Gallery
bunga_azaadi_logo
Law & Order
Share
Explore
Death Penalty

dot_icon
Punishment For Beadbi

Also available to listen to on | | |

Disclaimer


This output explores the punishment for Beadbi as a personal set of opinions following on from the conclusions set in the document (as of 18/12/2023). As with all outputs not marked as a “Official Bunga Azaadi Position" document, this piece represents the opinions of the author only, and not the whole Bunga. However, just like OBAPs, scrutiny is more than welcomed. Anything said here is up for being contested (respectfully) and you are encouraged to articulate your counter-arguments and/or feedback by emailing us at contact@azadism.co.uk.

Before we begin, it is crucial to understand that when I am talking about the Death Penalty, I am talking about the decision as to whether or not it is justified to kill someone for a crime after they have been apprehended and are no longer able to cause further harm. I am not referring to killing someone evading, resisting capture, or being caught in the act of a crime when talking about the Death Penalty specifically. Please keep this distinction in mind!

I also again want to stress that this is all my personal opinion and I am offering it as something to contribute towards your own Vichaar process. I am not a Dera Baba who you must accept every word of like a sheep. You can question and grill me on any of this.


Part I

Beadbi, who decides?


Firstly, let's start with who gets to decide what is classed as "Beadbi"?

There are some things we can all pretty much agree on, for example the intentional destruction or damaging of Saroops are pretty clear cut. However, it starts getting a bit trickier when advocating for punishment on the basis of "respect". The reason being is that what constitutes as "disrespectful" is not an objective measure. It depends heavily on culture, upbringing, personal family values and individual experiences. This makes the concept of "respect" less acute in its application than something like destruction, which can also be classed as a respect violation, but can be more objectively assessed as a property violation (which I'll talk a bit more about later).

What person A constitutes as "disrespect" may be different to person B. Obviously, there are some more objective indicators that most people can agree on as I mentioned previously with destruction; but can you see how monopolising the decision making in some singular authority can present problems in of itself? Hence, answering the question of "who gets to decide" is an important precursor discussion that must be considered seriously.

And if you say something as silly as "the Akal Takht" (i.e the current corrupted SGPC "Sarkari" pseudo-papacy that are currently swatting the Khalsa's parliament building) then you have proven to me you are not capable of having this discussion. Read this post if this is you before moving on:




Part II

Sargun vs Nirgun


This is an important concept that I don't think gets talked about enough and is overlooked. There seems to be a lack of general understanding regarding what our current Guru exactly is. Too often do I see lists of Sikh Gurus missing out the Guru Khalsa Panth for instance, often from Sikhs themselves! This is a tragic display of our Panth’s lack of awareness of our own traditions, but for more on this specific Vichaar, I encourage readers to view this post on the topic:


It is imperative to understand the following things:

1) GuRu = Darkness to Light — "Enlightener”
What exactly the "Guru" is. It is not just a word for "teacher" as it is so poorly translated into these days. "Gu" means darkness (representing ignorance) and "Ru" means light (representing wisdom and knowledge). Therefore a GuRu could be seen more as a verb than a noun and describes a process of bringing light into darkness — enlightenment! The way it is used as a noun is to denote specific individuals who embody this verb and are able to share it with others.

When we believe in the Gurus, we are not revering the flesh body and bones, we are revering the the very thing that is enlightened to itself — Ik Onkaar, for which the vessel is a conduit for. That vessel does not always have to be a single human body either.

2) One GuRu, Many Vessels
Which brings us on to the second point. Technically, there isn't 10, 11, or 12 Gurus. There is only one Guru that passes its metaphorical "light" from one vessel to the next. This is known as Jotijot — passing on the light (jot) to another, like a lit candle lighting another.

3) Guru Granth & Guru Panth
For most Sikhs, this process is traditionally accepted to have occurred 10 times as the "Gurgaddi" (Guruship) was passed on through Guru Nanak to Guru Gobind Singh, and then something special happened — the Guruship passed on to a non-human vessel and decentralised amongst many conscious Sikhs.

Most Sikhs today are consciously aware that the Gurugaddi was then passed onto to the Guru Granth Sahib (Shabad), but for some reason forget about the Gurgaddi given to the Guru Khalsa Panth. Therefore, it must be stressed that the current Guru for most Sikhs who accept and believe in the mandates of Guru Gobind Singh, is both in the form of the Guru Granth Sahib and the Guru Khalsa Panth.

