Charan Singh Sikh Asian Slides 48 Of Them Guru Sant Punjab India Satguru

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Seller: memorabilia111 ✉️ (807) 100%, Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 176284773348 CHARAN SINGH SIKH ASIAN SLIDES 48 OF THEM GURU SANT PUNJAB INDIA SATGURU. Cultural societies of the Sikhs. Agrahari Sikhs. English 0.15%. Pashto 0.28%. Balochi 0.29%. Rajasthani 3.0%. Western Pahari 4.11%. Western Hindi[f] 15.82%. 48 SLIDES OF SATGURU CHARAN SINGH JI VERY RARE AND FANTASTIC IMAGES OF THIS RESPECTED SIKH LEADER Charan Singh (12 December 1916 – 1 June 1990), was the spiritual head of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Dera Baba Jaimal Singh, after he was named successor by the preceding Beas guru Jagat Singh, in 1951. Charan Singh served as the guru for the Beas Dera for almost four decades, until his death from heart failure in 1990 at the age of 73. Before his appointment in 1951, he had practiced law in Hisar and Sirsa, India. He was an initiate of Sawan Singh's, who was his paternal grandfather and the predecessor of Jagat Singh. Charan Singh assigned the duties of his successor and Guru to his initiate and nephew Gurinder Singh.

Charan Singh (12 December 1916 – 1 June 1990), was the spiritual head of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Dera Baba Jaimal Singh, after he was named successor by the preceding Beas guru Jagat Singh, in 1951. Charan Singh served as the guru for the Beas Dera for almost four decades, until his death from heart failure in 1990 at the age of 73. Before his appointment in 1951, he had practiced law in Hisar and Sirsa, India. He was an initiate of Sawan Singh's, who was his paternal grandfather and the predecessor of Jagat Singh. Charan Singh assigned the duties of his successor and Guru to his initiate and nephew Gurinder Singh.[1] Early life and education This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Singh was born in 1916 in his mother’s home in Moga, Punjab. His birth name was Harcharan Singh but was later changed to the Charan Singh. His father, Harbans Singh Grewal, was the youngest son of Sawan Singh, who was affectionately known as the Great Master. His mother name was Mata Sham Kaur. At the age of 22, Singh completed his B.A. degree from Gordon College, Rawalpindi, and went on to study law at Punjab University, Lahore. After receiving his LL.B. degree in 1942, he started to build his own practice as a lawyer in the town of Sirsa, near the family home. In 1943 Sawan Singh arranged his marriage to Harjeet Kaur, the daughter of Rao Bahadur Shiv Dhyan Singh.[2] Spiritual path This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) By the time Singh was appointed as the satguru, the dera had grown, and many satsang centres had been established throughout India. His practical understanding of administrative matters allowed him to make changes to the administrative structure that would carry the organization smoothly into a fast-changing, modern world. In 1957, Singh placed all Dera assets into a Charitable Trust, the Radha Soami Satsang Beas Society. Singh himself helped frame the constitution and rules and regulations for the Society. His leadership in this matter created an administrative framework under which the Dera and its activities continue to be administered. As the spiritual head of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Charan Singh was noted for his succinct and clear explanations of the Sant Mat teachings, a reflection of his legal training and practice. He had many disciples from foreign countries as well as India, and would often give discourses and hold question-and-answer sessions with them, both at the Beas International guest house, as well as on his frequent overseas tours. Many of these sessions were published in books and as audio recordings, and offer a comprehensive understanding of the path of Sant Mat. Under his guidance, books on Sant Mat were published in almost every Indian language, as well as the main languages spoken globally such as French, Spanish, Dutch, German, Greek, Italian, Indonesian, and many others. Most of the activities of the Society take place in the form of seva – voluntary service to the Lord through service to humanity – which is a key foundation of the teachings of the Beas masters. Charan Singh initiated the launching of a Medical Eye Camp, a network of charitable hospitals, disaster management projects, and free food distribution programmes, which have continued as his legacy. Vegetarianism Singh insisted on a strict lacto-vegetarian diet for ethical reasons.[3] The act of killing is considered to produce bad karma from those who slaughter the animal and those who buy and consume the products.[3] Initiates are not allowed to eat eggs or "even an occasional plate of soup containing eggs, fish, fowl or meat or meat broth".[3] In response to unfertilized eggs, Singh commented that the egg fertilized or not, is essentially a fetus and not compatible with a vegetarian diet. He warned that wavering from vegetarianism even minutely will lead to "misuse and thus defeat the purpose".[3] Death and successor On 1 June 1990, Singh died at Dera, Beas. He entrusted his authority and responsibility as patron of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas Society and the Maharaj Jagat Singh Medical Relief Society Beas to Gurinder Singh who, at 36 years of age, has taken on the same responsibilities that had been assumed by Charan Singh forty years earlier.[4] Selected publications Spiritual Discourses (1974) Quest For Light (1977) Divine Light (1983) Light on Sant Mat (1985) Spiritual Heritage: A Transcription from Tape Recorded Talks of Maharaj Charan Singh (1985) Die to Live (1988) A Brief Biography of Maharaj Charan Singh Maharaj Charan Singh (1916–1990), was the Satguru and head of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Dera Baba Jaimal Singh, after he was named successor by the preceding Beas guru Maharaj Jagat Singh, in 1951. Charan Singh served as the guru for the Beas sangat for almost four decades, until his death from heart failure in 1990 at the age of 73. Before his appointment in 1951, he had practiced law in Hisar and Sirsa, India. He was an initiate of Maharaj Sawan Singh’s, who was his paternal grandfather and the predecessor of Maharaj Jagat Singh. Charan Singh assigned the duties of his successor and guru to his initiate and nephew Gurinder Singh. Maharaj Charan Singh was born in 1916 in his mother’s home at Moga in the Ferozepur district of Punjab. His father, Sardar Harbans Singh Grewal, was the youngest son of Maharaj Sawan Singh Ji, who was affectionately known as the Great Master. At the age of 22, Charan Singh completed his B.A. degree from Gordon College, Rawalpindi, and went on to study law at Punjab University, Lahore. After receiving his LL.B. degree in 1942, he started to build his own practice as a lawyer in the town of Sirsa, near the family home. In 1943 Great Master arranged his marriage to Harjeet Kaur, the daughter of Rao Bahadur Shiv Dhyan Singh. By the time Maharaj Ji was appointed as the Satguru, the Dera had grown, and many satsang centres had been established throughout India. His practical understanding of administrative matters allowed him to make changes to the administrative structure that would carry the organization smoothly into a fast-changing, modern world. In 1957, Maharaj Ji placed all Dera assets into a Charitable Trust, the Radha Soami Satsang Beas Society. Maharaj Ji himself helped frame the constitution and rules and regulations for the Society. His leadership in this matter created an administrative framework under which the Dera and its activities continue to be administered. As the spiritual head of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Maharaj Charan Singh was noted for his succinct and clear explanations of the Sant Mat teachings, a reflection of his legal training and practice. He had many disciples from foreign countries as well as India, and would often give discourses and hold question-and-answer sessions with them, both at the Beas International guest house, as well as on his frequent overseas tours. Many of these sessions were published in books and as audio recordings, and offer a comprehensive understanding of the path of Sant Mat. Under his guidance, books on Sant Mat were published in almost every Indian language, as well as the main languages spoken globally such as French, Spanish, Dutch, German, Greek, Italian, Indonesian, and many others. Most of the activities of the Society take place in the form of seva – voluntary service to the Lord through service to humanity – which is a key foundation of the teachings of the Beas masters. Maharaj Charan Singh initiated the launching of a Medical Eye Camp, a network of charitable hospitals, disaster management projects, and free food distribution programmes, which have continued as his legacy. On June 1st, 1990, Maharaj Charan Singh passed away at Dera, Beas. He entrusted his authority and responsibility as Patron of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas Society and the Maharaj Jagat Singh Medical Relief Society Beas to Gurinder Singh Dhillon who, at 36 years of age, has taken on the same responsibilities that had been assumed by Maharaj Charan Singh forty years earlier. Punjab (/pʌnˈdʒɑːb, -ˈdʒæb, ˈpʊn-/; Gurmukhi: ਪੰਜਾਬ; Shahmukhi: پنجاب; Punjabi: [pə̞ɲˈdʒäːb] ⓘ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb)[b] is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is specifically located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern-Pakistan and northwestern-India. Punjab's major cities are Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Multan, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Sialkot, Chandigarh, Shimla, Jalandhar, Patiala, Gurugram, and Bahawalpur. Punjab grew out of the settlements along the five rivers, which served as an important route to the Near East as early as the ancient Indus Valley civilization, dating back to 3000 BCE,[3] and had numerous migrations by the Indo-Aryan peoples. Agriculture has been the major economic feature of the Punjab and has therefore formed the foundation of Punjabi culture, with one's social status being determined by land ownership.[3] The Punjab emerged as an important agricultural region, especially following the Green Revolution during the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, and has been described as the "breadbasket of both India and Pakistan."[3] Punjab's history is a tapestry of conflict, marked by the rise of indigenous dynasties and empires. Following Alexander the Great's invasion in the 4th century BCE, Chandragupta Maurya allied with Punjabi republics to establish the Maurya Empire.[4] Successive reigns of the Indo-Greek Kingdom, Kushan Empire, and Indo-Scythians followed, but were ultimately defeated by Eastern Punjab Janapadas such as the Yaudheya, Trigarta Kingdom, Audumbaras, Arjunayanas, and Kuninda Kingdom.[5][6] In the 5th and 6th centuries CE, Punjab faced devastating Hunnic invasions, yet the Vardhana dynasty emerged triumphant, ruling over Northern India.[7] The 8th century CE witnessed the Hindu Shahis rise, known for defeating the Saffarid dynasty and the Samanid Empire. Concurrently, the Tomara dynasty and Katoch Dynasty controlled eastern Punjab, resisting Ghaznavid invasions.[8] Islam took hold in Western Punjab under Ghaznavid rule. The Delhi Sultanate then succeeded the Ghaznavids in which the Tughlaq dynasty and Sayyid dynasty Sultans are described as Punjabi origin.[9][10] The 15th century saw the emergence of the Langah Sultanate in south Punjab, acclaimed for its victory over the Lodi dynasty.[11] After the Mughal Empire's decline in the 18th century, Punjab experienced a period of anarchy. In 1799 CE, the Sikh Empire established its rule, undertaking conquests into Kashmir and Durrani Empire held territories, shaping the diverse and complex history of Punjab. The boundaries of the region are ill-defined and focus on historical accounts and thus the geographical definition of the term "Punjab" has changed over time. In the 16th century Mughal Empire the Punjab region was divided into three, with the Lahore Subah in the west, the Delhi Subah in the east and the Multan Subah in the south. In British India, until the Partition of India in 1947, the Punjab Province encompassed the present-day Indian states and union territories of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, and Delhi, and the Pakistani regions of Punjab, and Islamabad Capital Territory. The predominant ethnolinguistic group of the Punjab region are the Punjabi people, who speak the Indo-Aryan Punjabi language. Punjabi Muslims are the majority in West Punjab (Pakistan), while Punjabi Sikhs are the majority in East Punjab (India). Other religious groups include Hinduism, Christianity, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Ravidassia. Etymology Although the name Punjab is of Persian origin, its two parts (پنج, panj, 'five' and آب, āb, 'water') are cognates of the Sanskrit words पञ्‍च, pañca, 'five' and अप्, áp, 'water', of the same meaning.[2][12] The word pañjāb thus means "The Land of Five Waters", referring to the rivers Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas.[13] All are tributaries of the Indus River, the Sutlej being the largest. References to a land of five rivers may be found in the Mahabharata, which calls one of the regions in ancient Bharat Panchanada (Sanskrit: पञ्चनद, romanized: pañca-nada, lit. 'five rivers').[14][15] Persian place names are very common in Northwest India and Pakistan. The ancient Greeks referred to the region as Pentapotamía (Greek: Πενταποταμία),[16][17][18] which has the same meaning as the Persian word. History Taxila in Pakistan is a World Heritage Site. Main article: History of the Punjab Ancient period The Punjab region is noted as the site of one of the earliest urban societies, the Indus Valley Civilization that flourished from about 3000 BCE and declined rapidly 1,000 years later, following the Indo-Aryan migrations that overran the region in waves between 1500 BCE and 500 BCE.[19] Frequent intertribal wars stimulated the growth of larger groupings ruled by chieftains and kings, who ruled local kingdoms known as Mahajanapadas.[19] The rise of kingdoms and dynasties in the Punjab is chronicled in the ancient Hindu epics, particularly the Mahabharata.[19] The epic battles described in the Mahabharata are chronicled as being fought in what is now the state of Haryana and historic Punjab. The Gandharas, Kambojas, Trigartas, Andhra, Pauravas, Bahlikas (Bactrian settlers of the Punjab), Yaudheyas, and others sided with the Kauravas in the great battle fought at Kurukshetra.[20] According to Fauja Singh and L. M. Joshi: "There is no doubt that the Kambojas, Daradas, Kaikayas, Andhra, Pauravas, Yaudheyas, Malavas, Saindhavas, and Kurus had jointly contributed to the heroic tradition and composite culture of ancient Punjab."[21] Invasions of Alexander the Great (c. 4th century BCE) One of the first known kings of ancient Punjab, King Porus, fought against Alexander the Great. His surrender is depicted in this 1865 engraving by Alonzo Chappel. The earliest known notable local king of this region was known as King Porus, who fought the famous Battle of the Hydaspes against Alexander the Great. His kingdom spanned between rivers Hydaspes (Jhelum) and Acesines (Chenab); Strabo had held the territory to contain almost 300 cities.[22] He (alongside Abisares) had a hostile relationship with the Kingdom of Taxila which was ruled by his extended family.[22] When the armies of Alexander crossed Indus in its eastward migration, probably in Udabhandapura, he was greeted by the-then ruler of Taxila, Omphis.[22] Omphis had hoped to force both Porus and Abisares into submission leveraging the might of Alexander's forces and diplomatic missions were mounted, but while Abisares accepted the submission, Porus refused.[22] This led Alexander to seek for a face-off with Porus.[22] Thus began the Battle of the Hydaspes in 326 BC; the exact site remains unknown.[22] The battle is thought to be resulted in a decisive Greek victory; however, A. B. Bosworth warns against an uncritical reading of Greek sources who were obviously exaggerative.[22] Alexander later founded two cities—Nicaea at the site of victory and Bucephalous at the battle-ground, in memory of his horse, who died soon after the battle.[22][c] Later, tetradrachms would be minted depicting Alexander on horseback, armed with a sarissa and attacking a pair of Indians on an elephant.[22][23] Porus refused to surrender and wandered about atop an elephant, until he was wounded and his force routed.[22] When asked by Alexander how he wished to be treated, Porus replied "Treat me as a king would treat another king".[24] Despite the apparently one-sided results, Alexander was impressed by Porus and chose to not depose him.[25][26][27] Not only was his territory reinstated but also expanded with Alexander's forces annexing the territories of Glausaes, who ruled to the northeast of Porus' kingdom.[25] After Alexander's death in 323 BCE, Perdiccas became the regent of his empire, and after Perdiccas's murder in 321 BCE, Antipater became the new regent.[28] According to Diodorus, Antipater recognized Porus's authority over the territories along the Indus River. However, Eudemus, who had served as Alexander's satrap in the Punjab region, treacherously killed Porus.[29] Mauryan Empire (c. 320–180 BCE) Chandragupta Maurya, with the aid of Kautilya, had established his empire around 320 BCE. The early life of Chandragupta Maurya is not clear. Kautilya enrolled the young Chandragupta in the university at Taxila to educate him in the arts, sciences, logic, mathematics, warfare, and administration. Megasthenes' account, as it has survived in Greek texts that quote him, states that Alexander the Great and Chandragupta met, which if true would mean his rule started earlier than 321 BCE. As Alexander never crossed the Beas river, so his territory probably lied in Punjab region.[citation needed] He has also been variously identified with Shashigupta (who has same etymology as of Chandragupta) of Paropamisadae (western Punjab) on the account of same life events.[30] With the help of the small Janapadas of Punjab, he had gone on to conquer much of the North West Indian subcontinent.[31] He then defeated the Nanda rulers in Pataliputra to capture the throne. Chandragupta Maurya fought Alexander's successor in the east, Seleucus when the latter invaded. In a peace treaty, Seleucus ceded all territories west of the Indus and offered a marriage, including a portion of Bactria, while Chandragupta granted Seleucus 500 elephants.[citation needed] The chief of the Mauryan military was also always a Yaudheyan warrior according to the Bijaygadh Pillar inscription, which states that the Yaudheyas elected their own chief who also served as the general for the Mauryans.[32][33] The Mauryan military was also made up vastly of men from the Punjab Janapadas.[34] Chandragupta's rule was very well organised. The Mauryans had an autocratic and centralised administration system, aided by a council of ministers, and also a well-established espionage system. Much of Chandragupta's success is attributed to Chanakya, the author of the Arthashastra. According to buddhist sources Chanakya was native of the Punjab who resided in Taxila. Much of the Mauryan rule had a strong bureaucracy that had regulated tax collection, trade and commerce, industrial activities, mining, statistics and data, maintenance of public places, and upkeep of temples.[citation needed] Medieval period Hindu Shahis (c. 820–1030 CE) In the 9th century, the Hindu Shahi dynasty originating from the region of Oddiyana,[35][36][37] replaced the Taank kingdom, ruling Western Punjab along with eastern Afghanistan.[19] The tribe of the Gakhars/Khokhars, formed a large part of the Hindu Shahi army according to the Persian historian Firishta.[38] The most notable rulers of the empire were Lalliya, Bhimadeva and Jayapala who were accredited for military victories. Lalliya had reclaimed the territory at and around Kabul between 879 and 901 CE after it had been lost under his predecessor to the Saffarid dynasty.[37][page needed] He was described as a fearsome Shahi. Two of his ministers reconstructed by Rahman as Toramana and Asata are said to of have taken advantage of Amr al-Layth's preoccupation with rebellions in Khorasan, by successfully raiding Ghazna around 900 CE.[37][page needed] After a defeat in Eastern Afghanistan suffered on the Shahi ally Lawik, Bhimadeva mounted a combined attack around 963 CE.[37][page needed] Abu Ishaq Ibrahim was expelled from Ghazna and Shahi-Lawik strongholds were restored in Kabul and adjacent areas.[37][page needed] This victory appears to have been commemorated in the Hund Slab Inscription (HSI).[37][page needed] Turkic rule (c. 1030–1320 CE) Silver copper coin of Khizr Khan, founder of the Sayyid dynasty[39] The Turkic Ghaznavids in the tenth century overthrew the Hindu Shahis and consequently ruled for 157 years in Western Punjab, gradually declining as a power until the Ghurid conquest of Lahore by Muhammad of Ghor in 1186, deposing the last Ghaznavid ruler Khusrau Malik.[40] Following the death of Muhammad of Ghor in 1206 by Punjabi assassins near the Jhelum river, the Ghurid state fragmented and was replaced in northern India by the Delhi Sultanate. Tughlaq dynasty (c. 1320–1410 CE) The Tughlaq dynasty's reign formally started in 1320 in Delhi when Ghazi Malik assumed the throne under the title of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq after defeating Khusrau Khan at the Battle of Lahrawat. During Ghazi Malik's reign, in 1321 he sent his eldest son Jauna Khan, later known as Muhammad bin Tughlaq, to Deogir to plunder the Hindu kingdoms of Arangal and Tilang (now part of Telangana). His first attempt was a failure.[41] Four months later, Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq sent large army reinforcements for his son asking him to attempt plundering Arangal and Tilang again.[42] This time Jauna Khan succeeded and Arangal fell, it was renamed to Sultanpur, and all plundered wealth, state treasury and captives were transferred from the captured kingdom to the Delhi Sultanate.The Muslim aristocracy in Lukhnauti (Bengal) invited Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq to extend his coup and expand eastwards into Bengal by attacking Shamsuddin Firoz Shah, which he did over 1324–1325 AD,[41] after placing Delhi under control of his son Ulugh Khan, and then leading his army to Lukhnauti. Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq succeeded in this campaign. After his father's death in 1325 CE, Muhammad bin Tughlaq assumed power and his rule saw the empire expand to most of the Indian subcontinent, its peak in terms of geographical reach.[43] He attacked and plundered Malwa, Gujarat, Lakhnauti, Chittagong, Mithila and many other regions in India.[44] His distant campaigns were expensive, although each raid and attack on non-Muslim kingdoms brought new looted wealth and ransom payments from captured people. The extended empire was difficult to retain, and rebellions became commonplace all over the Indian subcontinent.[45] Muhammad bin Tughlaq died in March 1351[46][page needed] while trying to chase and punish people for rebellion and their refusal to pay taxes in Sindh and Gujarat.[47] After Muhammad bin Tughlaq's death, the Tughlaq empire was in a state of disarray with many regions assuming independence; it was at this point that Firuz Shah Tughlaq, Ghazi Malik's nephew, took reign. His father's name was Rajab (the younger brother of Ghazi Malik) who had the title Sipahsalar. His mother Naila was a Punjabi Bhatti princess (daughter of Rana Mal) from Dipalpur and Abohar according to the historian William Crooke.[48][49] The southern states had drifted away from the Sultanate and there were rebellions in Gujarat and Sindh, while "Bengal asserted its independence." He led expeditions against Bengal in 1353 and 1358. He captured Cuttack, desecrated the Jagannath Temple, Puri, and forced Raja Gajpati of Jajnagar in Orissa to pay tribute.[50][51] He also laid siege to the Kangra Fort and forced Nagarkot to pay tribute.[52] During this time, Tatar Khan of Greater Khorasan attacked Punjab, but he was defeated and his face slashed by the sword given by Feroz Shah Tughlaq to Raja Kailas Pal who ruled the Nagarkot region in Punjab.[53] Sayyid dynasty (c. 1410–1450 CE) See also: Sayyid dynasty Khizr Khan established the Sayyid dynasty, the fourth dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate after the fall of the Tughlaqs.[54] Following Timur's 1398 sack of Delhi,[55] he appointed Khizr Khan as deputy of Multan (Punjab).[56] He held Lahore, Dipalpur, Multan and Upper Sindh.[57][58] Khizr Khan captured Delhi on 28 May 1414 thereby establishing the Sayyid dynasty.[56] Khizr Khan did not take up the title of sultan, but continued the fiction of his allegiance to Timur as Rayat-i-Ala(vassal) of the Timurids - initially that of Timur, and later his son Shah Rukh.[59][60] After the accession of Khizr Khan, the Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Sindh were reunited under the Delhi Sultanate, where he spent his time subduing rebellions.[61] Punjab was the powerbase of Khizr Khan and his successors as the bulk of the Delhi army during their reigns came from Multan and Dipalpur.[62] Khizr Khan was succeeded by his son Mubarak Shah after his death on 20 May 1421. Mubarak Shah referred to himself as Muizz-ud-Din Mubarak Shah on his coins, removing the Timurid name with the name of the Caliph, and declared himself a Shah.[63][64] He defeated the advancing Hoshang Shah Ghori, ruler of Malwa Sultanate and forced him to pay heavy tribute early in his reign.[65] Mubarak Shah also put down the rebellion of Jasrath Khokhar and managed to fend off multiple invasions by the Timurids of Kabul.[66] The last ruler of the Sayyids, Ala-ud-Din, voluntarily abdicated the throne of the Delhi Sultanate in favour of Bahlul Khan Lodi on 19 April 1451, and left for Badaun, where he died in 1478.[67] Langah Sultanate (c. 1450–1540 CE) In 1445, Sultan Qutbudin, chief of Langah (a Jat Zamindar tribe),[68][69][70][71] established the Langah Sultanate in Multan after the fall of the Sayyid dynasty. Husseyn Langah I (reigned 1456–1502) was the second ruler of Langah Sultanate. He undertook military campaigns in Punjab and captured Chiniot and Shorkot from the Lodis. Shah Husayn successfully repulsed attempted invasion by the Lodis led by Tatar Khan and Barbak Shah, as well as his daughter Zeerak Rumman.[11] Modern period Mughal Empire (c. 1526–1761 CE) The Mughals came to power in the early 16th century and gradually expanded to control all of the Punjab from their capital at Lahore. During the Mughal era, Saadullah Khan, born into a family of Punjabi agriculturalists[72] belonging to the Thaheem tribe[73] from Chiniot[74] remained grand vizier (or Prime Minister) of the Mughal Empire in the period 1645–1656.[74] Other prominent Muslims from Punjab who rose to nobility during the Mughal Era include Wazir Khan,[75] Adina Beg Arain,[76] and Shahbaz Khan Kamboh.[77] The Mughal Empire ruled the region until it was severely weakened in the eighteenth century.[19] As Mughal power weakened, Afghan rulers took control of the region.[19] Contested by the Marathas and Afghans, the region was the center of the growing influence of the misls, who expanded and established the Sikh Confederacy as the Mughals and Afghans weakened, ultimately ruling the Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and territories north into the Himalayas.[19] Sikh Empire (c. 1799–1849 CE) See also: Sikh Empire In the 19th century, Maharajah Ranjit Singh established the Sikh Empire based in the Punjab.[78] The empire existed from 1799, when Ranjit Singh captured Lahore, to 1849, when it was defeated and conquered in the Second Anglo-Sikh War. It was forged on the foundations of the Khalsa from a collection of autonomous Sikh misls.[79][80] At its peak in the 19th century, the Empire extended from the Khyber Pass in the west to western Tibet in the east, and from Mithankot in the south to Kashmir in the north. It was divided into four provinces: Lahore, in Punjab, which became the Sikh capital; Multan, also in Punjab; Peshawar; and Kashmir from 1799 to 1849. Religiously diverse, with an estimated population of 3.5 million in 1831 (making it the 19th most populous country at the time),[81] it was the last major region of the Indian subcontinent to be annexed by the British Empire. British Punjab (c. 1849–1947 CE) See also: Punjab Province (British India) Illustration of Ranjit Singh, founder of the Sikh Empire The Sikh Empire ruled the Punjab until the British annexed it in 1849 following the First and Second Anglo-Sikh Wars.[82] Most of the Punjabi homeland formed a province of British India, though a number of small princely states retained local rulers who recognized British authority.[19] The Punjab with its rich farmlands became one of the most important colonial assets.[19] Lahore was a noted center of learning and culture, and Rawalpindi became an important military installation.[19] Most Punjabis supported the British during World War I, providing men and resources to the war effort even though the Punjab remained a source of anti colonial activities.[83]: 163  Disturbances in the region increased as the war continued.[19] At the end of the war, high casualty rates, heavy taxation, inflation, and a widespread influenza epidemic disrupted Punjabi society.[19] In 1919 a British officer ordered his troops to fire on a crowd of demonstrators, mostly Sikhs in Amritsar. The Jallianwala massacre fueled the indian independence movement.[19] Nationalists declared the independence of India from Lahore in 1930 but were quickly suppressed.[19] When the Second World War broke out, nationalism in British India had already divided into religious movements.[19] Many Sikhs and other minorities supported the Hindus, who promised a secular multicultural and multireligious society, and Muslim leaders in Lahore passed a resolution to work for a Muslim Pakistan, making the Punjab region a center of growing conflict between Indian and Pakistani nationalists.[19] At the end of the war, the British granted separate independence to India and Pakistan, setting off massive communal violence as Muslims fled to Pakistan and Hindu and Sikh Punjabis fled east to India.[19] The British Raj had major political, cultural, philosophical, and literary consequences in the Punjab, including the establishment of a new system of education. During the independence movement, many Punjabis played a significant role, including Madan Lal Dhingra, Sukhdev Thapar, Ajit Singh Sandhu, Bhagat Singh, Udham Singh, Kartar Singh Sarabha, Bhai Parmanand, Choudhry Rahmat Ali, and Lala Lajpat Rai. At the time of partition in 1947, the province was split into East and West Punjab. East Punjab (48%) became part of India, while West Punjab (52%) became part of Pakistan.[84] The Punjab bore the brunt of the civil unrest following partition, with casualties estimated to be in the millions.[85][86][87][88] Another major consequence of partition was the sudden shift towards religious homogeneity occurred in all districts across Punjab owing to the new international border that cut through the province. This rapid demographic shift was primarily due to wide scale migration but also caused by large-scale religious cleansing riots which were witnessed across the region at the time. According to historical demographer Tim Dyson, in the eastern regions of Punjab that ultimately became Indian Punjab following independence, districts that were 66% Hindu in 1941 became 80% Hindu in 1951; those that were 20% Sikh became 50% Sikh in 1951. Conversely, in the western regions of Punjab that ultimately became Pakistani Punjab, all districts became almost exclusively Muslim by 1951.[89] Geography The geographical definition of the term "Punjab" has changed over time. In the 16th century Mughal Empire it referred to a relatively smaller area between the Indus and the Sutlej rivers.[90][91] Sikh Empire Map showing the Punjabi Sikh Empire At its height in the first half of the 19th century, the Sikh Empire spanned a total of over 200,000 sq mi (520,000 km2).[92][93][94] The Punjab was a region straddling India and the Afghan Durrani Empire. The following modern-day political divisions made up the historical Punjab region during the Sikh Empire: Punjab region, to Mithankot in the south Punjab, Pakistan, excluding Bahawalpur State Punjab, India, south to areas just across the Sutlej river Himachal Pradesh, India, south to areas just across the Sutlej river Jammu Division, Jammu and Kashmir, India and Pakistan (1808–1846) Kashmir region, Pakistan/China[95][96] Kashmir Valley, India (1819–1846) Gilgit, Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan (1842–1846)[citation needed] Ladakh, India (1834–1846)[97][98] Khyber Pass, Pakistan/Afghanistan[99] Peshawar, Pakistan[100] (taken in 1818, retaken in 1834) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Pakistan (documented from Hazara, taken in 1818, again in 1836 to Bannu)[101] Parts of Western Tibet,[102] China (briefly in 1841, to Taklakot)[103] After Ranjit Singh's death in 1839, the empire was severely weakened by internal divisions and political mismanagement. This opportunity was used by the East India Company to launch the First and Second Anglo-Sikh Wars. The country was finally annexed and dissolved at the end of the Second Anglo-Sikh War in 1849 into separate princely states and the province of Punjab. Eventually, a Lieutenant Governorship was formed in Lahore as a direct representative of the Crown.[83]: 221  Punjab (British India) See also: Punjab Province (British India) In British India, until the Partition of India in 1947, the Punjab Province was geographically a triangular tract of country of which the Indus River and its tributary the Sutlej formed the two sides up to their confluence, the base of the triangle in the north being the Lower Himalayan Range between those two rivers. Moreover, the province as constituted under British rule also included a large tract outside these boundaries. Along the northern border, Himalayan ranges divided it from Kashmir and Tibet. On the west it was separated from the North-West Frontier Province by the Indus, until it reached the border of Dera Ghazi Khan District, which was divided from Baluchistan by the Sulaiman Range. To the south lay Sindh and Rajputana, while on the east the rivers Jumna and Tons separated it from the United Provinces.[104] In total Punjab had an area of approximately 357 000 km square about the same size as modern day Germany, being one of the largest provinces of the British Raj. Map of the Punjab Province (British India) It encompassed the present day Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, and some parts of Himachal Pradesh which were merged with Punjab by the British for administrative purposes (but excluding the former princely states which were later combined into the Patiala and East Punjab States Union) and the Pakistani regions of the Punjab, Islamabad Capital Territory and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In 1901 the frontier districts beyond the Indus were separated from Punjab and made into a new province: the North-West Frontier Province. Subsequently, Punjab was divided into four natural geographical divisions by colonial officials on the decadal census data:[105]: 2 [106]: 4  Indo-Gangetic Plain West geographical division (including Hisar district, Loharu State, Rohtak district, Dujana State, Gurgaon district, Pataudi State, Delhi, Karnal district, Jalandhar district, Kapurthala State, Ludhiana district, Malerkotla State, Firozpur district, Faridkot State, Patiala State, Jind State, Nabha State, Lahore District, Amritsar district, Gujranwala District, and Sheikhupura district); Himalayan geographical division (including Nahan State, Simla District, Simla Hill States, Kangra district, Mandi State, Suket State, and Chamba State); Sub-Himalayan geographical division (including Ambala district, Kalsia State, Hoshiarpur district, Gurdaspur district, Sialkot District, Gujrat District, Jhelum District, Rawalpindi District, and Attock District; North-West Dry Area geographical division (including Montgomery District, Shahpur District, Mianwali District, Lyallpur District, Jhang District, Multan District, Bahawalpur State, Muzaffargarh District, and Dera Ghazi Khan District). Partition of British Punjab The struggle for Indian independence witnessed competing and conflicting interests in the Punjab. The landed elites of the Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities had loyally collaborated with the British since annexation, supported the Unionist Party and were hostile to the Congress party–led independence movement.