How many sikh are there in the world

Why would the gurdwaras give up on the funding they receive from 70 lakh Sehajdaris, which is a third of the Sikh community? They visit the gurdwara because of their faith, not to score political brownie points.

They believe that the SGPC uses their dasvandh — contribution of one-tenth of their earnings as per Sikh tradition — for the cause of the community. The divide and politics today does not do justice to the religion's origins. The name of the religion itself is open and inclusive to everyone who wishes to learn. In popular understanding, male Sikhs take the name Singh and women adopt the name Kaur. However, the first nine Gurus did not conform to that nomenclature.

They had names such as Dev, Das, Rai and Kishen. They may or may not have grown long hair, and there are no records, despite what calendars and art portraying the Sikh Gurus depict. The changes in Sikh philosophy — the followers taking up arms — came in with Guru Hargobind, the sixth Guru. The codification in attire and the five articles of faith were introduced by Guru Gobind, the tenth Guru. Guru Gobind bequeathed the Sikh holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib, as the immortal Guru to the followers who by now had become a community — Khalsa.

To understand this, consider a large pool of people roughly years ago, who inspired by the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev and the Gurus that followed, gradually give up the rigid caste practices of Brahmanism and the codified rituals of idol worship, and moved towards a deeper understanding of the idea of god echoed by 15 great poets from across the Indian subcontinent. These poets, by birth, are Muslims, Hindus, and from various castes including Dalits. However, regional rulers and orthodox zealots prosecute these ever-growing people.

Feeling the need to defend themselves and rise against injustice, Guru Gobind created a band of armed warriors — the Khalsa, or the pure. The Khalsa is a sub-sect of the Sikhs. Like any army, it has its codes — and codes define armies. There is a lot of history involved, but another court case provides insight into the current game plan of the SGPC.

Given the sensitive nature of the matter, the court summoned not only lawyers but also Sikh intellectuals and scholars to deliberate. After listening to an array of views, the court concluded that it could take a decision on Sikh identity only according to the Sikh Rehat-Maryada — code of conduct and conventions. Sikhs celebrate the festival of Vaisakhi to commemorate the inauguration of Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh. It is believed that Sikhism originated as an independent religion that marked a protest against the rigid caste system of the Hindus and the political domination of the Muslims.

At a very early age, Nanak began to criticize the blind rituals followed by the Hindus and the Muslims and preached a message of love and understanding that formed the principal tenets of Sikhism. In , Nanak formed a small commune and his followers came to be known as Sikhs. Nanak traveled to many places within India as well as in Tibet and Baghdad.

At the end of the 15 th century and the beginning of the 16 th century, Nanak finally settled in the greater Punjab region and founded Sikhism. Guru Nanak, the first Sikh Guru passed on the leadership of this new religion to the 9 successive Gurus.

On September 1, , a copy of the Holy Granth Sahib was ceremonially installed in the main temple. The establishment of Sikhism eventually resulted in the formation of the Sikh Confederacy and the Sikh Empire in As a scholar of the tradition and a practicing Sikh myself, I have studied the harsh realities of what it means to be a Sikh in America today.

I have also experienced racial slurs from a young age. The bottom line is there is little understanding of who exactly the Sikhs are and what the believe. To start at the beginning, the founder of the Sikh tradition, Guru Nanak was born in in the Punjab region of South Asia, which is currently split between Pakistan and the northwestern area of India. A majority of the global Sikh population still resides in Punjab on the Indian side of the border. From a young age, Guru Nanak was disillusioned by the social inequities and religious hypocrisies he observed around him.

He believed that a single divine force created the entire world and resided within it. In his belief, God was not separate from the world and watching from a distance, but fully present in every aspect of creation. He therefore asserted that all people are equally divine and deserve to be treated as such. To promote this vision of divine oneness and social equality, Guru Nanak created institutions and religious practices.

He established community centers and places of worship, wrote his own scriptural compositions and institutionalized a system of leadership gurus that would carry forward his vision. The Sikh view thus rejects all social distinctions that produce inequities, including gender, race, religion and caste, the predominant structure for social hierarchy in South Asia.

Serving the world is a natural expression of the Sikh prayer and worship. In the Sikh tradition, a truly religious person is one who cultivates the spiritual self while also serving the communities around them — or a saint-soldier. The saint-soldier ideal applies to women and men alike.