4) Nirgun and Sargun
Lastly, there is the concept of Nirgun and Sargun mentioned in Sikhi. Nirgun refers to formless (no qualities, attributes), whereas Sargun refers to the opposite as tangible realities that possess qualities, attributes and forms. This is then how we can describe the seemingly dual nature of the Guru and the "vessel" I have been using as a placeholder [1]. The underlying Guru nature is the Nirgun aspect, whereas the outward "interface" / vessel is the Sargun aspect.

Applying this to the Guru Granth, the Sargun Saroop (form) is the physical "book" with the pages and ink etc we see enthroned in Gurudware (sort of, I have a personal qualm with this which will be covered later in this piece). During the time of the human manifestations of the Guru, the human bodies of Nanak→Gobind were the Sargun Saroop, but the inner Guru nature that was passed on between them (and eventually to the Khalsa) was the Nirgun aspect.

So now given the above clarification of my own personal understanding, we can tie this back to our discussion on Beadbi.

Beadbi of the Sargun Saroop of Guru Granth Sahib occurs when there is destruction or damage done to the physical Granth, and/or any subjective respect-based additional factors we may apply. However, it is crucial to understand that despite what may happen to the Sargun aspect, the Nirgun aspect is unaffected. The Guru is not just the Sargun and so no one can ever "destroy" the Guru via physical harm.

Nirgun Beadbi is slightly more obscure, but in my opinion, far more common yet ignored. How do you commit sacrilege to something that is formless? Through degrading its philosophical status. This occurs when Sikhs themselves take the Guru for granted and blindly ritualise the experience of having its Darshan. Everyone goes to the Guruwara and bows their head, but how many know and understand what the Shabads being read are revealing? How many just simply go in, smack their head on the floor and leave? As someone said recently, people have reduced the Gurudwara experience into a “headbutt buffet”. In small Gurudwaras who may do Sukhasan early and place the Saroop in Sachkhand, it is not uncommon to see Sangat arriving later come and just Matha Tek to an empty palki not having a clue.

But the greatest dishonour to the Shabad is when Sikhs do not make effort to read it, learn from it, sing it or hear it being sung. If you are bowing to it but do not take Sikhiya from it and apply it to your lives, then you are making it into a Moorti (idol). This is the exact Bhamanvaad the Gurus in their human Sargun forms came to urge us against! This sort of Nirgun Beadbi happens everyday and we need to be equally against this also.c

In my opinion, blind literalism is also a form of Nirgun Beadbi as well. Particularly the manipulation of Gurbani or doing mental gymnastics to justify your Baba's or offshoot tradition's interpretations and then impose it on everyone as if it is the only legitimate perspective all Sikhs must have. The Guru is Jagat Guru, for all the world and hence resonates with each individual Sikh, specifically at their own level.

Bani is designed in such a way that different parts will be more or less relevant to you depending on your own level of understanding and life experiences. This may change over time and hence why so much of true Sikhi is about the development of a personal relationship between the Guru and the Sikh. The covers this Vichaar extensively and I encourage you to read that for more detail on this.

This concludes the preamble in preparation for the next part.


Part III

Punishment for Beadbi


Before we discuss this, I must remind you of that important caveat to this whole debate that I mentioned in the beginning which is that the "death penalty" is the decision to execute someone for a crime after they have been apprehended and are no longer able to cause further harm. I am not referring to killing someone evading or resisting capture, or being caught in the act of a crime when talking about the death penalty specifically.

In light of the recently released , I want to now explore why death may not necessarily always be the appropriate punishment for perpetrators of Beadbi. Some of you may have an instant allergic reaction to that, but I implore you to hear out the following arguments to at the very least see it from my perspective. I too used to believe up and till recently that giving a death penalty should be a common sense, even an obvious consequence of such an action. But a short while before the Darbar on this I started to have doubts and became undecided. Since that Darbar and hearing out various arguments for and against the death penalty in general, I have also spent some time now contemplating it on my own as applied to this topic specifically. The following is a result of that contemplation.

