BUT THE SIKHS ARE HINDUS, TOO

BUT THE SIKHS ARE HINDUS, TOO

But the Sikhs are Hindus, too. To say that "I stand with my Hindu brothers" ought not to imply that Sikhs are separate from the Hindus as a religion, as a race, as a community and as a people. No, not at all. Sikhism is one more sect among the innumerable sects that have arisen within the vast body politic of Hinduism, albeit one with a very strong self-identity in the rich line of the kshātradharma of the Hindus. It arose in defence of the Hindus, for the preservation of the Sanatan Dharma, and its tenth and last Guru, the great Guru Gobind Singhji, organised its adherents into a band of valorous warriors of the Dharma when the Mughal rulers from Jahangir to Aurangzeb kept persecuting the Hindus following the scriptural injunction of their holy texts. Guru Arjan Devji was killed by Emperor Jahangir and Guru Tegh Bahadurji was killed by Emperor Aurangzeb. This fuelled a severe reaction in the mind of Guru Gobind Singhji, then a mere boy, and when he grew to maturity, he gave shape to the khālsā which has ever since been defending the Dharma and the Hindus whose integral part remains till date the Sikhs or the ones who learnt the Dharma modified in practical terms to the turbulent times of Islamic conquest as taught by their ten venerable Gurus beginning from the founder of Sikhism, the great Guru Nanak Devji.

There are two currents of thought nowadays ever since divisive politics of the British sowed the seeds of dissension among the Sikhs and attempted to alienate them from the body politic of the Hindus. Added to this were a body of intellectuals who peddled the theory of a separate Sikh identity to promote their perfidious cessationist political agenda. Over the last century, thus, this separate identity of the Sikhs as being a religion apart from the Sanatan Dharma rather than being a sect of it has gained significant currency among a section of the Sikhs. And this, instead of being intellectually countered by the Hindus and proven to be in error in factual historical terms, is being meekly acceded to which is terribly unfortunate. It shows a glaring lack of historical knowledge and understanding and a terrible intellectual indolence on the part of the Hindus. This must not be. The great Sikh Gurus were all Hindus and the Sikhs were, are and will remain Hindus as well, the crowning glory of our race in line with our great kshatriya tradition, although, within Sikhism the Varnāshram Dharma is not in vogue. But the Varnāshram Dharma is a social institution and not a spiritual one. Hence, its rejection by the Sikh Gurus does in no way alienate them from the Sanatan Dharma.

The early British intention of the formation of Khalsāistān post-Independence of India followed by the Khālistāni Movement and the unfortunate events of 1984 have cut deep wounds within the Sikh community but superbly patriotic as this sturdy community is and loyal to the motherland nonpareil, it has not alienated them largely from the mother body of the Sanatanis of which they still are an integral, nay, most vital part. The valour of the Sikhs is legendary and the sacrifice their Gurus and the family members of their Gurus have historically made for the preservation of the Sanatan Dharma, the Sanatanis and Punyabhumi Bharatvarsha, they can never forget for it is ingrained in their minds from birth through continuous storytelling by elders. Thus, the Sikhs by training consider themselves part and parcel of this great Mother Faith, the Sanatan Dharma, of which their own sect Sikhism forms the crest jewel. The Sikhs are Hindus. Their love and sympathy for the persecuted Hindus in Bangladesh is only natural, for they are, true to their warrior-saintly nature, being one with their own brethren and not with followers of some other faith in close kinship at the most.

Wahe Guru ki khālsā!

Wahe Guru ki fateh!

Sat Shree Akāl!

🕉 Hindu!

Written by Sugata Bose