In such a scenario, Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) was ahead of his time. When one thinks of the warrior-saint, what comes to mind is the establishment of the Khalsa Panth. Persecution of the Sikhs by a fanatical Mughal ruler earlier had motivated them to turn into a martial race to defend their religion. But the process also helped create an awakening in society against caste distinctions and superstitions.

One Persian historian, Ghulam Muhai-ul-Din, reporting the Guru’s address to the Khalsa Panth at its installation at Anandpur, wrote as follows: “Let’s all embrace one creed and obliterate differences of religion. Let the four Hindu castes, which have different rules for their guidance, abandon them all, adopt one form of adoration, and become brothers. Let no one be deemed superior to another. Let none pay heed to the Ganges, and other places of pilgrimage which are spoken of with reverence in the scriptures or adore incarnations...but believe in Guru Nanak and the other Sikh Gurus. Let men of the four castes receive my baptism, eat out of one dish and feel no disgust or contempt for one another.” (The Sikh Religion by Macauliffe, Vol.V)

He enjoined upon baptised Sikhs to practise arms, and not show their back to the foes in battle. They were ever to help the poor and protect those who sought their protection. They must not look with lust on another’s wife or commit fornication, but adhere to their wedded spouses. They were to consider their previous castes erased, and deem themselves all brothers of one family. Sikhs were free to inter-marry among themselves but should have no social or matrimonial relations with smokers; with those who killed their daughters or with others who have fallen away from the tenets and principles of Guru Nanak. The Guru’s reforms and teachings had a magical impact on the outcastes. The story of the Sikh Mazhabi regiments, according to historians, conclusively proved the metamorphosis. It was all the more laudable, considering the conservatism and prejudices of that age. Prior to the time of Sikh Gurus, no general ever thought of raising an army from men who were believed to be unclean and polluted from birth. The Guru kept his promise to “change jackals into tigers” and the “dregs of humanity” into warriors, whose prowess and loyalty never failed their leaders.

Addressing the assembled rajas, he once minced no word as to their sinful ways: “How has your religious, political and social status deteriorated! You have abandoned the worship of the true God and addressed your devotions to gods, goddesses, rivers, trees and the like. Through ignorance you know not how to govern your territories; through indolence and vice, you disregard the interests of your subjects...In your quarrels regarding caste and lineage, you have not adhered to the ancient divisions of Hinduism into four sections but you have made hundreds of sub-sections and subordinate minor castes. You despise and loathe one another through your narrow prejudices and you act contrary to the wishes of the great almighty father.”

It is quite another matter that the minor satraps were not willing to abide by his instructions and turned against him for daring to challenge their privileges and oppressive ways. The Guru also told his disciples that so long as they were bound by caste and lineage, they were like donkeys. “I have clothed you in the garb of tigers and made you superior to all men.” But if you part with it and return to caste observances, you shall revert to your asinine condition and become subject to strangers...” If you revert to evil ways and superstitions from which I have delivered you, your last condition shall be worse than the first,” he had warned.

Guru Gobind Singh was born at Patna at a time when the nation’s honour was at its lowest ebb. The people were groaning under pain and humiliation at the hands of the then rulers. In his fight against oppression and injustice to create a new social order, he may not have met with total success. But historians like Arnold Toynbee have pointed out that he anticipated the thoughts of Lenin by 200 years.

“I have forgotten all vain religion and know in my heart that the creator is the only God.” When he wrote such lines in the Guru Granth Sahib and posed before a superstitious generation, “Why impress false religion on the world? It will be of no service to it...,” he was ahead of many modern thinkers.