The Motivation to Punish

To begin with, let's first ask the question "why do we punish someone for a crime?". There are three main angles to this we can identify alongside their underlying motivations:

1) To take revenge or retribution against someone.
Motivated by Anger & Hate (Krodh)

2) To prevent them from causing further harm.
Motivated by Justice & Duty (Dharam)

3) To act as a deterrent for others who may do something similar.
Motivated by Logic & Reason… at least in theory.

For point 3, I say "in theory" because, like many, I used to think that severe punishments indeed act as effective deterrents for crimes. I no longer believe this is the case and changed my mind when finding out about the large body of research presenting the case against this view and highlights the insufficient evidence to back up the claim that the death penalty deters certain crimes. This point was covered in the
too, and I encourage you to go and research it for yourselves. At the very least, I no longer have confidence in the claim that simply imposing capital punishment for certain crimes is an effective way to prevent Beadbi from happening.

But, studies aside, let's have look a this through a "Logic & Reason" exercise. If you believe that the way to prevent this crime is to establish strong deterrents, then would you advocate for keeping a perpetrator alive but brutally torturing them? Death is simply too easy. We could skin them alive, amputate their limbs without anaesthesia, burn, electrocute and water board them. On top of this, let's publicly broadcast the experience for all to see, what could be a stronger deterrent that this? The perpetrator would be begging for death as a mercy! Why should there be a limit on the punishment handed out to someone committing Beadbi?

Now most people are going to be put off the above (sarcastic) suggestion. Why? I thought the goal was to create a deterrent? Surely, if we broadcast the most brutal torture imaginable it would soak fear into the hearts of any potential perpetrator. The reason why is because people are not truly advocating for death for these crimes, they are advocating for a satisfaction of their Krodh. Since people's "tolerance" is different, some people's krodh is deeper so they are willing to go further, hence why I described some of the worst tortures imaginable to try and capture the most amount of people in disgust (and even then, there are probably some sadists who would go further).

If you have already apprehend someone and removed all their ability to cause further harm, what then is the need to kill them? As I just stated, you have already stopped and incapacitated them from doing further harm, so it can only ever be to satisfy your own Krodh if you wish to kill them despite this. Therefore, I do not think many who advocate for death are motivated by logic and reason, and instead more driven by the underlying motivators of the first angle. The irony is that the very Granth that is being attacked is urging people to abandon Krodh! But the funniest part is that most people calling for a death penalty won't even

There must also be an appreciation that there are indeed different scenarios which demand tailored consideration. If you have captured someone who has willingly surrendered and accepted to be held subject to a trial to face justice, then this should be taken into account when determining an appropriate punishment. It should be a different, less severe punishment than someone who was captured unwillingly trying evade accountability. If the punishment is the same either way, then you have removed any incentive for a perpetrator to come forward on their own which would conserve the Panth's resources. We should also be giving them an opportunity to explain themselves both from a moral and strategic perspective. Not all perpetrators of such a crime will be motivated by the same thing, and it is important we investigate if we are to develop effective strategies to prevent further instances (as we shall cover a bit later). Everyone envisions a stereotype of a person that commits Beadbi as some fascist Indian nationalist fuelled by blind hatred. This makes it easy, hence why we are quick to jump to a death penalty as punishment. But, the real world is complex. When you start to factor in people with genuine mental illnesses who may have no control over their actions, or people in poverty being paid to do it, or maybe even consider hypothetical scenarios where people have their own lives or the lives of their families threatened to pressure them to do it. Now what seems black and white becomes a bit greyer. Doesn’t mean the actions are justified, but it does mean that the method we choose to punish may be different. It may also turn out there is more to do than just punish and wait for the next issue to be outraged by. Hence why I don't believe in a “one size fits all” solution with this, and why I think we need to do our best preventing and minimising the risk from different factors individually.

The idea of capture too is an important one. Too often do we in our emotion just jump to the extreme without any consideration or moderation of our own mental states (even if it is completely understandable). However, if we are going to be the Guru Khalsa, and live up to our status of the Guru, then we must work harder than others to regulate ourselves and remain just and rational. There is a difference between vengeance and justice, but that line is blurred the more we give in to anger and hatred. If we accept the Guru to embody the qualities of Ik Onkaar, then the Guru Khalsa must also strive to emulate the qualities of "Nirbhau Nirvair".

