My Site |
History
Sikh History
Sikhism's founder was Guru Nanak, a mystic poet, who believed in God in the 15th century. His teachings showed that a Sikhs should respect God so many Sikhs call God Sat Nam in order to show admiration. The repetition of Sat Nam is “true devotion” and is equal to a Muslim making the pilgrimage to Mecca. Nanak believed he was a guru and after him 9 more gurus would follow- after the 10th guru the scriptures of Sikhism were composed. The scriptures are called the Holy Granth or the Guru Granth Sahib and are comprised of poems and writings from the 10 gurus. Times were peaceful before 1560 but during Guru Arjan, the 5th guru’s reign Sikhism was seen as a threat to the state and Arjan was executed for his faith. The 6th guru, Hargobind, began to militarize the community in order to resist religious oppression- their community ended up having to fight several wars. After these events, the Sikhs lived in relative peace until Aurangzeb, the Mughal Emperor, tried to force all his subjects to accept Islam. Aurangzeb had the 9th guru, Tegh Bahadur killed in 1675. The 10th and final guru, Banda Singh Bahadur recreated the Sikhs as a military group of men and women known as the Khalsa in 1699. The Sikh rite of passage was creating including the 5 Ks which were rules governing Sikh appearance. The 5Ks include Kesh (uncut hair), Kangha (a wooden comb), Kara ( a metal bracelet), Kachera (cotton undergarments), and Kirpan (a strapped curved sword). Following the gurus, a man named Banda Singh Bahadur led a military campaign against the mughals but was killed in 1716. In 1799 Ranjit Singh captured Lahore and made it into an independent state. After Sigh died the Sikh state fell apart and in 1895-96 the British Empire took their territory. In 1894, the Sikh rebelled against the British but unfortunately lost for good. After this final battle, The Sikh and the British ended up building a good relationship. During this period of time the Sikh began to fight for the British Empire rather than against it. Unfortunately, good relations ended in 1919 with the Amritsar Massacre. The Amritsar Massacre happened in April of 1919, General E.H. Dyer opened fire on protesters at a meeting, killing 400 and injuring 1,000 because he felt that the “ Punjab needed to learn a moral lesson” After this time period, many Sikh immigrants moved to the United Kingdom in the 1950s seeking work in industry. The reason so many Sikhs immigrated from Punjab is because of the “1947 division of "British" India into the secular but largely Hindu state of India and the Muslim state of Pakistan.