Reading Khushwant Singh’s excellent Sikh history—The Poets of Enterprise (March 29)—changed all my beliefs about the community. It’s amazing how he has so brilliantly documented 300 years of the Khalsa in just six pages.I used to think Khushwant Singh was anti-Hindu. But his line—"The relationship between Hindus and Sikhs has always been roti-beti ka rishta, or nauh-maas da rish-ta"—won me over.
Pratiman Uniyal, Delhi
In your pictorial profiles of prominent Sikh sportsmen (Playfield to Battleground), you missed out on Dronacharya Gurcharan Singh, the legendary cricket coach whose tireless efforts for the last 35 years produced 11 international and over 50 first-class players. Among them Kirti Azad, Ajay Jadeja, Maninder Singh, Nikhil Chopra, Rahul Sanghvi, Vivek Razdan and Gursharan Singh.
Amrinder Singh, on e-mail
It’s not surprising that you believe the dynamisation of Sikhism began only 300 years ago with the Khalsa. Khushwant Singh describes Nanak as a ‘pacifist’. I’m a humble student of Sikh history but do know that pacifists don’t challenge the might of the empire as Nanak did. Nor attack the oppressive Brahminical order and the intolerant ulemas. Ask any student of Sikh history, he’d tell you how academically unsound Khushwant’s history is. The problem, however, is with the outsiders’ perception. They’re not willing to acknowledge Sikh intellectuals who won’t be slotted as academic buffoons or pedantic socialites.
Who would, in their right senses, include inconsequenti-als like Amrik Singh and Amrit Srinivasan among Sikh authors while excluding living legends like Harbhajan Singh, Gurdiyal Singh, Jaswant Singh Neki, J.P.S. Uberoi? You’ve no qualms in omitting ace photographers like Dayanita Singh and Sheba Chhachi, and including mediocrities Arpana Caur and Serb-jeet Singh in your pantheon! Singers of dubious distinction like Sukhbir and Amrik Arora get a look-in over Jagjit Singh, Gurdas Mann, Jasbir Jassi and the legendary Surinder Kaur. And boy—did you forget the film world? Where’s Gulzar, the half-Sikh Amitabh, the half-Sikh Deols?
Where’s Alexi Garewal, who won an Olympic cycling gold? Why did classicists like the septuagenarian raagi Bhai Avtaar Singh or Bhai Baldeep Singh not find mention in your patronising scroll of honour? And Dr S.I.S. Rattan, among the top three researchers in ageing?
Look at the caste-structure to which you’ve, perhaps slothfully, succumbed—only Daler Mehndi and Milkha Singh to represent the marginal castes. There isn’t a single Ramgarhia, not Harbhajan, not Gurdiyal Singh. Once again, it’s the old Arora-Khatri-Jat story. Outlook has rarely produced such an ill-researched, shabbily mounted commemorative cover.
Sukhbir Garewal, on e-mail
When did Yuba City become part of Southern California?
Pat Iyer, on e-mail
Khushwant Singh’s right when he says Sikhs are the only ones who can laugh at themselves. But too many Internet jokes are somewhat influencing the views of those who meet Sikhs less frequently. I’m sure your story will help build a better image of one of India’s hardest working communities.
Jagmeet Singh, on e-mail
Khushwant Singh’s article was excellent. As a Bengali, I’ve often told my Sikh friends how I wish Guru Gobind Singh had come to Bengal too (from Patna). However, far from calling Hinduism "the boa constrictor of the Indian jungles that can swallow religions which come in contact with it, with special taste for its offspring", I’d describe the process as "salt mixing with water". Sure, the salt disappears, but water retains its taste. As long as gurudwaras and Sikh parents keep alive the memory of Sikh gurus and martyrs, Sikhism will be alive even if shorn of kesh or kirpan.
Sumitro Samaddar, Cupertino, California
Outlook’s developing a habit of producing brilliant covers. That the Sikhs are the liveliest Indian community is beyond contention. Thanks for writing on the Indian Punjabi who’s happy as ever, even in these gloomy times.
Parashar Borkotoky, Bangalore
This was definitely a better read than your usual covers. But why again the references to Hinduism being the villain of the piece, and the singular overriding danger to Sikhism? That’s a totally incorrect deduction given that the Sikh Panth came into being to protect the relatively non-violent Hindus and Hinduism from exploitation by the Mughals, etc.
This Hindu-bashing now has reached such heights that anything at all is being attributed somehow to Hindus/Hinduism. It only shows the gross void in the mentality of those proposing such pathetic theories. Rather than advocate these, you should focus on more relevant issues. Apparently, the SGPC has laid the foundation stone for a pucca path to Shri Hemkunt Sahib from Gobind Ghat. This intention is noble, like many others. But, the sheer splendour of the natural trek is part and parcel of the pilgrimage, which shouldn’t be changed. What needs to be done is the regular clearing of the entire route. This is just a kind request from a Hindu who has only admiration for the Sikhs, and one who poses no danger to them.
Jagdeep Desai, on e-mail
You identify a picture of Mah-ima Choudhary with a Pun-jabi as "a married Toronto couple". Just kiddin’, right?
Kishore Roy, Calcutta
Khushwant Singh’s observation that "in a country ridden with beggars, it’s rare to see a Sikh stretch out his hand for alms" reminded me of an incident that took place in Pinjor Gardens some years ago. Visiting the place in the middle of a hot day, a bent old woman sweeping the gardens greeted me, the lone visitor, with folded hands. Seeing her bea-tific, toothless smile, I gave her a small tip, which she was reluctant to accept till I told her it was for sweets for her grandchildren.
