ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>GURMAT&#256</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="GURMAT"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279GURMAT&#256, a <i>mat&#257</i>, i.e. counsel or resolution adopted by the Sikhs at an assembly of theirs held in the name of the Gur&#363 concerning any religious, social or political issue. The convention grew in the turbulent eighteenth century to determine the consensus of the community on matters affecting its solidarity and survival. In those uncertain days, Sikhs assembled at the Ak&#257l Ta<u>kh</u>t at Amritsar on Bais&#257kh&#299 and D&#299v&#257l&#299 days and took counsel together, in the presence of the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib, to plan a course of action in face of an immanent danger or in pursuit of a common objective. The final decision emerging from the deliberations was the <i>gurmat&#257</i>. It represented the general will of the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 and it carried the sanction of the Gur&#363, the assembly having acted by the authority of the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The genesis of the <i>gurmat&#257</i> is traceable to the teachings of Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh and the earliest instances in fact go back to his own time. While inaugurating the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 in 1699, the Gur&#363 said that all members of the Panth, the Sikh commonwealth, were equal, he (the Gur&#363) being one of them; all previous divisions of caste and status had been obliterated. Before he passed away in 1708, he declared that wherever Sikhs were gathered in the presence of the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib, there was the Gur&#363 himself present and that the counsel thus taken represented the combined will of the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; There are at least two instances occurring in the lifetime of Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh when he let the 'general will' of the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 prevail, perhaps against his own judgement. One such instance was the evacuation of Anandpur (1705). Sorely pressed for want of food and ammunition, the besieged Sikhs decided to accept the promises of safe conduct given by the besieging force in return for withdrawal from the Fort. The Gur&#363 was not convinced of the genuineness of the besiegers' word, yet he yielded to the will of the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 expressed in council in his own presence. In the battle of Chamkaur, following the evacuation of Anandpur, most of the Sikhs in train as well as two of the Gur&#363's sons fell fighting against the pursuing host. The few surviving Sikhs suggested to the Gur&#363 to leave the fortress, to which he was not agreeable. They then expressed their joint will in the name of the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 calling upon the Gur&#363 to escape. This was a <i>gurmat&#257</i> in its nascent form. The Gur&#363 had no option but to 'obey'.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <i>Gurmat&#257</i> had emerged as a well-established democratic institution towards the middle of the eighteenth century. European travellers such as George Forster (<i>A Journey from Bengal to England</i> and John Malcolm (<i>Sketch of the Sikhs</i>), both of whom visited the Punjab, the former in 1783 and the latter in 1805, have left vivid accounts of the functioning of the <i>gurmat&#257</i>. According to these accounts, Sikhs gathered twice a year, on the occasions of Bais&#257kh&#299 and D&#299v&#257l&#299, at Ak&#257l Ta<u>kh</u>t to take stock of the political situation, to devise ways and means to meet the common danger, to choose men to lead them in battle, and so on. The procedure was democratic. All those who attended these assemblies of the Sarbatt <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257, the entire Sikh people, had an equal say in the deliberations. "All private animosities ceased" and everyone present "sacrificed his personal feeling at the shrine of general good." Everyone was actuated by "principles of pure patriotism" and considered nothing but "the interest of the religion and the commonwealth" to which he belonged. After the <i>gurmat&#257</i> was passed, everyone, irrespective of whether he had spoken for or against it when it was debated considered it his religious duty to abide by it. The assembly met in the presence of Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib and the <i>Dasam Granth</i>. Inaugural <i>ard&#257s&#257</i> (supplication) was said by one of those present seeking the Gur&#363's blessing, sacramental <i>ka&#7771&#257hpras&#257d</i> was distributed and proposals were put forth for discussion. <i>Ard&#257s&#257</i>, continues John Malcolm, was again recited and all those present vowed, with the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib betwixt them, to lay aside all internal disputes and discords. "This moment of religious fervour and ardent patriotism" was utilized to reconcile all animosities. Proposals were then considered and an agreed <i>gurmat&#257</i> evolved, the whole assembly raising shouts of <i>sat sr&#299 ak&#257l</i> together in token of acceptance.