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Sikhism

The Word of God

In the early 16th century a community of disciples, called Sikhs, gathered around Guru Nanak who presented strong monotheistic teachings after receiving direct revelations from God. The Sikh community, centered in Punjab, grew under ten generations of successive gurus and has since spread throughout the world.... Read more about The Word of God

Guru Nanak’s Message

Guru Nanak taught that there is one God who dwells within the human heart and can be known by the grace of the guru. Guru Nanak espoused a vision of equality across caste and religion, and he called for Sikhs to be fully socially engaged.... Read more about Guru Nanak’s Message

The Sikh Scripture

After Guru Nanak, many successive gurus worked to compile and to prepare the collection of hymns seen as the divinely inspired word of God. The tenth guru made the final revisions to the collection before naming the scripture itself as the final guru, the Guru Granth Sahib. Honoring, reading, and singing these hymns is central to Sikh practice.... Read more about The Sikh Scripture

The Development of the Sikh Community

The Sikh community developed during Mughal reign under the ten gurus. The first four gurus led the Sikh community during a period of peace with the Mughals. During the time of the fifth guru, the Sikh community entered a period of militarized resistance to the Mughal empire, which would lead the tenth guru to create the Khalsa, a committed core group of Sikhs.... Read more about The Development of the Sikh Community

The Khalsa

The tenth guru, Guru Gobind Singh, created a new Sikh order, the Khalsa. The members of the Khalsa were given the names Singh (for men) and Kaur (for women), wore five distinctive symbols marking them as members of the Khalsa, and were instructed to uphold the highest codes of conduct and morality.... Read more about The Khalsa

The Struggle for Survival

From the death of the tenth guru in 1708 until the British annexation of Punjab in 1849, the Sikhs maintained control over various parts of Punjab. At their height, the Sikhs established a kingdom which included Lahore, Amritsar, and various smaller Sikh confederacies.... Read more about The Struggle for Survival

Sikh Renewal and Identity

Under British rule, a number of Sikh reform movements rose in Punjab. Notably, the Sikh Gurdwaras Act of 1925 placed the management of gurdwaras under a central Sikh authority, precipitating the standardization of  codes of Sikh conduct. In 1947, after independence from colonial rule, the partition of India and Pakistan led to extreme violence and displacement along religious lines. The call for a separate Sikh state in Punjab persisted through independence and in 1984 the Indian government attacked Sikh separatists who were fortified within the Golden Temple.... Read more about Sikh Renewal and Identity

First Arrivals

Sikhs first arrived in the United States by way of Vancouver in the first decade of the 20th century. Most Sikhs at this time settled in California and worked as manual laborers. In 1912, the first gurdwara in the United States was opened in Stockton, California.... Read more about First Arrivals

Discrimination: The “Ragheads”

Since Anti-Asian sentiment was rampant in the American West, Sikhs were the victims of systematic discrimination. They were also targets of defamation and physical violence throughout the early 20th century.... Read more about Discrimination: The “Ragheads”

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