[107] Amongst the peasantry and urban middle classes, the Hindus were the most active National Congress supporters, the Sikhs flocked to the Akali movement whilst the Muslims eventually supported the Muslim League.[107] Since the partition of the sub-continent had been decided, special meetings of the Western and Eastern Section of the Legislative Assembly were held on 23 June 1947 to decide whether or not the Province of the Punjab be partitioned. After voting on both sides, partition was decided and the existing Punjab Legislative Assembly was also divided into West Punjab Legislative Assembly and the East Punjab Legislative Assembly. This last Assembly before independence, held its last sitting on 4 July 1947.[108] Major cities Main article: List of cities in the Punjab region by population Historically, Lahore has been the capital of the Punjab region and continues to be the most populous city in the region, with a population of 11 million for the city proper. Faisalabad is the 2nd most populous city and largest industrial hub in this region. Other major cities are Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Multan, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, and Chandigarh are the other cities in Punjab with a city-proper population of over a million. Climate The snow-covered Himalayas The climate has significant impact on the economy of Punjab, particularly for agriculture in the region. Climate is not uniform over the whole region, as the areas adjacent to the Himalayas generally receive heavier rainfall than those at a distance.[109] There are three main seasons and two transitional periods. During the hot season, from mid-April to the end of June, the temperature may reach 49 °C (120 °F). The monsoon season, from July to September, is a period of heavy rainfall, providing water for crops in addition to the supply from canals and irrigation systems. The transitional period after the monsoon season is cool and mild, leading to the winter season, when the temperature in January falls to 5 °C (41 °F) at night and 12 °C (54 °F) by day. During the transitional period from winter to the hot season, sudden hailstorms and heavy showers may occur, causing damage to crops.[110] Western Punjab Climate data for Islamabad (1991-2020) Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high °C (°F) 30.1 (86.2) 30.0 (86.0) 37.0 (98.6) 44.0 (111.2) 45.6 (114.1) 50.0 (122.0) 45.0 (113.0) 42.0 (107.6) 38.1 (100.6) 38.0 (100.4) 32.2 (90.0) 28.3 (82.9) 50.0 (122.0) Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 17.7 (63.9) 20.0 (68.0) 24.8 (76.6) 30.6 (87.1) 36.1 (97.0) 38.3 (100.9) 35.4 (95.7) 33.9 (93.0) 33.4 (92.1) 30.9 (87.6) 25.4 (77.7) 20.4 (68.7) 28.9 (84.0) Daily mean °C (°F) 10.7 (51.3) 13.4 (56.1) 18.1 (64.6) 23.6 (74.5) 28.7 (83.7) 31.4 (88.5) 30.1 (86.2) 29.1 (84.4) 27.6 (81.7) 23.3 (73.9) 17.3 (63.1) 12.5 (54.5) 22.2 (71.9) Mean daily minimum °C (°F) 3.6 (38.5) 6.8 (44.2) 11.4 (52.5) 16.6 (61.9) 21.5 (70.7) 24.5 (76.1) 24.9 (76.8) 24.2 (75.6) 21.7 (71.1) 15.6 (60.1) 9.1 (48.4) 4.7 (40.5) 15.4 (59.7) Record low °C (°F) −6 (21) −6.5 (20.3) −3.8 (25.2) 1.1 (34.0) 5.5 (41.9) 13 (55) 15.2 (59.4) 14.5 (58.1) 13.3 (55.9) 5.7 (42.3) −0.6 (30.9) −2.8 (27.0) −6.0 (21.2) Average precipitation mm (inches) 55.2 (2.17) 99.5 (3.92) 96.5 (3.80) 58.1 (2.29) 39.9 (1.57) 78.4 (3.09) 310.6 (12.23) 317.0 (12.48) 135.4 (5.33) 34.4 (1.35) 17.7 (0.70) 00.0 (0.0) 1,242.7 (48.93) Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) 4.7 8.0 7.3 6.1 5.2 6.0 12.3 11.9 6.4 2.9 2.0 2.0 74.8 Mean monthly sunshine hours 195.7 187.1 202.3 252.4 319.0 300.1 264.4 250.7 262.2 275.5 247.9 195.6 2,952.9 Source 1: NOAA (sun, 1961-1990)[111][112] Source 2: PMD (extremes)[113] Central Punjab Climate data for Lahore (1991-2020, extremes 1931-2018) Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high °C (°F) 27.8 (82.0) 33.3 (91.9) 37.8 (100.0) 46.1 (115.0) 48.3 (118.9) 47.2 (117.0) 46.1 (115.0) 42.8 (109.0) 41.7 (107.1) 40.6 (105.1) 35.0 (95.0) 30.0 (86.0) 48.3 (118.9) Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 18.4 (65.1) 22.2 (72.0) 27.5 (81.5) 34.2 (93.6) 38.9 (102.0) 38.9 (102.0) 35.6 (96.1) 34.7 (94.5) 34.4 (93.9) 32.4 (90.3) 27.1 (80.8) 21.4 (70.5) 30.5 (86.9) Daily mean °C (°F) 13.1 (55.6) 16.5 (61.7) 21.6 (70.9) 27.7 (81.9) 32.3 (90.1) 33.2 (91.8) 31.3 (88.3) 30.8 (87.4) 29.9 (85.8) 26.3 (79.3) 20.4 (68.7) 15.1 (59.2) 24.9 (76.7) Mean daily minimum °C (°F) 7.6 (45.7) 10.8 (51.4) 15.7 (60.3) 21.1 (70.0) 25.6 (78.1) 27.4 (81.3) 27.1 (80.8) 26.9 (80.4) 25.3 (77.5) 20.1 (68.2) 13.7 (56.7) 8.8 (47.8) 19.2 (66.5) Record low °C (°F) −2.2 (28.0) 0.0 (32.0) 2.8 (37.0) 10.0 (50.0) 14.0 (57.2) 18.0 (64.4) 20.0 (68.0) 19.0 (66.2) 16.7 (62.1) 8.3 (46.9) 1.0 (33.8) −1.1 (30.0) −2.2 (28.0) Average precipitation mm (inches) 21.9 (0.86) 31.5 (1.24) 31.5 (1.24) 19.5 (0.77) 17.7 (0.70) 73.8 (2.91) 188.6 (7.43) 177.1 (6.97) 88.6 (3.49) 10.3 (0.41) 6.9 (0.27) 6.8 (0.27) 674.2 (26.56) Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) 2.5 3.5 3.6 2.8 2.9 5.0 9.1 8.7 4.9 1.1 0.7 1.1 45.9 Mean monthly sunshine hours 218.8 215.0 245.8 276.6 308.3 269.0 227.5 234.9 265.6 290.0 259.6 222.9 3,034 Source 1: NOAA (sun, 1961-1990)[114] Source 2: PMD[115] Eastern Punjab vte Climate data for Chandigarh (1961–1990, extremes 1954–2010) Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high °C (°F) 27.7 (81.9) 32.8 (91.0) 37.8 (100.0) 42.6 (108.7) 44.6 (112.3) 45.3 (113.5) 42.0 (107.6) 39.0 (102.2) 37.5 (99.5) 37.0 (98.6) 34.0 (93.2) 28.5 (83.3) 45.3 (113.5) Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 20.5 (68.9) 23.0 (73.4) 28.4 (83.1) 34.6 (94.3) 38.3 (100.9) 38.3 (100.9) 34.1 (93.4) 32.8 (91.0) 33.3 (91.9) 32.3 (90.1) 27.4 (81.3) 21.9 (71.4) 30.4 (86.7) Mean daily minimum °C (°F) 5.5 (41.9) 8.1 (46.6) 13.0 (55.4) 18.8 (65.8) 23.0 (73.4) 24.9 (76.8) 23.7 (74.7) 23.2 (73.8) 21.7 (71.1) 17.2 (63.0) 10.6 (51.1) 6.4 (43.5) 16.3 (61.3) Record low °C (°F) 0.0 (32.0) 0.0 (32.0) 4.2 (39.6) 7.8 (46.0) 13.4 (56.1) 14.8 (58.6) 14.2 (57.6) 17.2 (63.0) 14.3 (57.7) 9.4 (48.9) 3.7 (38.7) 0.0 (32.0) 0.0 (32.0) Average rainfall mm (inches) 43.3 (1.70) 44.2 (1.74) 30.5 (1.20) 11.7 (0.46) 28.9 (1.14) 131.8 (5.19) 278.1 (10.95) 289.0 (11.38) 158.2 (6.23) 22.8 (0.90) 6.4 (0.25) 19.2 (0.76) 1,064.1 (41.89) Average rainy days 2.8 2.7 2.0 0.8 1.6 5.5 10.8 10.9 4.8 1.4 0.8 1.4 45.5 Average relative humidity (%) (at 17:30 IST) 47 42 34 23 23 39 62 70 59 40 40 46 44 Source: India Meteorological Department[116][117] Demographics Main article: Punjabis Languages See also: Punjab, Pakistan § Languages; and Punjabi dialects and languages The dominant mother tongue in each District of Pakistan, according to the 2017 Pakistan Census The major language is Punjabi, which is written in India with the Gurmukhi script, and in Pakistan using the Shahmukhi script.[118] The Punjabi language has official status and is widely used in education and administration in Indian Punjab, whereas in Pakistani Punjab these roles are instead fulfilled by the Urdu language. Several languages closely related to Punjabi are spoken in the periphery of the region. Dogri,[119] Kangri,[120] and other western Pahari dialects are spoken in the north-central and northeastern peripheries of the region, while Bagri[121] is spoken in south-central and southeastern sections. Meanwhile, Saraiki is generally spoken across a wide belt covering the southwest, while in the northwest there are large pockets containing speakers of Hindko and Pothwari.[122] Linguistic demographics of Punjab Province Language Percentage 1911[105]: 370  Punjabi[e] 75.93% Western Hindi[f] 15.82% Western Pahari 4.11% Rajasthani 3.0% Balochi 0.29% Pashto 0.28% English 0.15% Other 0.42% Religions Main article: Religion in the Punjab Background Rig Veda, the oldest known Hindu text, originated in the Punjab region. Hinduism is the oldest of the religions practised by Punjabi people, however, the term Hindu was also applied over a vast territory with much regional diversity.[123] The historical Vedic religion constituted the religious ideas and practices in the Punjab during the Vedic period (1500–500 BCE), centered primarily in the worship of Indra.[124][125][126][127] The bulk of the Rigveda was composed in the Punjab region between circa 1500 and 1200 BC,[128] while later Vedic scriptures were composed more eastwards, between the Yamuna and Ganges rivers. An ancient Indian law book called the Manusmriti, developed by Brahmin Hindu priests, shaped Punjabi religious life from 200 BC onward.[129] Later, the spread of Buddhisim and Jainism in the Indian subcontinent saw the growth of Buddhism and Jainism in the Punjab.[130] Islam was introduced via southern Punjab in the 8th century, becoming the majority by the 16th century, via local conversion.[131][132] There was a small Jain community left in Punjab by the 16th century, while the Buddhist community had largely disappeared by the turn of the 10th century.[133] The region became predominantly Muslim due to missionary Sufi saints whose dargahs dot the landscape of the Punjab region.[134] The rise of Sikhism in the 1700s saw some Punjabis, both Hindu and Muslim, accepting the new Sikh faith.[129][135] A number of Punjabis during the colonial period of India became Christians, with all of these religions characterizing the religious diversity now found in the Punjab region.[129] Colonial era Main article: Religion in the Punjab § Subregions A number of Punjabis during the colonial period of India became Christians, with all of these religions characterizing the religious diversity now found in the Punjab region.[136] Additionally during the colonial era, the practice of religious syncretism among Punjabi Muslims and Punjabi Hindus was noted and documented by officials in census reports: "In other parts of the Province, too, traces of Hindu festivals are noticeable among the Muhammadans. In the western Punjab, Baisakhi, the new year's day of the Hindus, is celebrated as an agricultural festival, by all Muhammadans, by racing bullocks yoked to the well gear, with the beat of tom-toms, and large crowds gather to witness the show, The race is called Baisakhi and is a favourite pastime in the well-irrigated tracts. Then the processions of Tazias, in Muharram, with the accompaniment of tom-toms, fencing parties and bands playing on flutes and other musical instruments (which is disapproved by the orthodox Muhammadans) and the establishment of Sabils (shelters where water and sharbat are served out) are clearly influenced by similar practices at Hindu festivals, while the illuminations on occasions like the Chiraghan fair of Shalamar (Lahore) are no doubt practices answering to the holiday-making instinct of the converted Hindus."[105]: 174  "Besides actual conversion, Islam has had a considerable influence on the Hindu religion. The sects of reformers based on a revolt from the orthodoxy of Varnashrama Dharma were obviously the outcome of the knowledge that a different religion could produce equally pious and right thinking men. Laxity in social restrictions also appeared simultaneously in various degrees and certain customs were assimilated to those of the Muhammadans. On the other hand the miraculous powers of Muhammadan saints were enough to attract the saint worshiping Hindus, to allegiance, if not to a total change of faith... The Shamsis are believers in Shah Shamas Tabrez of Multan, and follow the Imam, for the time being, of the Ismailia sect of Shias... they belong mostly to the Sunar caste and their connection with the sect is kept a secret, like Freemasonry. They pass as ordinary Hindus, but their devotion to the Imam is very strong."[105]: 130  — Excerpts from the Census of India (Punjab Province), 1911 AD Population trends for major religious groups in the Punjab Province of the British India(1881–1941)[137][106]: 46  Religious group Population % 1881 Population % 1891 Population % 1901 Population % 1911[g] Population % 1921 Population % 1931 Population % 1941 Islam 47.6% 47.8% 49.6% 51.1% 51.1% 52.4% 53.2% Hinduism[h] 43.8% 43.6% 41.3% 35.8% 35.1% 31.7% 30.1% Sikhism 8.2% 8.2% 8.6% 12.1% 12.4% 14.3% 14.9% Christianity 0.1% 0.2% 0.3% 0.8% 1.3% 1.5% 1.5% Other religions / no religion 0.3% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1% 0.3% Religious groups in Punjab Province (1921–1941)  Religious group 1921[138]: 29  1931[139]: 277  1941[140]: 42  Pop. % Pop. % Pop. % Islam 12,813,383 51.05% 14,929,896 52.4% 18,259,744 53.22% Hinduism [h] 8,799,651 35.06% 9,018,509 31.65% 10,336,549 30.13% Sikhism 3,107,296 12.38% 4,071,624 14.29% 5,116,185 14.91% Christianity 332,939 1.33% 419,353 1.47% 512,466 1.49% Jainism 41,321 0.16% 43,140 0.15% 45,475 0.13% Buddhism 5,912 0.02% 7,753 0.03% 854 0.002% Zoroastrianism 526 0.002% 569 0.002% 4,359 0.01% Judaism 19 0.0001% 13 0% 39 0.0001% Others 13 0% 0 0% 34,190 0.1% Total population 25,101,060 100% 28,490,857 100% 34,309,861 100% Religion in West Punjab (1921–1941) Religious group 1921[138]: 29 [i] 1931[139]: 277 [j] 1941[140]: 42 [k] Pop. % Pop. % Pop. % Islam 8,975,288 75.49% 10,570,029 75.28% 13,022,160 75.1% Hinduism [h] 1,797,141 15.12% 1,957,878 13.94% 2,373,466 13.69% Sikhism 863,091 7.26% 1,180,789 8.41% 1,520,112 8.77% Christianity 247,030 2.08% 324,730 2.31% 395,311 2.28% Jainism 5,930 0.05% 6,921 0.05% 9,520 0.05% Zoroastrianism 309 0.003% 413 0.003% 312 0.002% Buddhism 172 0.001% 32 0.0002% 87 0.001% Judaism 16 0.0001% 6 0% 7 0% Others 8 0% 0 0% 19,128 0.11% Total Population 11,888,985 100% 14,040,798 100% 17,340,103 100% Territory comprises the contemporary subdivisions of Punjab, Pakistan and Islamabad Capital Territory. Religion in East Punjab (1921–1941) Religious group 1921[138]: 29 [l] 1931[139]: 277 [m] 1941[140]: 42 [n] Pop. % Pop. % Pop. % Hinduism [h] 7,002,510 53% 7,060,631 48.86% 7,963,083 46.93% Islam 3,838,095 29.05% 4,359,867 30.17% 5,237,584 30.86% Sikhism 2,244,205 16.99% 2,890,835 20.01% 3,596,073 21.19% Christianity 85,909 0.65% 94,623 0.65% 117,155 0.69% Jainism 35,391 0.27% 36,219 0.25% 35,955 0.21% Buddhism 5,740 0.04% 7,721 0.05% 767 0.005% Zoroastrianism 217 0.002% 156 0.001% 4,047 0.02% Judaism 3 0% 7 0% 32 0.0002% Others 5 0% 0 0% 15,062 0.09% Total Population 13,212,075 100% 14,450,059 100% 16,969,758 100% Territory comprises the contemporary subdivisions of Punjab, India, Chandigarh, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh. Religion in the Indo−Gangetic Plain West geographical division of Punjab Province (1901–1941)[106]: 48 [o] Religion Percentage 1901 1911 1921 1931 1941 Hinduism [h] 43.79% 42.62% 41.37% 36.59% 34.42% Islam 37.36% 37.81% 38.0% 39.72% 40.47% Sikhism 18.35% 18.73% 19.10% 21.88% 22.37% Christianity 0.18% 0.51% 1.22% 1.54% 1.60% Jainism 0.32% 0.33% 0.29% 0.27% 0.23% The Indo−Gangetic Plain West geographical division included Hisar district, Loharu State, Rohtak district, Dujana State, Gurgaon district, Pataudi State, Delhi, Karnal district, Jalandhar district, Kapurthala State, Ludhiana district, Malerkotla State, Firozpur district, Faridkot State, Patiala State, Jind State, Nabha State, Lahore District, Amritsar district, Gujranwala District, and Sheikhupura District.[105]: 2 [106]: 4  Religion in the Himalayan geographical division of Punjab Province (1901—1941)[106]: 48 [o] Religion Percentage 1901 1911 1921 1931 1941 Hinduism [h] 94.60% 94.53% 94.50% 94.42% 94.76% Islam 4.53% 4.30% 4.46% 4.52% 4.30% Sikhism 0.23% 0.46% 0.44% 0.49% 0.60% Christianity 0.20% 0.26% 0.26% 0.14% 0.10% Jainism 0.03% 0.02% 0.02% 0.02% 0.02% The Himalayan geographical division included Sirmoor State, Simla District, Simla Hill States, Bilaspur State, Kangra district, Mandi State, Suket State, and Chamba State.[105]: 2 [106]: 4  Religion in the Sub−Himalayan geographical division of Punjab Province (1901—1941)[106]: 48 [o] Religion Percentage 1901 1911 1921 1931 1941 Islam 60.62% 61.19% 61.44% 61.99% 62.32% Hinduism [h] 33.09% 27.36% 26.66% 24.20% 23.60% Sikhism 5.68% 9.74% 9.78% 11.65% 11.89% Christianity 0.48% 1.59% 2.01% 2.05% 2.04% Jainism 0.12% 0.12% 0.12% 0.11% 0.12% The Sub−Himalayan geographical division included Ambala district, Kalsia State, Hoshiarpur district, Gurdaspur district, Sialkot District, Gujrat District, Jhelum District, Rawalpindi District, and Attock District.[105]: 2 [106]: 4  Religion in the North−West Dry Area geographical division of Punjab Province (1901—1941)[106]: 48 [o] Religion Percentage 1901 1911 1921 1931 1941 Islam 79.01% 80.00% 78.95% 78.22% 77.86% Hinduism [h] 17.84% 13.58% 14.23% 13.86% 14.03% Sikhism 2.91% 5.62% 5.64% 6.73% 6.74% Christianity 0.23% 0.79% 1.17% 1.18% 1.17% Jainism 0.01% 0.01% 0.01% 0.01% 0.01% The North−West Dry Area geographical division included Montgomery District, Shahpur District, Mianwali District, Lyallpur District, Jhang District, Multan District, Bahawalpur State, Muzaffargarh District, Dera Ghazi Khan District, and the Biloch Trans–Frontier Tract.[105]: 2 [106]: 4  Post-partition In the present-day, the vast majority of Pakistani Punjabis are Sunni Muslim by faith, but also include significant minority faiths, such as Shia Muslims, Ahmadi Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Christians. Sikhism, founded by Guru Nanak is the main religion practised in the post-1966 Indian Punjab state. About 57.7% of the population of Punjab state is Sikh, 38.5% is Hindu, with the remaining population including Muslims, Christians, and Jains.[141] Punjab state contains the holy Sikh cities of Amritsar, Anandpur Sahib, Tarn Taran Sahib, Fatehgarh Sahib and Chamkaur Sahib. The Punjab was home to several Sufi saints, and Sufism is well established in the region.[142] Also, Kirpal Singh revered the Sikh Gurus as saints.[143] Religious groups in the Punjab Region (2011 Census of India & 2017 Census of Pakistan)[144][145][146][a] Religious group Punjab Region Punjab (Pakistan)[144] Punjab (India)[145] Haryana[146] Delhi[146] Himachal Pradesh[146] Islamabad[144] Chandigarh[146] Total population Percentage Pop. % Pop. % Pop. % Pop. % Pop. % Pop. % Pop. % Islam 114,130,322 60.13% 107,541,602 97.77% 535,489 1.93% 1,781,342 7.03% 2,158,684 12.86% 149,881 2.18% 1,911,877 95.43% 51,447 4.87% Hinduism 54,159,083 28.54% 211,641 0.19% 10,678,138 38.49% 22,171,128 87.46% 13,712,100 81.68% 6,532,765 95.17% 737 0.04% 852,574 80.78% Sikhism 18,037,312 9.5% — — 16,004,754 57.69% 1,243,752 4.91% 570,581 3.4% 79,896 1.16% — — 138,329 13.11% Christianity 2,715,952 1.43% 2,063,063 1.88% 348,230 1.26% 50,353 0.2% 146,093 0.87% 12,646 0.18% 86,847 4.34% 8,720 0.83% Jainism 267,649 0.14% — — 45,040 0.16% 52,613 0.21% 166,231 0.99% 1,805 0.03% — — 1,960 0.19% Ahmadiyya 160,759 0.08% 158,021 0.14% — — — — — — — — 2,738 0.14% — — Buddhism 139,019 0.07% — — 33,237 0.12% 7,514 0.03% 18,449 0.11% 78,659 1.15% — — 1,160 0.11% Others 185,720 0.1% 15,328 0.01% 98,450 0.35% 44,760 0.18% 15,803 0.09% 8,950 0.13% 1,169 0.06% 1,260 0.12% Total population 189,795,816 100% 109,989,655 100% 27,743,338 100% 25,351,462 100% 16,787,941 100% 6,864,602 100% 2,003,368 100% 1,055,450 100% Tribes See also: List of Punjabi tribes Jats in Delhi (1868) Rajputs in Delhi (1868) Brahmin in Lahore (c. 1799–1849) Left to right: Gurkha, Brahmin and Shudra (Chuhra-Chamar) in Shimla (1868) Arains in Lahore (1868) Tarkhans in Lahore (c. 1862–1872) Gujjars in Delhi (c. 1859–1869) Arora in Lahore (c. 1862–1872) Kumhars in Lahore (c. 1859–1869) The Punjab region is diverse. Historic census reports taken in the colonial era details the main castes are represented, alongside numerous subcastes and tribes (also known as Jāti or Barādarī), formed parts of the various ethnic groups in the region, contemporarily known as Punjabis, Saraikis, Haryanvis, Hindkowans, Dogras, Paharis, and more. Tribes of Punjab Province (1881–1931)[105]: 478 [147]: 348 [148]: 193–254 [149]: 367 [150]: 281–309  Tribe 1881 1891 1901 1911 1921 1931 Pop. % Pop. % Pop. % Pop. % Pop. % Pop. % Jat 4,223,885 20.31% 4,500,340 19.64% 4,884,285 20.04% 4,891,060 20.56% 5,453,747 21.73% 6,070,032 21.31% Rajput 1,648,426 7.92% 1,747,989 7.63% 1,784,402 7.32% 1,586,274 6.67% 1,853,025 7.38% 2,351,650 8.25% Brahman 1,040,771 5% 1,069,132 4.67% 1,077,252 4.42% 985,901 4.14% 994,529 3.96% 1,058,598 3.72% Chuhra 1,039,039 5% 1,175,504 5.13% 1,175,003 4.82% 912,998 3.84% 750,596 2.99% 681,359 2.39% Chamar 1,033,727 4.97% 1,147,913 5.01% 1,172,118 4.81% 1,075,941 4.52% 1,134,700 4.52% 1,102,465 3.87% Arain 795,471 3.82% 890,264 3.88% 1,003,698 4.12% 973,888 4.09% 1,086,455 4.33% 1,329,312 4.67% Julaha 593,199 2.85% 620,401 2.71% 651,800 2.67% 626,960 2.64% 643,403 2.56% 672,243 2.36% Tarkhan 564,385 2.71% 621,718 2.71% 675,361 2.77% 637,971 2.68% 614,912 2.45% 654,053 2.3% Gujjar 539,251 2.59% 600,198 2.62% 611,904 2.51% 595,598 2.5% 627,451 2.5% 696,442 2.44% Arora 538,465 2.59% 603,131 2.63% 647,945 2.66% 667,943 2.81% 707,495 2.82% 769,694 2.7% Kumhar 465,676 2.24% 515,331 2.25% 561,298 2.3% 542,906 2.28% 570,158 2.27% 62,0402 2.18% Bania 437,000 2.1% 442,000 1.93% 452,000 1.85% 404,000 1.7% 374,169 1.49% — — Jhinwar 418,499 2.01% 458,702 2% 450,362 1.85% 331,951 1.4% 371,418 1.48% 370,168 1.3% Khatri 392,413 1.89% 418,517 1.83% 433,579 1.78% 423,704 1.78% 452,902 1.8% 516,207 1.81% Awan 350,848 1.69% 389,402 1.7% 420,504 1.73% 425,450 1.79% 439,975 1.75% 538,760 1.89% Kanet 346,000 1.66% 370,000 1.61% 390,000 1.6% 404,000 1.7% 288,159 1.15% — — Mochi 334,034 1.61% 384,179 1.68% 408,314 1.68% 410,977 1.73% 429,242 1.71% 466,832 1.64% Baloch 331,851 1.6% 383,138 1.67% 466,645 1.92% 530,976 2.23% 531,084 2.12% 624,691 2.19% Nai 323,703 1.56% 371,144 1.62% 370,019 1.52% 344,845 1.45% 360,653 1.44% 380,657 1.34% Sheikh 293,606 1.41% 287,778 1.26% 264,656 1.09% 276,687 1.16% 244,800 0.98% 407,576 1.43% Lohar 291,506 1.4% 323,420 1.41% 347,099 1.42% 319,847 1.34% 322,195 1.28% 333,910 1.17% Teli 250,544 1.2% 291,513 1.27% 309,433 1.27% 284,505 1.2% 305,122 1.22% 339,124 1.19% Pathan 210,613 1.01% 221,262 0.97% 246,790 1.01% 272,547 1.15% 261,729 1.04% 345,438 1.21% Sayyid 200,728 0.96% 217,034 0.95% 230,802 0.95% 239,160 1.01% 247,087 0.98% 293,313 1.03% Mirasi 192,107 0.92% 230,700 1.01% 244,506 1% 223,093 0.94% 232,280 0.93% 242,685 0.85% Machhi 167,882 0.81% 196,574 0.86% 236,122 0.97% 239,702 1.01% 280,956 1.12% 314,791 1.1% Ahir 165,878 0.8% 188,838 0.82% 197,805 0.81% 201,299 0.85% 201,539 0.8% 221,897 0.78% Kashmiri 149,733 0.72% 141,280 0.62% 189,878 0.78% 175,334 0.74% 166,449 0.66% 200,066 0.7% Saini 147,183 0.71% 120,507 0.53% 121,722 0.5% 107,759 0.45% 120,376 0.48% 157,301 0.55% Sunar 145,903 0.7% 164,087 0.72% 174,628 0.72% 155,993 0.66% 127,090 0.51% 159,655 0.56% Kamboh 129,468 0.62% 150,646 0.66% 173,780 0.71% 171,536 0.72% 180,870 0.72% 239,385 0.84% Dhobi 123,767 0.6% 139,421 0.61% 142,342 0.58% 151,566 0.64% 163,908 0.65% 174,519 0.61% Meo 112,566 0.54% 115,916 0.51% 133,300 0.55% 120,752 0.51% 111,564 0.44% 124,821 0.44% Faqir 111,995 0.54% 300,214 1.31% 362,266 1.49% 262,511 1.1% 270,070 1.08% 283,634 1% Ghirath 110,507 0.53% 118,631 0.52% 121,718 0.5% 121,107 0.51% 117,949 0.47% 122,785 0.43% Chhimba 100,448 0.48% 141,819 0.62% 147,152 0.6% 124,090 0.52% 120,695 0.48% 92,491 0.32% Qassab 92,571 0.45% 109,435 0.48% 114,158 0.47% 117,363 0.49% 120,820 0.48% 127,198 0.45% Rathi 82,957 0.4% 100,656 0.44% 37,793 0.16% 97,763 0.41% 118,015 0.47% 134,093 0.47% Dagi & Koli 78,559 0.38% 167,772 0.73% 153,990 0.63% 172,269 0.72% 165,159 0.66% 182,056 0.64% Mughal 92,000 0.44% 118,000 0.51% 98,000 0.4% 99,000 0.42% 88,951 0.35% — — Jogi-Rawal 90,000 0.43% 91,000 0.4% 76,000 0.31% 83,000 0.35% 80,577 0.32% — — Dumna 66,169 0.32% 64,046 0.28% 53,394 0.22% 72,250 0.3% 36,669 0.15% 32,055 0.11% Dhanuk 66,000 0.32% 74,000 0.32% 77,000 0.32% 83,000 0.35% 87,278 0.35% — — Dogar 63,000 0.01% 70,000 0.01% 75,000 0.01% 68,000 0.29% 74,369 0.3% — — Khoja 62,000 0.3% 90,000 0.39% 99,000 0.41% 63,000 0.26% 87,461 0.35% — — Mallah 62,000 0.3% 77,000 0.34% 73,000 0.3% 78,000 0.33% 74,233 0.3% — — Mali 58,672 0.28% 95,989 0.42% 105,956 0.43% 96,883 0.41% 92,933 0.37% 72,299 0.25% Bharai 56,000 0.27% 67,000 0.29% 66,000 0.27% 58,000 0.24% 61,721 0.25% — — Barwala 55,000 0.26% 64,000 0.28% 69,000 0.28% 64,000 0.27% 65,907 0.26% — — Mahtam 50,313 0.24% 56,982 0.25% 82,719 0.34% 81,805 0.34% 94,325 0.38% 64,004 0.22% Labana 47,000 0.23% 55,000 0.24% 56,000 0.23% 58,000 0.24% 56,316 0.22% — — Megh 37,373 0.18% 41,068 0.18% 44,315 0.18% 39,549 0.17% 30,465 0.12% 22,539 0.08% Khokhar 36,000 0.17% 130,000 0.57% 108,000 0.44% 60,000 0.25% 69,169 0.28% — — Darzi 30,190 0.15% 36,919 0.16% 39,164 0.16% 35,508 0.15% 38,256 0.15% 45,688 0.16% Bawaria 22,013 0.11% 26,420 0.12% 29,112 0.12% 32,849 0.14% 34,807 0.14% 32,508 0.11% Sansi 19,920 0.1% 22,218 0.1% 26,000 0.11% 24,439 0.1% 17,402 0.07% 28,262 0.1% Od 15,652 0.08% 22,450 0.1% 26,160 0.11% 31,690 0.13% 28,502 0.11% 32,719 0.11% Sarera 10,792 0.05% 11,366 0.05% 9,587 0.04% 10,743 0.05% 9,873 0.04% 11,230 0.04% Pakhiwara 3,741 0.02% 3,674 0.02% 3,595 0.01% 3,711 0.02% 2,801 0.01% 3,100 0.01% Ghosi 2,221 0.01% 2,652 0.01% 3,012 0.01% 2,419 0.01% 502 0% 3,836 0.01% Harni 1,318 0.01% 4,157 0.02% 3,462 0.01% 3,360 0.01% 2,988 0.01% 3,387 0.01% Maliar — — — — 81,000 0.33% 90,000 0.38% 88,755 0.35% — — Mussalli — — — — 57,367 0.24% 309,543 1.3% 323,549 1.29% 412,295 1.45% Qureshi — — — — 53,000 0.22% 71,000 0.3% 97,625 0.39% — — Aggarwal — — — — — — 339,494 1.43% 349,322 1.39% 373,014 1.31% Bagaria — — — — — — 1,262 0.01% 1,619 0.01% 2,446 0.01% Total population 20,800,995 100% 22,915,894 100% 24,367,113 100% 23,791,841 100% 25,101,514 100% 28,490,869 100% Economy Main articles: Economy of Punjab, Pakistan and Economy of Punjab, India The historical region of Punjab produces a relatively high proportion of the food output from India and Pakistan.[citation needed] The region has been used for extensive wheat farming. In addition, rice, cotton, sugarcane, fruit, and vegetables are also grown.[151] The agricultural output of the Punjab region in Pakistan contributes significantly to Pakistan's GDP. Both Indian and Pakistani Punjab is considered to have the best infrastructure of their respective countries. The Indian state of Punjab is currently the 16th richest state or the eighth richest large state of India. Pakistani Punjab produces 68% of Pakistan's foodgrain production.[152] Its share of Pakistan's GDP has historically ranged from 51.8% to 54.7%.[153] Called "The Granary of India" or "The Bread Basket of India", Indian Punjab produces 1% of the world's rice, 2% of its wheat, and 2% of its cotton.[151] In 2001, it was recorded that farmers made up 39% of Indian Punjab's workforce.[154] In the Punjab region of Pakistan, 42.3% of the labour force is engaged in the agriculture sector.[155] Alternatively, Punjab is also adding to the economy with the increase in employment of Punjab youth in the private sector. Government schemes such as 'Ghar Ghar Rozgar and Karobar Mission' have brought enhanced employability in the private sector. As of October 2019, more than 32,000 youths have been placed in different jobs and 12,000 have been skill-trained.[156] Satguru (Sanskrit: सत्गुरु), or sadguru (Sanskrit: सद्गुरु), means the 'true guru' in Sanskrit. The term is distinguished from other forms of gurus, such as musical instructors, scriptural teachers, parents, and so on. A satguru has some special characteristics that are not found in any other types of spiritual guru. Satguru is a title given specifically only to an enlightened rishi or sant whose life's purpose is to guide the initiated shishya on the spiritual path, the summation of which is the realization of the Self through realization of God.[citation needed] Hinduism According to Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, a Hindu satguru is always a sannyasin, an unmarried renunciate,[1] but not all writers include this stricture.[2] Tukaram, a Hindu satguru, is known to have had a family. Satguru Kabir had a son, Kamal, who was very devout.[3] The words sant and satguru were prominently used in the spiritual ideology of Kabir in the 15th century. Kabir says "satpurush ko jansi, Tiska satguru naam", meaning the one who has seen the supreme lord of truth (satya purush) is satguru.[4][full citation needed] Kabir wrote "Devi dewal jagat mein, kotik poojey koye. Satguru ki pooja kiye, sabb ki pooja hoye",[5][full citation needed] meaning that worship of satguru includes in it worship of all deities. In other words, satguru is the physical form of God (sat purusha). In one of Kabir's songs the satguru is described as the real sadhu: He is the real Sadhu, who can reveal the form of the Formless to the vision of these eyes; Who teaches the simple way of attaining Him, that is other than rites or ceremonies; Who does not make you close the doors, and hold the breath, and renounce the world; Who makes you perceive the Supreme Spirit wherever the mind attaches itself; Who teaches you to be still in the midst of all your activities. Ever immersed in bliss, having no fear in his mind, he keeps the spirit of union in the midst of all enjoyments. The infinite dwelling of the Infinite Being is everywhere: in earth, water, sky, and air; Firm as the thunderbolt, the seat of the seeker is established above the void. He who is within is without: I see Him and none else.[6] Vasishtha, Rama's guru, was the satguru in the Treta Yuga.[citation needed] Swami Shankar Purushottam Tirtha quoted the Yoga Vasistha regarding the "real preceptor" (satguru): A real preceptor is one who can produce blissful sensation in the body of the disciple by their sight, touch, or instructions.[7] In Sant Mat and Advait Mat, the living satguru is considered the path to God-realization.[8] Sikhism In Sikh philosophy, Nanak, defines satguru as truth itself and not a physical entity. This truth emanates from reality and requires no blind faith. In the Japji Sahib he writes "Ek onkar, satguru prasad", which means "there is one creator, this knowledge I have learnt from reality". The Sikh (student) learns from reality as presented by the creator. Truth (sat) itself is the teacher (guru). The recommendation says that the first and the foremost qualification of the satguru is that he must have known the True Lord (God) himself.[9][full citation needed] Syncretic traditions Meher Baba equated worship of the satguru with worship of God: Consciously or unconsciously, directly or indirectly, each and every creature, each and every human being — in one form or the other — strives to assert individuality. But when eventually man consciously experiences that he is Infinite, Eternal and Indivisible, then he is fully conscious of his individuality as God, and as such experiences Infinite Knowledge, Infinite Power and Infinite Bliss. Thus Man becomes God, and is recognized as a Perfect Master, Satguru, or Kutub. To worship this Man is to worship God.[10] According to Dada Bhagwan, a satguru must maintain self-knowledge: It is very difficult to define and identify someone as a satguru. In the language of the scriptures, whom can you call a satguru? Sat is the Atma (the Soul, the Self); so, whoever has attained the Soul, that guru is a satguru! Therefore, an 'Atmagnani (knower of the Soul, Self-realized) can be called a satguru, for he has experienced the Self. Not all gurus have Atma Gnan. So, the one who continuously remains as the eternal element - the Self - is a satguru! The Gnani Purush is a satguru.[11][better source needed] Satsang A satsang is an audience with a satguru for religious instruction.[12] The name satsang is a Sanskrit word that means "gathering together for the truth" or, more simply, "being with the truth". Truth is what is real, what exists.[13][better source needed] Sikhism (/ˈsɪkɪzəm/ SIK-iz-əm), also known as Sikhi (Punjabi: ਸਿੱਖੀ Sikkhī, [ˈsɪk.kʰiː] ⓘ, from ਸਿੱਖ, Sikh, 'disciple / learner'),[i] is an Indian religion[9] and philosophy[10] in particular for the Sikh ethnoreligious group that originated in the Punjab region of India[ii] around the end of the 15th century CE. The Sikh scriptures are written in the Gurumukhi script particular to Sikhs.[11] It is one of the most recently founded major religious groups and among the largest in the world, with about 25–30 million adherents (known as Sikhs).[12] Sikhism developed from the spiritual teachings of Guru Nanak (1469–1539), the faith's first guru, and the nine Sikh gurus who succeeded him. The tenth guru, Gobind Singh (1666–1708), named the Sikh scripture Guru Granth Sahib as his successor, bringing to a close the line of human gurus and establishing the scripture as the 11th and last eternally living guru, a religious spiritual/life guide for Sikhs.[13][14][15] Guru Nanak taught that living an "active, creative, and practical life" of "truthfulness, fidelity, self-control and purity" is above metaphysical truth, and that the ideal man "establishes union with God, knows His Will, and carries out that Will".[16] Guru Hargobind, the sixth Sikh Guru (1606–1644), established the concept of mutual co-existence of the miri ('political'/'temporal') and piri ('spiritual') realms. The Sikh scripture opens with the Mul Mantar or alternatively spelled "Mool Mantar" (ਮੂਲ ਮੰਤਰ), fundamental prayer about Ik Onkar (ੴ, 'One God').[17][18] The core beliefs of Sikhism, articulated in the Guru Granth Sahib, include faith and meditation in the name of the one creator; divine unity and equality of all humankind; engaging in seva ('selfless service'); striving for justice for the benefit and prosperity of all; and honest conduct and livelihood while living a householder's life.[19][20][21] Following this standard, Sikhism rejects claims that any particular religious tradition has a monopoly on Absolute truth.[iii][22] Sikhism emphasizes simran (ਸਿਮਰਨ, meditation and remembrance of the teachings of Gurus),[23] which can be expressed musically through kirtan, or internally through naam japna ('meditation on His name') as a means to feel God's presence. It teaches followers to transform the "Five Thieves" (i.e., lust, rage, greed, attachment, and ego).[24] The Definition of Sikh is any human being who faithfully believes in:[25] I. One Immortal Being, II. Ten Gurus, from Guru Nanak Sahib to Guru Gobind Singh Sahib, III. The Guru Granth Sahib, IV. The utterances and teachings of the ten Gurus and, V. The baptism bequeathed by the tenth Guru, and who does not owe allegiance to any other religion, is a Sikh. Prominent Sikh shrines: 1. Golden Temple, Akaal Takht 2. Kesgarh Sahib 3. Damdama Sahib 4. Patna Sahib 5. Hazur Sahib 6. Panja Sahib 7. Nankana Sahib 8. Dera Sahib 9. Ber Sahib 10. Kartarpur Sahib, Dera Baba Nanak 11. Hemkund Sahib 12. Sis Ganj Sahib Tarn Taran Sahib – The World's Largest Sarovar (sacred pool) The religion developed and evolved in times of religious persecution, gaining converts from both Hinduism and Islam.