This document provides an overview of Sikhism, including its history and beliefs. It discusses how Guru Nanak founded Sikhism in 1469 and established the religion's 10 human gurus. In 1708, Guru Gobind Singh named the holy scripture Guru Granth Sahib as the eternal guru. Sikhism teaches a belief in one God, equality of all humans, and living an ethical life of honest work and service to others. The document outlines prominent Sikh practices and articles of faith, including keeping uncut hair and carrying a sword. It traces the spread of Sikhism globally and the establishment of Sikh communities in places like North Carolina.
16. World-War II VeteransWorld-War II Veterans
World War II Decorated Veterans
Alongside the British
North African & Italian Sectors
“There were 2.5 million Sikhs serving in the British Army by
the end of the [Second World] War.”
—Major Robert Henderson, aged 81,
Sunday Telegraph, London. September 21, 1997
Vaheguru ji ka KhalsaVaheguru ji ki Fateh!
Welcome to the “Introduction to Sikhism” in the next 20 minutes. The brevity of the presentation forces us to highlight some salient aspects, while possibly ignoring some equally, if not more, critical events. It is our hope that this presentation shall impel you to pursue other sources for details on your area of interest. If I can be of any assistance, please do let me know.
Sikhism was founded within the region of five rivers, known as Punjab. This region, where Sikhism was founded, blossomed and formalized as a faith, is now split within the countries of India and Pakistan.
India is a country in Asia, and majority of the Sikhs, 20 million, lives there. They constitute 2% of the population of India. The other 2 million are spread mostly in UK, Canada, USA, with smaller populations in Singapore, Malaysia and Kenya. There are about 1,000 Sikhs living in North Carolina.
The Indian sub-continent contains nearly all the locales associated with the Sikh history up to late 1800's.
The region of Punjab has been splintered into smaller states, one of which retains the same name. 16 million Sikhs presently live there.
On the right hand side is identified the city of Lahore, in present day Pakistan, near where the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak Dev Ji, was born.
Nanak, the Founder of Sikhism, was born in 1469. To give a point of reference, Columbus came to America in 1492.
Nanak was Sikhism’s first Master, known as Guru. A "Sikh" is a seeker of the Ultimate Truth, and a disciple of the Guru. Just as Jesus Christ is considered a messiah by the Christians, the Sikhs consider Guru Nanak as their first messiah.
Before he died, Guru Nanak established the institution of Gurudom, appointing one of his disciples as the next Guru. The Sikhs have 10 persons as their Masters, the last of whom was Guru Gobind Singh, who died in 1708.
The Tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, appointed the Holy Scripture, Guru Granth Sahib, as the Guru henceforth for the Sikhs.
The fifth Guru, Guru Arjan, compiled the teachings of the previous Gurus, added his compositions, as well spiritual poems of Hindu and Muslim learned people that were in consonance with the revelations of the Gurus. This was compiled in a book in August 1604, called the Adi Granth.
The addition of the compositions by the Ninth Guru, completed this scripture of the Sikhs, and it was bestowed Gurudom by the Tenth Guru. It came to be known as the “Guru Granth Sahib.”
It has 1430 pages. It is written in the Punjabi script and it contains the compositions of 6 (of the 10) Gurus, 3 Sikhs, and 27 Muslim and Hindu saints. This Holy Scripture contains no stories or biographies of the Gurus.
The Guru Granth Sahib, the present Guru or Master of the Sikhs, contains the message of God, as received by the Gurus. This divine message is conveyed to us as spiritual poetry, composed to prescribed “raagas” of the Indian classical music.
The Sikhs bow only to the Guru Granth Sahib, and any member, male or female, of the congregation reads it.
The Guru Granth Sahib, the Holy Scripture of the Sikhs, is revered like a living person. It is adorned like an emperor, a king, holding court, whether in a temple, which is called the Gurudwara, or at home.
All religious activity of the Sikhs is focused upon and revolves around the Holy Scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib. The congregation sits facing the Guru, and all activities reflect the atmosphere of a royal court.
As mentioned earlier, the Sikh temple is known as the Gurudwara. Within it is the congregation hall, where the Guru Granth Sahib, the Holy Scripture is displayed and read from.
Outside the building of the Gurudwara flies an orange triangular pennant on a high pole. This is to announce the location of a place of worship of the Sikhs, as well as a shelter for the needy and hungry.
(The twin pennants fly on in the Harmandir Sahib complex.)
Most Gurudwara buildings adhere to the unique Sikh architecture, prescribed by the Fifth Guru in the 1500’s. The domes, archways, location of the doors etc. though influenced by other Eastern architecture of the times, are a distinct signature art form of the Sikhs.
