Columnists
Enforcing The Social Contract:
The Roundtable Open Forum # 79
by I.J. SINGH
Although I have touched on these matters in several essays before, they have been disjointed thoughts. The imperative to weave them into a connected pattern today springs from several conversations with Ravinder Singh from Ohio, a dear friend, who is now involved in an organization that is billed as the World Sikh Council.
Communities are built together by the imperatives of survival, self-interest and collective worldly concerns. Naturally, the social contract between the individual and the community stipulates that in return for the latter's protective shield that we all need, the members will obey the rules and regulations faithfully. It further implies that the community practices are transparent and applied to one and all equally without overt bias, and the leadership remains accountable.
This is how all human organizations - from the smallest to the largest, from families to nations and supranational organizations - come into existence.
What happens then when an individual flouts the rules?
Infractions are but a natural outcome of the human condition. But how exactly to respond when individuals rebel or act foolishly, for example? A secular society has its laws; a religious community has its own list of transgressions and how one may atone for sins, both large and small. Everyone is fallible, no matter the religion, culture, nationality, color, race, gender or age.
Let’s cut to the chase via a hypothetical case. A fictional but plausible case report follows:
An amritdhari Sikh, holding a responsible office within the community’s gurdwara, gets arrested for drunk-driving. The facts are clear and can’t be denied. The law will surely take its course.
The question for us: How should the local Sikh community respond?
Past history of the accused includes a record of exemplary service to the gurdwara. The drunk-driving charge is true beyond any doubt. Let’s assume that the gurdwara management has the power to demand the resignation of the wrong-doer.
Clearly, the infraction in question is a violation of the Sikh Code of Conduct (Rehat Maryada) in which any and all intoxicants are taboo. But this code also asks that the offender be subject to a tankhah or a penalty that is decided and imposed by five gursikhs - in other words, it invokes the institution of the first five who were initiated as the Khalsa.
Five ordinary Sikhs sitting in collective authority can render judgment after due deliberation. A wonderful, representative and transparent system; nothing could be theoretically better. But the devil is in the details.
Our history suggests that severe transgressions were publicly confessed in sangat and some kind of penalty imposed by the Akaal Takht, which then became the judge, jury and executioner. The punishment, often seemingly arbitrary these days after minimal deliberation, was usually restricted to limited recitations of gurbani, cleaning shoes of the visiting sangat at the gurdwara or service in the Guru's free kitchen (langar) while wearing a plate around the neck proclaiming one’s guilty status. Enforcement of such edicts remains inconsistent and difficult.
Extremely serious violations are punished with shunning or expulsion from the community; that’s the way with just about all religions, including Sikhism. In secular societies and secular law the equivalent situation would be a sentence of life imprisonment or death.
I think history and tradition should serve as guides and not become chains that hold us to the past. Also, the process now at the level of the Akaal Takht is too remote and unconnected from Sikh communities that are spread all over the globe.
Recourse to the Akaal Takht at the onset of a dispute also robs us all of self-governance.
We recognize the virtue in the adage that advises us to “Think globally, but act locally,” and this applies equally to justice.
Keep in mind that the first and the best place for penalizing and correcting misbehavior in the family is within the family. When the norms of a social contract are flouted, the first and best place for justice to be rendered is in the community where the transgression occurred and not thousands of miles away in a distant land.
So the first (lowest level) of the Sikh judicial system should emerge from within the local gurduara.
Where should the judges come from? Obviously from the local community or from a nearby Sikh community.
Must they be amritdhari? It depends on the composition of the community. The framework of the sangat in the gurdwara determines the structure of the bench.
What should the punishment be?
Again we need not be tied irretrievably to the traditional tankhah. Sometimes an apology might be sufficient, other times a ban from office for a specified period would do, a fine might suffice; the option of service in langar or other menial functions could be alternatives.
Think of a secular society: punishment for crimes can run the gamut from death and imprisonment for varying lengths to fine, apology or just plain parole with its reporting requirements of watchful waiting.