[26] Mughal rulers of India tortured and executed two of the Sikh gurus—Guru Arjan (1563–1605) and Guru Tegh Bahadur (1621–1675)—after they refused to convert to Islam. The persecution of Sikhs triggered the founding of the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699 as an order to protect the freedom of conscience and religion,[27][28] with members expressing the qualities of a Sant-Sipāhī ('saint-soldier'). The Sikh community may be seen to correspond to A.D. Smith's definition of a politicized community, sharing common ancestry myths and historical memories of martyrdom and persecution under successive rulers.[11] Terminology The majority of Sikh scriptures were originally written in the alphabet of Gurmukhī, a script standardised by Guru Angad out of Laṇḍā scripts historically used in present-day Pakistan and North India.[29][30] Adherents of Sikhism are known as Sikhs, meaning 'students' or 'disciples' of the Guru. The English word Sikhism derives from the Punjabi verb Sikhi (Punjabi: ਸਿੱਖੀ Sikkhī, [ˈsɪk.kʰiː] ⓘ, from ਸਿੱਖ, Sikh, 'disciple / learner'),[iv] which connotes the "temporal path of learning" and is rooted in the word sikhana ('to learn').[31][32] Philosophy and teachings Main article: Ik Onkar Sikhism is classified as an Indian religion or Dharmic religion along with Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism.[v][vi][33] The basis of Sikhism lies in the teachings of Guru Nanak and his successors.[34][35] Sikh ethics emphasize the congruence between spiritual development and everyday moral conduct. Its founder Guru Nanak summarized this perspective as: "Truth is the highest virtue, but higher still is truthful living."[36]: 234  Sikhism lays emphasis on Ėk nūr te sab jag upjiā, 'From the one light, the entire universe welled up.'[37] Teachings Sikhism is a monotheistic and panentheistic religion, advocating the belief in One Universal God signified by the term Ik Onkar.[38][39] In Sikhism, the overall concept of God is Waheguru ('wondrous Teacher') considered to be nirankar ('shapeless'), akal ('timeless'), karta purakh ('the creator'), and agam agochar ('incomprehensible and invisible').[40] In a literal sense, God has no gender in Sikhism, though metaphorically, God is presented as masculine and God's power as feminine. For example, God is repeatedly referred to by the name akaal purkh ('beyond time and space') and nirankar ('without form') by the tenth guru Guru Gobind Singh Ji, but he also refers to God as his father, and God's creative power as his mother. Similarly, another example is that the scripture and eternal guru, the Guru Granth Sahib says that all humans are soul-brides who long to unite with their husband Lord.[41] In addition, the gurus also wrote in the Guru Granth Sahib that there are many worlds on which the transcendental God has created life.[42] The Sikh scripture begins with God as Ik Onkar (ੴ), the 'formless one',[18][36]: 227  understood in the Sikh tradition as monotheistic unity of God.[43] Ik onkar (sometimes capitalized) is more loosely rendered 'the one supreme reality', 'the one creator', 'the all-pervading spirit', and other ways of expressing a diffused but unified and singular sense of God and creation.[44] The traditional Mul Mantar goes from ik onkar until Nanak hosee bhee sach The opening line of the Guru Granth Sahib and each subsequent raga, mentions ik onkar:[45] ੴ ikk ōankār ਸਤਿ sat(i) ਨਾਮੁ nām(u) ਕਰਤਾ karatā ਪੁਰਖੁ purakh(u) ਨਿਰਭਉ nirabha'u ਨਿਰਵੈਰੁ niravair(u) ਅਕਾਲ akāl(a) ਮੂਰਤਿ mūrat(i) ਅਜੂਨੀ ajūnī ਸੈਭੰ saibhan ਗੁਰ gur(a) ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ॥ prasād(i) "There is one supreme being, the eternal reality, the creator, without fear and devoid of enmity, immortal, never incarnated, self-existent, known by grace through the true Guru." — Guru Granth Sahib (17th c.), p. 1 Worldly Illusion A sketch made in 1844 by Emily Eden of the "Akalees or Immortals". Digitized by the Panjab Digital Library. Māyā, defined as a temporary illusion or "unreality", is one of the core deviations from the pursuit of God and salvation: where worldly attractions give only illusory temporary satisfaction and pain that distracts from the process of the devotion of God. However, Nanak emphasised māyā as not a reference to the unreality of the world, but of its values. In Sikhism, the influences of ego, anger, greed, attachment, and lust, known as the pānj chor ('Five Thieves'), are believed to be particularly distracting and hurtful. Sikhs believe the world is currently in a state of Kali Yuga ('age of darkness') because the world is led astray by the love of and attachment to māyā.[46] The fate of people vulnerable to the five thieves is separation from God, and the situation may be remedied only after intensive and relentless devotion.[47] Timeless Truth An Akali-Nihang Sikh Warrior at Harmandir Sahib, also called the Golden Temple The original Sikh Symbol, or flag called the Nishan Sahib According to Guru Nanak, the supreme purpose of human life is to reconnect with Akal ('The Timeless One'). However, egotism is the biggest barrier in making this connection. Using the Guru's teaching remembrance of nām (the divine Name of the Lord)[48][49] leads to the end of egotism. Guru Nanak designated the word Guru ('teacher')[50] to mean the voice of "the spirit": the source of knowledge and the guide to salvation.[51] As ik onkar is universally immanent, Guru is indistinguishable from Akal and are one and the same.[52] One connects with Guru only with accumulation of selfless search of truth.[53] Ultimately the seeker realises that it is the consciousness within the body which is the seeker/follower of the Word that is the true Guru. The human body is just a means to achieve the reunion with Truth.[52] Once truth starts to shine in a person's heart, the essence of current and past holy books of all religions is understood by the person.[54] Liberation Guru Nanak's teachings are founded not on a final destination of heaven or hell, but on a spiritual union with the Akal, which results in salvation or jivanmukti ('enlightenment/liberation within one's lifetime'),[55] a concept also found in Hinduism.[56] Guru Gobind Singh makes it clear that human birth is obtained with great fortune, therefore one needs to be able to make the most of this life.[57] Sikhs accept reincarnation and karma concepts found in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism, but do not necessarily infer a metaphysical soteriology akin to those found in those other religions.[clarification needed][57][58][59] However, in Sikhism, both karma and liberation "is modified by the concept of God's grace" (nadar, mehar, kirpa, karam, etc.).[56] Guru Nanak states that "the body takes birth because of karma, but salvation is attained through grace."[60] To get closer to God, Sikhs: avoid the evils of maya; keep the everlasting truth in mind; practice shabad kirtan (musical recitation of hymns); meditate on naam; and serve humanity. Sikhs believe that being in the company of the satsang (association with sat, 'true', people) or sadh sangat is one of the key ways to achieve liberation from the cycles of reincarnation.[61] Power and Devotion (Miri and Piri) Main article: Miri piri Miri-Piri is a doctrine that has been practiced in Sikh religion since the seventeenth century. The doctrine of the "Mir" (social and political aspects of life) and the "Pir" (guides to spiritual aspect of life) was revealed by the first Guru of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, but propounded by the sixth Guru of Sikhism, Guru Hargobind,[62] on 12 June 1606.[63][64] After the martyrdom of his father, Guru Hargobind was elevated to the Guruship and fulfilled the prophecy that was given by the primal figure of Sikh, Baba Buddha, that the guru will possess spiritual and temporal power. Guru Hargobind introduced the two swords of Miri and Piri symbolizing both worldly (social and political) and spiritual authority.[65][63] The two kirpan of Miri and Piri are tied together with a khanda in center, so the combination of both is considered supreme, Where action informed or arising out of the spiritual heart completes one's purpose and meaning in the world of action: spirituality.[63][66] Guru Nanak, the first Sikh Guru and the founder of Sikhism, was a Bhakti saint.[67] He taught that the most important form of worship is Bhakti (devotion to Waheguru).[68] Guru Arjan, in the Sukhmani Sahib, recommended the true religion is one of loving devotion to God.[69][70] The Guru Granth Sahib includes suggestions on how a Sikh should perform constant Bhakti.[68][71][72] Some scholars call Sikhism a Bhakti sect of Indian traditions,[73][74] adding that it emphasises "nirguni Bhakti", i.e. loving devotion to a divine without qualities or physical form.[74]: 1–3 [75][76] While Western scholarship generally places Sikhism as arising primarily within a Hindu Bhakti movement milieu while recognizing some Sufi Islamic influences,[77][78]: 3, 42–3  some Indian Sikh scholars disagree and state that Sikhism transcended the environment it emerged from. The basis of the latter analysis is that Bhakti traditions did not clearly disassociate from Vedic texts and their cosmologies and metaphysical worldview, while the Sikh tradition clearly did disassociate from the Vedic tradition.[79] Some Sikh sects outside the Punjab region of India, such as those found in Maharashtra and Bihar, practice aarti (the ceremonial use of lamps) during Bhakti observances in a Sikh gurdwara.[80][81] But, most Sikh gurdwaras forbid aarti during their Bhakti practices.[78]: 201  While emphasizing Bhakti, the Sikh gurus also taught that the spiritual life and secular householder life are intertwined, and not separate. This logically follows from the panentheistic nature of Sikh philosophy.[82] In Sikh worldview, the everyday world is part of the Infinite Reality, increased spiritual awareness leads to increased and vibrant participation in the everyday world.[83] Guru Nanak described living an "active, creative, and practical life" of "truthfulness, fidelity, self-control and purity" as being higher than the metaphysical truth.[84] The 6th Sikh Guru, Guru Hargobind, after Guru Arjan's martyrdom, faced with oppression by the Islamic Mughal Empire, affirmed the philosophy that the political/temporal (Miri) and spiritual (Piri) realms are mutually coexistent.[85][86] According to the 9th Sikh Guru, Tegh Bahadur, the ideal Sikh should have both Shakti (power that resides in the temporal), and Bhakti (spiritual meditative qualities). This was developed into the concept of the "saint soldier" by the 10th Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh.[86] The concept of humanity as elaborated by Guru Nanak refines and negates the "monotheistic concept of self/God", and "monotheism becomes almost redundant in the movement and crossings of love".[87] The human's goal, taught the Sikh gurus, is to end all dualities of "self and other, I and not-I", attain the "attendant balance of separation-fusion, self-other, action-inaction, attachment-detachment, in the course of daily life".[87] Singing and Music Sikhs refer to the hymns of the gurus as Gurbani ('Guru's word'). Shabad Kirtan is the singing of Gurbani. The entire verses of Guru Granth Sahib are written in a form of poetry and rhyme to be recited in thirty-one Ragas of the Classical Indian Music as specified. However, the exponents of these are rarely to be found amongst the Sikhs who are conversant with all the Ragas in the Guru Granth Sahib. Guru Nanak started the Shabad Kirtan tradition and taught that listening to kirtan is a powerful way to achieve tranquility while meditating, and singing of the glories of the Supreme Timeless One (God) with devotion is the most effective way to come in communion with the Supreme Timeless One.[88] The three morning prayers for Sikhs consist of Japji Sahib, Jaap Sahib, and Tav-Prasad Savaiye.[89] Baptised Sikhs (Amritdharis) rise early and meditate, then recite all the Five Banis of Nitnem, before breakfast. Five Banis consists of Jap Ji Sahib, Jaap Sahib, Tav-Prasad Savaiye, Chaupai Sahib, Anand Sahib and recitation of the banis paath is followed by Ardās in which Sarbat da Bhala principle is taught by Gurus which literally means blessings for everyone, blessings to humankind in good faith without discrimination.[citation needed] Remembrance of the Divine Name A key practice by Sikhs is remembrance[49] of the Naam (divine name) Waheguru.[48] This contemplation is done through Nām Japna (repetition of the divine name) or Naam Simran (remembrance of the divine Name through recitation).[49][90] The verbal repetition of the name of God or a sacred syllable has been an ancient established practice in religious traditions in India, however, Sikhism developed Naam-simran as an important Bhakti practice.[91][92][93] Guru Nanak's ideal is the total exposure of one's being to the divine Name and a total conforming to Dharma or the "Divine Order". Nanak described the result of the disciplined application of nām simraṇ as a "growing towards and into God" through a gradual process of five stages. The last of these is Sach Khaṇḍ (The Realm of Truth) – the final union of the spirit with God.[51] Service and Action Further information: Seva (Indian religions) § Seva in Sikhism The Sikh gurus taught that by constantly remembering the divine name (naam simran) and through selfless service (sēvā) the devotee overcomes egotism (Haumai). This, it states, is the primary root of five evil impulses and the cycle of birth and death.[94][95] Service in Sikhism takes three forms: Tan (physical service, i.e. labor), Man (mental service, such as dedicating your heart for service of others), and Dhan (material service, including financial support).[96] Sikhism stresses kirat karō: that is "honest work". Sikh teachings also stress the concept of sharing, or vaṇḍ chakkō, giving to the needy for the benefit of the community.[97] Justice and Equality Sikhism regards God as the true emperor, the king of all kings, the one who dispenses justice through the law of karma, a retributive model and divine grace.[98][99][100] The term for justice in the Sikh tradition is Niāyā [100] It is related to the term dharam which in Sikhism connotes 'moral order' and righteousness (derived, but distinct from the etymologically related Hindu concept of dharma).[100] According to the Tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, states Pashaura Singh (a professor of Sikh studies), "one must first try all the peaceful means of negotiation in the pursuit of justice" and if these fail then it is legitimate to "draw the sword in defense of righteousness".[101] Sikhism considers "an attack on dharam is an attack on justice, on righteousness, and on the moral order generally" and the dharam "must be defended at all costs".[102] The divine name is its antidote for pain and vices. Forgiveness is taught as a virtue in Sikhism, yet it also teaches its faithful to shun those with evil intentions and to pick up the sword to fight injustice and religious persecution.[103] Sikhism does not differentiate religious obligations by sex. God in Sikhism has no sex, and the Sikh scripture does not discriminate against women, nor bar them from any roles.[104] Women in Sikhism have been in positions of leadership, including leading in wars and issuing orders or hukamnamas.[105][104][106] Ten Gurus and Authority Main article: Sikh gurus A rare Tanjore-style painting from the late 19th century depicting the ten Sikh Gurus with Bhai Bala and Bhai Mardana The term Guru comes from the Sanskrit gurū, meaning teacher, enlightener, guide, or mentor. The traditions and philosophy of Sikhism were established by ten Gurus from 1469 to 1708.[107][108] Each Guru added to and reinforced the message taught by the previous, resulting in the creation of the Sikh religion. Guru Nanak was the first Guru and appointed a disciple as successor. Guru Gobind Singh was the final Guru in human form. Before his death, Guru Gobind Singh decreed in 1708, that the Gurū Granth Sāhib would be the final and perpetual Guru of the Sikhs.[15] Guru Nanak stated that his Guru is God who is the same from the beginning of time to the end of time.[109] Nanak said to be a God's slave and servant, but maintained that he was only a guide and teacher.[110][111] Nanak stated that the human Guru is mortal, who is to be respected and loved but not worshipped.[110] When Guru, or Satguru (The True Guru) is used in Gurbani it is often referring to the highest expression of truthfulness.[112] Guru Angad succeeded Guru Nanak. Later, an important phase in the development of Sikhism came with the third successor, Guru Amar Das. Guru Nanak's teachings emphasised the pursuit of salvation; Guru Amar Das began building a cohesive community of followers with initiatives such as sanctioning distinctive ceremonies for birth, marriage, and death. Amar Das also established the manji (comparable to a diocese) system of clerical supervision.[51] Guru Amar Das's successor and son-in-law Guru Ram Das founded the city of Amritsar, which is home of the Harimandir Sahib and regarded widely as the holiest city for all Sikhs. Guru Arjan was arrested by Mughal authorities who were suspicious and hostile to the religious community he was developing.[113] His persecution and death inspired his successors to promote a military and political organization of Sikh communities to defend themselves against the attacks of Mughal forces.[citation needed] The interior of the Akal Takht The Sikh gurus established a mechanism which allowed the Sikh religion to react as a community to changing circumstances. The sixth guru, Guru Hargobind, was responsible for the creation of the concept of Akal Takht (throne of the timeless one), which serves as the supreme decision-making centre of Sikhism and sits opposite the Harmandir Sahib. The Akal Takht is located in the city of Amritsar. The leader is appointed by the Shiromani Gurdwara Pabandhak Committee (SPGC). The Sarbat Ḵẖālsā (a representative portion of the Khalsa Panth) historically gathers at the Akal Takht on special festivals such as Vaisakhi or Hola Mohalla and when there is a need to discuss matters that affect the entire Sikh nation. A gurmatā (literally, 'guru's intention') is an order passed by the Sarbat Ḵẖālsā in the presence of the Gurū Granth Sāhib. A gurmatā may only be passed on a subject that affects the fundamental principles of Sikh religion; it is binding upon all Sikhs.[114] The term hukamnāmā (literally, 'edict' or 'royal order') is often used interchangeably with the term gurmatā. However, a hukamnāmā formally refers to a hymn from the Gurū Granth Sāhib which is given order to Sikhs.[citation needed] Graph showing Life Spans and Guruship Spans of Sikh Gurus Approximate Life Spans and Guruship Spans of the 10 Sikh Gurus The word guru in Sikhism also refers to Akal Purkh (God), and God and guru can sometimes be synonymous in Gurbani (Sikh writings).[107][115] Scripture There is one primary scripture for the Sikhs: the Gurū Granth Sāhib. It is sometimes synonymously referred to as the Ādi Granth.[116] Chronologically, however, the Ādi Granth – literally, 'First Volume' – refers to the version of the scripture created by Guru Arjan in 1604.[117] The Gurū Granth Sāhib is the final expanded version of the scripture compiled by Guru Gobind Singh.[116][118] While the Guru Granth Sahib is an unquestioned scripture in Sikhism, another important religious text, the Dasam Granth, does not enjoy universal consensus, but is considered a secondary scripture by many Sikhs.[116] Adi Granth Main article: Ādi Granth The Ādi Granth was compiled primarily by Bhai Gurdas under the supervision of Guru Arjan between the years 1603 and 1604.[119] It is written in the Gurmukhī script, which is a descendant of the Laṇḍā script used in the Punjab at that time.[120] The Gurmukhī script was standardised by Guru Angad, the second guru of the Sikhs, for use in the Sikh scriptures and is thought to have been influenced by the Śāradā and Devanāgarī scripts. An authoritative scripture was created to protect the integrity of hymns and teachings of the Sikh Gurus, and thirteen Hindu and two Muslim bhagats of the Bhakti movement sant tradition in medieval India.[121] The thirteen Hindu bhagats whose teachings were entered into the text included Ramananda, Namdev, Pipa, Ravidas, Beni, Bhikhan, Dhanna, Jaidev, Parmanand, Sadhana, Sain, Sur, Trilochan, while the two Muslim bhagats were Kabir and Sufi saint Farid.[122][123][124][125] However, the bhagats in context often spoke of transcending their religious labels, Kabir often attributed to being a Muslim states in the Adi Granth, "I am not Hindu nor Muslim."[126] The Gurus following on this message taught that different methods of devotion are for the same infinite God.[127] Guru Granth Sahib Gurū Granth Sāhib – the primary scripture of Sikhism Main article: Guru Granth Sahib The Guru Granth Sahib is the holy scripture of the Sikhs, and is regarded as the living Guru. Compilation The Guru Granth started as a volume of Guru Nanak's poetic compositions. Prior to his death, he passed on his volume to Guru Angad (Guru 1539–1551). The final version of the Gurū Granth Sāhib was compiled by Guru Gobind Singh in 1678. It consists of the original Ādi Granth with the addition of Guru Tegh Bahadur's hymns. The predominant bulk of Guru Granth Sahib is compositions by seven Sikh Gurus – Guru Nanak, Guru Angad, Guru Amar Das, Guru Ram Das, Guru Arjan, Guru Teg Bahadur and Guru Gobind Singh. It also contains the traditions and teachings of thirteen Hindu Bhakti movement sants (saints) such as Ramananda, Namdev among others, and two Muslim saints namely Kabir and the Sufi Sheikh Farid.[51][122] The text comprises 6,000 śabads (line compositions),[116] which are poetically rendered and set to rhythmic ancient north Indian classical music.[128] The bulk of the scripture is classified into sixty rāgas, with each Granth rāga subdivided according to length and author. The hymns in the scripture are arranged primarily by the rāgas in which they are read.[116] Language and script Mul Mantar written by Guru Har Rai, showing the Ik Onkar at top The main language used in the scripture is known as Sant Bhāṣā, a language related to both Punjabi and Hindi and used extensively across medieval northern India by proponents of popular devotional religion (bhakti).[129] The text is printed in Gurumukhi script, believed to have been developed by Guru Angad.[116] The language shares the Indo-European roots found in numerous regional languages of India.[130] Teachings A group of Sikh musicians called Dhadi at the Golden Temple complex The vision in the Guru Granth Sahib, states Torkel Brekke, is a society based on divine justice without oppression of any kind.[131] The Granth begins with the Mūl Mantra, an iconic verse which received Guru Nanak directly from Akal Purakh (God).[citation needed] The traditional Mul Mantar goes from Ik Oankar until Nanak Hosee Bhee Sach.[citation needed] One God exists, truth by name, creative power, without fear, without enmity, timeless form, unborn, self-existent, by the Guru's grace.[132] (Punjabi: ੴ ਸਤਿ ਨਾਮੁ ਕਰਤਾ ਪੁਰਖੁ ਨਿਰਭਉ ਨਿਰਵੈਰੁ ਅਕਾਲ ਮੂਰਤਿ ਅਜੂਨੀ ਸੈਭੰ ਗੁਰ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ ॥, romanized: Ika ōaṅkāra sati nāmu karatā purakhu nirabha'u niravairu akāla mūrati ajūnī saibhaṅ gura prasādi) As guru The Tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh ji, named the Sikh scripture Guru Granth Sahib as his successor, terminating the line of human Gurus and making the scripture the literal embodiment of the eternal, impersonal Guru, where Gods/Gurus word serves as the spiritual guide for Sikhs.[13][14][15][133] All Sikhs are commanded to take the Granth as Guru[citation needed] (Punjabi: ਸੱਬ ਸਿੱਖਣ ਕੋ ਹੁਕਮ ਹੈ ਗੁਰੂ ਮਾਨਯੋ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ।, romanized: Sabb sikkhaṇ kō hukam hai gurū mānyō granth) The Guru Granth Sahib is installed in Sikh Gurdwara (temple); many Sikhs bow or prostrate before it on entering the temple. The Guru Granth Sahib is installed every morning and put to bed at night in many Gurdwaras.[134] The Granth is revered as eternal gurbānī and the spiritual authority.[135] The copies of the Guru Granth Sahib are not regarded as material objects, but as living subjects which are alive.[136] According to Myrvold, the Sikh scripture is treated with respect like a living person, in a manner similar to the Gospel in early Christian worship. Old copies of the Sikh scripture are not thrown away, rather funerary services are performed.[136] In India the Guru Granth Sahib is even officially recognised by the Supreme Court of India as a judicial person which can receive donations and own land.[136] Yet, some Sikhs also warn that, without true comprehension of the text, veneration for the text can lead to bibliolatry, with the concrete form of the teachings becoming the object of worship instead of the teachings themselves.[136] Relation to Hinduism and Islam Main articles: Sikhism and Hinduism and Islam and Sikhism The Sikh scriptures use Hindu terminology, with references to the Vedas, and the names of gods and goddesses in Hindu bhakti movement traditions, such as Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma, Parvati, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Rama, Krishna, but not to worship.[131][137][self-published source][138] It also refers to the spiritual concepts in Hinduism (Ishvara, Bhagavan, Brahman) and the concept of God in Islam (Allah) to assert that these are just "alternate names for the Almighty One".[139] While the Guru Granth Sahib acknowledges the Vedas, Puranas and Quran,[140] it does not imply a syncretic bridge between Hinduism and Islam,[141] but emphasises focusing on nitnem banis like Japu (repeating mantra of the divine Name of God – Waheguru), instead of Muslim practices such as circumcision or praying by prostrating on the ground to God in a specific direction, or Hindu rituals such as wearing thread.[142] Dasam Granth The Dasam Granth is a Sikh scripture which contains texts attributed to Guru Gobind Singh, including his autobiography Bachittar Natak. The major narrative in the text is on Chaubis Avtar (24 Avatars of Hindu god Vishnu), Rudra, Brahma, the Hindu warrior goddess Chandi and a story of Rama in Bachittar Natak.[143] Main article: Dasam Granth The Dasam Granth is a scripture of Sikhs which contains texts attributed to Guru Gobind Singh. Scholars, on the other hand, attribute the work to after the Guru's death, being authored by an unknown poet. The Dasam Granth is important to a great number of Sikhs, however it does not have the same authority as the Guru Granth Sahib. Some compositions of the Dasam Granth like Jaap Sahib, (Amrit Savaiye), and Benti Chaupai are part of the daily prayers (Nitnem) for Sikhs.[144] The first verse of the ardās prayer is from Chandi di Var. The Dasam Granth is largely versions of Hindu mythology from the Puranas, secular stories from a variety of sources called Charitro Pakhyan – tales to protect careless men from perils of lust.[145][146] Many versions of Dasam Granth exist, and the authenticity of the Dasam Granth has in modern times become one of the most debated topics within Sikhism. The Akali Nihangs consider the Dasam and Sarbloh Granth as extensions of the Guru Granth Sahib.[147] The text played a significant role in Sikh history, but in modern times parts of the text have seen antipathy and discussion among Sikhs.[143] Sarbloh Granth The Sarbloh Granth is a scripture containing 6,500 poetic stanzas traditionally attributed to Guru Gobind Singh. Scholars, on the other hand, attribute the work to after the Guru's death, being authored by an unknown poet.[148] Verses from the Sarbloh Granth. This scripture contains, alongside various topics, the Sikh Art and Laws of War. This scripture is largely revered by Akali Nihangs with many non-Nihang Sikhs rejecting it as an authentic work of the 10th Guru.[149] According to Harbans Singh the authenticity of the work is rejected on the grounds of its writing style and mastery of poetry not matching up with Guru Gobind Singh's Dasam Granth work. Also, the text makes mention of a work composed in 1719, much after the death of the Guru Gobind Singh.[150] W. H. McLeod dates the work to the late 18th century and believes it was authored by an unknown poet and was mistakenly attributed to the tenth Guru.[151] Janamsakhis Main article: Janamsakhis The Janamsākhīs (literally birth stories), are writings which profess to be biographies of Guru Nanak. Although not scripture in the strictest sense, they provide a hagiographic look at Guru Nanak's life and the early start of Sikhism. There are several – often contradictory and sometimes unreliable – Janamsākhīs and they are not held in the same regard as other sources of scriptural knowledge.[citation needed] Observances See also: Sikh rites The Darbar Sahib of a Gurdwara Observant Sikhs adhere to long-standing practices and traditions to strengthen and express their faith. The daily recitation of the divine name of God VaheGuru and from a memory of specific passages from the Gurū Granth Sāhib, like the Japu (or Japjī, literally chant) hymns is recommended immediately after rising and bathing. Baptized Sikhs recite the five-morning prayers, the evening and night prayer. Family customs include both reading passages from the scripture and attending the gurdwara (also gurduārā, meaning the doorway to God; sometimes transliterated as Gurudwara). There are many gurdwaras prominently constructed and maintained across India, as well as in almost every nation where Sikhs reside. Gurdwaras are open to all, regardless of religion, background, caste, or race.[citation needed] Worship in a gurdwara consists chiefly of the singing of passages from the scripture. Sikhs will commonly enter the gurdwara, touch the ground before the holy scripture with their foreheads. The recitation of the eighteenth century ardās is also customary for attending Sikhs. The ardās recalls past sufferings and glories of the community, invoking divine grace for all humanity.[152] The gurdwara is also the location for the historic Sikh practice of "Langar" or the community meal. All gurdwaras are open to anyone of any faith for a free meal, always vegetarian.[153] People eat together, and the kitchen is maintained and serviced by Sikh community volunteers.[154] Sikh festivals/events Guru Amar Das chose festivals for celebration by Sikhs like Vaisakhi, wherein he asked Sikhs to assemble and share the festivities as a community.[155][156] Vaisakhi is one of the most important festivals of Sikhs, while other significant festivals commemorate the birth, lives of the Gurus and Sikh martyrs. Historically, these festivals have been based on the moon calendar Bikrami calendar.[157] In 2003, the SGPC, the Sikh organisation in charge of upkeep of the historical gurdwaras of Punjab, adopted Nanakshahi calendar.[157] The new calendar is highly controversial among Sikhs and is not universally accepted. Sikh festivals include the following: Vaisakhi which includes Parades and Nagar Kirtan and occurs on 13 April or 14 April. Sikhs celebrate it because on this day, which fell on 30 March 1699, the tenth Guru, Gobind Singh, inaugurated the Khalsa, the 11th body of Guru Granth Sahib and leader of Sikhs until eternity.[citation needed] Nagar Kirtan involves the processional singing of holy hymns throughout a community. While practiced at any time, it is customary in the month of Visakhi (or Vaisakhi). Traditionally, the procession is led by the saffron-robed Panj Piare (the five beloved of the Guru), who are followed by the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy Sikh scripture, which is placed on a float.[citation needed] Nagar Kirtan crowd listening to Kirtan at Yuba City, California. Band Chor Diwas has been another important Sikh festival in its history.[158] In recent years, instead of Diwali, the post-2003 calendar released by SGPC has named it the Bandi Chhor Divas.[159] Sikhs celebrate Guru Hargobind's release from the Gwalior Fort, with several innocent Rajas (kings) who were also imprisoned by Mughal Emperor Jahangir in 1619. This day continues to be commemorated on the same day of Hindu festival of Diwali, with lights, fireworks and festivities.[citation needed] Hola Mohalla is a tradition started by Guru Gobind Singh. It starts the day after Sikhs celebrate Holi,[160] sometimes referred to as Hola.[161] Guru Gobind Singh modified Holi with a three-day Hola Mohalla extension festival of martial arts. The extension started the day after the Holi festival in Anandpur Sahib, where Sikh soldiers would train in mock battles, compete in horsemanship, athletics, archery and military exercises.[162][163] Gurpurbs are celebrations or commemorations based on the lives of the Sikh Gurus. They tend to be either birthdays or celebrations of Sikh martyrdom. All ten Gurus have Gurpurbs on the Nanakshahi calendar, but it is Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh who have a gurpurb that is widely celebrated in Gurdwaras and Sikh homes. The martyrdoms are also known as a Shaheedi Gurpurbs, which mark the martyrdom anniversary of Guru Arjan and Guru Tegh Bahadur.[citation needed] Ceremonies and customs Sikh wedding Sikh funeral procession, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh Khalsa Sikhs have also supported and helped develop major pilgrimage traditions to sacred sites such as Harmandir Sahib, Anandpur Sahib, Fatehgarh Sahib, Patna Sahib, Hazur Nanded Sahib, Hemkund Sahib and others.[164] Sikh pilgrims and Sikhs of other sects customarily consider these as holy and a part of their Tirath.[165] The Hola Mohalla around the festival of Holi, for example, is a ceremonial and customary gathering every year in Anandpur Sahib attracting over 100,000 Sikhs.[166][167] Major Sikh temples feature a sarovar where some Sikhs take a customary dip. Some take home the sacred water of the tank particularly for sick friends and relatives,[168][169] believing that the waters of such sacred sites have restorative powers and the ability to purify one's karma.[170][vii][168] The various Gurus of Sikhism have had different approaches to pilgrimage.[171] Upon a child's birth, the Guru Granth Sahib is opened at a random point and the child is named using the first letter on the top left hand corner of the left page. All boys are given the last name Singh, and all girls are given the last name Kaur (this was once a title which was conferred on an individual upon joining the Khalsa).[172] The Sikh marriage ritual includes the anand kāraj ceremony.[173][174] The marriage ceremony is performed in front of the Guru Granth Sahib by a baptized Khalsa, Granthi of the Gurdwara.[175][176] The tradition of circling the Guru Granth Sahib and Anand Karaj among Khalsa is practised since the fourth Guru, Guru Ram Das. Its official recognition and adoption came in 1909, during the Singh Sabha Movement.[176] Upon death, the body of a Sikh is usually cremated. If this is not possible, any respectful means of disposing the body may be employed. The kīrtan sōhilā and ardās prayers are performed during the funeral ceremony (known as antim sanskār).[177] Initiation and the Khalsa Khalsa (meaning "pure and sovereign") is the collective name given by Guru Gobind Singh to those Sikhs who have been fully initiated by taking part in a ceremony called ammrit sañcār (nectar ceremony).[178] During this ceremony, sweetened water is stirred with a double-edged sword while liturgical prayers are sung; it is offered to the initiating Sikh, who ritually drinks it.[178] Many Sikhs are not formally and fully initiated, as they do not undergo this ceremony, but do adhere to some components of Sikhism and identify as Sikhs. The initiated Sikh, who is believed to be reborn, is referred to as Amritdhari or Khalsa Sikh, while those who are not initiated or baptised are referred to as Kesdhari or Sahajdhari Sikhs.[178][179] The first time that this ceremony took place was on Vaisakhi, which fell on 30 March 1699 at Anandpur Sahib in Punjab.