ਹਮ ਹਿੰਦੂ ਨਹੀਂਹਮ ਹਿੰਦੂ ਨਹੀਂ

Ham Hindu Nahin, Punjabi for 'We Are Not Hindus', is a short book by Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha, first published in 1898. In fewer than two hundred pages it makes the case that Sikhism is a religion in its own right, not a sect of Hinduism, and that Sikhs are a distinct people. The book appeared at the height of the Singh Sabha movement, the Sikh reform movement of the late nineteenth century, and it became one of that movement's defining texts. More than a century later it is still in print, and its title is still quoted whenever Sikh identity is debated.

About the book

Ham Hindu Nahin is a work of religious argument, written in Punjabi. A Hindi edition appeared in 1897 and the Punjabi edition followed in 1898. The book was registered under its title in the Punjab Gazette on 30 June 1899, at number 447. The fourth edition ran to 185 pages. Early editions carried only the author's initials, HB; his full name began to appear on the book only from 1907. The book is also spelled Hum Hindu Nahin. An English translation, Sikhs: We Are Not Hindus, translated by Jarnail Singh, brought it to readers outside Punjabi.

What does the title mean?

'Ham Hindu Nahin' means 'We are not Hindus'. The title is the whole argument in four words. At the time, 'Hindu' was becoming a public identity marker, and many Hindus and Sanatan Sikhs described Sikhism as a sect within Hinduism. Kahn Singh's title answered that claim directly, in the plainest language possible, before the reader had even opened the book.

Why was it written?

The book was written as a reply to a book by Thakur Das, a Sanatan Sikh, titled Sikh Hindu Hain, meaning 'Sikhs Are Hindus'. Punjab in the 1890s was in the middle of a fierce argument about religious identity. The Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement, was running its shuddhi campaign to bring people, including Sikhs, into the Hindu fold, and some of its leaders spoke disparagingly of Sikhism and its Gurus. At the same time, Brahmin priests sat with their idols in the parikrama of the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, and many Sikhs practised a mix of rituals that made Sikhism look, to outsiders, like one more sect within Hinduism. The Singh Sabha movement, founded in Amritsar in 1873, had set out to revive the original teachings of the Gurus, and its Lahore branch took the sharper position that Sikhs were not Hindus. Kahn Singh wrote to settle the question from the scriptures themselves.

What the book argues

The book is built as a dialogue between a Hindu and a Sikh. The Hindu sets out the case that Sikhs are Hindus: Sikhs revere the Vedas and the Puranas, believe in incarnation, practise idolatry, keep fasts, go on pilgrimage, follow the caste system, and protect cows. The Sikh answers each point in turn, drawing on Sikh scripture: the Guru Granth Sahib, the Dasam Granth, the Vaaran of Bhai Gurdas, and the writings of Bhai Nand Lal and Bhai Santokh Singh. Kahn Singh's central claim is that Sikhism has been a distinct identity since the time of the Gurus, with its own scripture, which Sikhs revere as the eternal Guru, and its own discipline. He argues the case as a rational, comparative study of religions, quoting his sources rather than asserting. He points to the monotheistic foundation of Sikhism, its rejection of caste, and its emphasis on the equality of all human beings. The book closes with a versified note by the author describing the characteristics of the Khalsa.

ਲੇਖਕ

Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha (1861 to 1938) was born on 30 August 1861 in the village of Sabaz Banera, in what was then the princely territory of Patiala. He had no formal schooling: his father arranged his studies in Hindi, Brij Bhasha and Sanskrit from pandits around Nabha, and by the age of ten he could recite both the Guru Granth Sahib and the Dasam Granth. He became one of the most learned figures in modern Sikh scholarship, a lexicographer and encyclopedist who served in the courts of Nabha and Patiala, rising from tutor to the heir apparent to private secretary to the Maharaja and judge of the High Court. His greatest work was the Gur Shabad Ratnakar Mahan Kosh, the encyclopedia of Sikh literature, which took him fourteen years to complete and was published in 1930 with the patronage of Maharaja Bhupendra Singh of Patiala. He also wrote Gurmat Prabhakar, a glossary of Sikh terminology, in 1898, and Gurmat Sudhakar, an anthology of Sikh texts, in 1899. Ham Hindu Nahin was his most controversial book: after complaints, Maharaja Hira Singh of Nabha temporarily removed him from service.

Reception and legacy

The book caused a stir when it appeared. An English translation was reviewed by the Government of Punjab, which decided that the work did not intend to degrade any community or harm any religious community's feelings. Some Sanatan Sikhs praised the work. It is identified as a work of the Tat Khalsa ideology, the assertive wing of the Singh Sabha movement, and it is counted a landmark of the Sikh renaissance. The groundwork it laid fed into the Gurdwara Reform Movement of the 1920s, which sought to place Sikh shrines under community management, and the Akali Dal emerged from that struggle. The book's argument was never about hostility: its purpose was to secure a respectful and equal place for Sikhism among the religions of the subcontinent, and to have Sikhism understood on its own terms. It is still read and cited today, and the Panjab Digital Library has digitised the 1898 first edition.