In a secular society an offender gets his day in court and is sentenced, which may vary from parole to jail time and for some crimes in some places, even death. For instance, Bernie Madoff, the infamous investor got 150 years in jail; Raj Rajaratnam, a billionaire hedge fund manager, now spends his time in jail cleaning toilets and kitchens at 17 cents an hour.
We need to be creative in this matter. The purpose is to rehabilitate and reclaim the sinner, not to destroy him.
So, the procedural steps and appropriate safeguards, to my mind, would be as follows:
1 Create a tribunal derived from the membership rolls of the gurduara, to render a verdict after due deliberation. If it is acceptable to both sides then nothing could be better. If procedural or judgmental disagreements arise in this first step, then the next step is an appeal to a higher level of authority.
2 Move on to a judging panel derived from the community beyond the local gurduara - like the neighboring state or a multi-state region. If this closes the matter, great; if not, the next step would be an appeal to a national supranational organization.
3 And at each level, the tribunal has three choices: a) Not to take up the issue. b) Return the matter to the earlier level for reconsideration, or c) Render its own verdict. The matter can ultimately end up with a national or supranational body.
4 When all steps fail, only then and only rarely should the issue end up at the Akaal Takht and, even then, only the rare matter may be accepted by the Akaal Takht for deliberation.
5 At this time we don’t have such an incremental system of appeal and judicial process, nor is it easy to create one.
6 Who should serve on the first initial level of a tribunal? To my mind, this tribunal has to come from the membership rolls of the society where the trouble is. The tribunal structure would depend on the composition of the community. Whether the tribunal members are amtritdhari or nor depends on how the community sees itself in the larger scheme of things and the local constraints in which they live and thrive.
7 But the first, initial step which is a perquisite for the whole interconnected system, is neither difficult to envision nor impossible to create.
Running to the Akaal Takht for every little infraction or squabble is neither necessary nor productive. It would be an admission that we lack the foresight and the discipline to settle our own issues like a caring family of adults should.
My suggestions are not meant to diminish the historical status of the Akaal Takht but to restore it to its glory.
What I propose today is complex but not necessarily all that complicated.
Let this initiative be driven from the bottom up. It will never work if it is imposed from the top, wherever that top is.
THE ROUNDTABLE OPEN FORUM # 79
The aforesaid are but suggestions. You may have better ones.
What do you think?
Please share your thoughts on this subject by adding your comments below.
October 21, 2011
Conversation about this article
1: Baldev Singh (Bradford, United Kingdom), October 21, 2011, 10:42 AM.
Well thought out ... nicely written. This whole subject is overdue by three centuries.
2: Harmeet Singh (U.S.A.), October 21, 2011, 11:51 AM.
This is a good idea and very thought provoking. I commend Dr. Singh for bringing this idea forward. I believe the social contract provides the bedrock of civilization. Accordingly, I think the Rehat Maryada should also define our social obligations.
3: I.J. Singh (New York, U.S.A.), October 21, 2011, 1:32 PM.
I didn't expect to be joining the discussion so soon but some e-mails addressed to me privately raise an issue. Perhaps it needs to be restated that, contrary to some opinions, the Rehat Maryada is the social contract between the Sikhs and Sikhi just as the Constitution of a country is the social contract between the citizen and his nation. The point of the discussion here is not whether the Rehat Maryada needs amendment like the existing Constitution of a country might. The focus of my column today is that some situations exist that seem to violate the social contract (Maryada) as it exists. How do we create a mechanism to deal with the matter, given the ground realities that exist. This, and matters like it, confront us today and need short-term handling, consistent with the social contract. If you wish to debate the nature of the contract and how or why it needs amendment, well, that is a long term matter and will have to be dealt with at another time.
4: Sangat Singh (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), October 21, 2011, 2:55 PM.