[178] It was on that occasion that Gobind Singh baptised the Pañj Piārē – the five beloved ones, who in turn baptised Guru Gobind Singh himself. To males who initiated, the last name Singh, meaning "lion", was given, while the last name Kaur, meaning "princess", was given to baptised Sikh females.[178] Baptised Sikhs wear five items, called the Five Ks (in Punjabi known as pañj kakkē or pañj kakār), at all times. The five items are: kēs (uncut hair), kaṅghā (small wooden comb), kaṛā (circular steel or iron bracelet), kirpān (sword/dagger), and kacchera (special undergarment).[178] The Five Ks have both practical and symbolic purposes.[180] History Main article: History of Sikhism Map of Punjab, where Sikhism originated, against present-day borders Sikhism originated around the 15th-century.[181][182][183][184][185][186] Guru Nanak (1469–1539), the founder of Sikhism, was born in the village of Rāi Bhōi dī Talwandī, now called Nankana Sahib (in present-day Pakistan).[187] His parents were Punjabi Khatri Hindus.[188][189] According to the hagiography Puratan Janamsakhi composed more than two centuries after his death and probably based on oral tradition,[190] Nanak as a boy was fascinated by religion and spiritual matters, spending time with wandering ascetics and holy men.[191] His friend was Mardana, a Muslim. Together they would sing devotional songs all night in front of the public, and bathe in the river in the morning. One day, at the usual bath, Nanak went missing and his family feared he had drowned. Three days later he returned home, and declared: "There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim" ("nā kōi hindū nā kōi musalmān"). Thereafter, Nanak started preaching his ideas that form the tenets of Sikhism. In 1526, Guru Nanak at age 50, started a small commune in Kartarpur and his disciples came to be known as Sikhs.[191] Although the exact account of his itinerary is disputed, hagiographic accounts state he made five major journeys, spanning thousands of miles: the first tour being east towards Bengal and Assam; the second south towards Andhra and Tamil Nadu; the third north to Kashmir, Ladakh, and Mount Sumeru[192] in Tibet; and the fourth to Baghdad.[193] In his last and final tour, he returned to the banks of the Ravi River to end his days.[194] There are two competing theories on Guru Nanak's teachings.[195] One, according to Cole and Sambhi, is based on hagiographical Janamsakhis,[196] and states that Nanak's teachings and Sikhism were a revelation from God, and not a social protest movement nor any attempt to reconcile Hinduism and Islam in the 15th century.[197] The other states that Nanak was a guru. According to Singha, "Sikhism does not subscribe to the theory of incarnation or the concept of prophethood. But it has a pivotal concept of Guru. He is not an incarnation of God, not even a prophet. He is an illumined soul."[198] The second theory continues that hagiographical Janamsakhis were not written by Nanak, but by later followers without regard for historical accuracy, and contain numerous legends and myths created to show respect for Nanak.[199] The term revelation, clarify Cole and Sambhi, in Sikhism is not limited to the teachings of Nanak, but is extended to all Sikh gurus, as well as the words of past, present and future men and women, who possess divine knowledge intuitively through meditation. The Sikh revelations include the words of non-Sikh bhagats, some who lived and died before the birth of Nanak, and whose teachings are part of the Sikh scriptures.[200] The Adi Granth and successive Sikh gurus repeatedly emphasised, states Mandair, that Sikhism is "not about hearing voices from God, but it is about changing the nature of the human mind, and anyone can achieve direct experience and spiritual perfection at any time".[195] Historical influences The roots of the Sikh tradition are, states Louis Fenech, perhaps in the Sant-tradition of India whose ideology grew to become the Bhakti tradition.[viii] Furthermore, adds Fenech:[201] Few Sikhs would mention these Indic texts and ideologies in the same breadth as the Sikh tradition, let alone trace elements of their tradition to this chronological and ideological point, despite the fact that the Indic mythology permeates the Sikh sacred canon, the Guru Granth Sahib, and the secondary canon, the Dasam Granth ... and adds delicate nuance and substance to the sacred symbolic universe of the Sikhs of today and of their past ancestors. The development of Sikhism was influenced by the Bhakti movement;[ix][viii][x][202] however, Sikhism was not simply an extension of the Bhakti movement.[79][203] Sikhism, for instance, disagreed with some of the views of Bhakti saints Kabir and Ravidas.[xi][203] Sikhism developed while the region was being ruled by the Mughal Empire. Two of the Sikh Gurus, Guru Arjan and Guru Tegh Bahadur, refused to convert to Islam and were tortured and executed by the Mughal rulers.[27][204] The Islamic era persecution of Sikhs triggered the founding of the Khalsa, as an order for freedom of conscience and religion.[27][205][28] A Sikh is expected to embody the qualities of a "Sant-Sipāhī" – a saint-soldier.[98][99] Growth of Sikhism Guru Nanak explaining Sikh teachings to Sadhus After its inception, Sikhism grew as it gained converts among Hindus and Muslims in the Punjab region.[26][206][207][208] In 1539, Guru Nanak chose his disciple Lahiṇā as a successor to the Guruship rather than either of his sons. Lahiṇā was named Guru Angad and became the second Guru of the Sikhs.[209][210] Nanak conferred his choice at the town of Kartarpur on the banks of the river Ravi. Sri Chand, Guru Nanak's son was also a religious man, and continued his own commune of Sikhs. His followers came to be known as the Udasi Sikhs, the first parallel sect of Sikhism that formed in Sikh history.[211] The Udasis believe that the Guruship should have gone to Sri Chand, since he was a man of pious habits in addition to being Nanak's son.[211] Guru Angad, before joining Guru Nanak's commune, worked as a pujari (priest) and religious teacher centered around Hindu goddess Durga.[210][212] On Nanak's advice, Guru Angad moved from Kartarpur to Khadur, where his wife Khivi and children were living, until he was able to bridge the divide between his followers and the Udasis. Guru Angad continued the work started by Guru Nanak and is widely credited for standardising the Gurmukhī script as used in the sacred scripture of the Sikhs.[212] Guru Amar Das became the third Sikh Guru in 1552 at the age of 73. He adhered to the Vaishnavism tradition of Hinduism for much of his life, before joining the commune of Guru Angad.[213][214] Goindval became an important centre for Sikhism during the Guruship of Guru Amar Das. He was a reformer, and discouraged veiling of women's faces (a Muslim custom) as well as sati (a Hindu custom).[215][216] He encouraged the Kshatriya people to fight in order to protect people and for the sake of justice, stating this is Dharma.[217] Guru Amar Das started the tradition of appointing manji (zones of religious administration with an appointed chief called sangatias),[213] introduced the dasvandh (tithe) system of revenue collection in the name of Guru and as pooled community religious resource,[218] and the famed langar tradition of Sikhism where anyone, without discrimination of any kind, could get a free meal in a communal seating. The collection of revenue from Sikhs through regional appointees helped Sikhism grow.[213][219] Guru Amar Das named his disciple and son-in-law Jēṭhā as the next Guru, who came to be known as Guru Ram Das. The new Guru faced hostilities from the sons of Guru Amar Das and therefore shifted his official base to lands identified by Guru Amar Das as Guru-ka-Chak.[220] He moved his commune of Sikhs there and the place then was called Ramdaspur, after him. This city grew and later became Amritsar – the holiest city of Sikhism.[221] Guru Ram Das expanded the manji organization for clerical appointments in Sikh temples, and for revenue collections to theologically and economically support the Sikh movement.[220] In 1581, Guru Arjan – the youngest son of Guru Ram Das, became the fifth Guru of the Sikhs. The choice of successor, as throughout most of the history of Sikh Guru successions, led to disputes and internal divisions among the Sikhs.[222] The elder son of Guru Ram Das named Prithi Chand is remembered in the Sikh tradition as vehemently opposing Guru Arjan, creating a faction Sikh community which the Sikhs following Guru Arjan called as Minaas (literally, "scoundrels").[223][224] Guru Arjan is remembered in the Sikh for many things. He built the first Harimandir Sahib (later to become the Golden Temple). He was a poet and created the first edition of Sikh sacred text known as the Ādi Granth (literally "the first book") and included the writings of the first five Gurus and other enlightened 13 Hindu and 2 Muslim Sufi saints. In 1606, he was tortured and killed by the Mughal emperor Jahangir,[225] for refusing to convert to Islam.[226][27][227] His martyrdom is considered a watershed event in the history of Sikhism.[27][228] Political advancement After the martyrdom of Guru Arjan, his son Guru Hargobind at age eleven became the sixth Guru of the Sikhs, and Sikhism dramatically evolved to become a political movement in addition to being religious.[229] Guru Hargobind carried two swords, calling one spiritual and the other for temporal purpose (known as mīrī and pīrī in Sikhism).[230][self-published source] According to the Sikh tradition, Guru Arjan asked his son Hargobind to start a military tradition to protect the Sikh people and always keep himself surrounded by armed Sikhs. The building of an armed Sikh militia began with Guru Hargobind.[229] Guru Hargobind was soon arrested by the Mughals and kept in jail in Gwalior. It is unclear how many years he served in prison, with different texts stating it to be between 2 and 12.[231] He married three women, built a fort to defend Ramdaspur and created a formal court called Akal Takht, now the highest Khalsa Sikh religious authority.[232] In 1644, Guru Hargobind named his grandson Har Rai as the Guru. The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan attempted political means to undermine the Sikh tradition, by dividing and influencing the succession.[233] The Mughal ruler gave land grants to Dhir Mal, a grandson of Guru Hargobind living in Kartarpur, and attempted to encourage Sikhs to recognise Dhir Mal as the rightful successor to Guru Hargobind.[233] Dhir Mal issued statements in favour of the Mughal state, and critical of his grandfather Guru Arjan. Guru Hargobind rejected Dhir Mal, the latter refused to give up the original version of the Adi Granth he had, and the Sikh community was divided.[233] Guru Har Rai is famed to have met Dara Shikoh during a time Dara Shikoh and his younger brother Aurangzeb were in a bitter succession fight. Aurangzeb summoned Guru Har Rai, who refused to go and sent his elder son Ram Rai instead.[234] The emperor found a verse in the Sikh scripture insulting to Muslims, and Ram Rai agreed it was a mistake then changed it. Ram Rai thus pleased Aurangzeb, but displeased Guru Har Rai who excommunicated his elder son. He nominated his younger son Guru Har Krishan to succeed him in 1661. Aurangzeb responded by granting Ram Rai a jagir (land grant). Ram Rai founded a town there and enjoyed Aurangzeb's patronage; the town came to be known as Dehradun, after Dehra referring to Ram Rai's shrine. Sikhs who followed Ram Rai came to be known as Ramraiya Sikhs.[234][235] However, according to rough estimates, there are around 120–150 million (12–15 crore)[236] Guru Har Krishan became the eighth Guru at the age of five, and died of smallpox before reaching the age of eight. No hymns composed by these three Gurus are included in the Guru Granth Sahib.[237] Guru Tegh Bahadur, the uncle of Guru Har Krishan, became Guru in 1665. Tegh Bahadur resisted the forced conversions of Kashmiri Pandits[238] and non-Muslims[239] to Islam, and was publicly beheaded in 1675 on the orders of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in Delhi for refusing to convert to Islam.[240][27][241][242][243][244][245] His beheading traumatized the Sikhs. His body was cremated in Delhi, the head was carried secretively by Sikhs and cremated in Anandpur. He was succeeded by his son, Gobind Rai, who militarised his followers by creating the Khalsa in 1699, and baptising the Pañj Piārē.[246] From then on, he was known as Guru Gobind Singh, and Sikh identity was redefined into a political force resisting religious persecution.[247] Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib in Delhi. The long window under the marble platform is the location where Guru Tegh Bahadur was executed by the Mughals. Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib in Delhi. The long window under the marble platform is the location where Guru Tegh Bahadur was executed by the Mughals.   Artistic rendering of the execution of Bhai Mati Das by the Mughals. This image is from a Sikh Ajaibghar near the towns of Mohali and Sirhind in Punjab, India. Artistic rendering of the execution of Bhai Mati Das by the Mughals. This image is from a Sikh Ajaibghar near the towns of Mohali and Sirhind in Punjab, India. Sikh confederacy and the rise of the Khalsa Sculpture at Mehdiana Sahib of the execution of Banda Singh Bahadur in 1716 by the Mughals. Sculpture at Mehdiana Sahib of the execution of Banda Singh Bahadur in 1716 by the Mughals.   Some bodyguards of Maharaja Ranjit Singh at the Sikh capital, Lahore, Punjab. Some bodyguards of Maharaja Ranjit Singh at the Sikh capital, Lahore, Punjab. Guru Gobind Singh inaugurated the Khalsa (the collective body of all initiated Sikhs) as the Sikh temporal authority in the year 1699. It created a community that combines its spiritual purpose and goals with political and military duties.[248][15][129] Shortly before his death, Guru Gobind Singh proclaimed the Gurū Granth Sāhib (the Sikh Holy Scripture) to be the ultimate spiritual authority for the Sikhs.[249] The Sikh Khalsa's rise to power began in the 17th century during a time of growing militancy against Mughal rule. The creation of a Sikh Empire began when Guru Gobind Singh sent a Sikh general, Banda Singh Bahadur, to fight the Mughal rulers of India and those who had committed atrocities against Pir Buddhu Shah. Banda Singh advanced his army towards the main Muslim Mughal city of Sirhind and, following the instructions of the Guru, punished all the culprits. Soon after the invasion of Sirhind, while resting in his chamber after the Rehras prayer Guru Gobind Singh was stabbed by a Pathan assassin hired by Mughals. Gobind Singh killed the attacker with his sword. Though a European surgeon stitched the Guru's wound, the wound re-opened as the Guru tugged at a hard strong bow after a few days, causing profuse bleeding that led to Gobind Singh's death.[citation needed] After the Guru's death, Baba Banda Singh Bahadur became the commander-in-chief of the Khalsa.[250] He organised the civilian rebellion and abolished or halted the Zamindari system in time he was active and gave the farmers proprietorship of their own land.[251] Banda Singh was executed by the emperor Farrukh Siyar after refusing the offer of a pardon if he converted to Islam. The confederacy of Sikh warrior bands known as misls emerged, but these fought between themselves. Ranjit Singh achieved a series of military victories and created a Sikh Empire in 1799.[citation needed] The Sikh empire, with its capital in Lahore, spread over almost 200,000 square miles (520,000 square kilometres) comprising what is now northwestern Indian subcontinent. The Sikh Empire entered into a treaty with the colonial British powers, with each side recognizing Sutlej River as the line of control and agreeing not to invade the other side.[252] Ranjit Singh's most lasting legacy was the restoration and expansion of the Harmandir Sahib, most revered Gurudwara of the Sikhs, with marble and gold, from which the popular name of the "Golden Temple" is derived.[253] After the death of Ranjit Singh in 1839, the Sikh Empire fell into disorder. Ranjit Singh had failed to establish a lasting structure for Sikh government or stable succession, and the Sikh Empire rapidly declined after his death. Factions divided the Sikhs, and led to Anglo-Sikh wars. The British defeated the confused and demoralised Khalsa forces, then disbanded them into destitution.[254] The youngest son of Ranjit Singh, named Duleep Singh, ultimately succeeded, but he was arrested and exiled after the defeat of Sikh Khalsa.[255] Singh Sabha movement Main article: Singh Sabha Movement The Singh Sabha movement, a movement to revitalize Sikhism, also saw the resurgence of the Khalsa after their defeat in wars with the British[256] - latterly in the Second Anglo-Sikh War - and the subsequent decline and corruption of Sikh institutions during colonial rule, and the proselytization of other faith groups in the Punjab.[257][258] It was started in the 1870s, and after a period of interfactional rivalry, united under the Tat Khalsa to reinvigorate Sikh practice and institutions.[259] The last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, Duleep Singh, converted to Christianity in 1853, a controversial but influential event in Sikh history. Along with his conversion, and after Sikh Empire had been dissolved and the region made a part of the colonial British Empire, proselytising activities of Christians, Brahmo Samajis, Arya Samaj, Muslim Anjuman-i-Islamia and Ahmadiyah sought to convert the Sikhs in northwestern Indian subcontinent into their respective faiths.[257][258] These developments launched the Singh Sabha Movement.[257][258] The first meeting of the movement was in the Golden Temple, Amritsar in 1873, and it was largely launched by the Sanatan Sikhs, Gianis, priests, and granthis.[260] Shortly thereafter, Nihang Sikhs began influencing the movement, followed by a sustained campaign by the Tat Khalsa, which had quickly gained dominance by the early 1880s.[259][261] The movement became a struggle between Sanatan Sikhs and Tat Khalsa in defining and interpreting Sikhism.[262][263][264] Sanatan Sikhs led by Khem Singh Bedi – who claimed to be a direct descendant of Guru Nanak, Avtar Singh Vahiria and others supported a more inclusive approach which considered Sikhism as a reformed tradition of Hinduism, while Tat Khalsa campaigned for an exclusive approach to the Sikh identity, disagreeing with Sanatan Sikhs and seeking to modernize Sikhism.[264][261][265] The Sikh Sabha movement expanded in north and northwest Indian subcontinent, leading to more than 100 Singh Sabhas.[264][262] By the early decades of the 20th century, the influence of Tat Khalsa increased in interpreting the nature of Sikhism and their control over the Sikh Gurdwaras.[264][262][261] The Tat Khalsa banished Brahmanical practices including the use of the yagna fire,[266][267] replaced by the Anand Karaj marriage ceremony in accordance with Sikh scripture, and the idols and the images of Sikh Gurus from the Golden Temple in 1905, traditions which had taken root during the administration of the mahants during the 1800s.[268] They undertook a sustained campaign to standardize how Sikh Gurdwaras looked and ran, while looking to Sikh scriptures and the early Sikh tradition[269] to purify the Sikh identity.[270] The spiritual successors of the Singh Sabha include the Akali movement of the 1920s, as well as the modern-day Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), a gurdwara administration body, and the Akali Dal political party.[271] Partition of India Sikhs participated and contributed to the decades-long Indian independence movement in the first half of the 20th century. Ultimately when the British Empire recognized independent India, the land was partitioned into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan (East and West) in 1947. According to Banga, the partition was a watershed event in Sikh history.[272][273] The Sikhs had historically lived in northwestern region of Indian subcontinent on both sides of the partition line ("Radcliffe Line"). According to Banga and other scholars, the Sikhs had strongly opposed the Muslim League demands and saw it as "perpetuation of Muslim domination" and anti-Sikh policies in what just a hundred years before was a part of the Sikh Empire. As such, Sikh organizations, including the Chief Khalsa Dewan and Shiromani Akali Dal led by Master Tara Singh, condemned the Lahore Resolution and the movement to create Pakistan, viewing it as inviting possible persecution; the Sikhs largely thus strongly opposed the partition of India.[274] During the discussions with the colonial authorities, Tara Singh emerged as an important leader who campaigned to prevent the partition of colonial India and for the recognition of Sikhs as a third community.[272] When partition was announced, the newly created line divided the Sikh population. Along with Hindus, Sikhs suffered organized violence and riots against them in West Pakistan. As a result, Sikhs moved en masse to the Indian side, leaving behind their property and holy sites.[275] However, the anti-Sikh violence was not one-sided. As Sikhs moved to the eastern side of the partition line, they engaged in reprisals against Muslims there, forcing them into Pakistan.[272][276] Before the partition, Sikhs constituted about 15% of the population in West Punjab, the majority being Muslims (55%). The Sikhs were the economic elite in West Punjab, however. They had the largest representation in West Punjab's aristocracy, and there were nearly 700 Gurdwaras and 400 educational institutions that served the interests of the Sikhs.[277] Prior to the partition, there were a series of disputes between the majority Muslims and minority Sikhs, such as on the matters of jhatka versus halal meat, the disputed ownership of Gurdwara Sahidganj in Lahore which Muslims sought as a mosque and Sikhs as a Gurdwara, and the insistence of the provincial Muslim government on switching from Indian Gurmukhi script to Arabic-Persian Nastaliq script in schools.[272] During and after the Simla Conference in June 1945, headed by Lord Wavell, the Sikh leaders initially expressed their desire to be recognized as a third community, but ultimately relegated these demands and sought a United India where Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims would live together, under a Swiss-style constitution. The Muslim League rejected this approach, demanding that the entire Punjab should be granted to Pakistan.[278] The Sikh leaders then sought the original partition instead, and the Congress Working Committee passed a resolution in support of partitioning Punjab and Bengal.[278][276] Sikh Light Infantry personnel march past during the Republic day parade in New Delhi, India Between March and August 1947, a series of riots, arson, plunder of Sikh and property, assassination of Sikh leaders, and killings in Jhelum districts, Rawalpindi, Attock and other places led to Tara Singh calling the situation in Punjab a "civil war", while Lord Mountbatten stated "civil war preparations were going on."[275] The riots had triggered the early waves of migration in April, with some 20,000 people leaving northwest Punjab and moving to Patiala.[279][273] In Rawalpindi, 40,000 people became homeless. The Sikh leaders made desperate petitions, but all religious communities were suffering in the political turmoil. Sikhs constituted only 4 million out of a total of 28 million in Punjab, and 6 million out of nearly 400 million in India; they did not constitute the majority, not even in a single district.[279][280] When the partition line was formally announced in August 1947, the violence was unprecedented, with Sikhs being one of the most affected religious community both in terms of deaths, as well as property loss, injury, trauma and disruption.[281][276] Sikhs and Muslims were both victims and perpetrators of retaliatory violence against each other. Estimates range between 200,000 and 2 million deaths of Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims.[281][276] There were numerous rapes of and mass suicides by Sikh women, they being taken captives, their rescues and above all a mass exodus of Sikhs from newly created Pakistan into newly independent India. The partition created the "largest foot convoy of refugees recorded in [human] history, stretching over 100 kilometer long", states Banga, with nearly 300,000 people consisting of mostly "distraught, suffering, injured and angry Sikhs". Sikh and Hindu refugees from Pakistan flooded into India, Muslim refugees from India flooded into Pakistan, each into their new homeland.[281][280] Khalistan Sikhs in London protesting against the Indian government In 1940, a few Sikhs such as the victims of Komagata Maru in Canada proposed the idea of Khalistan as a buffer state between an independent India and what would become Pakistan.[277] These leaders, however, were largely ignored.[272][273] The early 1980s witnessed some Sikh groups seeking an independent nation named Khalistan carved out from India and Pakistan. The Golden Temple and Akal Takht were occupied by various militant groups in 1982. These included the Dharam Yudh Morcha led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the Babbar Khalsa, the AISSF and the National Council of Khalistan.[282] Between 1982 and 1983, there were Anandpur Resolution demand-related terrorist attacks against civilians in parts of India.[283] By late 1983, the Bhindranwale led group had begun to build bunkers and observations posts in and around the Golden Temple, with militants involved in weapons training.[282] In June 1984, the then Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi ordered Indian Army to begin Operation Blue Star against the militants.[282] The fierce engagement took place in the precincts of Darbar Sahib and resulted in many deaths, including Bhindranwale, the destruction of the Sikh Reference Library, which was considered a national treasure that contained over a thousand rare manuscripts,[284] and destroyed Akal Takht. Numerous soldiers, civilians and militants died in the cross fire. Within days of the Operation Bluestar, some 2,000 Sikh soldiers in India mutinied and attempted to reach Amritsar to liberate the Golden Temple.[282] Within six months, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi's Sikh bodyguards Satwant and Beant Singh assassinated her. The assassination triggered the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.[283] According to Donald Horowitz, while anti-Sikh riots led to much damage and deaths, many serious provocations by militants also failed to trigger ethnic violence in many cases throughout the 1980s. The Sikhs and their neighbors, for most part, ignored attempts to provoke riots and communal strife.[283] Sikh people Main article: Sikhs Sikhs in India[285] State/Union Territory Percentage Punjab 57.7% Chandigarh 13.1% Haryana 4.9% Delhi 3.4% Uttarakhand 2.3% Jammu and Kashmir 1.9% Rajasthan 1.3% Himachal Pradesh 1.2% Sikhs in Canada[286] Province/Territory Percentage British Columbia 5.9% Manitoba 2.7% Alberta 2.5% Ontario 2.1% Yukon 1.0% Sikhs in England[287] Region Percentage West Midlands 2.9% Greater London 1.6% East Midlands 1.1% Sikhs in Australia[288] State/Territory Percentage Victoria 1.4% South Australia 1.0% Australian Capital Territory 1.0% Sikhs in New Zealand[289] Region Percentage Bay of Plenty 1.6% Auckland 1.5% Estimates as of 2019 state that Sikhism has some 25–30 million followers worldwide.[290] According to Pew Research, a think tank and research group based in Washington DC, over 9-in-10 Sikhs are in India, but there are also sizable Sikh communities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.[291] Within India, the Sikh population is found in every state and union territory, but it is predominantly found in the northwestern and northern states. Only in the state of Punjab do Sikhs constitute a majority (58% of the total, per 2011 census).[285] In addition to Punjab, the states and union territories of India where Sikhs constitute more than 1.5% of its population are Chandigarh, Haryana, Delhi, Uttarakhand, and Jammu & Kashmir, all of which are in the northern half of India.[285] Canada is home to the largest national Sikh proportion (2.1% of the total population) in the world.[286] Within Canada, Sikhs form 5.9% of the total population in the western province of British Columbia, representing the third-largest Sikh proportion amongst all global administrative divisions, behind only Punjab and Chandigarh in India. British Columbia, Manitoba, and Yukon hold the distinction of being three of the only four administrative divisions in the world with Sikhism as the second-most followed religion among the population.[294] Prior to the 1947 partition of British India, millions of Sikhs lived in what later became Pakistan. Likewise, Sikhism was founded in what is now Pakistan, and some of the Gurus were born near Lahore and in other parts of Pakistan. During the partition, Sikhs and Hindus left the newly created Muslim-majority Pakistan and mostly moved to Hindu-majority India—with some moving to Muslim-majority Afghanistan[295]—while numerous Muslims in India moved to Pakistan.[296][297] According to 2017 news reports, only about 20,000 Sikhs remain in Pakistan, and their population is dwindling (0.01% of the country's estimated 200 million population).[298][299] Sikh sects Main article: Sects of Sikhism Sikh sects are sub-traditions within Sikhism that believe in an alternate lineage of gurus, or have a different interpretation of the Sikh scriptures, or believe in following a living guru, or hold other concepts that differ from the orthodox Khalsa Sikhs.[300][301] The major historic sects of Sikhism have included Udasi, Nirmala, Nanakpanthi, Khalsa, Sahajdhari, Namdhari Kuka, Nirankari, and Sarvaria.[302] Sikhs originally had only 5 orders, or sampradas (not to be confused as deviant sects). These include: Nihangs - the Sikh Panth's warriors or armed troops.[303] There are two main groups within this order: Buddha Dal, or the army of veterans, and Tarna Dal, or the army of youth. There are other smaller sub-orders connected to these two.[303] The president of Buddha Dal, previously always served as the president of the Akaal Takht, which has jurisdiction over all things pertaining to the Akaali Nihang order.[10] Theoretically, the religion is the property of Baba Fateh Singh, Sahibzada (son) of the tenth Guru.[citation needed] Sant Singh Khalsa, a white convert to Sikhism, authored the most widely used translation of the Guru Granth Sahib Nirmalas – scholars. Composed texts as well as traditionally studying a wide range of Indian and some non-Indian literature. They converse with other Dharmik pathways as well.[304] The 10th Guru also institutionalized them. Bhai Daya Singh Ji Samparda and Bhai Dharam Singh Ji Samparda, two of the Panj Pyare or cherished ones of the 10th Guru, founded two Nirmala orders.[305] There are further sub-orders with these two orders.[citation needed] Udasis – an ascetic group that historically looked after Gurdwaras and carried out missionary activity. Although not promoting it to others, certain of their practices depart from the majority of Sikh beliefs.[306] Baba Sri Chand, the eldest Sahibzada (son) of the first Guru, Guru Nanak Dev, founded the order.[306] Their Gurdev is Baba Sri Chand.[10] Sevapanthis – philanthropists who engage in charitable work/seva, or selfless service, without expecting payment.[307] They also work on academic projects. Bhai Kahnaiya, a Sikh of the 9th & 10th Guru, served as the first head of the order[308] and is renowned for his wartime medical assistance to wounded enemy soldiers.[307] Very few of them exist today. The environment in which they lived and interacted with was a predominately Muslim.[307] Gyaaniyan Samparda – the university of Sikhi, whilst technically not an order, it essentially serves as one.[183] Made up from individuals belonging to all of the above sects. Many branches within this order. Namdhari Sikhs, also called the Kuka Sikhs are a sect of Sikhism known for their crisp white dress and horizontal pagari (turban).[309][175] Above: Namdhari singer and musicians. The early Sikh sects were Udasis and Minas founded by Baba Sri Chand – the elder son of Guru Nanak, and Prithi Chand – the elder son of Guru Ram Das respectively, in parallel to the official succession of the Sikh Gurus. Later on Ramraiya sect, founded by Ram Rai, grew in Dehradun with the patronage of Aurangzeb.[310] Many splintered Sikh communities formed during the Mughal Empire era. Some of these sects were financially and administratively supported by the Mughal rulers in the hopes of gaining a more favorable and compliant citizenry.[301][310] After the collapse of Mughal Empire, and particularly during the rule of Ranjit Singh, Udasi Sikhs protected Sikh shrines, preserved the Sikh scripture and rebuilt those that were desecrated or destroyed during the Muslim–Sikh wars. However, Udasi Sikhs kept idols and images inside these Sikh temples.[211][311] In the 19th century, Namdharis and Nirankaris sects were formed in Sikhism, seeking to reform and return to what each believed was the pure form of Sikhism.[264][262][263] All these sects differ from Khalsa orthodox Sikhs in their beliefs and practices, such as continuing to solemnize their weddings around fire and being strictly vegetarian.[309][175] Many accept the concept of living Gurus such as Guru Baba Dyal Singh. The Nirankari sect, though unorthodox, was influential in shaping the views of Tat Khalsa and the contemporary-era Sikh beliefs and practices.[312][313] Another significant Sikh sect of the 19th century was the Radhasoami movement in Punjab led by Baba Shiv Dyal.[314] Other contemporary era Sikhs sects include the 3HO, formed in 1971, which exists outside India, particularly in North America and Europe.[314][315][316] Sikh castes Nagar Kirtan in Bangalore According to Surinder Jodhka, the state of Punjab with a Sikh majority has the "largest proportion of scheduled caste population in India". Although decried by Sikhism, Sikhs have practiced a caste system. The system, along with untouchability, has been more common in rural parts of Punjab. The landowning dominant Sikh castes, states Jodhka, "have not shed all their prejudices against the lower castes or dalits; while dalits would be allowed entry into the village gurdwaras they would not be permitted to cook or serve langar." The Sikh dalits of Punjab have tried to build their own gurdwara, other local level institutions and sought better material circumstances and dignity. According to Jodhka, due to economic mobility in contemporary Punjab, castes no longer mean an inherited occupation, nor are work relations tied to a single location.[317] In 1953, the government of India acceded to the demands of the Sikh leader, Master Tara Singh, to include Sikh Dalit castes in the list of scheduled castes.[318] In the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, 20 of the 140 seats are reserved for low-caste Sikhs.[318] Over 60% of Sikhs belong to the Jat caste, which is an agrarian caste. Despite being very small in numbers, the mercantile Khatri and Arora castes wield considerable influence within the Sikh community. Other common Sikh castes include Sainis, Ramgarhias (artisans), Brahmins, Ahluwalias (formerly brewers), Rajputs,[319] Rai Sikh (Rai), Kambojs (rural caste), Labanas, Kumhars and the two Dalit castes, known in Sikh terminology as the Mazhabis (the Chuhras) and the Ravidasias (the Chamars).[320] Sikh diaspora Further information: Sikhism in India, Sikh diaspora, and Sikhism by country Sikhs celebrating Vaisakhi in Toronto, Canada Sikhism is the fifth-largest amongst the world religions,[321][322][323][324] and one of the youngest.