Sikhism

Sikhism A religion which emerged from a community gathered around the Guru Nanak (b. 1469, d. 1539). Nanak accepted the mission of the Prophet Muhammad, as an agent of the Hindu supreme being Brahman, the path to whom lies through many incarnations. It soon spread throughout Punjab, and the fourth guru, Ram Das, established the holy city of Amritsar. Subsequently, Sikhs were in conflict with Moghuls, Afghans, and other peoples and religions, which led to the particular development of humility and sincerity on the one hand, and the sword on the other, as the twin pillars of the religious community. Ironically, it was when the line of personal gurus became extinct with the death of the tenth guru, Gobind Singh, that the Sikhs achieved their greatest power, with the creation of an independent Sikh kingdom by Ranjit Singh in 1799. Under British rule since 1849, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Sikh identity was strengthened through their distinct, preferential treatment by the British. In addition, the Sikh Sabha movement produced a revival in Sikh culture, language, and literature. In Sikhism, caste distinctions were formally abolished, making this a much less prominent feature than in Hinduism. After independence, when the Sikh homeland, the Punjab, was partitioned between India and Pakistan, most Sikhs lived in India, where they formed over 50 per cent of the population in the state of Punjab. Nevertheless, there continued a strong movement for independence, which operated in the line of the Sikh militant tradition of the sword. There are a total of about 20 million Sikhs worldwide.

Amritsar Massacre (1984)