Origins of Sikhism 2009-09-30 taken from

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/sikhism/history/history_1.shtml#top

Sikh world history

Origins of Sikhism Sikhism was born in the Punjab area of South Asia, which now
falls into the present day states of India and Pakistan. The main religions of the area at
the time were Hinduism and Islam. The Sikh faith began around 1500 CE, when Guru
Nanak began teaching a faith that was quite distinct from Hinduism and Islam. Nine
Gurus followed Nanak and developed the Sikh faith and community over the next
centuries.

Militarization of the Sikhs Sikhism was well established by the time of Guru
Arjan, the fifth Guru. Guru Arjan completed the establishment of Amritsar as the capital
of the Sikh world, and compiled the first authorized book of Sikh scripture, the Adi
Granth. However, during Arjan's time Sikhism was seen as a threat by the state and
Guru Arjan was eventually executed for his faith in 1606. The sixth Guru, Hargobind,
started to militarize the community so that they would be able to resist any oppression.
The Sikhs fought a number of battles to preserve their faith. The Sikhs then lived in
relative peace with the political rulers until the time of the Moghal Emperor,
Aurangzeb, who used force to make his subjects accept Islam. Aurangzeb had the ninth
Guru, Tegh Bahadur, arrested and executed in 1675.

The Khalsa The tenth Guru, Gobind Singh, recreated the Sikhs as a military group of
men and women called the Khalsa in 1699, with the intention that the Sikhs should for
ever be able to defend their faith. Gobind Singh established the Sikh rite of initiation
(called khandey di pahul) and the 5 Ks which give Sikhs their unique appearance.
Gobind Singh was the last human Guru. Sikhs now treat their scriptures as their Guru.

After the Gurus The first military leader of the Sikhs to follow the Gurus was Banda
Singh Bahadur. He led a successful campaign against the Moghals until he was captured
and executed in 1716. In the middle of the century the Sikhs rose up again, and over the
next 50 years took over more and more territory. In 1799 Ranjit Singh captured Lahore,
and in 1801 established the Punjab as an independent state, with himself as Maharaja.
He proved an adept ruler of a state in which Sikhs were still in a minority. Although a
devout Sikh, he took part in religious acts with Muslims and Hindus as well.

Defeated by the British After Ranjit Singh died in 1839 the Sikh state crumbled,
damaged by vicious internal battles for the leadership. In 1845-6 troops of the British
Empire defeated the Sikh armies, and took over much Sikh territory. The Sikhs rebelled
again in 1849, and were defeated by the British, this time conclusively.

The Sikhs and the British Raj After this final battle, the Sikhs and the British
discovered they had much in common and built a good relationship. The tradition began
of Sikhs serving with great distinction in the British Army. The Sikhs got on well with
the British partly because they came to think of themselves less as subjects of the Raj
than as partners of the British. The British helped themselves get a favourable religious
spin when they took control of the Sikh religious establishment by putting their own
choices in control of the Gurdwaras. Good relations between Sikhs and British came to
an end in 1919 with the Amritsar massacre.

Recent history
1919 - the Amritsar massacre This was a shameful event in the history of British
India. In April 1919 British troops commanded by General E H Dyer opened fire
without warning on 10,000 people who were holding a protest meeting. The troops
killed about 400 people and wounded 1,000. Dyer felt that he had been obliged to teach
a moral lesson to the Punjab. Realizing the damage that had been done, the British
rapidly retired Dyer, but not without promoting him first. Some historians regard the
Amritsar Massacre as the event that began the decline of the British Raj, by adding
enormous strength to the movement for Indian independence. In October 1997, Queen
Elizabeth II made the gesture of laying a wreath at the site of the massacre.

Background to Amritsar - the partition of India When British India gained its
independence in 1947; it was divided between India and the Islamic state of Pakistan.
The Sikhs felt badly treated and reluctantly chose to join India. The Sikhs were unable
to demand their own state, because there were too few of them to resist Pakistan’s claim
to the Punjab. Only by siding with India were they able to keep part of the Punjab,
although not before appalling loss of life in communal massacres. Sikhs lost many of
their privileges, much of their land, and were deeply discontented.

A state of their own The Sikh ambition for a state of their own was something that
India would not concede. To do so would have allowed communalism (i.e. religious
groupings) an unbreakable foothold in the politics of what was supposed to be a secular
state. However, in 1966, after years of Sikh demands, India divided the Punjab into
three, recreating Punjab as a state with a Sikh majority. This was not enough to stop
Sikh anger at what they saw as continuing oppression and the unfair way in which they
thought India had set the boundaries of the new state. They continued to demand
various concessions from the Indian government.

The invasion of the Golden Temple As Sikh discontent grew, the conflict
gradually changed from a purely political conflict into a confrontation between Hindus
and Sikhs; and then to real violence. A Sikh preacher called Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale
became the leader of the most disaffected of the Sikhs. He was often portrayed as
representing all Sikhs, although, actually, he did not. In 1983 Bhindranwale and his
closest followers took refuge in the Golden Temple Complex at Amritsar, the most
revered place in the Sikh world. In June 1984 Indian troops launched 'Operation Blue
Star'. They attacked the Golden Temple Complex, killing many of those inside, and
seriously damaging the buildings.

The assassination of Indira Gandhi This invasion of the holiest place of the Sikhs
infuriated many Sikhs, even the non-militant. They saw the Indian Prime Minister,
Indira Gandhi, who had ordered the invasion, as a deliberate persecutor of the Sikh faith
and community. In October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh
bodyguards. Four days of anti-Sikh rioting followed in India. The government said
more than 2,700 people, mostly Sikhs, were killed, while newspapers and human-rights
groups put the death toll between 10,000 and 17,000.