SIKHISM

GURU NANAK (1469-1538)

• Founder of Sikhism
• Renounced home at the age of 27
• Devoted himself to meditation, prayers etc.
• Began a new religious tradition that synthesized Hinduism and Islam
• god is true, the creator of all and the omnipotent
• His thinking was close to Kabir which was based on spiritual rationalism.
• God, was the parameshwara, brahma or Hari, Rabb
• Criticised idol worship, supported monotheism
• Laughed at the irrationality of Muslims
• Composed poems that are written in Guru Granth Sahib
 SUCCESSORS

• Guru Angad
• Guru Amardas
• Guru Ramdas
• Guru Arjan dev
• Guru Har Govind
• Guru Har Rai
• Guru Har Kishan
• Guru Tegh Bahadur
• Guru Govind Singh (Last Guru)
• Banda
• Ranjit Singh
• Dalip Singh
 RELATIONSHIP WITH POLITICS
• Sikhism remained loyal to its fundamentals till Ram Das
• They remained committed to peace, communal harmony, not taking favour of the
Mughal Sultans like Akbar, reforming the society through rational teachings
• Ram Das’s son Arjan Dev introduced the political element through rent collection
(masnad; 1/10th of income of all Sikhs were paid to the guru)
• He was in conflict with chandu shah (an accomplice of Jahangir).
• Guru Arjan dev was killed in 1606.
• This resulted in a Sikh-Mughal hostility
• What also started was a dynastic rule
 POWER POLITICS
• Har Govind formed an army and built the akal takht.
• He extended Sikhism and tried to consolidate the community
• He fought the first battle against the Mughals
• Har Roy had conflicts with Auranzeb
• Tegh Bahadur wanted to bring back the spiritual element
• He was killed by Aurangzeb for expanding Sikhsim
• His son guru Govind Singh promised to take revenge.
• He started many religious rituals that had political significance.
• Pahul: being baptized to a militarized sikshism by taking sugar syrup stirred with a 2
edged sword. Called them Khalsa.
• Sikhs were asked to have 5 symbols: Kakar (Kesh, Kangha, Kada, Kachha, kirpan)
 POWER POLITICS
• Main aim of Govind Singh was to counter Islam and the Mughals
• He died of his wounds received through fighting with Wazir Shah.
• His spirit was kept alive by Banda Bahadur and Ranjit Singh
• His idea of Khalsa was replaced by Misl
• Ranjit Singh is considered as the greatest political leader
• He was ambitious ans challenged the authority of the British
• He made a modern army with non-British Europeans men
• A great military general, a just administrator
• His administration was based on a military pattern
• He was called as a Bonaparte in miniature
• Maharajah Ranjit Singh (r. 1792–1839) was characterised by religious tolerance and
pluralism with Christians, Muslims and Hindus in positions of power.
• The establishment of the Sikh Empire in 1799 is commonly considered the zenith of
Sikhism in the political sphere, during its existence (from 1799 to 1849) the Sikh
Empire came to include Kashmir, Ladakh, and Peshawar. A number of Muslim and
Hindu peasants converted to Sikhism.
• Hari Singh Nalwa, the Commander-in-chief of the Sikh army along the northwest
Frontier from 1825 to 1837, took the boundary of the Sikh Empire to the very mouth of
the Khyber Pass. The Sikh Empire's secular administration integrated innovative
military, economic and governmental reforms.
• After him, Sikh lost control
 PARTITION AND SIKHS
• Sikh organizations, including the Chief Khalsa Dewan and Shiromani Akali Dal
(second oldest party of India) led by Master Tara Singh, strongly opposed the
partition of India, viewing the possibility of the creation of Pakistan as inviting
persecution.
• The months leading up to the partition of India in 1947, saw heavy conflict in the
Punjab between Sikhs and Muslims, which saw the effective religious migration of
Punjabi Sikhs and Hindus from West Punjab and mirrored a similar religious
migration of Punjabi Muslims from East Punjab.
• At present, the majority of Sikhs live in the Punjab state of India.
• The Khalistan movement is a Sikh separatist movement seeking to create a homeland for Sikhs by
establishing a sovereign state, called Khālistān ('Land of the Khalsa'), in the Punjab region.
• The proposed state would consist of land that currently forms Punjab, India and Punjab, Pakistan.
• Ever since the separatist movement gathered force in the 1980s, the territorial ambitions of Khalistan
have at times included Chandigarh, sections of the Indian Punjab, including the whole of North India,
and some parts of the western states of India
• The call for a separate Sikh state began in the wake of the fall of the British Empire.[4] In 1940, the first
explicit call for Khalistan was made in a pamphlet titled "Khalistan".
• With financial and political support of the Sikh diaspora, the movement flourished in the Indian state
of Punjab — which has a Sikh-majority population — continuing through the 1970s and 1980s, and
reaching its zenith in the late 1980s. In the 1990s, the insurgency petered out, and the movement failed
to reach its objective due to multiple reasons including a heavy police crackdown on separatists,
factional infighting, and disillusionment from the Sikh population.
• Operation Blue Star was an Indian military operation ordered by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi,
between 1 and 8 June 1984, to remove militant religious leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his
armed followers from the buildings of the Harmandir Sahib complex (aka the Golden Temple) in
Amritsar, Punjab—the most sacred site in Sikhism
• Nanak wanted an alternative path through social cohesion, social
equality, spiritual rationality
• His spirit was democratic
• But the latter gurus made it a political struggle, militarised it
• Religion was not separate from politics in this new framework of Sikhism
• This was reflected in the call for a Khalistan a few decades ago
• Khalistan movement caused irreparable damage to Sikhism in post-
independent India
 POLITICAL THEORY OF SIKHISM
• While giving the ideas on Politics the Sikh Gurus had welfare state in their mind.
• The aim of Sikhism is to make human being the best they can be.
• The ruler, in Sikhism, should be one who creates such conditions for his subjects as well as for
himself so that this goal is achieved easily.
• Not only that he should not become an obstacle in the path but also he should be helpful by
creating a good and peaceful atmosphere in his kingdom so that his subjects find it easier to
achieve their Goal.
• He must have conquered the Five evils-lust, anger, greed, attachment and ego. Only such a ruler
can become selfless. Only a realised soul can truly understand the meaning of ‘fatherhood of God
and brotherhood of man’. For this he has to renounce worldly passions.
• He must be a just ruler and should focus on delivering justice in all aspects of life.
• He must protect his subjects from outside forces as well as from being exploited inside the state.
• Must fulfill the basic needs of subjects.
• Must ensure proper distribution of wealth.