Jalandhar/ Chandigarh, Punjab (August 30, 2013): It is learnt that a history book prescribed for the students of Lovely Professional University (LPU) has hurt Sikh sentiments as it contains derogatory and misguiding references to the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh ji.
“The book has deflated the claims of ‘professional excellence’ of the private university run by a business family of Jalandhar” YesPunjab.Com comments.
AISSF President Karnail Singh Peermohammad objects at Lovely Professional University’s history book
The Book refers to Baba Banda Singh ji Bahadur and Maharaja Ranjit Singh in an insulting and derogatory manner.
All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) has urged the government to immediately ban the book and register a case of hurting religious sentiments against the management of LPU, the authors of the book and the publisher.
The History Book published in Hindi and ‘naptly’ titled ‘Bharat mein Rajnitik Saranchna’ (Political Structures in India) is meant for the students of MA Part I via distance education.
Published by Laxmi Publications Pvt Ltd., Delhi for Directorate of Distance Education, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, the book while referring to Shri Guru Gobind Singh ji, tells the students that the Guru confined himself to a room and thereafter committed ‘suicide’ after he realised that he wouldn’t be able to survive the attack of a Pathan.
In a written communication All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) president Karnail Singh Peermohammed, told Sikh Siyasat News (SSN) that the concocted story about Shri Guru Gobind Singh ji contains false facts which have never been mentioned anywhere. He said that LPU has hurt the religious sentiments of the Sikhs as this was a deliberate attempt by the Lovely Professional University to distort the Sikh History.
Peermohammad said that on page no. 160 and Chapter 13.2 under title ‘Rise of Sikh Power in Punjab’ goes on to tell that Guru Gobind Singh ji was wounded in an attack by a Pathaan in the year 1708 at a place called ‘Nadir’. He said that the book wrongly but clearly states that ‘when the Guru realised that he wouldn’t be able to survive he confined himself to a room and committed suicide’.
The AISSF president said that the ‘historians’ of LPU didn’t stop here. The book refers to the first Jarnail and founder of ‘the Sikh State’ Baba Banda Singh ji Bahadur only as Banda Bahadur and Maharaja Ranjit Singh as only Ranjit Singh.
Peermohammad said that the University has will-fully and intentionally tried to degrade and belittle the Sikh Guru and eminent Sikh personalities and as such have lowered the image of Sikhs in public perception.
He said that the book devotes only one and a half page to the history of Punjab in the entire book of hundreds of pages.
AISSF President appealed all Sikh organisations to unite as the issue was of utmost importance for the Sikhs. He demanded that a case under section 295-A be registered against the management of LPU, authors and publishers.