Foreword To The Book 'The Sikh Faith - Questions and Answers' By Dr. Gurbakhsh Singh

During the Sikh youth camps held in North America for the past 15 years, we have been bom­barded with multitudes of questions about our religion. The Sikh Faith for Youth in the form of questions and answers is the need of the hour as it took care of all of the questions raised by the youth in a systematic man­ner. The author, Dr. Gurbakhsh Singh, has done a wonderful job in answering all these questions in the light of Gurbani and Sikh Reht Maryada.

Sikhism, ever since its existence, has been un­der constant threat of being absorbed back into the Hindu fold by those who never wanted Sikhs to exist as a separate entity. Sikh Gurus effectively eradicated the caste system which made the foundation of the fabric of Brahmanical society for centuries. Many re­ligious and political analysts have warned us from time to time about the hostility of the Hindu majority com­munity towards others in India, but the chapters of the books which give the details of all the analyses are ly­ing somewhere in the libraries or national archives, and most Sikhs do not even know that such material exists.

As early as 1899, Max Arthur MacCauliffe, in the preface of his book, The Sikh Religion, has very rightfully remarked, "A movement to declare the Sikhs as Hindus in direct opposition to the teachings of the Gurus is wide spread and of long duration."

In 1911, Mr. D. Petrie of the Criminal Intelli­gence, British Government of India, in his report on the development of Sikh politics indicated, "The activities of Hindus have, therefore, been constantly directed to the undermining of Sikhism both by preventing the children of Sikh fathers from taking Pahul (Amrit) and by reducing professed Sikhs from their allegiance to their faiths. Hinduism has strangled Buddhism, once a formidable rival to it, and it has made serious inroads into the domain of Sikhism".

Therefore Sikh youth, on whose shoulders lies the major responsibility of maintaining Sikhism in its original form, must have a proper understanding of their religion. This book will act as a catalyst to develop incentive in the Sikh youth to study the vast amount of Sikh literature and get intellectually armed to face those who are out to destroy the religious life of the Sikhs and others in North America.

June 1, 1990

Kuldip Singh

Ujagar Singh