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Distortions of Sikh History
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Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha

Another famous Tat Khalsa Singh Sabhia Sikh, Bhai Kahn Singh, also tried to defame the great Sanatan Sikh scholar Giani Gian Singh Nirmala. He claimed in his ‘Mahan Kosh’ that Giani Ji had stolen the works of another Nirmala, Nihal Singh of Lahore, and had put his name to it.


Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha
Author of the Mahan Kosh, which is today considered to be one of his greatest works

Kahn Singh Nabha, like Vir Singh, is considered today as being a man of great character and wisdom by modern Sikhs. He has been hailed as a savior of the Sikh cause, fighting the insurmountable attacks by the Hindu masses that attempted to drown Sikhism in the early 20th Century. The sad fact is that had as much integrity as Bhai Vir Singh and other Tat Khalsa Singh Sabhia Sikhs.


Maharaja Hira Singh, Tika Ripudamman Singh & Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha
Scholars of the Tat Khalsa Singh Sabhia era

In 1899, Kahn Singh published ‘Gurmat Sudhakar’, an anthology of Sikh historical and scriptural texts that became the first Tat Khalsa Singh Sabhia authorized‘Rehit Nama’ (code of conduct). Hew Mcleod, a prominent western scholar of Sikhism speaking of Bhai Kahn’s publication writes:

‘In 1901 Kahn Singh Nabha moved a step closer to an authorised rahit-nama when he published Gurmat Sudhakar, a compendium of works relating to the person and period of Guru Gobind Singh. This included a selection from the existing rahitnamas, and in editing the materials available to him Kahn Singh implicitly expressed a particular interpretation of them. Although his selections were presented as abridged versions of extant rahits-namas, they are more accurately described as expurgated versions. In other words, Kahn Singh had cut items that he believed ought not be there. What this implied was that the pure Rahit enunciated by the tenth Guru had subsequently been corrupted by ignorant or malicious transmitters of the tradition. By eliminating all that conflicted with reason and sound tradition (as understood by such men as Kahn Singh) one might hope to restore the pristine Rahit, the uncorrupted original Rahit as the Guru had delivered it.’
‘Sikhism’, by Hew Mcleod, 1997, P.122

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