All people, irrespective of race, religion, gender, age are welcome inside the Gurudwara. The religious activity involves the participation of the whole congregation, and may be lead by any one who adheres to the Sikh code of conduct.
Inside the Gurudwara hall, Guru Granth Sahib is adorned in the regalia of an emperor. All members of the congregation bow to it upon entering the hall.
The attendees sit on the floor, cross-legged, with their heads covered, shoes removed, in decent attire, and meditate on the one and only one Creator.
The hymns from the Guru Granth Sahib are regularly read, as well as expositions of the poetry and concepts contained therein.
Each Gurudwara has within it a community kitchen, as well as a hall for serving food. Each religious activity involves the sharing of a meal, by the congregation.
The fourth Guru founded the present-day city of Amritsar, where the fifth Guru, Guru Arjan, built the Gurudwaras. The most famous of all the Sikh Gurudwara’s is the Harmandir Sahib which was built in 1588. It was embellished with marble and gold leaf by Maharaja Ranjit Singh in the 1800’s, and is now known, in English, as the Golden Temple.
Over the years, the Harmandir Sahib has been the symbol of Sikh sentiments, as it has been repeatedly razed, bombed by those wanting to quell the Sikhs, or to coerce them into conversion to other faiths.
The Akal Takhat, located within the Harmandir Sahib complex in Amritsar, was originally built by the Sixth Guru.
It has been the seat of temporal authority for the Sikhs, and it is headed by the Jathedar of the Akal Takhat. The Jathedar is accorded the same reverence as the Christians accord to the Pope.
Guru Nanak, the first Guru of the Sikhs, revealed that there was, is, and shall be, one and only one God, one Creator, for whole of the creation. Like the cross for Christianity, the symbol for Sikhism is “Ik-onkar”, which denotes that there is only one Creator.
This Supreme Being does not exist in any human or animate form. The Creator, or Supreme Being, exists within all of creation, and each human carry within her/him, a spark of this divine light. Consequently, no race, no human pigmentation, no gender, no citizen is intrinsically superior to another.
The human birth is considered to be a precious gift to the soul, and is to be spent in the service of the Creator, as outlined by the Gurus in the Guru Granth Sahib. A Sikh fights the demons of greed, anger, lust and arrogance, within the self and outside in the surroundings.
Salvation, or the communion with the Supreme Being, is attainable with the grace of the God, in this lifetime. A Sikh’s goal is to make herself worthy of such grace.
The Gurus prescribed the five external articles of faith, to be worn by the Sikhs at all times. These five start with the “k” alphabet in Punjabi, and are thereby referred to as the 5 K’s. They are keeping unshorn, uncut hair, a comb, long breeches, iron bracelet and the symbolic sword.
Sikh males adorn a turban, made of a piece of cotton, and tied daily, on their heads, to cover the hair. It has become an integral part of the identity of the Sikh male. Sikh females may wear a turban too.
Some Sikhs violate some of these prescriptions. It is considered that they are on the path towards self-realization which shall eventually empower them to adorn these articles of faith.
A lifestyle and personal behavior that reflects the ethics signified by these articles of faith are also equally stressed, and all these are documented in a document called the Sikh Code of Conduct.
The external identity, contained within these articles of faith and for which the Sikhs have been persecuted over the years, is a major part of the Sikh psyche. It resonates the Sikh values of realizing the nobility and divinity within each of us, in the external world.
The Sikhs value above all, the love for a single God. God may be addressed by different names—Allah, Ram, God… yet no one name is more appropriate than the other.
The social values of the Sikhs emphasize the truth and social justice in every social interaction. For individuals, all value are rooted in honesty, humility of the individual and a lifestyle that is constrained within the grace of the Guru. All actions and thoughts are focused on disciplining the mind so it remains centered upon the Creator at all times.
Various practices were institutionalized by the Gurus to realize these values. Meditation and introspection, bound by the message of the Guru Granth Sahib, are the vehicles for personal growth. A Sikh is expected to live the life of a householder, confronting the responsibilities of maintaining a family, and participating in society. As Sikh is to earn an honest livelihood, and share at least 1/10th of her earnings with others.
There is no priestly class amongst the Sikhs. All the Sikhs, abiding by the Sikh Code of Conduct, may conduct any of the religious ceremonies and thereby are expected to educate/train themselves accordingly.
Men and women are accorded equal opportunity in all religious activity and a social order reflecting this equality is expected within the Sikh community. Smoking & imbibing of intoxicants are taboo for the Sikhs.
A consequence of such personal and community-wide discipline was that the Sikhs withstood the horrific religious persecution by the Muslim invaders. In time the Sikhs thwarted these very invaders, and by 1790 the Sikhs ruled the North Indian region.
The various Sikh principalities were combined into a large kingdom in 1801 by Ranjit Singh. The British who ruled over rest of India, could not include this kingdom within their British Empire, while Ranjit Singh was alive.
