KHURSHUID KHALSA

KHURSHUID KHALSA (Khurshid, lit, tlie sun rays of tlie sun) is a book in Urdu pertaining to the history of the Sikhs from the time of Guru Nanak published at Aftabi Hind Press in Lahore in 1885. The book caused a considerable amount of controversy in contemporary Sikhism. Already riven into two factions, the Amritsar and Lahore groups, the antagonism between the two one espousing the cause of Maharaja Duleep Singh, the deposed sovereign of the Punjab, and the other openly hostile to him sharpened. Members of the Kuka sect were the principal supporters of the Maharaja.

The book written by Bava Nihal Singh, an employee of Maharaja Bikrarn Singh of Faridkot, contained passages favourable to Maharaja Duleep Singh, who had by then turned a foe of the British, The Lahore party objected and asked the author to withdraw the book. At celebrations in honour of Guru Nanak`s birth, a portrait of Duleep Singh was displayed by the Amritsar leaders in the presence of the Guru Granth Sahib which was resented by the Lahore party. In October 1885 Gunnukh Singh, secretary of the Khalsa Diwan Lahore, issued a letter clearing the Dlwan of any connection with the publication and throwing the entire responsibility on the author and the publisher. The author had the implicit support of the Amritsar faction. The book was considered to be subversive of the Sikh tenets and the author was expelled from the membership of the Singh Sabha. S.S.B.

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