Even with that famous Sakhi attributed to Guru Gobind Singh of the response to a stone being cast is to throw back a brick, and then if they throw a boulder in response, you throw a mountain. The escalation is still measured and conducted step by step. You don't just jump to "throwing a mountain" straight away.

Saam Daam Dand Bhed

There is also another concept associated with the Guru of Saam, Daam, Dhand and Bhed (which has earlier appearances in the works of Chankya, which were also studied in the Darbars of the Guru, Kavi Sainapat being a principal example). Through this, we can model our responses to things to help ensure we are fighting as Kshatriye on the basis on Miri and Piri, not just Miri.

Saam — Negotiation, reconciliation and persuasion
Offer an opportunity for a fair trail. Hearing out the motivations as to why the perpetrator did such a thing. This allows an opportunity for understanding on both sides. As I mentioned above, not everyone's motivations are going to be the same even if the outcome is. There is more than one way to a destination, and uncovering the route taken is valuable in our endeavour to stop occurrences happening again. For instance, a trial may reveal that the perpetrator was framed and the real instigators are someone else. If we just killed the accused straight away without thinking, we sabotage our own investigations. Perhaps, their family has been taken hostage and hence why they did this, and so then it must be the duty of the Khalsa to go save them also. Again, doesn’t mean a punishment is not still given to the accused if found guilty. There are many possibilities that require more nuanced approaches and a greater sense of professionalism that we as a Panth clearly lack.

Daam Material inducement or offering monetary or other material incentives
If the above is not possible and no one comes forward on their own, then we could use this principle. Money is a tool, that can be used against you or for you. These days most people just see it as something you chase blindly like an animal chases its next meal. As the Khalsa, our Khazana must be varied and contain more Shastar than rusty old medieval blades. Money is perhaps one of the most important Shastar we can wield, if we know how to use it. In this case, we can pool funds and set a bounty offering a reward for information about perpetrators, helping us bring them to justice. We can also use money to "grease the wheels" of substandard justice systems so they are more inclined to put in the effort to help us. Money allows us to hire full-time investigators, hunters and trackers. Through this many opportunities and scope in which to act become available, but it is imperative that we build the correct systems of accountability in which to siphon funds through, otherwise this method can easily be corrupted and turned against us and our intended goals.

Dand — Physical Punishment through the use of force
If these fail, then it is appropriate to use force in whatever way is appropriate. Again, in respect of appropriate escalation, the priority should be to capture alive and put through an investigation and a trial. However, resistance should be matched to protect the lives and property of innocents. If the perpetrator(s) presents violence, then the Khalsa should use it's Bibek Budhi to analyse a situation and apply the right amount of force as needed. If it results in a shootout or something and the perpetrator(s) is killed, then fine, so long as all other means were tried and the intention was there to capture alive. Only the participating Khalsa taskforce would truly know that, but I suppose we can do debriefs and post-operation investigations to ensure lessons are learned and check that excessive force was not applied. Bodycams may also be a good idea. Otherwise, without adequate accountability and monitoring, we'll end up providing avenues for psychopaths and sadists, just as we see with some modern police forces today.

Bhed Division or sowing discord
This may not apply to cases of individuals acting upon their own whims, but may be a tactic to apply against more organised group efforts. Bhed revolves around disuniting and causing internal strife amongst an enemy. The Vichaar of this I will leave out for here as it is a conversation more appropriate to have privately.

You may think that trying to capture perpetrators is too much hassle, it would be easier to kill them and be done with it. Especially if it would put lives at risk trying to capture them alive (which is where the discussion of a military action vs an internal state function starts to kick in). Of course, I would agree with this, in fact one the strongest arguments in favour of even a death penalty post-capture is that why should we be forced to pay for the upkeep of people if we don't want to? (I do have some ideas to work around this, but I'll save that for another time). But given modern technology and tactics, capturing people alive, although not always possible, is more possible today than ever. So all I am saying is that if we have the means to, we should try it. If not, then oh well, but at least we tried. Trying, intention, is the important part since that is what is considered, not so much for the worldly battlefield, but the spiritual battlefield when fighting the true enemy: Kaam, Krodh, Lobh, Moh and Hankaar.