[325][326][327] Worldwide, there are 30 million Sikhs,[328][329] which makes up 0.4% of the world's population. Approximately 75% of Sikhs live in Punjab, where they constitute 57.7% of the state's population. Large communities of Sikhs migrate to the neighboring states such as Indian State of Haryana which is home to the second largest Sikh population in India with 1.1 million Sikhs as per 2001 census, and large immigrant communities of Sikhs can be found across India. However, Sikhs only comprise about 1.7% of the Indian population.[330] Most Sikhs outside India live in the core Anglosphere, with 771,790 in Canada (2.1% Sikh),[286][331] 524,140 in the United Kingdom (0.9% Sikh),[332] 280,000 in the United States (0.1% Sikh),[352] 210,400 in Australia (0.8% Sikh),[353][354] and 40,908 in New Zealand (0.9% Sikh).[355][when?] While these communities are over 125 years old, most Sikhs in the West are first, second, or third-generation immigrants. As of the 2021 Canadian Census, more than half of Canada's Sikhs can be found in one of four cities: Brampton (163,260),[356] Surrey (154,415),[357] Calgary (49,465),[358] and Abbotsford (38,395).[359] Brampton, Surrey, and Abbotsford are 25.1% Sikh, 27.4% Sikh, and 25.5% Sikh, respectively. Gurdwaras, newspapers, radio stations, and markets cater to these large, multi-generational Sikh Canadian groups. Sikh festivals such as Vaisakhi and Bandi Chhor are celebrated in those Canadian cities by the largest groups of followers in the world outside the Punjab.[citation needed] Sikhs also migrated to East Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. These communities developed as Sikhs migrated out of Punjab to fill in gaps in imperial labour markets.[360] Smaller populations of Sikhs are found within many countries in Western Europe, especially Italy, as well as other nations such as Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, Fiji, Nepal, China, Afghanistan, and Iran.[citation needed] Prohibitions in Sikhism Further information: Prohibitions in Sikhism and Diet in Sikhism These prohibitions are strictly followed by initiated Khalsa Sikhs who have undergone baptism. While the Sikh gurus did not enforce religion and did not believe in forcing people to follow any particular religion in general, the Sikh community does encourage all people to become better individuals by following the Guru's Way (Gur-mat), as opposed to living life without the Guru's code of disciple (Man-mat):[citation needed] 4 major transgressions:[361] Hair removal – Hair cutting, trimming, removing, shaving, plucking, threading, dyeing, or any other alteration from any body part is strictly forbidden.[362] Eating Kutha meat.[363] This is the absolute minimum required by all initiated Sikhs. Many Sikhs refrain from eating non-vegetarian food, and believe all should follow this diet. This is due to various social, cultural, political, and familial aspects. As such, there has always been major disagreement among Sikhs over the issue of eating non-vegetarian food. Sikhs following the rahit (code of conduct) of the Damdami Taksal & AKJ also subscribe to this view. The Akali Nihangs have traditionally eaten meat and are famous for performing Jhatka.[364][365][366][367] Thus, there is a wide range of views that exist on the issue of a proper "Sikh diet" in the Panth. Nonetheless, all Sikhs agree with the minimum consensus that meat slaughtered via the Muslim (Halal) or Jewish (Shechita) methods is strictly against Sikh dogma and principles.[368][369] The Akal Takht represents the final authority on controversial issues concerning the Sikh Panth (community or collective). The Hukamnama (edict or clarification), issued by Akal Takht Jathedar Sadhu Singh Bhaura dated 15 February 1980, states that eating meat does not go against the code of conduct of the Sikhs. Amritdhari Sikhs can eat meat as long as it is Jhatka meat.[370] Adultery: Cohabiting with a person other than one's spouse (sexual relations with anyone who you are not married to).[371][372][373][374][375][excessive citations] Intoxication – A Sikh must not take hemp (cannabis), opium, liquor, tobacco, in short, any intoxicant.[376] Consumption of tobacco and intoxicants (hemp, opium, liquor, narcotics, cocaine, etc.) is not allowed.[377][378] Cannabis is generally prohibited, but ritually consumed in edible form by some Sikhs.[379][380] Some Sikh groups, like the Damdami Taksal, are even opposed to drinking caffeine in Indian tea. Indian tea is almost always served in Sikh Gurudwaras around the world. Some Akali Nihang groups consume cannabis-containing shaheedi degh (ਭੰਗ), purportedly to help in meditation.[381][382][383] Sūkha parshaad (ਸੁੱਖਾ ਪ੍ਰਰਸਾਦ), "Dry-sweet", is the term Akali Nihangs use to refer to it. It was traditionally crushed and consumed as a liquid, especially during festivals like Hola Mohalla. It is never smoked, as this practice is forbidden in Sikhism.[384] In 2001, Jathedar Santa Singh, the leader of Budha Dal, along with 20 chiefs of Nihang sects, refused to accept the ban on consumption of shaheedi degh by the apex Sikh clergy of Akal Takht – in order to preserve their traditional practices.[385] According to a recent BBC article, "Traditionally they also drank shaheedi degh, an infusion of cannabis, to become closer with God".[386] Baba Santa Singh was excommunicated and replaced with Baba Balbir Singh, who agreed to shun the consumption of bhang.[387] Other mentioned practices to be avoided, as per the Sikh Rehat Maryada: Piercing of the nose or ears for wearing ornaments is forbidden for Sikh men and women.[388] However, this is a point of contention as it was common for Sikh men and women to wear during the Sikh Misl period.[389][non-primary source needed] Female infanticide: A Sikh should not kill their daughter; nor should they maintain any relationship with a killer of daughter.[390] A Sikh shall not steal, form dubious associations or engage in gambling.[391] It is not proper for a Sikh woman to wear a veil, or keep her face hidden.[392] Sikhs cannot wear any token of any other faith, nor participate in idol worship (Idolatry) according to the Guru Granth Sahib. Sikhs must not have their head bare or wear caps. They also cannot wear any ornaments piercing through any part of the body.[393] Hereditary priest – Sikhism does not have priests, as they were abolished by Guru Gobind Singh (the 10th Guru of Sikhism).[394] The only position he left was a Granthi to look after the Guru Granth Sahib; any Sikh is free to become Granthi or read from the Guru Granth Sahib.[394] See also Bebe Nanaki Mai Bhago Five Virtues Hari Singh Nalwa Indian religions Panjab Digital Library Turban training centre Women in the Guru Granth Sahib Idolatry in Sikhism Khalsa History of Sikhism Bhagat Singh Thind was an Indian American writer and lecturer on spirituality who served in the United States Army during World War I and was involved in a Supreme Court case over the right of Indian people to obtain United States citizenship
Bhagat Singh Thind (October 3, 1892 – September 15, 1967) was an Indian American writer and lecturer on spirituality who served in the United States Army during World War I and was involved in a Supreme Court case over the right of Indian people to obtain United States citizenship. Thind enlisted in the United States Army a few months before the end of World War I. After the war he sought to become a naturalized citizen, following a legal ruling that Caucasians had access to such rights[citation needed]. In 1923, the Supreme Court ruled against him in the case United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, which retroactively denied all Indian Americans the right to obtain United States citizenship for failing to meet the definition of a "white person", "person of African descent", or "alien of African nativity".[1][2] Thind remained in the United States, earned his PhD in theology and English literature at the University of California, Berkeley, and delivered lectures on metaphysics. His lectures were based on Sikh religious philosophy, but included references to the scriptures of other world religions and the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and Henry David Thoreau. He campaigned for Indian independence from the British Empire. In 1936, Thind applied successfully for United States citizenship through the State of New York. Contents 1 Early life 2 Arrival in the United States 3 First United States citizenship 4 Second United States citizenship 5 Supreme Court appeal 6 Third and final United States citizenship 7 Contributions 8 Death 9 Writings 9.1 Posthumously released 10 In media 11 See also 12 References 13 Further reading 14 External links Early life Thind was born on October 3, 1892, in the village of Taragarh Talawa of Amritsar district in the state of Punjab in India,[3] listed as number 68 in this record. He belonged to the Thind clan of Kamboj.[4][5] Arrival in the United States Bhagat Singh Thind arrived in the United States in 1913 to pursue higher education at an American university. On July 22, 1918, he was recruited by the United States Army to fight in World War I, and on November 8, 1918, he was promoted to the rank of Acting Sergeant. He received an honorable discharge on December 16, 1918, with his character designated as "excellent".[6][7] U.S. citizenship conferred many rights and privileges, but only "free white men" and "persons of African nativity or persons of African descent" could be naturalized.[8] In the United States at this time, many anthropologists used the term Caucasian as a synonym for white. Indians were also categorized as Caucasians by various anthropologists. Thus, several Indians were granted United States citizenship in different U.S. states. Thind also applied for citizenship from the State of Washington in July 1918.[citation needed] First United States citizenship Bhagat Singh Thind with his battalion at Camp Lewis, Washington on November 18, 1918. Thind received his certificate of US citizenship on December 9, 1918, wearing military uniform as he was still serving in the United States Army. However, the Bureau of Naturalization did not agree with the decision of the district court to grant Thind citizenship. Thind's nationality was referred to as "Hindoo" or "Hindu" in all legal documents and in the news media despite being a practicing Sikh. At that time, Indians in the United States and Canada were called Hindus regardless of their religion. Thind's citizenship was revoked four days later, on December 13, 1918, on the grounds that Thind was not a "white man". Second United States citizenship Thind applied for United States citizenship again from the neighboring State of Oregon, on May 6, 1919. The same Bureau of Naturalization official who revoked Thind’s citizenship tried to convince the judge to refuse citizenship to Thind, accusing Thind of involvement in the Ghadar Party, which campaigned for Indian independence from the British Empire.[9] Judge Charles E. Wolverton wrote that Thind "stoutly denies that he was in any way connected with the alleged propaganda of the Gadar Press to violate the neutrality laws of this country, or that he was in sympathy with such a course. He frankly admits, nevertheless, that he is an advocate of the principle of India for the Indians, and would like to see India rid of British rule, but not that he favors an armed revolution for the accomplishment of this purpose."[citation needed] The judge took all arguments and Thind’s military record into consideration and declined to agree with the Bureau of Naturalization. Thus, Thind received United States citizenship for the second time on November 18, 1920. Supreme Court appeal The Bureau of Naturalization appealed against the judge’s decision to the next higher court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which sent the case to the Supreme Court for ruling on the following two questions: "Is a high caste Hindu of full Indian blood, born at Amritsar, Punjab, India, a white person within the meaning of section 2169, Revised Statutes?" "Does the act of February 5, 1917 (39 Stat. L. 875, section 3) disqualify from naturalization as citizens those Hindus, now barred by that act, who had lawfully entered the United States prior to the passage of said act?" Section 2169, Revised Statutes, provides that the provisions of the Naturalization Act "shall apply to aliens, being free white persons, and to aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent." In preparing briefs for the Ninth Circuit Court, Thind's attorney, Sakharam Ganesh Pandit, argued that the Immigration Act of 1917 barred new immigrants from India but did not deny citizenship to Indians who, like Thind, were legally admitted before the passage of the new law. The purpose of the Immigration Act was "prospective, and not retroactive." On February 19, 1923, Justice George Sutherland delivered the unanimous opinion of the Supreme Court to deny citizenship to Indians, stating that "a negative answer must be given to the first question, which disposes of the case and renders an answer to the second question unnecessary, and it will be so certified." The justices wrote that since the "common man's" definition of "white" did not include Indians, they could not be naturalized.[10] Thind's citizenship was revoked and the Bureau of Naturalization issued a certificate in 1926 canceling his citizenship a second time. The Bureau of Naturalization also initiated proceedings to revoke citizenship granted to other Indian Americans. Between 1923 and 1926, the citizenship of fifty Indians was taken away. Third and final United States citizenship Thind received his United States citizenship through the state of New York in 1936, taking the oath for the third time to become an American citizen. Thind had come to the United States for higher education and to "fulfill his destiny as a spiritual teacher." Long before Thind arrived in the United States, American thinkers had shown interest in Indian philosophy. Hindu scriptures translated by English missionaries were the “favorite texts” of many Transcendentalists, a society of American intellectuals who were dissatisfied with the Unitarian Church. The society flourished during the period of 1836–1860 in the Boston area and included influential members such as philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), poet Walt Whitman (1819–1892), and writer Henry David Thoreau (1817–62). Emerson had read Hindu religious books including the Bhagavad Gita, and his writings showed the influence of Indian philosophy. In 1836, Emerson expressed "mystical unity of nature" in his essay, "Nature." In 1868, Walt Whitman wrote the poem "Passage to India." Henry David Thoreau had considerable acquaintance with Indian philosophical works. He wrote an essay on "Resistance to Civil Government, or Civil Disobedience" in 1849 advocating nonviolent resistance against unethical laws. In 1906, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi used a similar philosophy of satyagraha, or nonviolent resistance, to gain Indian rights in South Africa. Gandhi often quoted Thoreau in his newspaper Indian Opinion. Contributions Fought for United States citizenship (United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind) First turbaned soldier in the United States Army Indian independence activist and General Secretary of Ghadar Party from 1916–1917[11] Sikh spiritual writer and philosopher Thind, during his early life, was influenced by the spiritual teachings of his father whose "living example left an indelible blueprint." After graduating from Khalsa College, he left for Manila, where he stayed for a year. Thind learned about American culture from students and teachers at the University of California, Berkeley, and from working people in the lumber mills of Oregon and Washington, where he worked during summer vacations to support himself financially. His teachings incorporated the scriptures of many religions, including Sikhism. During his lectures to Christian audiences, he frequently quoted the Vedas, Guru Nanak, Kabir, and other sources in Indian philosophy. He also made reference to the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and Henry David Thoreau. Thind earned a PhD, became a writer, and was respected as a spiritual guide. He gave a new "vista of awareness" to his students throughout the United States and was able to initiate "thousands of disciples" into his expanded view of reality – "the Inner Life, and the discovery of the power of the Holy Nãm." He published many pamphlets and books, including Radiant Road to Reality, Science of Union with God, The Pearl of Greatest Price, House of Happiness, Jesus, The Christ: In the Light of Spiritual Science (Vol. I, II, III), The Enlightened Life, Tested Universal Science of Individual Meditation in Sikh Religion, and Divine Wisdom.[12] Death Thind was writing a book when he died on September 15, 1967. He was outlived by his wife, Vivian, whom he had married in March 1940, and his daughter Tara and son David. His son created a website[13] to propagate the philosophy for which his father devoted himself to the United States. He also posthumously published two of his father's books: Troubled Mind in a Torturing World and their Conquest and Winners and Whiners in this Whirling World. Writings Radiant Road to Reality Science of Union with God The Pearl of Greatest Price House of Happiness Jesus, The Christ: In the Light of Spiritual Science (Vol. I, II, III) The Enlightened Life Tested Universal Science of Individual Meditation in Sikh Religion Divine Wisdom (Vol. I, II, III) Posthumously released Troubled Mind in a Torturing World and their Conquest Winners and Whiners in this Whirling World In media In 2020 the story of his Supreme Court case was part of PBS’s documentary Asian Americans.[14] Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are Americans with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans. Contents 1 Terminology 2 History 2.1 Pre 1800 2.2 19th century 2.3 20th century 2.4 21st century 3 Demographics 3.1 U.S. metropolitan areas with large Asian Indian populations 3.2 List of U.S. states by the population of Asian Indians 4 Statistics 5 Socioeconomic status 5.1 Education 5.2 Household income 6 Culture 6.1 Media 7 Religion 7.1 Hindus 7.2 Sikhs 7.3 Jains 7.4 Muslims 7.5 Christians 7.6 Others 7.7 Ethnicity 7.8 Linguistic affiliation 8 Progress 8.1 Timeline 8.2 Classification 8.3 Citizenship 9 Current issues 9.1 Discrimination 9.2 Illegal immigration 9.3 Immigration 9.4 Media 10 Politics 11 Notable people 12 See also 13 References 14 Further reading 15 External links Terminology In the Americas, the term "Indian" has historically been used for indigenous people since European colonization in the 15th century. Qualifying terms such as "American Indian" and "East Indian" were and still are commonly used in order to avoid ambiguity. The U.S. government has since coined the term "Native American" in reference to the indigenous peoples of the United States, but terms such as "American Indian" remain popular among indigenous as well as non-indigenous populations. Since the 1980s, Indian Americans have been categorized as "Asian Indian" (within the broader subgroup of Asian American) by the United States Census Bureau.[7] While "East Indian" remains in use, the term "South Asian" is often chosen instead for academic and governmental purposes.[8] Indian Americans are included in the census grouping of "South Asian Americans", which includes Afghan Americans, Bangladeshi Americans, Bhutanese Americans, Burmese Americans, Nepalese Americans, Pakistani Americans, and Sri Lankan Americans. History See also: Asian immigration to the United States Pre 1800 Beginning in the 17th century, the East India Company began bringing indentured Indian servants to the American colonies.[9] In 1680, due to anti-miscegenation laws, a mixed-race girl born to an Indian father and an Irish mother was classified as mulatto and sold into slavery.[9] The Naturalization Act of 1790 made Asians ineligible for citizenship.[10] 19th century The first significant wave of Indian immigrants entered the United States in the 19th century. By 1900, there were more than two thousand Indian Sikhs living in the United States, primarily in California.[11] (At least one scholar has set the level lower, finding a total of 716 Indian immigrants to the U.S. between 1820 and 1900.[12]) Emigration from India was driven by difficulties facing Indian farmers, including the challenges posed by the British land tenure system for small landowners, and by drought and food shortages, which worsened in the 1890s. At the same time, Canadian steamship companies, acting on behalf of Pacific coast employers, recruited Sikh farmers with economic opportunities in British Columbia. Racist attacks in British Columbia, however, prompted Sikhs and new Sikh immigrants to move down the Pacific Coast to Washington and Oregon, where they worked in lumber mills and in the railroad industry.[12] Many Punjabi Sikhs who settled in California, around the Yuba City area, formed close ties with Mexican Americans.[9] The presence of Indian Americans also helped develop interest in Eastern religions in the US and would result in its influence on American philosophies such as Transcendentalism. Swami Vivekananda arriving in Chicago at the World's Fair led to the establishment of the Vedanta Society. 20th century Between 1907 and 1908, Sikhs moved further south to warmer climates in California, where they were employed by various railroad companies. Some white Americans, resentful of economic competition and the arrival of people from different cultures, responded to Sikh immigration with racism and violent attacks.[12] The Bellingham riots in Bellingham, Washington on September 5, 1907 epitomized the low tolerance in the U.S. for Indians and Sikhs, who were called "hindoos" by locals. While anti-Asian racism was embedded in U.S. politics and culture in the early 20th century, Indians were also racialized for their anticolonialism, with U.S. officials pushing for Western imperial expansion abroad casting them as a "Hindu" menace. Although labeled Hindu, the majority of Indians were Sikh.[13] In the early 20th century, a range of state and federal laws restricted Indian immigration and the rights of Indian immigrants in the U.S. In the 1910s, American nativist organizations campaigned to end immigration from India, culminating in the passage of the Barred Zone Act in 1917. In 1913, the Alien Land Act of California prevented Sikhs (in addition to Japanese and Chinese immigrants) from owning land. However, Asian immigrants got around the system by having Anglo friends or their own U.S. born children legally own the land that they worked on. In some states, anti-miscegenation laws made it illegal for Indian men to marry white women. However, it was legal for "brown" races to mix. Many Indian men, especially Punjabi men, married Hispanic women and Punjabi-Mexican marriages became a norm in the West.[12][14] Mohini Bhardwaj, 2004 Summer Olympics medalist in gymnastics Bhicaji Balsara became the first known Indian to gain naturalized U.S. citizenship. As a Parsi, he was considered a "pure member of the Persian sect" and therefore a "free white person". The judge Emile Henry Lacombe, of the Southern District of New York, only gave Balsara citizenship on the hope that the United States attorney would indeed challenge his decision and appeal it to create "an authoritative interpretation" of the law. The U.S. attorney adhered to Lacombe's wishes and took the matter to the Circuit Court of Appeals in 1910. The Circuit Court of Appeal agreed that Parsis are classified as white.[15] A. K. Mozumdar was also considered "Caucasian" and therefore eligible for citizenship. Between 1913 and 1923, about 100 Indians were naturalized. In 1923, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind that Indians were ineligible for citizenship because they were not "free white persons".[12] The Court argued that the "great body of our people" would reject Indians.[16] Over fifty Indians had their citizenship revoked after this decision, but Sakharam Ganesh Pandit fought against denaturalization. He was a lawyer and married to a white American, and he regained his citizenship in 1927. However, no other naturalization was permitted after the ruling, which led to about 3,000 Indians leaving the United States. Many other Indians had no means of returning to India. One such immigrant, Vaisho Das Bagai, committed suicide in despair: "The return migration was large enough to render questionable the idea of immigration as a one-way system."[12] After the Immigration Act of 1917, Indian immigration into the U.S. decreased. Illegal entry through the Mexican border became the way of entering the country for Punjabi immigrants. California’s Imperial Valley had a large population of Punjabis who assisted these immigrants and provided support. Immigrants were able to blend in with this relatively homogenous population. The Ghadar Party, a group in California that opposed British rule of India, facilitated illegal crossing of the Mexican border, using funds from this migration "as a means to bolster the party’s finances".[14] The Ghadar Party charged different prices for entering the US depending on whether Punjabi immigrants were willing to shave off their beard and cut their hair. It is estimated that between 1920 and 1935, about 1,800 to 2,000 Indian immigrants entered the U.S. illegally.[14] Indians started moving up the social ladder by getting higher education. In 1910, Dhan Gopal Mukerji came to UC Berkeley when he was 20 years old. He was an author of many children’s books and won the Newbery Medal in 1928 for his book Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon. However, he committed suicide at the age of 46 while he was suffering from depression. Another student, Yellapragada Subbarow, came to the U.S. in 1922. He became a biochemist at Harvard University, and he "discovered the function of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) as an energy source in cells, and developed methotrexate for the treatment of cancer." However, being a foreigner, he was refused tenure at Harvard. Gobind Behari Lal, who came to UC Berkeley in 1912, became the science editor of the San Francisco Examiner and was the first Indian American to win the Pulitzer Prize for journalism.[14] After WWII, U.S. policy re-opened the door to Indian immigration, although slowly at first. The Luce–Celler Act of 1946 Luce–Celler Act of 1946 permitted a quota of 100 Indians per year to immigrate to the U.S. It also allowed Indian immigrants to naturalize and become citizens of the U.S., effectively reversing the Supreme Court’s 1923 ruling in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind.[17] The Naturalization Act of 1952, also known as the McCarran-Walter Act, repealed the Barred Zone Act of 1917, but limited immigration from the former Barred Zone to a total of 2,000 per year. In 1910, 95% of all Indian Americans lived on the western coast of the United States. In 1920, that proportion decreased to 75%; by 1940, it was 65%, as more Indian Americans moved to the east coast. In that year, Indian Americans were registered residents in 43 states. The majority of Indian Americans on the west coast were in rural areas, but on the east coast they became residents of urban areas. In the 1940s, the prices of the land increased, and the Bracero program brought thousands of Mexican guest workers to work on farms, which helped shift second-generation Indian American farmers into "commercial, nonagricultural occupations, from running small shops and grocery stores, to operating taxi services and becoming engineers." In Stockton and Sacramento, a new group of Indian immigrants from the state of Gujarat opened several small hotels.[14] In 1955, 14 of 21 hotels enterprises in San Francisco were operated by Gujarati Hindus. By the 1980s, Gujaratis had come to "dominate the industry." An article published by National Geographic mentions several stories of Gujarati immigrants in the hospitality industry.[18] The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 dramatically opened entry to the U.S. to immigrants other than traditional Northern European groups, which would significantly alter the demographic mix in the U.S.[19] Not all Indian Americans came directly from India; some came to the U.S. via Indian communities in other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, (South Africa, the former British colonies of East Africa,[20] (namely Kenya, Tanzania), and Uganda, Mauritius), the Asia-Pacific region (Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Fiji),[20] and the Caribbean (Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, and Jamaica).[20] From 1965 until the mid-1990s, long-term immigration from Indian averaged about 40,000 people per year. From 1995 onward, the flow of Indian immigration increased significantly, reaching a high of about 90,000 immigrants in the year 2000.[14] 21st century The beginning of the 21st century marked a huge significance in the migration trend from India to the United States. The implementation of Privatization and liberalization had changed the entire outflow of migrants. The emergence of Information Technology industry in Indian cities as Bangalore and Hyderabad had led to the large number of migrations to the USA primarily from the erstwhile states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in South India. There are sizable population of people from the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala who have settled in different parts of the United States. Indians comprise over 80% of all H-1B visas. In the last twenty years, a large number of students have started migrating to the United States to pursue higher education. A variety of estimates state that over 500,000 Indian American students attend higher-education institutions in any given year.[21][22] As per Institute of International Education (IIE) 'Opendoors' report, 202,014 new students from India enrolled in US education institutions.[23] Organizations like the North American Association of Indian Students help organize for the large demographic. Demographics See also: Indians in the New York City metropolitan region India Square, in the heart of Bombay, Jersey City, New Jersey, US, home to the highest concentration of Asian Indians in the Western Hemisphere,[24] is one of at least 24 Indian American enclaves characterized as a Little India which have emerged within the New York City Metropolitan Area, with the largest metropolitan Indian population outside Asia, as large-scale immigration from India continues into New York.[25][26][27] According to the 2010 United States Census,[28] the Asian Indian population in the United States grew from almost 1,678,765 in 2000 (0.6% of U.S. population) to 2,843,391 in 2010 (0.9% of U.S. population), a growth rate of 69.37%, one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the United States.[29][30] The New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area, consisting of New York City, Long Island, and adjacent areas within New York, as well as nearby areas within the states of New Jersey (extending to Trenton), Connecticut (extending to Bridgeport), and including Pike County, Pennsylvania, was home to an estimated 711,174 uniracial Indian Americans as of the 2017 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, comprising by far the largest Indian American population of any metropolitan area in the United States;[31] New York City itself also contains by far the highest Indian American population of any individual city in North America, estimated at 246,454 as of 2017.[32] Monroe Township, Middlesex County, in central New Jersey, the geographic heart of the Northeast megalopolis, has displayed one of the fastest growth rates of its Indian population in the Western Hemisphere, increasing from 256 (0.9%) as of the 2000 Census[33] to an estimated 5,943 (13.6%) as of 2017,[34] representing a 2,221.5% (a multiple of 23) numerical increase over that period, including many affluent professionals and senior citizens. In 2014, 12,350 Indians legally immigrated to the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA core based statistical area;[35] As of December 2019, Indian airline carrier Air India as well as United States airline carrier United Airlines were offering direct flights from the New York City Metropolitan Area to and from Delhi and Mumbai. In May 2019, Delta Air Lines announced non-stop flight service between New York JFK and Mumbai, to begin on December 22, 2019.