Upon his death, the British ignoring the various treaties they themselves had signed, annexed the Sikh Empire, and the Sikhs had to face renewed persecution of their religious traditions and heritage in the hands of the new rulers.
Many Sikhs moved out into other locales, many controlled by the British, leading to the first large wave of emigration out of India.
Sikhs were taken by the British as skilled labor to build and man railroads, sugar plantations, schools, farms etc. by the British into places like Kenya, Ethiopia, West Indies, Indonesia, Philipines, China etc.
The first Sikhs came to British Columbia in Canada in the 1890’s to work in the lumber industry. The first Sikh Gurudwara was built in 1890 in Golden, British Columbia. Sikhs came in the 1890’s to work in the farms of central and southern California, and the first Gurudwara in the USA was built in Stockton.
Many Sikhs fought alongside the British in the First World War, and some settled in England, working in the steel foundaries.
During the Second World War, Sikhs fought alongside the British in the North African and Italian sectors. Recent movies like “The English Patient” and “Seven Years in Tibet” depict this.
This quote, by a retired officer of the Ludhiana Sikhs, appears in the Sunday Telegraph in September of 1997.
At the conclusion of the Second World War, the British left India. The Sikhs played a large part in India’s struggle for independence. Sikhs in numbers inordinately larger than their population, were sent to prison and hanged to death by the British, as the Sikhs agitated for India’s independence in 1947.
The Sikhs became the cornerstone of the economic growth of India. Punjab became the jewel with record-breaking yield in crops and industry. Even now, Punjab remains the food basket of India.Sikhs controlled most of the transport industry.
Yet, the suffocating tread of Hindu nationalism was taking its toll. Glass ceilings were being encountered by the educated Sikhs. Religious freedom was denied as even the Indian Constitution listed Sikhism as a sect of Hinduism.
Consequently, the next wave of emigration to the USA (and UK) took place during the 1960’s as the professionals—professors, engineers, physicians, educated business-people—left. During those years USA solicited immigration from other countries to serve the needs in the field of engineering, teaching, medicine and small enterprises.
Meanwhile in India, the Sikhs were on the forefront of those demanding more powers to the States. India remains a corrupt, centralized political power, with the States run on the whims of those in power in New Delhi.To counter the rising demands for more power to the States, expedient laws were passed by the Center, declaring such claims as unpatriotic and against national security.
The boogeyman became the minorities, “foreign hand” and the CIA.
The government unleashed a reign of terror; the Golden Temple was attacked in 1984. The ensuing 10 years saw Sikh youth tortured and killed by the thousands, by the Indian Police and the armed forces.
The most recent wave of emigration of Sikhs took place during these years, and one finds many young Sikhs manning gas-stations and running taxi-cabs in New York and Washington, DC.
In North Carolina there were 4 Sikh families in the 1960’s, and now there are approximately 1,000 Sikhs in the state.
The Sikh Gurudwara of North Carolina was built in 1985. Most Sikhs in North Carolina are professors, physicians, engineers, computer technicians and business people.
In the USA there are approximately 250,000 Sikhs, with the large majority of them living in California and New York/New Jersey as well as the Washington, DC area.
Sikhs actively participate in the political process. Dalip Singh Saund was the first Asian-American elected to the US Congress and Ravi Singh is the latest entrant in the political arena. While Dalip Singh won as a Democrat from California, Ravi Singh is contesting for the Republican seat in the upcoming Illinois legislature elections.
The major issues facing the Sikhs are the acceptance of their identity and the passing of the faith to the next generation. Sadly, in many places we face hurdles due to our articles of faith. Even in this day and age, and that too in the US, discriminatory practices targeting the Sikhs’ hair and turban occur.
At times Sikhs have been confused with Islamic/Arabic identity and have been subjected to verbal and physical abuse.
Sikhs do not seek conversions from other faiths. We urge a Christian to be a good Christian, a Hindu to be a good honest Hindu etc. All our religious activity is open to anybody of any faith. We are open to conversion should anyone so desire.
We are not critical of other religions and consider them as different paths for communion with God. We respect all individuals who believe in one God.
Having been persecuted under the name of religion, by invaders, governments and individuals of other faiths, we strongly oppose forced conversion.
We maintain an active presence in Interfaith activities in the US. We have healthy and regular interaction with various churches and synagogues in the Raleigh-Durham area, with us visiting them, and members of their congregations visiting our Gurudwara in Durham.
I thank you for this opportunity to share with you information about us.
I have with me books and handouts, listing references and WEB-sites, for those who may be more interested.
I have a packet containing our articles of faith, should anyone want to see them.
Thank you.
Vaheguru ji ka Khalsa
Vaheguru ji ki Fateh!