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; To cite some of the historic <i>gurmat&#257s</i>, Sikhs resolved by mutual counsel at a general assembly at Amritsar in 1726 to avenge the slaying of T&#257r&#257 Si&#7749gh of V&#257&#7749 and his companions and rise to obstruct the functioning of the government. They attacked treasuries and arsenals and chastised the officials who had been spying on them. When in 1733 an offer of a <i>j&#257g&#299r</i> and title of Naw&#257b was received from the Mu<u>gh</u>al governor of Lahore, Sikhs by one voice chose K&#257p&#363r Si&#7749gh for the honour. Though there was no formal <i>gurmat&#257</i> adopted, the consensus was arrived at in a <i>d&#299v&#257n</i> in keeping with the same spirit and procedure. A Sikh conclave took place at Amritsar on D&#299v&#257l&#299 (14 October) of 1745 to take stock of the situation following the death of the governor of Lahore, Zakar&#299y&#257 <u>Kh</u>&#257n, who had launched large-scale persecution, and adopted a <i>gurmat&#257</i> extending sanction to the 25 Sikh groups which had emerged and permitting them to carry out raids on Mu<u>gh</u>al strongholds. The assembly held on the Bais&#257kh&#299 day (30 March) of 1747 resolved by a <i>gurmat&#257</i> passed to erect at Amritsar a fort which came to be known as R&#257m Rau&#7751&#299.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; By a <i>gurmat&#257</i> passed in 1748 (Bais&#257kh&#299, 29 March), Sikhs decided to establish the Dal <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257, choosing Jass&#257 Si&#7749gh &#256hl&#363v&#257l&#299&#257 as the leader and reducing the number of recognized <i>jath&#257s</i> to 11 (the number having gone up to 65 by then) and providing for a record being kept at the Ak&#257l Ta<u>kh</u>t of the possessions of each group in a separate file (<i>misl</i>). A <i>gurmat&#257</i> in 1753 formally endorsed the system of R&#257kh&#299 introduced by the ruling Sikh clans. In 1765, a <i>gurmat&#257</i> was passed proclaiming the supremacy of the Sarbatt <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 over individual leaders. Through another <i>gurmat&#257</i> the same year, a coin was struck with the inscription, <i>Deg o te<u>gh</u> o fateh o nusrat be dira&#7749g, y&#257ft az N&#257nak Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh</i> (prosperity, power and unfailing victory received from N&#257nak and Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh), and on the reverse, "Struck at Lahore, the seat of government, in the auspicious <i>samvat</i> 1822 (AD 1765)."</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; To challenge Ahmad Sh&#257h Durr&#257n&#299 returning from Sirhind to Lahore at the time of his seventh invasion of India (1764-65), the Sikhs made a <i>gurmat&#257</i> . "All the Sikhs, " records Ratan Si&#7749gh Bha&#7749g&#363, <i>Prach&#299n Panth Prak&#257sh</i>, "assembled in a <i>d&#299v&#257n</i>. Sitting in one place, they adopted a <i>gurmat&#257</i> that they must now confront the Sh&#257h and match arms with him. Every second day, they say, he comes and harasses us. Without fighting him now, we shall obtain no peace. He who survives will be spared this daily suffering; he who dies attains realms divine."</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Conquests up to 1767 were made by the <i>misls</i> in the name of the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257, but, with personal ambition and aggrandizement gaining the upper hand over the years, the sense of a corporate Sikh commonwealth gradually wore away. In the days of Sikh rule, the institution of <i>gurmat&#257</i> fell into desuetude. The last semblance of a <i>gurmat&#257</i> was an assembly of Sikh <i>sard&#257rs</i> called by Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 Ra&#7751j&#299t Si&#7749gh in 1805 to discuss the situation arising from the entry into Sikh dominions of the fugitive Mar&#257&#7789h&#257 chief, Jasvant R&#257o Holkar, followed by British troops under Lord Lake. The word <i>gurmat&#257</i> was resurrected after the lapse of Sikh sovereignty, especially with the rise of the Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 movement in the closing decades of the nineteenth century. <i>Gurmat&#257</i> then referred to any decision on a matter of religious or social import arrived at by common consent at a Sikh assembly in the presence of the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib. The Ak&#257l&#299 movement brought within its orbit political issues as well. The word <i>gurmat&#257</i> is now in everyday use for a resolution adopted at a Sikh religious <i>d&#299v&#257n</i> or political conference.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Bha&#7749g&#363, Ratan Si&#7749gh, <i>Prach&#299n Panth Prak&#257sh</i>. Amritsar, 1914<BR> <li class="C1"> Bhagat Singh, <i>Sikh Polity in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries</i>. Delhi, 1978<BR> <li class="C1"> Malcolm, John, <i>Sketch of the Sikhs</i>. Patiala, 1970<BR> <li class="C1"> Forster, George, <i>A Journey from Bengal to England</i>. Patiala, 1970<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">K. S. Th&#257par<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>