ninth Guru? Guru Tegh Bahadur’s martyrdom was not one-dimensional when it is considered that Sikhs were the recipients of more brutal persecution than their fellow Hindus. This is highlighted by the contemporary Rajput eyewitness Bhimsen who articulates that the Guru died foremost for being an infidel and refusing to submit to Dhimmitude. Bhai Jivan Singh Shahid, another contemporary, mentions how only a valorous few souls arose to emulate the Guru. The rest cowed in fear. The Sikhs left the cowards to atrophy away refraining from expending precious resources to aid them.
Second Wave Feminism:
Women have fared more negatively than men while traversing history. The Sikh Gurus warred to rectify this. On the other hand their primary aim was to balance the diversity between the only two genders in existence rather than efface any biological diversity altogether. Women are created to be mothers; men to be fathers. Masculinity and femininity play a crucial role in the developing child. There is, though, no articulation in either the Sikh philosophy or praxis that a woman or man be free to prostitute themselves. Consider Bhai Gurdas’s below parable:
ਗਨਿਕਾ ਪਾਪਣਿ ਹੋਇ ਕੈ ਪਾਪਾਂ ਦਾ ਗਲਿ ਹਾਰੁ ਪਰੋਤਾ।
ਮਹਾਂ ਪੁਰਖੁ ਆਚਾਣਚਕ ਗਨਿਕਾ ਵਾੜੇ ਆਇ ਖਲੋਤਾ।
ਦੁਰਮਤਿ ਦੇਖਿ ਦਇਆਲ ਹੋਇ ਹਥਹੁੰ ਉਸ ਨੋ ਦਿਤੋਨੁ ਤੋਤਾ।
ਰਾਮ ਨਾਮੁ ਉਪਦੇਸੁ ਕਰਿ ਖੇਲਿ ਗਇਆ ਦੇ ਵਣਜੁ ਸਓਤਾ।
ਲਿਵ ਲਾਗੀ ਤਿਸੁ ਤੋਤਿਅਹੁਂ ਨਿਤ ਪੜ੍ਹਾਏ ਕਰੈ ਅਸੋਤਾ।
ਪਤਿਤ ਉਧਾਰਣੁ ਰਾਮ ਨਾਮੁ ਦੁਰਮਤਿ ਪਾਪ ਕਲੇਵਰੁ ਧੋਤਾ।
ਅੰਤਕਾਲੁ ਜਮ ਜਾਲੁ ਤੋੜਿ ਨਰਕੈ ਵਿਚਿ ਨ ਖਾਧੁਸੁ ਗੋਤਾ।
ਗਈ ਬੈਕੁੰਠਿ ਬਿਬਾਣਿ ਚੜ੍ਹਿ ਨਾਉ ਨਰਾਇਣੁ ਛੋਤਿ ਅਛੋਤਾ।
ਥਾਉ ਨਿਥਾਵੇ ਮਾਣੁ ਮਣੋਤਾ ॥੨੧॥
“Ganika the prostitute was such a sinner that her neck was weighed down by heavy garlands of her misdeeds. One day a great soul halted in her abode and expressed mercy for her fallen state. He gifted her a parrot and instructed her to teach it to recite the name of the all pervasive Lord. Then having explained the merits of this deed, he went on his way. With full focus Ganika commenced tutoring the bird. Such is the name of the Master that it liberates one from transgressions and uplifts the fallen ones. Her tutoring cleansed her misdeeds. Upon death she was not stricken by any fears. She did not drown in the worldly ocean. Totally purified from sin she ascended to higher planes. The Master is the shelter of the unsheltered.”
-V10:21.
The above narration of Bhai Gurdas elucidates that Ganika met a saintly soul who reformed her through a novel methodology. Ultimately she discarded her trade as a prostitute. Yet Marxist tier second wave feminism having infiltrated Sikhi, many self-styled Sikh feminists argue that prostitution is inherently a righteous trade as per Sikhi. Abutted alongside is the virulent tirade that a woman’s body is under a woman’s individual sovereignty. Ganika’s status as a prostitute is underscored and her rejection of the trade ignored.
Far be it for men to command women what to do with their bodies, but is prostitution ethical in any sense that suddenly it is being argued that the Gurus would have tolerated it?
