☰
User Admin Sub Admin Dharmaguru
History

Origins of Sikhism

Sikhism began in the South Asian region of Punjab, which is now shared by the countries of India and Pakistan. Hinduism and Islam were the main religions in the area at the time.

Guru Nanak started teaching a religion that was very different from Hinduism and Islam around 1500 CE. This was the start of the Sikh faith.

Nine Gurus came after Nanak. Over the next few hundred years, they built up the Sikh religion and community.

img
Militarisation of the Sikhs

By the time of Guru Arjan, the fifth Guru, Sikhism had been around for a long time.

Guru Arjan finished making Amritsar the capital of the Sikh world, and he also wrote the Adi Granth, the first book of Sikh scripture that was approved by the government.

But during Arjan's time, the government saw Sikhism as a threat, and Guru Arjan was killed for his faith in 1606.

Hargobind, the sixth Guru, began to arm the community so that they could fight back against any oppression. The Sikhs fought in many wars to protect their religion.

The Sikhs then lived in peace with the political leaders until Aurangzeb, the Moghal Emperor, forced his people to convert to Islam.

In 1675, Aurangzeb had the ninth Guru, Tegh Bahadur, taken away and killed.

The Khalsa

In 1699, the tenth Guru, Gobind Singh, made the Sikhs into a military group of men and women called the Khalsa. He did this so that the Sikhs could always defend their faith.

Gobind Singh set up the rite of initiation for Sikhs, which is called khandey di pahul, and the 5 Ks, which make Sikhs look different.

The last Guru was Gobind Singh. Now, Sikhs see their holy books as their Guru.

After the Gurus

Banda Singh Bahadur was the first Sikh leader of the army to follow the Gurus.

He led an effective campaign against the Moghals until 1716, when he was captured and killed.

Around the middle of the century, the Sikhs rose up again, and over the next 50 years, they took over more and more land.

Ranjit Singh took over Lahore in 1799. In 1801, he made Punjab an independent state and made himself the Maharaja.

He was a good leader of a state where most people were not Sikhs.

He was a very religious Sikh, but he also did religious things with Muslims and Hindus.

img

The British beat them.

After Ranjit Singh died in 1839, the Sikh state fell apart because of violent fights over who would be the next leader.

In 1845 and 1846, soldiers from the British Empire beat the Sikh armies and took over a lot of Sikh land.

In 1849, the Sikhs rose up again, but this time the British beat them decisively.

The British Raj and the Sikhs

After this last battle, the Sikhs and the British found that they had a lot in common and were able to get along well. The tradition began when Sikhs served in the British Army and did a great job.

The Sikhs got along well with the British because they stopped seeing themselves as subjects of the Raj and started seeing themselves as partners of the British.

When the British took over the Sikh religious establishment, they put their own people in charge of the Gurdwaras. This gave them a good religious image.

The Amritsar massacre in 1919 ended the good relationship between the Sikhs and the British.