Nanded board rejects excommunication call
When contacted, gurdwara board administrator Vijay Satbir Singh called the demand "something ridiculous" and "against the very basic principles of Sikhism, which promotes equality and teaches not to differentiate people by their religion". "This is nothing but an act to gain cheap publicity and attract attention," said the administrator.
Earlier, a section of Sikhs from Nanded — including former members of the board — had appealed to the jathedar of Takht Hazur Sahib to issue the directives for excommunication.
Manpreet Singh Kunjiwalae, a former member of the board, said he wrote the letter to the jathedar and it was signed by heads of 27 Sikh families, who expressed concern over the increasing number of Sikh women marrying non-Sikh men. "It is concerning that Sikh women are choosing to marry outside the faith, turning away from Sikh men. What's more troubling is that instead of guiding them otherwise, many parents are supporting these decisions and accepting non-Sikhs as sons-in-law and fully integrating them into the family," he said.
He added they urged the jathedar to issue a formal directive on the matter during the upcoming meeting of the five Sikh high priests scheduled for July 24.
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The Quran itself, in Surah At-Tawbah (9:29), mandates: 'Fight those who do not believe in Allah… until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.' This verse is not obscure; it is widely cited by classical Islamic jurists—including Imam Malik, Abu Hanifa, and Al-Shafi'i—as the foundational directive for the imposition of jizya. Importantly, the condition that the payer must feel 'subdued' was not metaphorical. In theology, jizya only lapses on death or on acceptance of Islam. Seized by the Collar Medieval Muslim scholars such as Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, Mulla Ahmad, and Shah Waliullah left little room for ambiguity. Sirhindi wrote: 'The real purpose of levying the jizya is to humiliate the non-Muslims… to such an extent that they may not be able to dress well or live in grandeur… and thus remain terrified and trembling.' Western scholars echoed the same. 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This worldview rests on four pillars: Downplaying Islamic imperialism; exaggerating caste-based, gender-based oppression within Hinduism; framing Bharat's civilisational resurgence as majoritarianism; and, treating any historical correction as 'saffronisation'. In this paradigm, those who defend Akbar, dismiss Hindu grievances, or mock textbook revisions are instantly celebrated as 'moderate voices of reason'. Meanwhile, those who point to inconvenient truths—like the religious basis of jizya or the genocide at Chittorgarh—are labelled 'communal', 'majoritarian', or 'unacademic'. Conclusion History is not mythology. It is not a tool to validate fashionable Leftist-wokeist ideologies, serve electoral agendas, or push secular façades. Nor should it be weaponised to shame an entire civilisation into silence. Ruchika Sharma has every right to file RTIs. But it is astonishing that she remains unaware of the overwhelming evidence already available—in the Quran, in Fatawa-i-Alamgiri, in the writings of Sirhindi, and in the policies of Aurangzeb and Firoz Tughlaq. Perhaps she is too blinded by ideology to see the truth. (This is not surprising given her adulation for Wendy Doniger and her book, The Hindu—a book so perversely biased that if a Hindu had written The Muslim with a similar tone, it would be instantly branded Islamophobic.) Or, perhaps she simply doesn't know the truth—which then raises serious questions about her credentials as a 'historian'. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Whatever the case, the time has come to free history from the suffocating hangover of the Leftist-wokeist cocktail. Real academic integrity lies not in defending invaders or denying civilisational trauma, but in projecting history as it is—unflinchingly, honestly, and fairly. Only then can one build a genuinely inclusive and truthful national narrative. The writer is the author of the book, 'Eminent Distorians: Twists and Truths in Bharat's History', published early this year by BluOne Ink publications. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
