The lynching of the youth for allegedly trying to desecrate the Guru Granth Sahib has ignited what has been a long-simmering controversy around Sacrilege in Sikhism.

What is Sacrilege:

• ‘Beadbi’ or 'sacrilege' means being disrespectful towards Guru Granth Sahib Ji.This concept of sacrilege in Sikhism emanates largely from the fact that Sikhs consider the Guru Granth Sahib to be a living Guru.
• They consider the Guru Granth Sahib and everything associated with it as highly sacred. These includes the ‘dastaar’ or the ‘pagri’, the headgear worn by Sikhs, is also considered sacred, as is the ‘kirpan‘, the sword that baptised Sikhs carry.The hair and beard maintained by Sikhs are also sacred, and touching or disrespecting these also amounts to sacrilege.In Sikhism, the Guru is considered to be a living entity, hence any harm or disrespect to the guru is treated as a serious offence.
• An alteration of Sikh religious traditions and practices, or a distortion of the history of the Gurus, is also sacrilege.

History of sacrilege Incidents in India:

• In India, for some years now, Punjab has topped the country in the number of sacrilege cases.
• Data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows that from 2018 to 2020, Punjab’s rate of crimes (number of cases divided by population in lakhs) registered under Sections 295 to 297 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which deal with sacrilege, was the highest.