ਚੋਰਾ ਜਾਰਾ ਰੰਡੀਆ ਕੁਟਣੀਆ ਦੀਬਾਣੁ ॥
ਵੇਦੀਨਾ ਕੀ ਦੋਸਤੀ ਵੇਦੀਨਾ ਕਾ ਖਾਣੁ ॥
ਸਿਫਤੀ ਸਾਰ ਨ ਜਾਣਨੀ ਸਦਾ ਵਸੈ ਸੈਤਾਨੁ ॥
ਗਦਹੁ ਚੰਦਨਿ ਖਉਲੀਐ ਭੀ ਸਾਹੂ ਸਿਉ ਪਾਣੁ ॥
ਨਾਨਕ ਕੂੜੈ ਕਤਿਐ ਕੂੜਾ ਤਣੀਐ ਤਾਣੁ ॥
ਕੂੜਾ ਕਪੜੁ ਕਛੀਐ ਕੂੜਾ ਪੈਨਣੁ ਮਾਣੁ ॥੧॥
“Thieves, adulterers, whores and pimps-make alliances with this unrighteous lot and be eaten by them in turn. They know no value of the truth and have devils forever in their minds. Decorate an ass with sandalwood but it will still run to the dust. Spin a false thread and obtain a false cloth in turn. False the cloth, false the dimensions and false the pride in such apparels.”
-Guru Granth, 790.
When the warrior Joga Singh felt tempted to satisfy his lust with a prostitute, Guru Gobind Singh disguised himself as an infantry guard and stood aside the brothel. Disquieted, Joga waited awhile before revealing himself believing the guard to be an imperial functionary and not his Guru. The Guru thundered,
‘Singh? You look like a Singh. You are a Sikh of your Guru, you have the Kachera and the appearance of a Khalsa. Boy what the hell are you doing at a brothel? Have you no shame? If not for yourself what about the one at Anandpur?’
Second wave feminism would decry the Guru for preventing the prostitute from obtaining a fair deal on her body by turning Joga away. Prostitution is a sin in Sikhi. Our elders never resorted to it. The Sri Gur Panth Prakash describes how Sher Khan of Malerkotla abducted a Sikh woman for his harem but she killed herself before being made his courtesan. If, however, someone finds themselves forced into prostitution there should be steps taken to empower them to liberate themselves. Second wave feminists will harass a man to the bitter end for stating this bitter fact as it goes against the core concept of their mode of feminism that men are inferior to women and must have no voice. To paraphrase second wave feminism’s misandrist goddess the Marxist Shulamith Firestone (The Dialectic of Sex):
1.) Biology must be effaced by force to end all sex distinctions and render men biologically impotent and valueless.
2.) Artificial reproduction between women should supplant natural sex.
3.) Children are a burden and should be removed from male-female parents to be indoctrinated by the state.
And as Judith Butler, the current archdeacon of second wave feminism contends, a woman physically does not exist but is a creation of male imagination. To this end she is not bound by any moral or ethical concerns voiced by men even if they are valuable.
The Long March Through Gurudwaras:
Dutschke’s nefarious stratagem, fuelled by Marcuse, holds:
‘Absolute tolerance is only valid when lionized by a leftist Utopia. But tolerating any notions contrary to or dissent from leftist Utopianism is inherently intolerant because it disallows absolute tolerance from being appreciated. To achieve true leftist tolerance we must not tolerate any non-leftist ideas or innovations.’
Cancel culture, the attempted criminalization of Amritdharis in Gurudwaras, the introduction of so-called Gender ideologies in Sikh preaching, the harassment of non-leftist Sikhs online all signify how Dutschke’s Long March has entered our Gurudwaras. Western and western inspired educational institutes have already fallen to the menace of Utopianism from the 60’s onwards. Faith and Khalsa stringency is the only wall protecting the Sikhs from the radical dangers which exist on the other side. Those who argue prostitution is exploitative also argue for its normalization in Sikh communities in the name of Ik-Onkaar. Where have we, as a Panth, fallen? Maybe it is time that we furnish leaders and orient them into seclusion so ultimately they liberate us from the cultural Marxism and SJW-led Utopianism afflicting us today.
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