[36] At least twenty Indian American enclaves characterized as a Little India have emerged in the New York City Metropolitan Area. Other metropolitan areas with large Indian American populations include Atlanta, Baltimore–Washington, Boston, Chicago, Dallas–Ft. Worth, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and San Francisco–San Jose–Oakland. The three oldest Indian American communities going back to around 1910 are in lesser populated agricultural areas like Stockton, California south of Sacramento; the Central Valley of California like Yuba City; and Imperial County, California aka Imperial Valley. These were all primarily Sikh settlements. Census Bureau 2000, Asian Indians in the United States.png U.S. metropolitan areas with large Asian Indian populations Asian Indian population in Metropolitan Statistical Areas of the United States of America Metropolitan Statistical Area Indian American population (2010)[37] Total population (2010) % of Total population Combined Statistical Area New York–Newark–Jersey City, NY–NJ–PA 526,133 18,897,109 2.8% New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI 171,901 9,461,105 1.8% Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI Washington–Arlington–Alexandria, DC–VA–MD–WV 127,963 5,582,170 2.3% Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA 119,901 12,828,837 0.9% Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA San Francisco–Oakland–Hayward, CA 119,854 4,335,391 2.8% San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 117,711 1,836,911 6.4% San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington, TX 100,386 6,371,773 1.6% Dallas-Fort Worth, TX-OK Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land, TX 91,637 5,946,800 1.5% Houston-The Woodlands, TX Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD 90,286 5,965,343 1.5% Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA 78,980 5,268,860 1.5% Atlanta–Athens-Clarke County–Sandy Springs, GA Boston–Cambridge–Newton, MA-NH 62,598 4,552,402 1.4% Boston–Worcester–Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT Detroit–Warren–Livonia, MI 55,087 4,296,250 1.3% Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor, MI Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue, WA 52,652 3,439,809 1.5% Seattle-Tacoma, WA Miami–Fort Lauderdale–West Palm Beach, FL 41,334 5,564,635 0.7% Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Port St. Lucie, FL Baltimore–Columbia–Towson, MD 32,193 2,710,489 1.2% Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Phoenix–Mesa–Glendale, AZ 31,203 4,192,887 0.7% Minneapolis-St. Paul–Bloomington, MN-WI 29,453 3,279,833 0.9% Minneapolis-St. Paul MN-WI Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, FL 26,105 2,134,411 1.2% Orlando–Deltona–Daytona Beach, FL San Diego-Carlsbad, CA 24,306 3,095,313 0.8% [38] Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario, CA 23,587 4,224,851 0.6% Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater, FL 23,526 2,783,243 0.8% Austin-Round Rock, TX 23,503 1,716,289 1.4% Raleigh, NC 20,192 1,130,490 1.8% Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC Columbus, OH 19,529 1,836,536 1.1% Columbus–Marion–Zanesville, OH Hartford-East Hartford-Middletown, CT 18,764 1,212,381 1.5% Hartford-East Hartford, CT St. Louis, MO–IL 16,874 2,812,896 0.6% St. Louis–St. Charles–Farmington, MO–IL Fresno, CA 15,469 930,450 1.7% Fresno–Madera, CA Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT 15,439 916,829 1.7% New York–Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA Trenton, NJ 15,352 366,513 4.2% New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA Portland–Vancouver–Hillsboro, OR-WA 15,117 2,226,009 0.7% Portland–Vancouver–Salem, OR-WA Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN 14,696 2,130,151 0.7% Cincinnati-Wilmington-Maysville, OH-KY-IN Pittsburgh, PA 14,568 2,356,285 0.6% Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV Cleveland–Elyria, OH 14,215 2,077,240 0.7% Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH Stockton, CA 12,951 685,306 1.9% San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO 13,649 2,543,482 0.5% Denver–Aurora, CO Richmond, VA 12,926 1,258,251 1.0% Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN 12,669 1,756,241 0.7% Indianapolis-Carmel-Muncie, IN Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI[39] 11,945 1,555,908 0.8% Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, CI Kansas City, MO-KS 11,646 2,035,334 0.6% Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR-MO 3,534 422,610 0.9% Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers Metropolitan Area While the table above provides a picture of the population of Indian American (alone) and Asian Americans (alone) in some of the metropolitan areas of the US, it is incomplete as it does not include multi-racial Asian Americans. Please note that data for multi-racial Asian Americans has not yet been released by the US Census Bureau. List of U.S. states by the population of Asian Indians Asian-Indian population by states State Asian Indian population (2010 Census)[40] % of state's population (2010 Census) Asian Indian population (2000 Census) % change (2000–2010) California 528,120 1.42% 314,819 46.6% New York 313,620 1.62% 251,724 5.9% New Jersey 292,256 3.32% 169,180 72.7% Texas 245,981 0.98% 129,365 90.1% Illinois 188,328 1.47% 124,723 51.0% Florida 128,735 0.68% 70,740 82.0% Virginia 103,916 1.30% 48,815 112.9% Pennsylvania 103,026 0.81% 57,241 80.0% Georgia 96,116 0.99% 46,132 108.3% Maryland 79,051 1.37% 49,909 58.4% Massachusetts 77,177 1.18% 43,801 76.2% Michigan 77,132 0.78% 54,656 41.1% Ohio 64,187 0.56% 38,752 65.6% Washington 61,124 0.91% 23,992 154.8% North Carolina 57,400 0.60% 26,197 119.1% Connecticut 46,415 1.30% 23,662 96.2% Arizona 36,047 0.56% 14,741 144.5% Minnesota 33,031 0.52% 16,887 95.6% Indiana 27,598 0.43% 14,865 85.7% Tennessee 23,900 0.38% 12,835 86.2% Missouri 23,223 0.39% 12,169 90.8% Wisconsin 22,899 0.40% 12,665 80.85 Colorado 20,369 0.41% 11,720 73.8% Oregon 16,740 0.44% 9,575 74.8% South Carolina 15,941 0.34% 8,856 80.0% Kansas 13,852 0.49% 8,153 69.9% Alabama 13,036 0.27% 6,900 88.9% Kentucky 12,501 0.29% 6,771 84.6% Oklahoma 11,906 0.32% 8,502 40.0% Nevada 11,671 0.43% 5,535 110.9% Delaware 11,424 1.27% 5,280 116.4% Louisiana 11,174 0.25% 8,280 35.0% Iowa 11,081 0.36% 5,641 96.4% New Hampshire 8,268 0.63% 3,873 113.5% Arkansas 7,973 0.27% 3,104 156.9% Utah 6,212 0.22% 3,065 102.7% Nebraska 5,903 0.32% 3,273 80.4% Mississippi 5,494 0.19% 3,827 43.6% Washington, D.C. 5,214 0.87% 2,845 83.3% Rhode Island 4,653 0.44% 2,942 58.2% New Mexico 4,550 0.22% 3,104 46.6% Puerto Rico 3,523 0.09% 4,789 −26.4% West Virginia 3,304 0.18% 2,856 15.7% Hawaii 2,201 0.16% 1,441 52.7% Idaho 2,152 0.14% 1,289 67.0% Maine 1,959 0.15% 1,021 91.9% North Dakota 1,543 0.23% 822 87.7% Vermont 1,359 0.22% 858 58.4% Alaska 1,218 0.17% 723 68.5% South Dakota 1,152 0.14% 611 88.5% Montana 618 0.06% 379 63.1% Wyoming 589 0.10% 354 66.4% Total Asian-Indian population in US 2,843,391 0.92% 1,678,765 69.4% Historical population Year Pop. ±% 1910 2,545 —     1920 2,507 −1.5% 1930 3,130 +24.9% 1940 2,405 −23.2% 1980 361,531 +14932.5% 1990 815,447 +125.6% 2000 1,678,765 +105.9% 2010 2,843,391 +69.4% 2017 4,402,362 +54.8% 2020 5400000+ —     Statistics The United States is host to the second largest Indian diaspora on the planet In 2006, of the 1,266,264 legal immigrants to the United States, 58,072 were from India. Between 2000 and 2006, 421,006 Indian immigrants were admitted to the U.S., up from 352,278 during the 1990–1999 period.[43] According to the 2000 U.S. census, the overall growth rate for Indians from 1990 to 2000 was 105.87 percent. The average growth rate for the U.S. was 7.6 percent. Indians comprise 16.4 percent of the Asian-American community. In 2000, the Indian-born population in the U.S. was 1.007 million. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, between 1990 and 2000, the Indian population in the U.S. grew 130% – 10 times the national average of 13%. Indian Americans are the third largest Asian American ethnic group, following Chinese Americans and Filipino Americans.[44][45][46] A joint Duke University – UC Berkeley study revealed that Indian immigrants have founded more engineering and technology companies from 1995 to 2005 than immigrants from the UK, China, Taiwan and Japan combined.[47] The percentage of Silicon Valley startups founded by Indian immigrants has increased from 7% in 1999 to 15.5% in 2006, as reported in the 1999 study by AnnaLee Saxenian [48] and her updated work in 2006 in collaboration with Vivek Wadhawa.[49] Indian Americans are making their way to the top positions of almost every big technology company (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, Adobe, Softbank, Cognizant, Sun microsystems, etc.) Many of them came from very humble origins, for example the current google CEO "Sundar Pichai did not have the privilege of watching television or travelling by car during his childhood. Born and raised in a middle class household, Mr. Pichai used to sleep with his brother in the living room of their two-room apartment that barely had any technology. Despite facing these hardships of everyday life in India, Pichai had a gleam in his eyes of sheer ambition and relentless pursuit."[50] A recent study shows that 23% of Indian business school graduates take a job in United States.[51] In 2014, the Pew Research Center published an article listing some more interesting facts about Indian Americans.[52] Year Asian Indians (per ACS) 2005 2,319,222 2006 2,482,141 2007 2,570,166 2008 2,495,998 2009 2,602,676 2010 2,765,155 2011 2,908,204 2012 3,049,201 2013 3,189,485 2014 3,491,052 2015 3,699,957 2016 3,813,407 2017 4,094,539 Socioeconomic status See also: Contribution of Indian diaspora and Indianisation Manjul Bhargava, Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University and Fields Medal winner. Indian Americans continuously outpace every other ethnic group socioeconomically per U.S. Census statistics.[53] Thomas Friedman, in his 2005 book The World Is Flat, explains this trend in terms of brain drain, whereby the best and brightest elements in India emigrate to the US in order to seek better financial opportunities.[54] Indians form the second largest group of physicians after non-Hispanic whites (3.9%) as of the 1990 survey, and the percentage of Indian physicians rose to around 6% in 2005.[55] Education According to Pew Research in 2015, of Indian Americans aged 25 and older, 72% had obtained a bachelor's degree and 40% had obtained a postgraduate degree, whereas of all Americans, 19% had obtained a bachelor's degree and 11% had obtained a postgraduate degree.[56] Household income The median household income for Indian immigrants in 2015 was much higher than that of the overall foreign- and native-born populations. Households headed by Indian immigrants had a median income of $101,591, compared to $51,000 and $56,000 for overall immigrant and native-born households, respectively. By far they are the richest and most successful ethnic group in the USA due to many factors including relatively low wages for highly skilled workers in India which creates an incentive for highly skilled Indians to immigrate. Approximately 7 percent of Indian immigrants lived in poverty in 2015, a much lower rate than the foreign-born population overall and the U.S. born (17 percent and 14 percent, respectively).[57] Culture Media Media Sheetal Sheth Publicity Still 5.jpg Sheetal Sheth NorahJones Parque Independencia 2010.jpg Norah Jones is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Punjabi and Hindi radio stations are available in areas with high Indian populations, for example, Punjabi Radio USA in California and Easy96.com in the New York City metropolitan area, KLOK 1170 AM in San Francisco, RBC Radio; Radio Humsafar, Desi Junction in Chicago; Radio Salaam Namaste and FunAsia Radio in Dallas; and Masala Radio, FunAsia Radio, Sangeet Radio, Radio Naya Andaz in Houston and Washington Bangla Radio on Internet from the Washington DC Metro Area. There are also some radio stations broadcasting in Tamil and Telugu within these communities.[58][59] Houston-based Kannada Kaaranji radio focuses on a multitude of programs for children and adults.[60] AVS (Asian Variety Show) and Namaste America are nationally available South Asian programming available free to air and can be watched with a television antenna. Several cable and satellite television providers offer Indian channels: Sony TV, Zee TV, TV Asia, Star Plus, Sahara One, Colors, Big Magic, regional channels, and others have offered Indian content for subscription, such as the Cricket World Cup. There is also an American cricket channel called Willow. Many metropolitan areas with large Indian American populations now have movie theaters which specialize in showing Indian movies, especially from Bollywood and Telugu cinema. In July 2005, MTV premiered a spin-off network called MTV Desi which targets Indian Americans.[61] It has been discontinued by MTV. In 2012, the film Not a Feather, but a Dot directed by Teju Prasad, was released which investigates the history, perceptions and changes in the Indian American community over the last century. In popular media, several Indian American personalities have made their mark in recent years, including Kovid Gupta, Kal Penn, Hari Kondabolu, Karan Brar, Aziz Ansari, Hasan Minhaj, and Mindy Kaling. Religion Religious Makeup of Indian-Americans (2012)[62]   Hinduism (51%)   Protestantism (11%)   Islam (10%)   Unaffiliated (10%)   Catholicism (5%)   Sikhism (5%)   Jainism (2%)   Other Christian (2%)   Other (Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Bahá’ís, and Indian Jews) (4%) Indian religions in US BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Akshardham, New Jersey, one of the largest Hindu temples.[63] Gurdwara Sahib of San Jose Jain Center of Greater Phoenix (JCGP) Communities of Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, and Indian Jews have established their religions in the United States. According to 2012 Pew Research Center research, 51% consider themselves Hindu, 18% as Christian (Protestant 11%, Catholic 5%, other Christian 3%), 10% as unaffiliated, 10% as Muslims, 5% as Sikh, 2% as Jain.[6] The first religious center of an Indian religion to be established in the US was a Sikh Gurudwara in Stockton, California in 1912. Today there are many Sikh Gurudwaras, Hindu temples, Christian churches, and Buddhist and Jain temples in all 50 states. Hindus Further information: Hinduism in the United States Nikki Haley and other Indian Americans participated in the Diwali celebrations at the White House, 2017 Some have claimed that as of 2008, the American Hindu population was around 2.2 million,[64] but this estimation is based on the flawed assumption that percentage of Hindus among Indian Americans is the same as in India. Regardless, Hindus are the majority of Indian Americans.[65][66] Many organizations such as ISKCON, Swaminarayan Sampraday, BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, Chinmaya Mission, and Swadhyay Pariwar are well-established in the U.S. Hindu Americans have formed the Hindu American Foundation which represents American Hindus and aim to educate people about Hinduism. Swami Vivekananda brought Hinduism to the West at the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions.[67] The Vedanta Society has been important in subsequent Parliaments. Today, many Hindu temples, most of them built by Indian Americans, have emerged in different cities and towns in the United States.[68][69] More than 18 million Americans are now practicing some form of Yoga. Kriya Yoga was introduced to America by Paramahansa Yogananda. A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada initiated the popular ISKCON, also known as the Hare Krishna movement, while preaching Bhakti yoga. Sikhs Further information: Sikhism in the United States There are nearly 30 million Sikhs around the world today, and a vast majority of them live in the Indian state of Punjab. There is also a robust and flourishing diaspora, with communities large and small all over the globe. Much of the diaspora is concentrated in the commonwealth due to migration within the British empire, yet Sikhs continue to establish themselves in various countries throughout the world. From the time of their arrival in the late 1800s, Sikh men and women have been making notable contributions to American society. In 2007, there were estimated to be between 250,000 and 500,000 Sikhs living in the United States, with largest populations living on the East and West Coasts, together with additional populations in Detroit, Chicago, and Austin. The United States also has a number of non-Punjabi converts to Sikhism. Sikh men are typically identifiable by their unshorn beards and turbans (head coverings), articles of their faith. Many organisations like World Sikh Organisation (WSO), Sikh Riders of America, SikhNet, Sikh Coalition, SALDEF, United Sikhs, National Sikh Campaign continue to educate people about Sikhism. There are many "Gurudwaras" Sikh temples present in all states of USA. Jains Further information: Jainism in the United States Adherents of Jainism first arrived in the United States in the 20th century. The most significant time of Jain immigration was in the early 1970s. The US has since become a center of the Jain diaspora. The Federation of Jain Associations in North America is an umbrella organization of local American and Canadian Jain congregations.[70] Unlike India and United Kingdom, the Jain community in United States doesn't find sectarian differences, Both Digambara and Śvētāmbara a share common roof. Muslims South Asian Muslims (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) population is about 33% of all Muslims in USA, which makes approximately 400,000 Muslims of India (After 1947) origin living in United States of America.[71] American Muslims of Indian origin is a vibrant community actively engaged in various social, political and economic activities taking place all over the country.[72] The community has major presence either connecting themselves to Hyderabad regions of India or from North India, Delhi, UP and particularly the alumni circle of premier institutions like Aligarh Muslim University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. There are American Indian Muslims from other part of India as well like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and West Bengal etc. India, being a secular country based upon ideals of Gandhi, has always represented the causes of community of Indian Origin including both Hindus and Muslims and others. Indian Muslims have represented and served for India’s cause at all top positions when it comes to Indian American partnership. Indian Muslims are actively engaged with cultural/social activities organized by Indian consulates and embassies all across the United Stated of America. American Indian Muslims are actively engaged in all the events formally organized such as Indian Independence Day August 15th programs, Republic Day January 26th celebrations and Gandhi Jayanti. American Indian Muslims contribute significantly in various India Fests organized in various parts of the country like New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Chicago by adding events like Urdu Mushaira, Hindu Kavi-sammelan, Kawwali programs etc. Bollywood movie songs are always part of all kinds of every celebration and events organized by American Indian Muslims. No India festivals go unnoticed among Hindu and Muslims communities alike such as Diwali, Holi, Baisakhi, Eid or Baqried aka Eid al-Adha or Christmas when people of Indian origin wishes each other happily and invite friends and families for dinners and parties. Syed Akbaruddin, Hasan Minhaj, Farid Zakaria, Aasif Mandvi, Aziz Ansari,[73] Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan [74] are few of the American Indian Muslims or having strong connections with their India roots. In various Mosques and Islamic seminaries all across the country, common practicing American Indian Muslims play very important roles in sending their Zakat portions, charities and relief supports for everybody in India. They have organized fund raising events for flood victims’ aid, communal riot aid and other educational support needs, etc. In this process, two front line non-profit organizations are IMRC USA and Indian American Muslim Council. They are very actively working across the board helping everybody who is in need in India and in United States, primarily for all the people of Indian Origin. American Indian Muslims constitutes almost all known denominations of muslim populations including Sunni, Shia, Deobandi, Barelvi, Sufi, Hanafi etc. and more. The spiritual and mystic order originating from India called, chishti ( Based upon Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer) is also widely present. Casinos and Restaurants with the name of Taj Mahal and Lal Quila and dishes like Hydrabadi biryani are examples of how Indian Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb is melting into American culture and mutually enriching each other. Urdu language, originating from India is being taught in many universities and schools. There is a continuous exchange of writers, scholars and students benefiting and contributing to the rich culture everywhere. SPAN (magazine) published by US State Gov in Urdu is an exemplary bridge connecting America, India and Indian Muslims and serving humanity. vte Islam in the United States Indian Muslim Americans also congregate with other American Muslims, including those from Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh when there are events particularly related to their faith and religious believes as the same can be applied for any other religious community, but there are prominent organizations such as the Indian Muslim Council – USA.[75] Christians There are many Indian Christian churches across the US; Church of South India, Church of North India, Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, Christhava Tamil Koil, Indian Orthodox Church, Mar Thoma Church (reformed orthodox), Malankara Syriac Orthodox Church, The Pentecostal Mission, Assemblies Of God, Church of God, Sharon Pentecostal Church, Independent Non Denominational Churches like Heavenly Feast, Plymouth Brethren, and the India Pentecostal Church of God. Saint Thomas Christians from Kerala have established their own places of worship across the United States. The website USIndian.org has collected a comprehensive list of all the traditional St. Thomas Christian Churches in the US.[76] There are also Catholic Indians hailing originally from Goa, Karnataka and Kerala, who attend the same services as other American Catholics, but may celebrate the feast of Saint Francis Xavier as a special event of their identity.[77][78][79] The Indian Christian Americans have formed the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America (FIACONA) to represent a network of Indian Christian organizations in the US. FIACONA estimates the Indian American Christian population to be 1,050,000.[80] Others The large Parsi and Irani community is represented by the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America.[81] Indian Jews are perhaps the smallest organized religious group among Indian Americans, consisting of approximately 350 members in the US. They form the Indian Jewish Congregation of USA, with their headquarters in New York City.[82] Ethnicity Davuluri speaking, wearing her Miss America tiara, large earrings and a long necklace of red flowers Nina Davuluri, Miss America 2014 "first contestant of Indian descent to win the Miss America Competition" Like the terms "Asian American" or "South Asian American", the term "Indian American" is also an umbrella label applying to a variety of views, values, lifestyles, and appearances. Although Asian-Indian Americans retain a high ethnic identity, they are known to assimilate into American culture while at the same time keeping the culture of their ancestors.[83] Linguistic affiliation Kiran Desai, winner of the 2006 Man Booker Prize The United States is home to various associations that promote Indian languages and cultures. Some major organizations include Telugu Association of North America (TANA), American Telugu Association (ATA), Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America, Federation of Kerala Associations in North America, Association of Kannada Kootas of America (AKKA), North American Bengali Conference, Orissa Society of the Americas, and Maharashtra Mandal. Progress Timeline 1600: Beginning of the East India Company.[9] 1635: An "East Indian" is documented present in Jamestown, Virginia.[84] 1680: Due to anti-miscegenation laws, a mixed-race girl born to an Indian father and an Irish mother is classified as mulatto and sold into slavery.[9] 1790: The first officially confirmed Indian immigrant arrives in the United States from Madras on a British ship.[85][86] 1899–1914: The first significant wave of Indian immigrants arrives in the United States, mostly consisting of Sikh farmers and businessmen from the Punjab region of British India. They arrive in Angel Island, California via Hong Kong. They start businesses including farms and lumber mills in California, Oregon, and Washington. 1909: Bhicaji Balsara becomes the first known Indian-born person to gain naturalised U.S. citizenship. As a Parsi, he was considered a "pure member of the Persian sect" and therefore a free White person. The judge Emile Henry Lacombe, of the Southern District of New York, only gave Balsara citizenship on the hope that the United States attorney would indeed challenge his decision and appeal it to create "an authoritative interpretation" of the law. The U.S. attorney adhered to Lacombe's wishes and took the matter to the Circuit Court of Appeals in 1910. The Circuit Court of Appeal agrees that Parsis are classified as white.[15] 1912: The first Sikh temple opens in Stockton, California. 1913: A.K. Mozumdar becomes the second Indian-born person to earn U.S. citizenship, having convinced the Spokane district judge that he was "Caucasian" and met the requirements of naturalization law that restricted citizenship to free White persons. In 1923, as a result of United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, his citizenship was revoked. 1914: Dhan Gopal Mukerji obtains a graduate degree from Stanford University, studying also at University of California, Berkeley and later goes on to win the Newbery Medal in 1928, and thus becomes the first successful India-born man of letters in the United States, as well as the first popular Indian writer in English. 1917: The Barred Zone Act passes in Congress through two-thirds majority, overriding President Woodrow Wilson's earlier veto. Asians, including Indians, are barred from entering the United States. 1918: Due to anti-miscegenation laws, there was significant controversy in Arizona when an Indian farmer B. K. Singh married the sixteen-year-old daughter of one of his White American tenants.[87] 1918: Private Raghunath N. Banawalkar is the first Indian American recruited into the U.S. Army on February 25, 1918 and serves in the Sanitary Detachment of the 305th Infantry Regiment, 77th Division, American Expeditionary Forces in France. Gassed while on active service in October 1918 and subsequently awarded Purple Heart medal.[88] 1918: Earliest record of LGBT Indian Americans, Jamil Singh in Sacramento, California[89] 1922: Yellapragada Subbarao, an Andhraite from Andhra Pradesh in Southern India arrived in Boston on October 26, 1922. He discovered the role of phosphocreatine and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in muscular activity, which earned him an entry into biochemistry textbooks in the 1930s. He obtained his Ph.D the same year, and went on to make other major discoveries; including the synthesis of aminopterin (later developed into methotrexate), the first cancer chemotherapy. 1923: In United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, the Supreme Court unanimously rules that Indian people are aliens ineligible for United States citizenship. Bhagat Singh Thind regained his citizenship years later in New York.[90] 1943: Republican Clare Boothe Luce and Democrat Emanuel Celler introduce a bill to open naturalization to Indian immigrants to the United States. Prominent Americans Pearl Buck, Louis Fischer, Albert Einstein and Robert Millikan give their endorsement to the bill. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, also endorses the bill, calling for an end to the "statutory discrimination against the Indians". 1946: President Harry Truman signs into law the Luce–Celler Act of 1946, returning the right to Indian Americans to immigrate to the United States and become naturalized citizens. 1956: Dalip Singh Saund elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from California. He was re-elected to a second and third term, winning over 60% of the vote. He is also the first Asian immigrant from any country to be elected to Congress. 1962: Zubin Mehta appointed music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, becoming the first person of Indian origin to become the principal conductor of a major American orchestra. Subsequently, he was appointed principal conductor of the New York Philharmonic. 1964: Amar G. Bose founded Bose Corporation. He was the chairman, primary stockholder, and also holds the title of Technical Director at Bose Corporation. He was former professor of electrical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1965: President Lyndon Johnson signs the INS Act of 1965 into law, eliminating per-country immigration quotas and introducing immigration on the basis of professional experience and education. Satinder Mullick is one of the first to immigrate under the new law in November 1965—sponsored by Corning Glass Works. 1968: Hargobind Khorana shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Marshall W. Nirenberg and Robert W. Holley for discovering the mechanisms by which RNA codes for the synthesis of proteins. He was then on faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but later moved to MIT. 1974: Mafat and Tulsi Patel open the first location of Patel Brothers on Devon Avenue in Chicago, one of the first Indian grocery chains in America 1975: Launch of India-West, a leading newspaper covering issues of relevance to the Indian American community. 1981: Suhas Patil co-founded Cirrus Logic, one of the first fabless semiconductor companies. 1982: Vinod Khosla co-founded Sun Microsystems. 1983: Subrahmanyam Chandrasekhar won the Nobel Prize for Physics; Asian Indian Women in America[91] attended the first White House Briefing for Asian American Women. (AAIWA, formed in 1980, is the 1st Indian women's organization in North America.) 1987: President Ronald Reagan appoints Joy Cherian, the first Indian Commissioner of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). 1988: Sanjay Mehrotra co-founded SanDisk. 1994: Rajat Gupta elected managing director of McKinsey & Company, the first Indian-born CEO of a multinational company. 1994: Guitarist Kim Thayil, of Indian origin, wins Grammy award for his Indian inspired guitarwork on the album Superunknown by his band Soundgarden. 1994: Raj Reddy received the ACM Turing Award (with Edward Feigenbaum) "For pioneering the design and construction of large scale artificial intelligence systems, demonstrating the practical importance and potential commercial impact of artificial intelligence technology". 1996: Pradeep Sindhu co-founded Juniper Networks 1996: Rajat Gupta and Anil Kumar of McKinsey & Company co-found the Indian School of Business. 1997: Kalpana Chawla, one of the six-member crew of STS-87 mission, becomes the first Indian American astronaut. Kalpana Chawla 1999: NASA names the third of its four "Great Observatories" Chandra X-ray Observatory after Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar the Indian-born American astrophysicist and a Nobel laureate. 1999: Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan enters film history with his film The Sixth Sense becoming one of the all-time highest-grossing films worldwide. 1999: Rono Dutta becomes the president of United Airlines. 2001: Professor Dipak C. Jain (born in Tezpur – Assam, India) appointed as dean of the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He is the Sandy and Morton Goldman Professor in Entrepreneurial Studies and a professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1987. 2002: Professor Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao — 'the world-renowned statistician' is awarded National Medal of Science by President George W. Bush. 2005: Abhi Talwalkar, president and chief executive officer of LSI Corporation Indra Nooyi, former chairman and chief executive officer of PepsiCo 2006: Indra Nooyi (born in Chennai, India) appointed as CEO of PepsiCo. She is a Successor Fellow of the Yale Corporation — sometimes, and more formally, known as The President and Fellows of Yale College, is the governing body of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. She also serves as a member of the boards of the International Rescue Committee, Catalyst and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, trustees of Eisenhower Fellowships, and currently serves as chairman of the U.S.–India Business Council. 2007: Bobby Jindal is elected governor of Louisiana and is the first person of Indian descent to be elected governor of an American state; he is inaugurated on January 14, 2008. 2007: Renu Khator appointed to a dual-role as chancellor of the University of Houston System and president of the University of Houston on October 15, 2007. 2007: Francisco D'Souza appointed as the president and chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors of Cognizant Technology Solutions. He is one of the youngest chief executive officers in the software services sector at the age 38 in the United States. He was part of the team founded, in 1994, the NASDAQ-100 Cognizant Technology Solutions. 2007: Vikram Pandit (born in Nagpur, Maharashtra, India) appointed as CEO of Citigroup. He was previously the president and chief operating officer of the Institutional Securities and Investment Banking Group at Morgan Stanley. He also serves on the boards of Columbia University, Columbia Business School, the Indian School of Business and The Trinity School. He is a former board member of NASDAQ (2000–2003), the New York City Investment Fund. 2007: Shantanu Narayen appointed as CEO of Adobe Systems. 2008: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson appoints Neel Kashkari as the Interim U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability. 2008: Raj Chetty appointed as professor of economics at Harvard University the age of 29, one of the youngest ever to receive tenure of professorship in the Department of Economics at Harvard. He is one of the top  young economists in the world. 2008: Sanjay Jha appointed as Co-CEO of Motorola, Inc.. 2008: Establishment of the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA) to document the history of the South Asian American community.[92] 2009: President Barack Obama appoints Preet Bharara (born in Firozpur, India; graduate of Harvard College Class of 1990 and Columbia Law School Class of 1993) as United States attorney for the Southern District of New York Manhattan. Farah Pandith appointed as Special Representative to Muslim Communities for the United States Department of State. 2009: President Barack Obama appoints Aneesh Paul Chopra as the first American Federal Chief Technology Officer of the United States (CTO). 2009: President Barack Obama appoints Eboo Patel and Anju Bhargava on President's Advisory Council on Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. 2009: President Barack Obama appoints Vinai Thummalapally as the U.S. Ambassador to Belize 2009: President Barack Obama nominates Rajiv Shah, M.D. as the new head of United States Agency for International Development. 2009: President Barack Obama nominates Islam A. Siddiqui as the Chief Agricultural Negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. 2010: President of Harvard University Catherine Drew Gilpin Faust appoints Nitin Nohria as the tenth dean of Harvard Business School. 2010: President of University of Chicago Robert Zimmer appoints Sunil Kumar as the dean of University of Chicago Booth School of Business. 2010: Deven Sharma appointed president of Standard & Poor's. 2010: Ajaypal Banga appointed president and CEO of MasterCard. 2010: President Barack Obama nominates Subra Suresh, Dean of Engineering at MIT as director of National Science Foundation. 2010: Year marks the most number of candidates of Indian origin, running for political offices in the United States, including candidates such as: Kamala Harris and Ami Bera. 2010: State Representative Nikki Haley is elected Governor of South Carolina, and becomes the first Indian American woman, and second Indian American in general to become Governor of an American state. 2010: The World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland names Sanjay Gupta, an Indian American senior executive at Abraxis BioScience and advisor to billionaire investor Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong to its 2010 list of 'Young Global Leaders' 2011: Jamshed Bharucha named president of Cooper Union. Previous to that, he was appointed dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences at Dartmouth College in 2001, the first Indian American dean at an Ivy League institution, and Provost at Tufts University in 2002.[93] 2011: Satish K. Tripathi appointed as President of University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. 2011: Rohit Gupta wins over 100 international awards & accolades for his films Life! Camera Action... and Another Day Another Life. 2011: Bobby Jindal is re-elected Governor of Louisiana. 2012: Ami Bera is elected to the House of Representatives from California. 2012: Dinesh D'Souza directs and releases the documentary film 2016: Obama's America which is highly successful and becomes the second-highest grossing political film of all time. 2013: Vistap Karbhari appointed as president of University of Texas at Arlington 2013: Hachette publishes cartoonist Francis Cleetus' compilation of It's Geek 2 Me tech toons titled "Total Timepass Tech Toons". 2013: Sri Srinivasan is confirmed as a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. 2013: Nina Davuluri wins Miss America 2014. 2013: Arun M Kumar appointed as assistant secretary and director general of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service, International Trade Administration in the Department of Commerce.[94] 2014: Satya Nadella appointed as CEO of Microsoft. Vivek Murthy, Surgeon General of U.S.; former Vice Admiral of U.S. Health Corps 2014: Vivek Murthy appointed as the nineteenth Surgeon General of the United States. 2014: Rakesh Khurana appointed as the dean of Harvard College, the original founding college of Harvard University. 2014: Nikki Haley re-elected to a second term as the Governor of South Carolina in November 2014.