Just then my Sikh taxi driver rushed in and shouting at the woman in Punjabi, took the money from her and returned it to me. "Please Madam," he said, "don’t teach the Sikhs wrong things. We never take something for nothing. We never beg."
S. Jagannathan, Chennai
Arun Bhatia is doubtlessly a true and honest officer—which is why he’s suffering so much (The Chosen City Father, March 29). But I’m glad Punekars are rallying behind him, letting the mighty know that money isn’t all and people will not remain silent any more.
Mandhir Saikia, Pune
It was a great shock to read about Irfan’s demise. I first met him at Pioneer. I found him quite amiable and shy. Outlook was a good break for him, since he was under the shadow of the other more senior cartoonist. Though it’s painful to lose a fellow cartoonist, knowing Irfan he now must be dipping his brush in ink—making fun of great people and saints above.
James Yep, New Delhi
The spurt in adding a vowel to one’s name here or chopping a consonant there has nothing to do with sociology, Mr Meehta, as you point out in Delhi Diary (March 29); it’s numerology that the fuss is all about. That’s what’s made Karishma Kapoor a Karisma, and Orissa CM Gom-ango a Gamang.
Deepak Sapra, Delhi
How did this miss you? Wee-nod? You could take off on the Bofors broker.
Gurudutt Mundkur, Mumbai
Pankaj Mishra’s Anatomy of an Anti-Novel (March 22) is perhaps the first serious critique of Salman Rushdie’s new novel The Ground Beneath Her Feet and of his work in recent times. It credits its readers with intelligence, takes the trouble to argue its case by analysing Rushdie’s work and substantiates the point it’s making in measured and accessible words. Whether one agrees with him or not, Mishra renews our faith in the critic’s trade and forces us to re-evaluate our own glib and lazy critical standards.
But the Outlook article is also a first in another way. For sheer crassness, one would be hard put to beat the italicised note at the end of the piece (Pankaj Mishra’s novel The Romantics has been sold the world over for half a million dollars). In recent years, it’s increasingly evident that in India, commercial considerations are often confused with artistic merit. Now we know that if Mishra hadn’t earned over half a million dollars, Outlook wouldn’t have taken his criticism seriously. Mishra and your readers deserved better than this bankrupt cynicism.
Kiran Nagarkar, Mumbai
Given that Nobel laureate Toni Morrison describes The Ground Beneath Her Feet as "completely seductive" and hails Rushdie at being "his absolute, almost insolently global best", Pankaj Mishra’s review comes as a bolt from the blue. He should know that to write a criticism of someone who is deemed an awe-inspiring figure in modern English literature, he has to have a bit more than an unpublished book to establish his credibility. Mishra’s prejudiced remarks are schoolboyish in their vehemence; the only place he’s used discretion is in his choice of a thesaurus. Instead of putting fire into his criticism, Mishra should set his criticism on fire.
Kanishka Raja, Lucknow
I haven’t read Rushdie’s book. But if it’s as pretentious as Mis-hra says, why gun down only the writer? Why not the reading public—the mob willing to mop up everything. Maybe the anti-novel is symptomatic of our footloose, ‘shaken and mutating times’.
Smita Agarwal, Allahabad
Pankaj Mishra lambasts Rush-die’s novel as "a garish collage of tabloid headlines" devoid of "everything that makes a novel an art form", and thus "ceases to be literature but...(becomes) an alarming new kind of anti-literature". If a professional author in the top league like Rushdie elicits such scathing criticism, can Tarun Tejpal legitimately grumble as he does in Delhi Diary (March 22) about "the loads of letters and manuscripts from both big cities and mofussil towns" he gets from rank amateurs lured by big advances from big publishing houses?
Sushil Gupta, Delhi
Was Pandit vs Pandit (March 22) a deliberate attempt to sully Pt Jasraj for his criticism of Pt Ravi Shankar getting the Bharat Ratna? Why did Kishori Amon-kar have to rap Jasraj on the knuckles? The award has been given to a person who threatened to disown the country for being rightfully asked to vacate a house allotted to him. In honouring him, the BJP government has compromised the dignity of our highest civilian award.
H.K. Agrawala, Kota
Apropos Vinod Mehta’s candid observations in Delhi Diary (March 29) about the PM giving interviews to India Today and not to Outlook. Since its inception Outlook has been seen as a publication which celebrates western values, one which is ‘exciting’ and immensely readable, but not one a person would identify with. India Today’s mass circulation is essentially because it’s catered to those sections of the upper and middle class who have inherent faith in the Indian value system and take Western thought as a passing fare.
Now that’s a reason Vajpa-yee’s media managers surely understand. An astute politician like Vajpayee will never attach himself to a magazine which never actually connects with his voters, existing or prospective. That’s it. You’ve already described him as a wily practitioner of realpolitik in A Year in the School of Hard Knocks. In the same breath how can you expect him to grant you an interview?
Alok Shukla, on e-mail
It’s sad that Sisters Tracie and Maria should take upon themselves the guilt and shame that rightly belongs to their rapists (Still Haunted by Hate, March 15). The patriarchal undertone of our society is no doubt responsible. My plea to them is to throw off these shackles of conditioning and see themselves as they are: wronged against, but human, dignified and whole.
Suma Varughese, on e-mail
