Sikhism advocates equality, social justice, service to humanity, and tolerance for other religions. The essential message of Sikhism is spiritual devotion and reverence of God at all times while practicing the ideals of honesty, compassion, humility and generosity in everyday life. Sikhism teaches equality of all people of different races, religions, or sex. Sikhism teaches the full equality of men and women. Women can participate in any religious function, perform any Sikh ceremony, or lead the congregation in prayer. Influenced by the devotional emphasis of bhakti Hinduism and Sufi Islam, Sikhism stresses the unity, truth, and creativity of a personal God and urges union with him through meditation on his title, the Name (Nam), and surrender to his will.
Sikhism is a progressive religion well ahead of its time when it was founded over 500 years ago, The Sikh religion today has a following of over 20 million people worldwide and is ranked as the 5th largest religion in the world. Hinduism and Sikhism are Indian religions. Hinduism has pre-historic origins, while Sikhism was founded in the 15th century by Guru Nanak. Both religions share many philosophical concepts such as Karma, Dharma, Mukti, Maya although both religions have different interpretation of some of these concepts. The Sikhs call their faith Gurmat (Punjabi: “the Way of the Guru”). All 10 human Gurus, Sikhs believe, were inhabited by a single spirit. Upon the death of the 10th, Guru Gobind Singh (1666–1708), the spirit of the eternal Guru transferred itself to the sacred scripture of Sikhism, Guru Granth Sahib (“The Granth as the Guru”), also known as the Adi Granth (“First Volume”), which thereafter was regarded as the sole Guru.
Sikh in Punjabi means “learner,” and those who joined the Sikh community, or Panth (“Path”), were people who sought spiritual guidance. Sikhs claim that their tradition has always been separate from Hinduism. Nevertheless, many Western scholars argue that in its earliest stage Sikhism was a movement within the Hindu tradition; Nanak, they point out, was raised a Hindu and eventually belonged to the Sant tradition of northern India, a movement associated with the great poet and mystic Kabir (1440–1518). contrary to the belief of many Sikhs, some central features of the present-day Khalsa did not exist in Gobind Singh’s time. For example, although the Guru required that those initiated into the Khalsa carry arms and never cut their hair (so that at least the men would never be able to deny their identity as Khalsa Sikhs), the wearing of the “Five Ks”—kes or kesh (uncut hair), kangha (comb), kachha (short trousers), kara (steel bracelet), and kirpan (ceremonial sword)—did not become an obligation of all Sikhs until the establishment of the Singh Sabha, a religious and educational reform movement of the late 19th and the early 20th century. Peace and prosperity within the Punjab after the mutiny of 1857 and the fall of the Sikh raj of maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1849 made possible the founding of the first Singh Sabha, a religious and educational reform movement, in Amritsar in 1873.
Baba Banda Singh Bahadur is greatly admired by Sikhs for his bravery and his loyalty to the 10th Guru, he has never commanded the complete approval of the Panth. This is presumably because he introduced changes to the Khalsa, including a new greeting, “Fateh darshan” (“Facing victory!”), in place of the traditional “Fateh Vahi Guruji” (“Victory to the Guru!”). He also required his followers to be vegetarians and to wear red garments instead of the traditional blue. Those who accepted these changes were called Bandai Sikhs, while those opposed to them—led by Mata Sundari, one of Guru Gobind Singh’s widows—called themselves the Tat Khalsa (the “True” Khalsa or “Pure” Khalsa), which should not be confused with the Tat Khalsa segment of the Singh Sabha, discussed above.
Despite his many accomplishments, Maharaja Ranjit Singh failed to provide a firm financial footing for his government, nor was he interested in training a successor. When he died in 1839, he was succeeded by his eldest son, Kharak Singh, though effective authority was exercised by Kharak Singh’s son Nau Nihal Singh. Kharak Singh died in 1840 as a result of excessive opium consumption, and Nau Nihal Singh was killed by a falling arch on the day of his father’s funeral. The Punjab quickly descended into chaos, and, following two wars with the British, the state was annexed in 1849 to become a part of British India. After annexation, the British favoured the Sikhs for recruitment as soldiers, and many Sikhs made the British army their career. the British administration during the unsuccessful Indian Mutiny of 1857–58, the Sikhs who didn’t participated in mutiny were rewarded with grants of land and other privileges. Peace and prosperity within the Punjab made possible the founding of the first Singh Sabha, a religious and educational reform movement, in Amritsar in 1873.