[95] She was later appointed as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, in the Trump Administration, in 2017. 2014: Manjul Bhargava wins Fields Medal in Mathematics. 2015: Sundar Pichai appointed as the chairman and CEO of Google. 2016: Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna, and Raja Krishnamoorthi are elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and Kamala Harris to the Senate. This puts the total number of people of Indian and South Asian origin in Congress at 5, the largest in history. 2017: President Donald Trump nominates Ajit Pai as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). 2017: Balvir Singh was elected to the Burlington County Board of Chosen Freeholders, New Jersey on November 7, 2017. He became the first Asian-American to win a countywide election in Burlington County and the first Sikh-American to win a countywide election in New Jersey.[96] 2019: Seven out of the eight winners of the Scripps National Spelling Bee (Saketh Sundar, Abhijay Kodali, Shruthika Padhy, Sohum Sukhatankar, Christopher Serrao, Rohan Raja, and Rishik Gandhasri), a long-running American academic institution, are Indian Americans. They have broken the spelling bee according to several experts and have dominated this American institution.[97] 2019: Abhijit Banerjee is awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.[98][99] Classification Main article: Racial classification of Indian Americans A man giving a speech. He wears a white blouse with a dark label pin. In front of him, there are two microphones. Kal Penn speaking at a rally for President Barack Obama at the University of Maryland's Nyumburu Cultural Center. According to the official U.S. racial categories employed by the United States Census Bureau, Office of Management and Budget and other U.S. government agencies, American citizens or resident aliens who marked "Asian Indian" as their ancestry or wrote in a term that was automatically classified as an Asian Indian became classified as part of the Asian race at the 2000 US Census.[100] As with other modern official U.S. government racial categories, the term "Asian" is in itself a broad and heterogeneous classification, encompassing all peoples with origins in the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. In previous decades, Indian Americans were also variously classified as White American, the "Hindu race", and "other".[101] Even today, where individual Indian Americans do not racially self-identify, and instead report Muslim, Jewish, and Zoroastrian as their "race" in the "some other race" section without noting their country of origin, they are automatically tallied as white.[102] This may result in the counting of persons such as Indian Muslims, Indian Jews, and Indian Zoroastrians as white, if they solely report their religious heritage without their national origin. Citizenship Unlike many countries, India does not allow dual citizenship.[103] Consequently, many Indian citizens residing in U.S., who do not want to lose their Indian nationality, do not apply for American citizenship (ex. Raghuram Rajan[104]). Current issues Discrimination See also: Stereotypes of South Asians Sergeant Bhagat Singh Thind in U.S. Army uniform during World War I at Camp Lewis, Washington, in 1918. Thind, an American Sikh, was the first U.S. serviceman to be allowed for religious reasons to wear a turban as part of their military uniform. In the 1980s, a gang known as the Dotbusters specifically targeted Indian Americans in Jersey City, New Jersey with violence and harassment.[105] Studies of racial discrimination, as well as stereotyping and scapegoating of Indian Americans have been conducted in recent years.[106] In particular, racial discrimination against Indian Americans in the workplace has been correlated with Indophobia due to the rise in outsourcing/offshoring, whereby Indian Americans are blamed for US companies offshoring white-collar labor to India.[107][108] According to the offices of the Congressional Caucus on India, many Indian Americans are severely concerned of a backlash, though nothing serious has taken place.[108] Due to various socio-cultural reasons, implicit racial discrimination against Indian Americans largely go unreported by the Indian American community.[106] Numerous cases of religious stereotyping of American Hindus (mainly of Indian origin) have also been documented.[109] Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, there have been scattered incidents of Indian Americans becoming mistaken targets for hate crimes. In one example, a Sikh, Balbir Singh Sodhi, was murdered at a Phoenix gas station by a white supremacist. This happened after September 11, and the murderer claimed that his turban made him think that the victim was a Middle Eastern American.[citation needed] In another example, a pizza deliverer was mugged and beaten in Massachusetts for "being Muslim" though the victim pleaded with the assailants that he was in fact a Hindu.[110] In December 2012, an Indian American in New York City was pushed from behind onto the tracks at the 40th Street-Lowery Street station in Sunnyside and killed.[111] The police arrested a woman, Erika Menendez, who admitted to the act and justified it, stating that she shoved him onto the tracks because she believed he was "a Hindu or a Muslim" and she wanted to retaliate for the attacks of September 11, 2001.[112] In 2004, New York Senator Hillary Clinton joked at a fundraising event with South Asians for Nancy Farmer that Mahatma Gandhi owned a gas station in downtown St. Louis, fueling the stereotype that gas stations are owned by Indians and other South Asians. She clarified in the speech later that she was just joking, but still received some criticism for the statement later on for which she apologized again.[113] On April 5, 2006, the Hindu Mandir of Minnesota was vandalized allegedly on the basis of religious discrimination.[114] The vandals damaged temple property leading to $200,000 worth of damage.[115][116][117] On August 11, 2006, Senator George Allen allegedly referred to an opponent's political staffer of Indian ancestry as "macaca" and commenting, "Welcome to America, to the real world of Virginia". Some members of the Indian American community saw Allen's comments, and the backlash that may have contributed to Allen losing his re-election bid, as demonstrative of the power of YouTube in the 21st century.[118] In 2006, then Delaware Senator and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was caught on microphone saying: "In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking."[119] On August 5, 2012, white supremacist Wade Michael Page shot eight people and killed six at a Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. On February 22, 2017, recent immigrants Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani were shot at a bar in Olathe, Kansas by Adam Purinton, a white American who mistook them for persons of Middle Eastern descent, yelling "get out of my country" and "terrorist". Kuchibhotla died instantly while Madasani was injured, but later recovered.[120] On December 22, 2018, rapper Famous Dex uploaded a video post to his Instagram page in which he made racially-charged jokes at the expense of an elderly Indian American Hindu cashier at a convenience store in Los Angeles he was frequenting with a friend.[121] During the video, he remarks “Witcho’ lil’... ,” referring to the man’s tilaka on his forehead, following a brief exchange about the packaging of the Backwoods Smokes box Famous Dex was purchasing. He then stops and rhetorically adds “That’s a mark of Buddha in between yo’ face?,” laughing along with his friend. This is in reference to the 2001 stoner film How High, in which Chuck Deezy’s character Ivory opined that the pubic patch between his eyebrows was the ‘mark of Buddha.’[122] Illegal immigration See also: Illegal immigration to the United States and Illegal immigration amongst Asian Americans In 2009, the Department of Homeland Security estimated that there were one hundred thousand (100,000) Indian unauthorized immigrants; they are the sixth largest nationality (tied with Koreans) of illegal immigrants behind Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Philippines.[123] Indian Americans have had an increase in illegal immigration of 25% since 2000.[124][125] In 2014, Pew Research Center estimated that there are 150 thousand undocumented Indians in the United States.[126] Immigration Indians are among the largest ethnic groups legally immigrating to the United States. The immigration of Indians has taken place in several waves since the first Indian came to the United States in the 1700s. A major wave of immigration to California from the region of Punjab took place in the first decade of the 20th century. Another significant wave followed in the 1950s which mainly included students and professionals. The elimination of immigration quotas in 1965 spurred successively larger waves of immigrants in the late 1970s and early 1980s. With the technology boom of the 1990s, the largest influx of Indians arrived between 1995 and 2000. This latter group has also caused surge in the application for various immigration benefits including applications for green card. This has resulted in long waiting periods for people born in India from receiving these benefits. As of 2012, over 330,000 Indians were on the visa wait list, third only to Mexico and The Philippines.[127] In December, 2015, over 30 Indian students seeking admission in two US universities—Silicon Valley University and the Northwestern Polytechnic University—were denied entry by Customs and Border Protection and were deported to India. Conflicting reports suggested that the students were deported because of the controversies surrounding the above-mentioned two universities. However, another report suggested that the students were deported as they had provided conflicting information at the time of their arrival in US to what was mentioned in their visa application. "According to the US Government, the deported persons had presented information to the border patrol agent which was inconsistent with their visa status," read an advisory published by Ministry of External Affairs (India) which was published in the Hindustan Times.[128] Following the incident, the Indian government asked the US government to honour the visas given by its embassies and consulates. In response, the United States embassy advised the students considering studying in the US to seek assistance from Education USA.[128][129] Media Dr. Bhagat Singh Thind was born on October 3, 1892 in a well-known military Kamboj Sikh Thind family of village Taragarh/Talawan in the District Amritsar. His father, S. Boota Singh Thind, was retired as Subedar Major from the British Indian Army. His mother, Icer Kaur, died when Dr. Thind was only a young child, but left an indelible memory with him. Dr. Thind's ancestors had earlier served in the Sikh army of Maharaja Ranjit and even before that, in the Marjeewra Sikh fauj of 10th Lord. This earned a good name as a Warriors' family. S. Boota Singh Thind, his family, and all his relatives were very dedicated Sikhs and had actively participated in Sikh Morcha for possessions of lands belonging to Gurudwara Pheru, at Lahore in 1924 and earlier in Nankana Sahib Morcha of 1921 (In which out of 86 Singh Shaheeds, 32 were the Kamboj Singhs). S. Boota Singh Thind was jailed for several years and lost his military pension as a consequence. He had also persuaded numerous other Kamboj Singhs of Shekhupuru to actively participate in the movement. Thus it is clear that Dr. Bhagat Singh Thind had inherited the love for Sikhism and humanity from his devoted Sikh parents and relatives as mentioned above. After his high school graduation in 1908, Dr. Thind enrolled at Khalsa College in Amritsar and obtained his college degree. While a student, Dr. Thind had already ardently studied American history and its literature (Emerson, Whitman, and Thoreau) and developed a keen interest in America and it's people. He was soon inspired to travel to America for a higher education and to fulfill his destiny as a Spiritual Teacher. Dr. Thind left Calcutta, India bound for America at the age of 19. He landed in Manila and stayed for 9 months before departing for the United States on the Vessel Minnesota and finally landed in Seattle, Washington July 4, 1913. Boota Singh Thind Dr. Thind's father who was a very spiritual man was a wonderful example for his son, being bold, brave, idealistic and pragmatic said to his son on the day he left for America at the railway station at Amritsar: "Promise me four things: First, neither beg nor borrow, no matter what happens. Second, never commit adultery. Third, neither smoke, nor have anything to do with any kind of intoxicating drinks or drugs or narcotics or drugs. Fourth, never live in the past, live always in the eternal One and start life ever anew. His father looked him in the eyes and said, "I hope if you follow these teachings I have given you, you will make a success in life. If you cannot, the sooner you perish the better for you and for me and the rest of the world, because I do not want a weakling to survive me. My children should not be weaklings or jelly-fishes". Dr. Thind as a young man of 19 years and five months looked back at his father and said: “Father, your heroic blood runs in my veins. I will be faithful and true and I cannot fail.” Then Boota gave Dr. Thind two thousand rupees. He said: "Son, this is all I can give you now. I have given you an education and an example. Make your own way in life." About Dr. Thind: His Life Work           -- Additional Information -- Doctor exemplified his teachings by his own transformed and beautifully lived life. He was a fountainhead of energy and wisdom; a teacher after which we need no other teacher. On October 3, 1892 he was born into a Sikh community of the state of Punjab, India. He was educated at Khalsa College, Amritsar, and nurtured in the best tradition of the Sikh religion, the Spiritual Science founded by Guru Nanak in the fifteenth century. As a youth, Dr. Thind sought companionship and spiritual guidance from the pundits of his community. He also sought to learn the philosophies and religions of the world. Upon reading the works of Emerson, Whitman, and Thoreau, he became inspired to travel to America to fulfill his destiny as a Spiritual Teacher. With the encouragement of an understanding father, he left India, stayed briefly in Manila, and within days before his twentieth birthday, arrived in Seattle, Washington on July 4, 1913. Throughout his time away, Dr. Thind never forgot his debt to his motherland. India at that time was under strict and often oppressive British rule. In the years to follow he served as a pioneer for India's Independence and helped many East Indians gain their American citizenship - a title he was denied until 1936. In 1918, he served in the United States Army during World War I, being one of the few East Indians to do so at the time. His successful military career led to an Honorable Discharge on December 18, 1918. For 52 years, Dr. Thind lectured throughout the United States. He possessed a sharp wit and direct manner of speaking, inspiring an audience of an estimated five-million. Thousands were initiated as disciples into the Inner Life and the discovery of the power of the Holy NAM. "No dogmas, no creeds, no limitations, no secret keys, no mystical fuss, no exotic formulas; we put order in your kingdom of chaos," was the words underlining his printed programs of lectures. In honor of his legacy, his alma mater Khalsa College of Amritsar, India offers a "Dr. Bhagat Singh Thind Scholarship Fund", which aids students in need of financial assistance. Acknowledgment from his wife, Vivian "He was a man of indomitable will, invincible spirit, and unshakable faith. A knower of God, who lived the life of truth and Divine Purpose giving these principles first place above all else in his life. In March of 1940 we married, and although his lecture tours separated us much of the time, we wrote to each other daily. He was my Guru in every way: A noble husband, he was a devoted father to our son and daughter, and a respectful loving son-in-law to my parents, whose home has always been with us. When, without warning, (for he was in excellent health) he left us at 4:15 pm, September 15, 1967. Our loss seemed inconsolable. We discovered gratefully, however, that his very teachings had prepared us well for that loss. It is in the same spirit of gratitude for our beloved Teacher that we will continue to publish and republish all of Doctor's books, manuscripts, and teachings in perpetuity. We know his completed writings will live on and on as a spiritual guide - to his devoted disciples, and for those who are ready to free themselves of conditioned orthodox religious thinking. His writings are for all who yearn for fellowship with the Author of their Being, instead of looking for him externally." Time Line of the life of Dr. Thind October 3, 1892: Dr. Thind was born in the Village of Taragarh, near Jandiala Guru, District Amritsar, Punjab, India 1912: Graduated Khalsa College with Honors July 1912: Departs Calcutta. Arrives in Philippines (stays for 9 months) July 4, 1913: Arrives in Seattle, WA 1914-1918: Stays at Hindoo Alley (Gadar Movement) 1915-16: Earned Ph.D. Jan 17,1917: Petitioned for Citizenship US District Court, Oregon July 22,1918: Enlisted to US Army in Clatsop County, Oregon at Camp Lewis, Washington Company #2 development Battalion #1, 166th Depot Brigade July 22,1918: Petitioned for Citizenship US District Court, Washington Dec 9,1918: Granted US Citizenship DEC 13,1918: US Citizenship canceled. Given Certification of Cancellation by INS DEC 18,1918: Honorably discharged from US Army 1918-1922: Employed at Charles Kingsley, Western Oregon Lumber Co at Linnton, Oregon May 6,1919: Petitioned for Citizenship at US District Court of Oregon. Oct 19,1919: US District Court in Oregon rules favorably for Dr. Thind's citizenship Jan, 1920: Interviewed by Portland ̉JournalÓ stating he was forced to come to USA for his education, being unable ̉to secure an education at home because of the severe restrictions on IndiansÓ Nov 18,1920: Granted citizenship by the US District Court of Oregon. Oct 17,1921: 9th District Court sent case to US Supreme Court for decision Feb 19,1923: US Supreme Court rescinded citizenship on grounds that Dr. Thind was not a white person within the meaning of Section 2169, Revised Statues. 1925: Wrote "Divine Wisdom, Volume 1" May 30,1926 - August 31, 1926: Lectured at Chicago Daily News Jun 26,1926: INS sent Certification of Cancellation or citizenship Sept 12 - Oct 11,,1926 : Lectures in Milwaukee Nov 7- DEC 9, 1926: Lectures in St.Louis, MO DEC 19, 1926-Feb 18, 1927: Lectures in Detroit, MI Feb 27 -April 13, 1927: Lectures in Cleveland,OH April 24-May 24, 1927: Lectures in Pittsburgh, PA June 5 - July 20, 1927: Lectures in Philadelphia, PA July 31,1927 - Jan 8, 1928: Lectures in New York City Jan 29-March 15, 1928: Lectures in Cincinnati,OH March 25-April, 1928: Lectures in Chicago, IL May 13 - June 14, 1928: Lectures in St. Louis, MO June 24 - Aug 5, 1928: Lectures in Buffalo, NY Aug 19 - Sept, 22, 1928: Lectures in Boston, MA Oct 7 - Nov 10, 1928: Lectures in Detroit, MI Nov 18 - DEC 21, 1928: Lectures in Toledo, OH Jan 6 - Feb 20, 1929: Lectures in Cleveland, OH Mar 3 - April 17, 1929: Lectures in Pittsburgh, PA April 28 - June 12, 1929: Lectures in Washington DC June 30 - Aug 1, 1929: Lectures in Milwaukee, WI Sept 1 - Oct 16, 1929: Lectures in Chicago, IL Nov 3 - DEC, 18, 1929: Lectures in St. Louis, MO 1928: Wrote "Divine Wisdom, Volume 2" Based on seven lectures at the Pythian Temple, New York City 1930: Wrote House of Happiness. Based on lecture lesson given in 1927 (New York City) Jan 19 - Mar 11, 1930: Lectures in Los Angeles, CA Mar 23 - June 14, 1930: Lectures in San Francisco, CA June 15 - July 14, 1930: Lectures in Philadelphia, PA Sept 27 - Nov 26, 1930: Lectures in New York City 1935: Resides in New York City and teaches True Religion and Metaphysics. Jun 24,1935: US Congress enacted a statute that allows US Citizen for US Veteran ̉AliensÓ previously disallowed. Sept 27, 1935: Dr. Thind filed Petition 250957 for citizenship Mar 2, 1936: Granted Citizenship by US District Court 1937: Ordained Minister 1937: Resides in Richmond, VA March 16,1940: Dr. Thind marries Vivian Davies in Colligwood Presbyterian Church, Toledo, OH June ,1963: Dr. Thind visited India for the first time since he left his beloved country 51 years earlier in 1912. Dr. Thind and his wife Vivian were honored in Delhi and in Punjab. Prime Minister Pandit Nehur and the President Dr. Radha Krishna had especially invited Dr. Thind and had numerous meetings with him and his family. He was also invited to deliver special lectures on Metaphysics in several universities including Delhi University and the Punjab University, where he spoke to vass audiences on "What America Means to Me". Sept 15,1967: Dr. Thind passes at 4:15 pm in Los Angeles, Ca n June 8th, 1932, Dr. Thind was ordained as Minister of the Builders of Aquarius Church and also holds a Certificate of Ordination as a Sikhs Gyanee and Parcharak (Teacher and Preacher of the Sikh Faith) of the Sikh Temple in Stockton, California. Dr. Thind's education saw him as a graduate from Khalsa College in Armritsar, India. Not long after arriving to the United States, he attended the University of California at Berkeley. He was also a student at Columbia University in New York. Dr. Thind eventually earned his Ph.D., which appointed him as a "Doctor of Divinity" and "Metaphysics", which suited him well for his famous lecture series where he touched the lives of millions. Realizing the importance of education, Dr. Thind paid for the college education for 86 students, both in the United States and India, for undergraduate, master and doctorate degrees in prestigious academic institutions such as Harvard, Stanford, California and USC. Many of these students returned to India and became lawyers, doctors, and served in Parliament and other members of government. Bhagat Singh Thind Bhagat Singh Thind Bhagat Singh Thind Bhagat Singh Thind (1892-1967) was born in Punjab and came to America in 1913. A year later, he was paying his way through the University of California at Berkeley by working in an Oregon lumber mill during summer vacations. When America entered World War I, he joined the U.S. Army. He was honorably discharged on 16th of December, 1918 and in 1920 applied for U.S. citizenship from the state of Oregon. Since several applicants from India had thus far been granted U.S. citizenship, he too was approved by the district court. However a naturalization examiner appealed this court's decision, and the rest is history. Feb 10, 1923: Justice Sutherland rules "Hindus" are "aliens ineligible to citizenship" in United States vs. Bhagat Singh Thind (261 US 204) What is less well-known is that Bhagat Singh Thind remained in the U.S., completed his Ph.D., and delivered lectures in metaphysics all across the nation. Basing his lessons on Sikh philosophy, he enriched his teaching with references to the scriptures of several religions and the work of Emerson, Whitman, and Thoreau. He campaigned actively for the independence of India from the British Empire, and helped Indian students in any way he could. In 1931, he married Vivian Davies and they had a son, David, to whom several of his 15 books are dedicated. "You must never be limited by external authority, whether it be vested in a church, man, or book. It is your right to question, challenge, and investigate." Ironically, Dr. Thind applied for and received U.S. citizenship through the state of New York within a few years of being turned down by the U.S. Supreme Court. Still frame of video clip Video clip Quicktime | Realplayer Get the Quicktime plug-in Get the Realplayer G2 plug-in Books by Bhagat S. Thind HOUSE OF HAPPINESS Based on lectures given in 1927, this book is a fine introduction to Dr. Thind's teachings. It is easily understood by and popular with young people, as well as more advanced students of Eastern religions. A few of the chapter titles are: How to Find Out What You Are Best Suited For; Evolution — Passing from Lower to Higher Births; Consciousness — An Inward Knowledge; Aum — The Sacred Hum of the Universe. "Appeal to the tradition of a nation, and the whole mob psychology is arrayed behind you. Let me appeal to the democratic spirit of the Americans, and they think I am just wonderful. Appeal to the spiritual nature of India, and you get all Hindus on your side." RADIANT ROAD TO REALITY Dr. Thind's disciples count this book as their teacher's greatest writing. It deals with enduring truths of spiritual import, verifiable facts of the highest human psychological possibilities. Dr. Thind reveals an exact science showing the seeker how to connect the individual soul with its Universal Creator. In the Preface, he writes: "It [this book] is for him who seeks to illumine his intelligence by the torch of his own Divinity, who hungers to attain the Consciousness, which transcends the barriers of time and space." Bhagat's widow, with others From left: Dr. Amarjit S. Marwah, Mrs. Vivian Thind (Bhagat's widow), Mr. Ram Bagai, and Gwen Singh (widow of another Indian pioneer). SCIENCE OF UNION WITH GOD "The truest help one can render a man bent with the burdens of life, is to call out his best energies and efforts, so that he himself by himself may raise his sagging spirit, and not only cope with conditions, but come out triumphant in the highest spiritual sense of the word." This quotation from the Preface is an expression of what Dr. Thind hoped to accomplish with this book. Chapters include: Union with God; the Unknown Is in the Known; Ego vs. Individuality; Unification and Reunion; Sikh Religion Made Plain; The Song of the Soul Victorious. THE PEARL OF GREATEST PRICE "No scientific law can ever compare with the discovery of the Living Word of Power, which unifies man's whole being and makes him one in nature and character with his indwelling God." This is the theme developed by Dr. Thind in this book — an inspiring volume for all who seek to go ever onward, forward and Godward. Chapters include: Modus Operandi; Walking in the Inner Path to God; How Sat Guru Helps; Nature, Nurture and Nam; Overcoming the World. "The human mind is where everyone has to live and find his only opportunity for peace, happiness and wholeness. Only the unified mind can see things whole." — Bhagat S. Thind "There are many religions, but only one Morality, one Truth, and one God. The only Heaven is one of conscious life and fellowship with God." — Bhagat S. Thind JESUS, THE CHRIST: In the Light of Spiritual Science These three volumes were written for all who have freed themselves of orthodox religious thinking and for those who are ready to do so. The books serve as a springboard to greater spiritual heights, wherein we appreciate more than ever the message of the Sat Gurus, the Saviours, the Avatars, the Christs, of whom Jesus Christ was one. Dr. Thind analyzes the teachings of this Savior of the western world and compares them with the teachings of all the great religions. Dr. Bhagat Singh Thind was one of the first Asian Indian soldiers and first turbaned Sikh to serve in the United States Army during the First World War. Dr. Bhagat Singh Thind was born on October 3, 1892 in Taragarh, Punjab, British India. Dr. Bhagat Singh Thind arrived to Seattle, Washington on July 14, 1913 on board the ship Minnesota from Manila, Philippines. His younger brother, Jagat Singh Thind died onboard  the ship Komagata Maru, which had been forced to turn back from Canada in 1914 because of country’s racial laws. When the ship returned to India, the British government thought the Indians on board the ship were attempting incite revolutionary activities, and a riot broke up out. Many were killed and jailed, including Jagat Singh Thind. Dr. Thind came to the United States for higher education to become a spiritual teacher and scholar. He made his way to Oregon and eventually settled in California later in life. Dr. Thind came to the United States for higher education to become a spiritual teacher and scholar. When America entered the war, Dr. Thind was studying at the University of California, Berkeley for metaphysics, spirituality, and religion and it is safe to assume that he wanted to serve his new home and uphold the strong warrior tradition of the Sikh faith. He enlisted in the United States Army when the country entered the war in the 1917. He trained at Camp Lewis in Washington state but did not see overseas action. He also listed in October 1918 issue of the newspaper and journal Young India with other Asians serving in the U.S military during the war. Dr. Thind was one of the thousands of Indian Sikhs that bravely served in the war, but he was the first turbaned Sikh to serve in the U.S during the war. Dr. Thind received an Honorable Discharge with the of rank of acting sergeant in 1918 when the war ended. Following his service in the military, Dr. Thind’s attempted to gain U.S citizenship. During this period, Asian Indians were considered Caucasian and many of them obtained naturalization.  Dr. Thind gained naturalization in 1920 through the U.S District Court of Oregon. However, the Bureau of Naturalization appealed his naturalization on the grounds that he was not white. Dr. Thind fought back against the appeal and his case reached the United States Supreme Court. In 1923 the case Bhagat Singh vs. the United States, the Supreme Court ruled that the "common man's" definition of "white" did not correspond to "Caucasian" and therefore he could not apply for naturalization. He finally obtained in U.S citizenship in 1936 in the state of New York. On March 16, 1940 Dr. Thind married Vivan Davis in the Collingwood Presbyterian Church in Toledo, Ohio. He died on September 15, 1967 in Los Angeles, California.  Throughout his life he published and lectured on the subjects of metaphysics, spirituality and religion. Dr. Bhagat Singh Thind was a pioneer in being one of the first Asian Indians and the first turbaned Sikh to serve in the United States Army, and then leading the fight for citizenship for Asian Indians. On October 3, 1892 he was born into a Sikh community of the state of Punjab, India. He was educated at Khalsa College, Amritsar, and nurtured in the best tradition of the Sikh religion, the Spiritual Science founded by Guru Nanak in the fifteenth century. As a youth he sought companionship and spiritual guidance form the pundits (learned men) of his community. He also sought the philosophies and religions of the rest of the world. Upon reading Emerson, Whitman, and Thoreau, he became inspired to travel to America to fulfill his destiny as a spiritual Teacher.  With the encouragement of a understanding and blessed father, he left India, stayed briefly in Manila, and arrived in Seattle, Washington, in August of 1912, just before his twentieth birthday. He never forgot his debt   to his motherland. India  at that time was under British rule.  In the years to follow he made outstanding sacrifices as a pioneer in India's Independence movement and in helping East Indians gain their citizenship in this country - denied until 1946. Many Indian students in America completed their education with his financial assistance. Some returned to India and became members of Parliament, Chief Ministers, doctors and scientists. He also served America being one of the very few East Indians in the United States Army during World War One. Doctor sponsored more than seventy students through various Universities and Colleges in the United States, Europe and India.  For 52 years, Doctor lectured in America, reaching an audience of at least five million. Thousands were initiated as disciples into the Inner Life, and the discovery of the power of the Holy Năm. He possessed a sharp wit and direct manner of speaking.  "No dogmas, no creeds, no proselytism, no limitations, no secret keys , no mystical fuss, no exotic formulas; we put order in your kingdom of chaos," were the words underlining his printed programs of lectures. Currently there is a  "Dr. Bhagat Singh Thind Scholarship Fund" at Khalsa College, Amritsar, India, which aids students in need of financial assistance.  He was a man of indomitable will, invincible spirit, and unshakable faith;  A knower of God, who lived the life of truth and Divine Purpose giving these principles first place above all else in his life. Click into center  to see an Enlargement of this photo of Dr. Singh Thind and Friends.... In March of 1940 we married, and although his lecture tours separated us much of the time, we wrote to each other daily.  He was my Guru in every way: A noble husband,  he was a devoted father to our son and daughter, and a respectful loving son-in-law to my parents, whose home has always been with us. When, without warning, (for he was in excellent health) he left us at 4:15 pm., September 15, 1967, our loss seemed inconsolable, We discovered gratefully, however, that his very teachings had prepared us well for that loss. It is in the same spirit of gratitude for our beloved Teacher that we will continue to publish and republish all of Doctors books, manuscripts, and teachings in perpetuity.  We know his completed writings will live on and on as a spiritual guide - to his devoted disciples, and for those who are ready to free themselves of conditioned orthodox religious thinking. Click into center  to see an Enlargement. His writings are for all who yearn for fellowship with the 
