Laurent Kretz

A Sikh taking a morning holy bath at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. By Jingye.

As for certain things in your daily life that you never think of questioning, I realized reading Freedom at Midnight that I knew nothing about the Sikhs, and their religion Sikhism.

Yet they account to 25 millions worldwide, including 19 millions in India and 6 millions in the rest of the world. It’s the fifth largest religion in the world, and is only 400 years old.

So here is, in brief and for the neophytes like me, what Sikhs and Sikhism are.

Sikhism in brief

Here are the main points (from slamnet.org) about Sikhism:

• Sikhs believe in one God, the Creator who made everything,
• Sikhs follow the teachings of Guru Nanak, who lived in the Punjab (Northern India) between 1469 and 1539,
• A Sikh should wear the 5 K’s as symbols of their faith. Kes (uncut hair), Kangha (a comb), Kara (heavy metal bracelet), Kirpan (a short sword) and Kaccha (specific breeches),
• The Sikh holy book it the Guru Granth Sahib,
• Sikhs main festivals are Baisakhi and the birthdays of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh,
• Sikhs meet for worship in a Gurdwara (temple), the most important one being the Golden Temple in Amritsar,
• Babies get their name in the Gurdwara: the Granth is opened at random and the first letter on the left hand page is used to choose a name for the child. A second ’symbolic’ name is also given: Singh (lion) for boys and Kaur (princess) for girls.

Birth and growth of Sikhism

Guru Nanak was born a Hindu near Lahore in 1469. The Punjab had been for centuries a land of confrontation for Islam and Hinduism, the Khyber Pass saw hordes of Muslims rushing into India from Afghanistan over the last thousand years. At the age of 29, Guru Nanak disappears and reappears 3 days later, and answers all questions by “There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim, so whose path shall I follow? I will follow God’s path. God is neither Hindu not Muslim.”

As the new born religion was getting traction and new followers, Guru Nanak following gurus greatly improved the daily life in the Punjab society (second half of 16th century): they prohibited Purdah (Muslims + Hindus: sex segregation) and Sati (Hindus: recent widows immolate themselves on their husband’s grave), encourages Langar (equality for everyone by sharing a same vegetarian dish and siting on the floor together).

From a belief to an empire

Nine gurus succeed to Guru Nanak. During the same period (1526 to early 1700’s), the Muslim Mughal Empire became very powerful over India, counting a population of over 130 millions in the 1700’s. It last emperor is Aurangzeb and he becomes a real religious tyran.

The conflict heats up between the Sikhs and the muslims, headed by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. He unleashes a reign of terror, forcing the Sikhs and Hindus to convert. The ninth Sikh guru, Tegh Bahadur, is executed (beheaded) by Aurangzeb for refusing to convert, as well as protecting Hindus that were condemned to death for not converting to Islam. Bahadur’s son, Gobind Singh, will become the last Sikh guru and form the Khalsa, the Sikhs military corps. The Sikhs are now a religious, military and political group.

After Gobind Singh’s death, the Sikhs formed a confederation that became a real military power in India. The confederation eventually transforms into a real empire in Punjab (1799), led by its first emperor Maharaja Ranjit Singh and based first in Lahore, then in Amritsar.

Ranjit Singh is a really modern emperor: as of the early 19th century, he establishes equality between Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus, abolishes tax on non-Muslims, rules over a region with a majority of Muslims, negotiates with the the East India Trading Company. His army (Sikh Khalsa Army) is modern and well equipped, trained by Americans and Europeans mercenaries, and made Punjab the last region of India being colonized by the British, resisting until the late 1840’s.

End of the Sikh Empire

After the death of the Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1839, divisions in the Sikh power as well as the 1st Anglo-Sikh war weakened and eventually ended, ten years later in 1849, the Sikh empire of Punjab.

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