Writing the biography of a person implies restating his/her life history. The traditional approach of restating such history requires an objective account of the life for throwing light on those social processes which explore the subjective dimensions of a life on the one hand and trace their historical connections in the contemporary social, political and cultural structures on the other. Moreover, this exercise also involves the interpretation of a variety of antecedents and events related to that person.
This is a challenging task as it requires the analysis of contemporary sources. However, this task becomes easier if sources like autobiography, personal diary and letters of that person are available. The information provided in these sources can be compared and examined with reference to other contemporary sources. In the case of Namdhari Guru Ram Singh, we have both, some personal letters as well as long official reports. However, writing an objective account of the Namdhari Guru is problematic in many ways. The contemporary official records and reports are, no doubt, available in abundance but suffer from the subjectivity of threat-perception. After the annexation of Kingdom of Lahore in 1849, the primary task of the British government was to consolidate their Raj. Any individual or sect or community which asserted its autonomy and refused to prove his or her loyalty towards the Raj, was perceived as a source of threat and was treated ruthlessly. In the postUprising period of 1857, the British felt danger when any such case was reported to them. In the case of Namdhari Guru, the notion of threat appeared real as he did not pronounce his loyalty to the British Raj and kept his activities secret till some incidents took place in and after 1863.
Moreover, adversaries of the Namdhari Guru Ram Singh comprising Sodhis, Bedis and priests (Mahants and Pujaris) added some more substance to this threat when they spoke unfavourable for his teachings and programme because he did not conform to their beliefs and practices. In fact, they themselves felt a threat from his mission. For drawing favour or pecuniary benefit from the British, they exaggerated the degree of threat or danger involved in the activities of the Namdhari Guru and his followers. Nevertheless, in spite of the subjective element in the official reports or the memoranda submitted by these people, this category of sources remains indispensable because these are the only available sources. The mission of the Namdhari Guru, his strategy and organisation, have been examined on the basis of official records and corroborated with the letters of the Namdhari Guru. But there are some differences in the nature and scope of these sources. The officials were primarily concerned with his political activities whereas the Guru exhorted his followers to meditate in the name of God and strengthen themselves spiritually and physically for meeting the socio-religious and political challenges.
After the rise of Namdhari Guru Ram Singh as the spiritual and temporal leader of the Namdhari community, several hagiographies have been written by his devout followers around the personality of their gurus-reverently called Satgurus. The process of producing hagiographic literature started when the Namdhari writers wrote Sakhis of their gurus and gathas of heroic deeds of the Kuka Singhs who laid down their lives during the Kuka movement in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Earliest among these writers were Sant Chanda Singh, Baba Kahla Singh, Sant Dhian Singh Kadrabadi, Sant Santokh Singh and Sant Nidhan Singh Alam. They had the privilege to serve their Satgurus, Hari Singh and Partap Singh, and stayed at Bhaini Sahib headquarters. They had access to those Kukas who were confidants of Namdhari Guru Ram Singh and recorded oral accounts and incidents in which the Guru and his confidants were involved. In addition to eulogising their Satguru and building up a spiritual hallow around him, these writers spelled out attributes of Namdhari maryada and stated social evils, beliefs and practices of holymen and priestly classes, and the challenges posed by these people to the Kuka Singhs. In response to this milieu, some of them wrote Bara-mahas and Satguru Bilas in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
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