Having limped through F.Sc (Medical) in 1950, I decided to take a seemingly simpler option, and took up Political Science for a B.A. The partition wounds were still fresh when we were inflicted with Rousseau's Social Contract. This wasn't any help. Despite the so-called independence, we were still in chains. Our Prof. Luthera provided a respite. He would say: "Either sit quietly or slip out quietly." The slip-out-quietly option appeared more attractive with the allure of a tall glass of lassi at Santa Singh's college canteen. Once again, I have the vision of the classroom and of being lost. I also remember the time we had an AGM of our amateur radio society in Kuala Kumpur. Nearly all outstation members were equipped with mobile transmitters. I picked a distress call from an amateur who was obviously lost and seeking directions. "John, where are you?" Replied he: "If I knew where I was, I wouldn't be lost, would I?" I. J. Singh ji, I see the pleasant prospect of getting collectively lost.
5: Tejinder Pal Singh (Houston, Texas, United States), October 21, 2011, 4:20 PM.
With respect to the Rehat Maryada, I don't think the social contract can be enforced if someone breaks it. The only situation to deal with is when the social contract is broken and it impacts the rest of the members that follow the same contract. Such situations are not that frequent, whereas most of us break the social contract (Rehat Maryada) every now and then and it is not noticed.
6: Mohan Singh (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), October 21, 2011, 5:24 PM.
Our thoughts, words and our deeds are seeds; some grow fast, some grow slow. One has to live with the fruit, pleasant or otherwise. People do not understand the law of nature: instead, they fortune ... and God.
7: Harmeet Singh (U.S.A.), October 21, 2011, 5:41 PM.
I disagree that the Rehat Maryada can be considered a social contract. A social contract is one between an individual and the rest. Rehat Maryada is not a social contract but a "code of conduct" and therefore is an entirely different document with a different purpose. The purpose of a social contract is to define the basis of law and political authority, not a "code of conduct."
8: I.J. Singh (New York, U.S.A.), October 22, 2011, 8:08 AM.
Harmeet: your comment is appreciated. The idea of a social compact and social contract are found in the writings of Plato, Hobbes, and elaborated by Rousseau. It arises from the human need of self preservation and the knowledge that one cannot survive alone. So a sense of collective authority governs human behavior - the social organization may be as small as a family or as large as a great political entity, be it a dictatorship or a democratic republic. The former do not recognize individual voices, the latter do. In that sense any Code of Conduct that governs and controls behavior of a group, from a small family to a billion citizens, is a Social Compact. The Constitution and the law lay out the framework of rights and obligations - an agreement between an individual and the society. Individual freedom and rights are balanced with societal rights and obligations, hopefully in a wise, open and tolerant mechanism, but not always. Such compacts and contracts are rarely perfect and they often get modified, amended or sometimes discarded and rewritten. For instance, women did not have the right to vote in the U.S.A. until 1920, interracial marriages, too, were banned until the mid-twentieth century, and so on. For examples of compacts that are being entirely rewritten, look at the reality of the Arab world today. The basis of law and authority (political, social or religious) provide a 'code of conduct.' And any code of conduct is thus is an example of a social contract/compact.
9: Harbant Singh (Perlis, Malaysia), October 25, 2011, 12:02 AM.
It was a pleasure to read your enlightening article on the 'social contract' which definitely needs a critical analytical evaluation. Change is 'the law of nature' as nothing is permanent in life. To change others we have to change ourselves first. A 2-way communication, learning from one another, motivation beyond monetary terms, and to change when one has options, are some of the prerequisites for a change for effective judgements in social contracts. Because the Sikh Religion is 'so easy' to follow once one comprehends the 'beauty of God's creation', many complicate it by their 'super-egos', convenience, and the influence of the change of the modern society advocated by the mass media dissemination of a free flow of both positive and negative knowledge. The Sikh Code of Conduct is simply a guideline or a light house to guide us to lead a disciplined life just like a 'lotus flower' that, while it roots in a pond of pollution, yet it glows and bears beautiful upright flowers. Because of the present political, social, economical, and security factors, it is worthwhile not to outright debate on it or reject it, but to fine tune adhering to the basic 3 pillars of Sikhism: "Naam juppna, Kirat karni, and Wund ke chhakna", and remembering 'heh munn apna mool pehchaan'. Keep up your good work, Professor, of enlightening us on the improvement of our society.