Beyond two dimensions: the Sikh view on distributism

This is mostly meant to serve as a thought experiment and isn’t representative of my total views of the subject. After seeing ardent advocates for both free market capitalism and socialism, I decided to write this piece on an ideology that doesn’t fall under the conventional two-dimensional paradigm of economic systems.

A Sikh painting showing the wide spectrum of Sikh classes; with guilds and other labour groups as idealised by a distributive economic system

Introduction and influences on distributism

Distributism is a economic system which espouses the decentralisation of the means of production, seeing private property as a virtue, and favours the creation of business models such as co-operatives, credit unions and workers’ guilds. It serves as an alternative to state socialism and unfettered free-market capitalism whilst utilising principles from both. Distributism sees families as the natural unit of social order and works towards the prosperity of the family unit. It also pushes for the idea of subsidiarity, which promotes smaller units carrying out vital economic functions over larger units so more local units and families are able to control their means of production. Other features of distributism are fiscal localism, an anti-monopoly policy, promotion of artisans and local culture alongside self-reliance, when achievable.

Distributism was grounded in a Catholic understanding of socioeconomics. The ideology of distributism was most significantly focused around the Rerum Novarum, a composition on the working classes, issued by the Pope Leo XIII. Perhaps some of the most influential distributist advocates were G.K. Chesterton alongside Hilaire Belloc, who went to influence J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of the Lord of the Rings. However, as time progressed, the ideology of distributism become influential amongst many former socialists and even Anglicans such as Dorothy L. Sayers. The ideology of distributism thus went on to influence the foundation of the Mondragon Corporation, a worker co-operative federation, set up by a Catholic priest, in the Basque region of Spain.

The application of distributism to Sikhi

The eminent intellectual Sirdar Kapur Singh espoused a quite anti-authoritarian point of view, critiquing the idea of the state as a supra-individual entity, wherein an individual must remain loyal to the whims of the state. The concept of Miri-Piri clearly reinforces that no government can force obedience on the Khalsa, perhaps not even a Sikh state itself. This is why distributism pushes for more localism with autonomy to local residents. In historic examples of Sikh policy, many approaches can be termed as distributist. This doesn’t imply that Sikh rulers were intentionally pushing for the notion of distributism but merely that these realpolitik approaches carried out by Sikhs mirror what a distributist set-up may look like.

Artisans and local culture

The promotion of artisans and local culture is quite a big aspect of distributism, choosing to focus on fiscal localism compared to the traditional profit motive. The Gurus engaged in the creation of many urban settlements including Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Kartarpur, Goindval and Anandpur Sahib. Cities were set up with flourishing guilds and artisans and this urban development approach carried on even during the era of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Under the backing of the Lahore darbar, the Thatheras of Jandiala Guru were involved in creating brass and copper utensils; it was a colony strictly set up to encourage skilled metalworkers from Kashmir to migrate to Punjab. Promotion of culture has been part and parcel of Sikh policy and perhaps this has fallen under neglect under modern economic liberalism.

Pictured here is a traditional craftsman of the Jandiala Guru colony, which has been struggling economically under modern times

Redistribution of the means of production

Redistributive polices have been commonplace in the agrarian background of Punjab. Perhaps one of the more popular redistributive stories that of Banda Singh Bahadur’s abolishment of the Zamindari system. Alongside this, Punjab has a current landceiling act of 17.5 acres per family unit. While redistribution of wealth itself isn’t a tenet of distributism per se but it is one of the intended end goals. According to distributists, only with the redistribution of the means of production can people truly consider themselves economically liberated. A common distributist motif is ‘Three acres and a cow’; it was used by Chesterton to signal his view that every citizen is entitled to a decent sized landholding. A similar view can even be found by Bhagat Dhanna, praying for certain necessities for the devotees of God, in SGGS Ang 695:

Gopal, this is your Aarti.

You arrange the affairs of those devotees who perform your worship

Lentils, flour and ghee, I beg of You.

My mind shall ever be pleased.

Shoes, fine clothes, and grain of seven kinds, I beg of You.

A milk cow, and a water buffalo, I beg of You,

and a fine Turkestani horse.

A good wife to care for my home

Your humble servant Dhanna begs for these

Modernity

In modern circumstances, the Anandpur Sahib Resolution certainly contains a few distributist objectives. The promotion of a more federal style representation is certainly a localist approach. The Anandpur Sahib Resolution makes reference of the creation of various co-operatives, asking for the creation of agriculture co-operatives alongside service co-operatives to fulfil the objective of producing public goods. Alongside this, it should be common knowledge that groups like Damdami Taksal had undertaken an ideological crusade against the spread of capitalist modernisation. The most ardent supporters of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale being comprised of women and children who themselves were against the moral destruction alcohol had brought to the family unit. Alongside this, there was a substantial amount of Naxals who’d switched allegiance over to various panthic groups at the time, retaining elements of their socialistic thought albeit without the atheism and adopted a hardened stance against moral decay. Institutions today like the Khalsa Credit Union in Canada represent an idea of in-group finance with community involvement, mirroring what a local distributist financial institution may look like, under ideal circumstances.

Pictured here is the Ajnala co-operative sugar mill, operating in Punjab since 1990

Conclusion

Many distributist approaches can find ideological verification in the context of Sikh past and present. However, the take away message from here is not meant to be that Sikhs were an early example of proto-distributists but rather that Sikh ideology can encapsulate ideas from various ideological backgrounds similar to how distributism was formed. It serves no good to see non-Sikh ideologies as purely perfect and claim religions align with them. Under a Sikh point-of-view, political ideology should remain malleable, compliant to panthic thought, even an ideology like distributism.