Its purpose was to demonstrate that Sikhs were not involved in the Indian Mutiny and to respond to signs of decay within the Panth. Later on after the singh sabha was taking shape some known Sikhs and leaders gathered in Amritsar were, for the most part, large landowners and persons of high status, the positions they adopted were generally conservative. In response a more radical branch of the Singh Sabha was established in Lahore in 1879. The Amritsar group came to be known as the Sanatan (“Traditional”) Sikhs, whereas the radical Lahore branch was known as the Tat Khalsa. The differences between the two groups were considerable. The Sanatan Sikhs regarded themselves as part of the wider Hindu community (then the dominant view within the Panth), and they tolerated such things as idols in the Golden Temple. The Tat Khalsa, on the other hand, insisted that Sikhism was a distinct and independent faith.
The radical adherents, within the Sikhs influenced by Western standards of scholarship, set out to revise and rationalize the rahit-namas (the manuals containing the Rahit), removing parts that were erroneous, inconsistent, or antiquated. Many prohibitions were eliminated, though tobacco and halal meat (flesh of an animal killed according to Muslim ritual) continued to be enjoined. Their work eventually resulted in a clear statement of the Five Ks, which has since been adopted by all orthodox Sikhs. Marriage was also reformed according to Tat Khalsa views. The controversy between the Sanatan Sikhs and the Tat Khalsa Sikhs continued for some time, as other factions within the Singh Sabha lent their support to one group or the other. Most factions, however, supported the radical group, and, by the beginning of the 20th century, the dominance of the Tat Khalsa movement had become apparent. Eventually its victory was total, and, during the early decades of the 20th century, it converted the Panth to its distinctive way of thinking, so much so that the accepted contemporary understanding of the Sikh faith is the Tat Khalsa interpretation.
In the early 1920s the Akali movement, a semi-military corps of volunteers raised to oppose the British government, disputed with the British over control of the larger gurdwaras (Punjabi: “doorways to the Guru”), the Sikh houses of worship, in the Punjab. This conflict led eventually to the adoption by the Legislative Council of the Punjab of the Sikh Gurdwaras Act of 1925, whereby the principal gurdwaras were entrusted to Sikh control. The gurdwaras have been governed ever since by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (Supreme Committee of Temple Management), an elected body that is regarded by many Sikhs as the supreme authority within the Panth. The four decades following partition, the Sikhs enjoyed growing prosperity, including greater educational opportunities. Tat Khalsa Sikhs had long emphasized female education at the primary and secondary levels; now stress was laid upon tertiary education for both sexes. Punjabi University in Patiala was opened in 1962 with strong Sikh support, followed by Guru Nanak University (now Guru Nanak Dev University) in Amritsar in 1969, founded to honour the quincentenary of the birth of Guru Nanak. (Another reason for the establishment of Guru Nanak University was that Punjabi University tended to favour the trading castes; Guru Nanak University, by contrast, favoured the Jats.) The growth of the Punjab was interrupted in the early 1980s by conflict between the central government and Sikh as Sikh aspirations since 1947 were still unresolved even till today the conflict intensified eventually led to Indian army assault on Darbaar sahib in 1984 June. Indira Gandhi the prime minister of India was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in October 1984 in retaliation for the assault. This in turn prompted a pogrom against the Sikhs, particularly in the Delhi area, and led to guerrilla warfare against the central government in Punjab that lasted until 1992. Thousands of Sikhs mainly young Sikhs perished during this period without any resolution and Sikh struggle collapsed. Now Sikhs are facing a moral religious and political crisis in Punjab. A challenge of modernisation, monotheistic and proselytism has come up before the Sikhs which needs to be addressed in a wider perspective.