We must also recognise that death is a finality. It is the end of an individuals opportunity to get Mukti in this life, and removing someone's ability to attain that is no small thing. We, in our egotistical perspectives may believe people are too far gone yet the same Guru in its earlier vessels were able to convince cannibals or murderers like Sajjan Thaag to come into Sikhi. So too then must the Guru today in the form of the Khalsa recognise the ability for humans to reform and provide avenues in which this can be facilitated where possible.

Here is an excerpt from the :
Almost every cell in the body is replaced multiple times throughout the course of one’s life. The skeleton replaces itself every ten years, red blood cells every four months and the skin between two to four weeks. The human being at birth is completely different to the one at death. To even call this a human being is misleading as it suggests a static entity. Perhaps a more accurate term is human process. Not even the mind is safe, as it constantly changes its ideas and beliefs. Memories themselves can be updated, manipulated and distorted or simply forgotten.

People can change. Again, if we claim to be inheritors of Guru's status as the Khalsa, then we too must make an effort where possible to reform and rehabilitate criminals. Not all will be able to sure, but making an effort is our Dharmic duty. And why wouldn't you want to try? In a conversation with Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris gives an example when talking about a hypothetical pill that can eradicate the evil nature of people (specifically the root cause of ignorance) and the ludicrousness of refusing to administer it to criminals if we had such a thing.

"It's like "withholding the cure for diabetes from diabetics because of all the bad things they did when their blood sugar levels were too low".

It may not be so simple as pill, but if you have faith that Sikhi can change the nature of a person, to destroy their ego and raise the level of consciousness, then why wouldn't you figure out ways to administer this "medicine" as the most appropriate action to take after you have apprehended someone for a crime? If we recognise the motivations that lead people to commit such acts as a "disease of the mind" of sorts, a result of Haumai and the Panj Chorr, then the cure isn't something as simple and easy as a physical death. Instead, it is ego-death. Observe and be honest about the true underlying motivations as to why you suggest certain actions.

There is a reason why Guru Gobind Singh says in Zafarnama:

ਚੁ ਕਾਰ ਅਜ਼ ਹਮਹ ਹੀਲਤੇ ਦਰ ਗੁਜ਼ਸ਼ਤ ॥
ਹਲਾਲ ਅਸਤੁ ਬੁਰਦਨ ਬ ਸ਼ਮਸ਼ੇਰ ਦਸਤ ॥੨੨॥
When all other methods fail,
it is then permissible (halal) to pick up the sword ||22||

Sri Gobind Singh, Zafarnama


To me, it is not so much for the protection of the enemy we try other methods. It is more so for our sake, spiritually. There should of course be consequences, but let's make it as fair as possible because with such an emotional topic like this, it is easy to fall under the influence of Krodh. Remember that the real battle underneath all this worldly drama is your own internal battle against the Panj Chor.

The Sakhi of Bhai Khanaya


And this is where I will now play my "trump card" — the Sakhi of Bhai Khanaya. This one story helps us directly answer the question of imposing death penalties for Beadbi, since the exact same thing was happening in this Sakhi. Just as enemies today tear the Angs of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the enemy forces back then would cut the limbs and even kill members of the Sri Guru Khalsa Panth! Yet, Bhai Khanaya ultimately realized the same Ik Onkaar in all and served them all equally as the survivors lay wounded on the battlefield. In both instances, the Sargun Saroop of the Guru was damaged and destroyed, yet Guru Gobind Singh praised Khanaya for his gyaan as he understood the true message of Sikhi. Hence why, when a criminal is apprehended for Beadbi, we shouldn't escalate to a death penalty now that they are already incapacitated. We must make the effort to recognize the Ik Onkaar inside them just as Bhai Khanaya did. Treat such cases as a test of your Sikhi, and perhaps if you succeed, the Guru will commend you despite the protests of onlookers, just as he did with Bhai Khanaya.

You may be justified in fighting and winning great victories against the worst tyrants but if you lose your ethics, mental state or focus on Ik Onkaar, then you would lose the ultimate war. This is why our Gurus were at the calibre they were, because no matter what the situation, whether they be confronted by cannibals or battling against the State, they never lost that presence of mind. If we expect to live up to the Khalsa's Guru status, then we too must strive for this.

So therefore, if a perpetrator has surrendered or been apprehended, we are honour-bound to only ever use the appropriate amount of force. If they resist and use violence to evade justice, then it is justified to match that. Escalate and deescalate accordingly, this is a true test of mastery over the mind for the Khalsa. The ability to kill the enemy if needed, but then also serve the same wounded enemy if not killed to ease their suffering. Treat it like how the Guru would attach gold to arrows so that if an enemy was hit but did not die, he could pay for treatment or if he did die, their families would recieve compensation.

Hence why no discussion on justice can occur without compassion, even for those with evil intentions. Only compassion allows us to truly administer justice and not hateful vengeance. Compassion is the line that separates them, and the stronger the compassion, the easier it is to tell the difference and act accordingly.

ਧੌਲੁ ਧਰਮੁ ਦਇਆ ਕਾ ਪੂਤੁ ॥ The mythical bull is Dharma, the son of compassion;
Sri Jap Ji Sahib


Part IV

Prevention is the Best Cure


I understand people would be upset, who wouldn't. But the goal isn't simply just to punish people, it is to prevent cases from happening in the first place. To achieve this, it requires a more rational mind, not an emotional one. If we were more proactive and less reactive as a Panth, then we wouldn't be crying about it on social media for about a week every time it happens and then forget about it when the next issue pops up to anger us. We would be making it a priority and working towards preventing it!

Problems


If we don't want it to happen we must understand why would someone want to do Beadbi in the first place? The following are 4 possibilities:

Paid by others
Desperation
Ignorance (of its value)
Mental Illnesses (clearly something wrong with your head if you think this is acceptable)

Then we should also ask, how can it be allowed to happen despite the above? We as a Panth must take some responsibility ourselves too, simply blaming the evil nature of others for suffering is like blaming gravity for a plane crash. In Kalyug, there are always going to be enemies and those seeking the destruction of our Panth. Hence, we must also take care in covering our bases and embodying the virtue of being Tyar bar Tyar before blaming anyone else. No point blaming others when we don't take any precautions ourselves. There are a two main factors as to why we are failing in this in my view:

No Pehredaars
Too many Saroops

Solutions


I am now going to list a range of solutions now, not as list in which we should just pick one from, but as a set of things I believe should be done in tandem. In cybersecurity there is a concept of redundancy where there is no reliance on any one single system for security. What they do is stack up multiple security measures to account for the imperfections if each were applied on its own. By layering multiple solutions on top of each other, you reduce the gaps and lower the risk of failure. I used a similar approach when outlining Azadism's conception of a modernised Misl system in the Azadist Manifesto, and I am going to use a similar approach here. I will list them out, but bear in mind that my recommendation is to do them all, not just one or two.

Let's start with our own Panths responsibilities first, since honestly, there is no point changing others unless we change ourselves.

Pehredaars


This should be fairly obvious and I wouldn't expect much resistance to the ideal that we should hire full-time security to guard Saroops. We claim Sri Guru Granth Sahib to be the king of kings and all that, yet we don't seem to treat it like it is. What monarch is just left unattended? There are so many gurudwaras where Saroops are just left on the Palki or in the Sachkhand and there is at best a half asleep Gyani in the vicinity — sometimes not even that. There is nothing stopping members of the public walking straight in and doing whatever they want — which we have seen plenty of times now. Yet, look at worldly kings, PMs and presidents who we consider to be minor in comparison. Every movement is tracked and no one can get close to them without standards and procedures. They are guarded intensely by security details, with the best training and equipment.

If we truly believe in the status of the Guru, then we should make effort to show it. Full-time, salaried positions should be commissioned for such roles where there are fully armed Pehredaars guarding the Palki around the clock. The Gurudwaras themselves should have risk assessments done to assess weak points in security. There should also exist plans and procedures in place to detail what to do in this or that scenario, and then these should be drilled regularly.

Artificial Scarcity


The above may sound great to many of you, but only the naïve would think it is realistic to implement such a thing for every Gurudwara in the world. There are simply too many to account for. So, what should we do? I think let's scale it back and reduce the amount of available Saroops for the time being. This will allow us to concentrate efforts and adopt a quality over quantity mindset with this.
Share
 
Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.
Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (
CtrlP
) instead.