The Farm Security Administration (FSA) was a New Deal agency created in 1937 to combat rural poverty during the Great Depression in the United States. It succeeded the Resettlement Administration (1935–1937).[1] The FSA is famous for its small but highly influential photography program, 1935–44, that portrayed the challenges of rural poverty. The photographs in the FSA/Office of War Information Photograph Collection form an extensive pictorial record of American life between 1935 and 1944. This U.S. government photography project was headed for most of its existence by Roy Stryker, who guided the effort in a succession of government agencies: the Resettlement Administration (1935–1937), the Farm Security Administration (1937–1942), and the Office of War Information (1942–1944). The collection also includes photographs acquired from other governmental and nongovernmental sources, including the News Bureau at the Offices of Emergency Management (OEM), various branches of the military, and industrial corporations.[2] In total, the black-and-white portion of the collection consists of about 175,000 black-and-white film negatives, encompassing both negatives that were printed for FSA-OWI use and those that were not printed at the time. Color transparencies also made by the FSA/OWI are available in a separate section of the catalog: FSA/OWI Color Photographs.[2] The FSA stressed "rural rehabilitation" efforts to improve the lifestyle of very poor landowning farmers, and a program to purchase submarginal land owned by poor farmers and resettle them in group farms on land more suitable for efficient farming. Reactionary critics, including the Farm Bureau, strongly opposed the FSA as an alleged experiment in collectivizing agriculture—that is, in bringing farmers together to work on large government-owned farms using modern techniques under the supervision of experts. After the Conservative coalition took control of Congress, it transformed the FSA into a program to help poor farmers buy land, and that program continues to operate in the 21st century as the Farmers Home Administration. Origins Walker Evans portrait of Allie Mae Burroughs (1936) Arthur Rothstein photograph "Dust Bowl Cimarron County, Oklahoma" of a farmer and two sons during a dust storm in Cimarron County, Oklahoma (1936) Dorothea Lange photograph of an Arkansas squatter of three years near Bakersfield, California (1935) The projects that were combined in 1935 to form the Resettlement Administration (RA) started in 1933 as an assortment of programs tried out by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. The RA was headed by Rexford Tugwell, an economic advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.[3] However, Tugwell's goal moving 650,000 people into 100,000,000 acres (400,000 km2) of exhausted, worn-out land was unpopular among the majority in Congress.[3] This goal seemed socialistic to some and threatened to deprive powerful farm proprietors of their tenant workforce.[3] The RA was thus left with only enough resources to relocate a few thousand people from 9 million acres (36,000 km2) and build several greenbelt cities,[3] which planners admired as models for a cooperative future that never arrived.[3] The main focus of the RA was to now build relief camps in California for migratory workers, especially refugees from the drought-stricken Dust Bowl of the Southwest.[3] This move was resisted by a large share of Californians, who did not want destitute migrants to settle in their midst.[3] The RA managed to construct 95 camps that gave migrants unaccustomed clean quarters with running water and other amenities,[3] but the 75,000 people who had the benefit of these camps were a small share of those in need and could only stay temporarily.[3] After facing enormous criticism for his poor management of the RA, Tugwell resigned in 1936.[3] On January 1, 1937,[4] with hopes of making the RA more effective, the RA was transferred to the Department of Agriculture through executive order 7530.[4] On July 22, 1937,[5] Congress passed the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act.[5] This law authorized a modest credit program to assist tenant farmers to purchase land,[5] and it was the culmination of a long effort to secure legislation for their benefit.[5] Following the passage of the act, Congress passed the Farm Security Act into law. The Farm Security Act officially transformed the RA into the Farm Security Administration (FSA).[3] The FSA expanded through funds given by the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act.[3] Relief work One of the activities performed by the RA and FSA was the buying out of small farms that were not economically viable, and the setting up of 34 subsistence homestead communities, in which groups of farmers lived together under the guidance of government experts and worked a common area. They were not allowed to purchase their farms for fear that they would fall back into inefficient practices not guided by RA and FSA experts.[6] The Dust Bowl in the Great Plains displaced thousands of tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and laborers, many of whom (known as "Okies" or "Arkies") moved on to California. The FSA operated camps for them, such as Weedpatch Camp as depicted in The Grapes of Wrath. The RA and the FSA gave educational aid to 455,000 farm families during the period 1936-1943. In June, 1936, Roosevelt wrote: "You are right about the farmers who suffer through their own fault... I wish you would have a talk with Tugwell about what he is doing to educate this type of farmer to become self-sustaining. During the past year, his organization has made 104,000 farm families practically self-sustaining by supervision and education along practical lines. That is a pretty good record!"[7] The FSA's primary mission was not to aid farm production or prices. Roosevelt's agricultural policy had, in fact, been to try to decrease agricultural production to increase prices. When production was discouraged, though, the tenant farmers and small holders suffered most by not being able to ship enough to market to pay rents. Many renters wanted money to buy farms, but the Agriculture Department realized there already were too many farmers, and did not have a program for farm purchases. Instead, they used education to help the poor stretch their money further. Congress, however, demanded that the FSA help tenant farmers purchase farms, and purchase loans of $191 million were made, which were eventually repaid. A much larger program was $778 million in loans (at effective rates of about 1% interest) to 950,000 tenant farmers. The goal was to make the farmer more efficient so the loans were used for new machinery, trucks, or animals, or to repay old debts. At all times, the borrower was closely advised by a government agent. Family needs were on the agenda, as the FSA set up a health insurance program and taught farm wives how to cook and raise children. Upward of a third of the amount was never repaid, as the tenants moved to much better opportunities in the cities.[8] The FSA was also one of the authorities administering relief efforts in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico during the Great Depression. Between 1938 and 1945, under the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, it oversaw the purchase of 590 farms with the intent of distributing land to working and middle-class Puerto Ricans.[9] Modernization The FSA resettlement communities appear in the literature as efforts to ameliorate the wretched condition of southern sharecroppers and tenants, but those evicted to make way for the new settlers are virtually invisible in the historic record. The resettlement projects were part of larger efforts to modernize rural America. The removal of former tenants and their replacement by FSA clients in the lower Mississippi alluvial plain—the Delta—reveals core elements of New Deal modernizing policies. The key concepts that guided the FSA's tenant removals were: the definition of rural poverty as rooted in the problem of tenancy; the belief that economic success entailed particular cultural practices and social forms; and the commitment by those with political power to gain local support. These assumptions undergirded acceptance of racial segregation and the criteria used to select new settlers. Alternatives could only become visible through political or legal action—capacities sharecroppers seldom had. In succeeding decades, though, these modernizing assumptions created conditions for Delta African Americans on resettlement projects to challenge white supremacy.[10] FSA and its contribution to society The documentary photography genre describes photographs that would work as a time capsule for evidence in the future or a certain method that a person can use for a frame of reference. Facts presented in a photograph can speak for themselves after the viewer gets time to analyze it. The motto of the FSA was simply, as Beaumont Newhall insists, "not to inform us, but to move us."[citation needed] Those photographers wanted the government to move and give a hand to the people, as they were completely neglected and overlooked, thus they decided to start taking photographs in a style that we today call "documentary photography." The FSA photography has been influential due to its realist point of view, and because it works as a frame of reference and an educational tool from which later generations could learn. Society has benefited and will benefit from it for more years to come, as this photography can unveil the ambiguous and question the conditions that are taking place.[11] Photography program The RA and FSA are well known for the influence of their photography program, 1935–1944. Photographers and writers were hired to report and document the plight of poor farmers. The Information Division (ID) of the FSA was responsible for providing educational materials and press information to the public. Under Roy Stryker, the ID of the FSA adopted a goal of "introducing America to Americans." Many of the most famous Depression-era photographers were fostered by the FSA project. Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Gordon Parks were three of the most famous FSA alumni.[12] The FSA was also cited in Gordon Parks' autobiographical novel, A Choice of Weapons. The FSA's photography was one of the first large-scale visual documentations of the lives of African-Americans.[13] These images were widely disseminated through the Twelve Million Black Voices collection, published in October 1941, which combined FSA photographs selected by Edwin Rosskam and text by author and poet Richard Wright. Photographers Fifteen photographers (ordered by year of hire) would produce the bulk of work on this project. Their diverse, visual documentation elevated government's mission from the "relocation" tactics of a Resettlement Administration to strategic solutions which would depend on America recognizing rural and already poor Americans, facing death by depression and dust. FSA photographers: Arthur Rothstein (1935), Theodor Jung (1935), Ben Shahn (1935), Walker Evans (1935), Dorothea Lange (1935), Carl Mydans (1935), Russell Lee (1936), Marion Post Wolcott (1936), John Vachon (1936, photo assignments began in 1938), Jack Delano (1940), John Collier (1941), Marjory Collins (1941), Louise Rosskam (1941), Gordon Parks (1942) and Esther Bubley (1942). With America's entry into World War II, FSA would focus on a different kind of relocation as orders were issued for internment of Japanese Americans. FSA photographers would be transferred to the Office of War Information during the last years of the war and completely disbanded at the war's end. Photographers like Howard R. Hollem, Alfred T. Palmer, Arthur Siegel and OWI's Chief of Photographers John Rous were working in OWI before FSA's reorganization there. As a result of both teams coming under one unit name, these other individuals are sometimes associated with RA-FSA's pre-war images of American life. Though collectively credited with thousands of Library of Congress images, military ordered, positive-spin assignments like these four received starting in 1942, should be separately considered from pre-war, depression triggered imagery. FSA photographers were able to take time to study local circumstances and discuss editorial approaches with each other before capturing that first image. Each one talented in her or his own right, equal credit belongs to Roy Stryker who recognized, hired and empowered that talent. John Collier Jr. John Collier Jr.   Jack Delano Jack Delano   Walker Evans Walker Evans   Dorothea Lange Dorothea Lange   Russell Lee Russell Lee   Carl Mydans Carl Mydans   Gordon Parks Gordon Parks   Arthur Rothstein Arthur Rothstein   John Vachon John Vachon   Marion Post Wolcott Marion Post Wolcott These 15 photographers, some shown above, all played a significant role, not only in producing images for this project, but also in molding the resulting images in the final project through conversations held between the group members. The photographers produced images that breathed a humanistic social visual catalyst of the sort found in novels, theatrical productions, and music of the time. Their images are now regarded as a "national treasure" in the United States, which is why this project is regarded as a work of art.[14] Photograph of Chicago's rail yards by Jack Delano, circa 1943 Together with John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (not a government project) and documentary prose (for example Walker Evans and James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men), the FSA photography project is most responsible for creating the image of the Depression in the United States. Many of the images appeared in popular magazines. The photographers were under instruction from Washington, DC, as to what overall impression the New Deal wanted to portray. Stryker's agenda focused on his faith in social engineering, the poor conditions among tenant cotton farmers, and the very poor conditions among migrant farm workers; above all, he was committed to social reform through New Deal intervention in people's lives. Stryker demanded photographs that "related people to the land and vice versa" because these photographs reinforced the RA's position that poverty could be controlled by "changing land practices." Though Stryker did not dictate to his photographers how they should compose the shots, he did send them lists of desirable themes, for example, "church", "court day", and "barns". Stryker sought photographs of migratory workers that would tell a story about how they lived day-to-day. He asked Dorothea Lange to emphasize cooking, sleeping, praying, and socializing.[15] RA-FSA made 250,000 images of rural poverty. Fewer than half of those images survive and are housed in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. The library has placed all 164,000 developed negatives online.[16] From these, some 77,000 different finished photographic prints were originally made for the press, plus 644 color images, from 1600 negatives. Documentary films The RA also funded two documentary films by Pare Lorentz: The Plow That Broke the Plains, about the creation of the Dust Bowl, and The River, about the importance of the Mississippi River. The films were deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. World War II activities During World War II, the FSA was assigned to work under the purview of the Wartime Civil Control Administration, a subagency of the War Relocation Authority. These agencies were responsible for relocating Japanese Americans from their homes on the West Coast to Internment camps. The FSA controlled the agricultural part of the evacuation. Starting in March 1942 they were responsible for transferring the farms owned and operated by Japanese Americans to alternate operators. They were given the dual mandate of ensuring fair compensation for Japanese Americans, and for maintaining correct use of the agricultural land. During this period, Lawrence Hewes Jr was the regional director and in charge of these activities.[17] Reformers ousted; Farmers Home Administration After the war started and millions of factory jobs in the cities were unfilled, no need for FSA remained.[citation needed] In late 1942, Roosevelt moved the housing programs to the National Housing Agency, and in 1943, Congress greatly reduced FSA's activities. The photographic unit was subsumed by the Office of War Information for one year, then disbanded. Finally in 1946, all the social reformers had left and FSA was replaced by a new agency, the Farmers Home Administration, which had the goal of helping finance farm purchases by tenants—and especially by war veterans—with no personal oversight by experts. It became part of Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty in the 1960s, with a greatly expanded budget to facilitate loans to low-income rural families and cooperatives, injecting $4.2 billion into rural America.[18] The Great Depression The Great Depression began in August 1929, when the United States economy first went into an economic recession. Although the country spent two months with declining GDP, the effects of a declining economy were not felt until the Wall Street Crash in October 1929, and a major worldwide economic downturn ensued. Although its causes are still uncertain and controversial, the net effect was a sudden and general loss of confidence in the economic future and a reduction in living standards for most ordinary Americans. The market crash highlighted a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits for industrial firms, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth.[19] Sikhs (singular Sikh: /sɪk/ (like "sick") or /siːk/ (like "seek"); Punjabi: ਸਿੱਖ, sikkh [sɪkkʰ]; Devanagari: सिख) are an ethnoreligious group[74] who adhere to Sikhi or Sikhism,[75] a Dharmic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak.[76] The term Sikh has its origin in the Sanskrit word śiṣya (शिष्य), meaning 'disciple' or 'student'.[77][78][79] Male Sikhs generally have Singh ('lion') as their last name, though not all Singhs are necessarily Sikhs; likewise, female Sikhs have Kaur ('princess') as their last name. These unique last names were given by the Gurus to allow Sikhs to stand out and also as an act of defiance to India's caste system, which the Gurus were always against. Sikhs strongly believe in the idea of sarbat da bhala (welfare of all) and are often seen on the frontline to provide humanitarian aid across the world. Sikhs who have undergone the Amrit Sanchar ('baptism by Khanda'), an initiation ceremony, are known as Khalsa from the day of their initiation, and they must at all times have on their bodies the five Ks: kesh, uncut hair usually kept covered by a dastār, also known as a turban; kara, an iron or steel bracelet; kirpan, a dagger-like sword tucked into a gatra strap or a kamar kasa waistband; kachera, a cotton undergarment; and kanga, a small wooden comb. Tarn Taran Sahib - The World's Largest Sarovar (sacred pool) The Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent has been the historic homeland of the Sikhs, having even been ruled by the Sikhs for significant parts of the 18th and 19th centuries. Today, Canada has the largest national Sikh proportion (2.1%) in the world,[13] while the Punjab state in India has the largest Sikh proportion (58%) amongst all administrative divisions in the world. Many countries, such as Canada and the United Kingdom, recognize Sikhs as a designated religion on their censuses,[80] and, as of 2020, Sikhs are considered as a separate ethnic group in the United States.[81] The UK also considers Sikhs to be an ethno-religious people, as a direct result of the Mandla v Dowell-Lee case in 1982.[82][83] History Main article: History of Sikhism Gurdwara Janam Asthan, the birthplace of Guru Nanak Guru Nanak (1469–1539), the founder of Sikhism, was born in a Khatri family to Mehta Kalu and Mata Tripta in the village of Talwandi, present-day Nankana Sahib, near Lahore.[84] Throughout his life, Guru Nanak was a religious leader and social reformer. However, Sikh political history may be said to begin in 1606, with the death of the fifth Sikh guru, Guru Arjan Dev.[85] Religious practices were formalised by Guru Gobind Singh on 30 March 1699, when the Guru initiated five people from a variety of social backgrounds, known as the Panj Piare ("beloved five"), to form a collective body of initiated Sikhs, known as the Khalsa ("pure").[86] The early followers of Guru Nanak were Khatris, but later a large number of Jats joined the faith.[87] Khatris and Brahmins opposed "the demand that the Sikhs set aside the distinctive customs of their castes and families, including the older rituals."[88] Pashaura Singh analyzed references made within the 11th ballad of the Varan of Bhai Gurdas to form a picture of the caste-makeup of the early Sikh community.[89] At the time of the writing the Vaar, the early Sikh community was composed of various castes and backgrounds, such as:[89] Khatris (particularly the Sehgal, Ohri, Uppal, Julka, Bhalla, Passi, Khullar, Vohra, Vij, Kapur, Chaddha, Behl, Kohli, Marwah, Mehra, Soni, Jhanjhi, Sodhi, Beri, Nanda, Wadhawan, Tulli, and Puri gotras)[89] Brahmins (such as the Bhardwaj gotra)[89] Jats (particularly the Randhawa, Khehra, Dhillon, and Pannu gotras)[89] Tarkhans ('carpenters')[89] Lohars ('blacksmiths')[89] Nais ('barbers')[89] Chhimbas ('cotton-printers')[89] Machhis ('water-carriers')[89] Dhobis ('washermen')[89] Kumhars ('potters')[89] Telis ('oil pressers")[89] masons[89] goldsmiths[89] Outcastes (such as Chandals)[89] Muslims[89] The early Sikhs varied widely in their occupations and position in society's hierarchy: some were rich merchants (Seths and Sarrafs), others were heads of villages (Chowdhury), some were labourers, others were enslaved, whilst others still were artisans, craftsmen, shopkeepers, or simple peasants.[89] The Sikh Empire at its greatest extent During the rule of the Mughal Empire in India, two Sikh gurus were martyred. (Guru Arjan was martyred on suspicion of helping in betrayal of Mughal Emperor Jahangir and Guru Tegh Bahadur was martyred by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb)[90] As the Sikh faith grew, the Sikhs subsequently militarized to oppose Mughal rule.[citation needed] The Samadhi of Emperor Ranjit Singh in Lahore, Pakistan The Golden Temple Metal helmet in a museum A Sikh Khalsa Army sowar's battle helmet Max Arthur Macauliffe (1841-1913), a senior British administrator who was posted to India during the British rule of Punjab, converted to Sikhism in the 1860s After defeating the Afghans and Mughals, sovereign states called Misls were formed under Jassa Singh Ahluwalia. The Confederacy of these states was unified and transformed into the Sikh Empire under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. This era was characterised by religious tolerance and pluralism, including Christians, Muslims, and Hindus in positions of power. Its secular administration implemented military, economic, and governmental reforms. The empire is considered the zenith of political Sikhism,[91] encompassing Kashmir, Ladakh, and Peshawar. Hari Singh Nalwa, the commander-in-chief of the Sikh Khalsa Army in the North-West Frontier, expanded the confederacy to the Khyber Pass. British rule in India Sikh armour and weapons “Sikh Sardar”, photograph by John McCosh taken in circa 1848-49 After the annexation of the Sikh/Punjabi kingdom by the British, the British Army began recruiting significant numbers of Sikhs and Punjabis.[citation needed] During the 1857 Indian mutiny, the Sikhs stayed loyal to the British, resulting in heavy recruitment from Punjab to the British Indian Army for the next 90 years of the British Raj in colonial India.[92] The distinct turban that differentiates a Sikh from other turban wearers is a relic of the rules of the British Indian Army.[93] The British colonial rule saw the emergence of many reform movements in India, including Punjab, such as the formation of the First and Second Singh Sabha in 1873 and 1879 respectively. The Sikh leaders of the Singh Sabha worked to offer a clear definition of Sikh identity and tried to purify Sikh belief and practice.[94] The later years of British colonial rule saw the emergence of the Akali movement to bring reform in the gurdwaras during the early 1920s. The movement led to the introduction of Sikh Gurdwara Bill in 1925, which placed all the historical Sikh shrines in India under the control of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.[95] Partition and post-Partition At the time of the Indian independence movement, the Sikh ruler of the Kapurthala State fought to oppose the partition of India and advocated for a united, secular country.[96] Sikh organizations, including the Chief Khalsa Dewan and Shiromani Akali Dal led by Master Tara Singh, condemned the Lahore Resolution and the movement to create Pakistan, viewing it as inviting possible persecution, with Akali Dal instead favouring an undivided Azad Punjab as an independent Sikh State or Khalistan, having passed the Sikh State Resolution in 1946. The Sikhs therefore strongly fought against the partition of Punjab.[97] The months leading up to the 1947 partition of Punjab were marked by conflict in the Punjab between Sikhs and Muslims.[98] This caused the religious migration of Punjabi Sikhs and Hindus from West Punjab to the east (modern India), mirroring a simultaneous religious migration of Punjabi Muslims from East Punjab to the west (modern Pakistan).[99] Following partition, the Government of India had begun to redraw states corresponding to demographic and linguistic boundaries. However, this was not effective in the northern part of the country,[100] as the government reconsidered redrawing states in the north. [101] While states across the country were extensively redrawn on linguistic lines at the behest of linguistic groups, the only languages not considered for statehood were Punjabi, Sindhi and Urdu. [102] Leading to the launch of the Punjabi Suba movement and the presentation for a Punjabi Suba as a policy in April 1948 by Master Tara Singh. Also, on 26 January 1950 Sikh representatives refused to sign the Indian constitution. As Sikhs were recognized as Hindus and Sikhs were not provided with scheduled castes concessions given to Hindu scheduled castes. The Punjab Suba experienced heavy government crackdown with the Congress Government arresting as many as 21,000 people. Attempted negotiations with Congress-led the agitation to be adjourned twice, though Jawaharlal Nehru continued to reject the demand.[103][104] On 4 July 1955, government police forces, led by DIG Ashwini Kumar,[105] forced entry into the Golden Temple premises and heavy-handedly arrested protestors and took them into custody, along with the head granthis of the Akal Takht and Golden Temple, volunteer protestors, and even cooks of the temple's langar.[106] The Guru Ram Das Serai and Shiromani Akali Dal offices were also raided, and batons used and tear gas and shells were fired to disperse the protestors gathered on the periphery of the temple, damaging the periphery and Sarovar, or pool, of the temple.[106][107] The government stopped volunteers on the way to the Golden Temple, and troops were ordered to flag-march through the bazaars and streets surrounding the site.[107] Over 200 protestors were killed, thousands arrested,[107] and thousands, including women and children, were injured. The Congress government agreed to the Punjab Suba in 1966 after protests and recommendation of the States Reorganisation Commission.[108] The state of East Punjab was later split into the states of Himachal Pradesh, the new state Haryana and current day Punjab.[109] However, there was a growing alienation between Punjabi Sikh and Hindu populations. The latter of which reported Hindi rather than Punjabi as their primary language. The result was that Punjabi-speaking areas were left out of the new state and given to Haryana and Himachal Pradesh[110] resulting in the state of Punjab to be roughly 35,000 square miles smaller than the Punjabi-speaking areas based on pre-1947 census figures. Moreover, the 1966 reorganization left Sikhs highly dissatisfied, with the capital Chandigarh being made into a shared a union territory and the capital of Punjab and Haryana. In the late 1960s, the Green Revolution in India was first introduced in Punjab as part of a development program issued by international donor agencies and the Government of India.[111] While, Green Revolution in Punjab had several positive impacts, the introduction of the mechanised agricultural techniques led to uneven distribution of wealth. The industrial development was not done at the same pace as agricultural development, the Indian government had been reluctant to set up heavy industries in Punjab due to its status as a high-risk border state with Pakistan.[112] The rapid increase in the higher education opportunities without an adequate rise in the jobs resulted in the increase in the unemployment of educated youth.[108] In 1973 as a result, of unaddressed grievances and increasing inequality the Akali Dal put forward the Anandpur Sahib Resolution.[113] The resolution included both religious and political issues. It asked for recognising Sikhism as a religion, it also demanded the devolution of power from the Central to state governments.[108] The Anandpur Resolution was rejected by the government as a secessionist document. Thousands of people joined the movement, feeling that it represented a real solution to demands such as a larger share of water for irrigation and the return of Chandigarh to Punjab.[114] After unsuccessful negotiations the Dharam Yuddh Morcha ("righteous campaign")[115] was launched on 4 August 1982,[citation needed] by the Akali Dal in partnership with Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, with its stated aim being the fulfillment of a set of devolutionary objectives based on the Anandpur Sahib Resolution.[115] Indian police responded to protestors with high-handed police methods creating state repression affecting a very large segment of Punjab's population. Police brutality resulted in retaliatory violence from a section of the Sikh population, widening the scope of the conflict by the use of violence of the state on its own people. [116] A "state of chaos and repressive police methods" combined to create "a mood of overwhelming anger and resentment in the Sikh masses against the authorities". Leading to Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale gaining prominence and demands of independence gain currency, even amongst moderates and Sikh intellectuals.[116] In 1982 and early 1983, extrajudicial killings by the police of orthodox Sikh youth in rural areas in Punjab provoked reprisals.[117] Over 190 Sikhs had been killed in the first 19 months of the protest movement.[118] In May 1984, a Grain Roko morcha was planned and to be initiated on 3 June[119] with protestors practising civil disobedience by refusing to pay land revenue, water or electricity bills, and blocking the flow of grain out of Punjab. Indian Prime minister Indira Gandhi launched Operation Blue Star on 1 June prior to the Grain Roko morcha in order to remove Bhindranwale from the Golden Temple. This subsequently lead to Gandhi's assassination by her Sikh bodyguards.[120] Her assassination was followed by government-sponsored pogroms against Sikh communities across India and the killing of thousands of Sikhs throughout India. These events triggered an Insurgency in Punjab which would consume Punjab until the early 1990s. During the day of Vaisakhi in 1999, Sikhs worldwide celebrated the 300th anniversary of the creation of the Khalsa. Canada Post honoured Sikh Canadians with a commemorative stamp in conjunction with the anniversary. Likewise, on 9 April 1999, Indian president K. R. Narayanan issued a stamp commemorating the 300th anniversary of the Khalsa as well.[121] Culture and religious observations According to Article I of Chapter 1 of the Sikh Rehat Maryada ('code of conduct'), the definition of Sikh is:[122] Any human being who faithfully believes in i. One Immortal Being, ii. Ten Gurus, from Guru Nanak Sahib to Guru Gobind Singh Sahib, iii. The Guru Granth Sahib, iv. The utterances and teachings of the ten Gurus and v. the baptism bequeathed by the tenth Guru, and who does not owe allegiance to any other religion, is a Sikh. Daily routine From the Guru Granth Sahib:[123] One who calls themself a Sikh of the Guru, the True Guru, shall rise in the early morning hours and meditate on the Lord's Name. Upon arising early in the morning, he is to bathe and cleanse himself in the pool of nectar. Following the Instructions of the Guru, he is to chant the Name of the Lord, "Har, Har." All sins, misdeeds, and negativity shall be then erased. Then, at the rising of the sun, he is to sing Gurbani; whether sitting down or standing up, he is to meditate on the Lord's Name. One who meditates on my Lord, Har, Har, with every breath and every morsel of food and – that GurSikh becomes pleasing to the Guru's Mind. That person, unto whom my Lord and Master is kind and compassionate – upon that GurSikh, the Guru's Teachings are bestowed. Servant Nanak begs for the dust of the feet of that GurSikh, who himself chants the Naam, and inspires others to chant it. — Fourth Mehl (Guru Ram Das), Guru Granth Sahib, p. 305 The Sikh Rahit Maryada (Code of Conduct) clearly states that baptized Amritdhari Khalsa Sikhs must recite or listen to the recitation of Japji Sahib, Jaap Sahib, the 10 Sawayyas, Sodar Rehraas, and Sohila.[124][125] Every Sikh is also supposed take the Hukam (divine order) from the Guru Granth Sahib after awakening in the ambrosial hours of the morning (three hours before the dawn) before eating.[126] In his 52 Hukams, Guru Gobind Singh orders his followers to arise during Amritvela (early morning) and to recite the late evening prayer "Sohila" and the verse "Pavan guru pani pita..." before sleeping. Five Ks Main articles: The Five Ks, Khalsa, and Sahajdhari Wooden comb, iron bracelet and curved, gold-coloured dagger Kanga, Kara and Kirpan: three of the five Sikh articles of faith The five Ks (panj kakaar) are five articles of faith which all baptized (Amritdhari) Sikhs are obliged to wear. The symbols represent the ideals of Sikhism: honesty, equality, fidelity, meditating on Waheguru, and never bowing to tyranny.[127] The five symbols are: Kesh: Uncut hair, usually tied and wrapped in a turban. Kanga: A wooden comb, usually worn under a turban to always also keep one's hair clean and well-groomed. Kachera: Cotton undergarments, worn by both sexes; the kachera is a symbol of chastity, and also a symbol of cleanliness. It is also historically appropriate in battle due to increased mobility and comfort when compared to a dhoti. Kara: An iron bracelet, a symbol of eternity, strength, and a constant reminder of the strength of will to keep hands away from any kind of unethical practices. Kirpan: An iron blade in different sizes. In the UK, Sikhs can wear a small dagger, but in Punjab, they might wear a traditional curved sword from one to three feet in length. Kirpan is only a weapon of defense and religious protection, used to serve humanity and to be used against oppression. Music and instruments Woman in yellow scarf bowing an instrument Woman playing the dilruba Main article: Sikh music The Sikhs have a number of musical instruments, including the rebab, dilruba, taus, jori, and sarinda. Playing the sarangi was encouraged by Guru Hargobind. The rebab was played by Bhai Mardana as he accompanied Guru Nanak on his journeys. The jori and sarinda were introduced to Sikh devotional music by Guru Arjan. The taus (Persian for "peacock") was designed by Guru Hargobind, who supposedly heard a peacock singing and wanted to create an instrument mimicking its sounds. The dilruba was designed by Guru Gobind Singh at the request of his followers, who wanted a smaller instrument than the taus. After Japji Sahib, all of the shabad in the Guru Granth Sahib were composed as raags. This type of singing is known as Gurmat Sangeet. When they marched into battle, the Sikhs would play a Ranjit nagara ("victory drum") to boost morale. Nagaras (usually two to three feet in diameter, although some were up to five feet in diameter) are played with two sticks. The beat of the large drums, and the raising of the Nishan Sahib, meant that the Singhs were on their way. Demographics Main articles: Sikhism by country and Punjabi Sikhs Global map of Sikh population (estimated 2023) Sikhs number about 26-30 million worldwide, of whom 24–28 million live in India, which thus represents around 90 percent of the total Sikh population.[128][129][130][131][132][133] About 76 percent of all Indian Sikhs live in the northern Indian state of Punjab, forming a majority of about 58 per cent of the state's population, roughly around 16 million.[134][135] Substantial communities of Sikhs live in the Indian states or union territories of Haryana, where they number around 1.2 million and form 4.91 percent of the population, Rajasthan (872,000 or 1.27 percent of the population), Uttar Pradesh (643,000, 0.32 percent), Delhi (570,000, 3.4 percent), Uttarakhand (236,000, 2.34 percent), Jammu and Kashmir (234,000, 1.87 percent), Chandigarh (138,000, 13.11 percent) and Himachal Pradesh (86,000, 1.16 percent). Canada is home to the largest national Sikh proportion (2.1 percent of the total population) in the world.[13] A substantial community of Sikhs exist in the western province of British Columbia, numbering nearly 300,000 persons and forming approximately 5.9 percent of the total population. This represents the third-largest Sikh proportion amongst all global administrative divisions, behind only Punjab and Chandigarh in India. Furthermore, British Columbia,[136] Manitoba, and Yukon hold the distinction of being three of the only four administrative divisions in the world with Sikhism as the second most followed religion among the population.[139] Census Data and Official Statistics As a religious minority, Sikhs have fought long and hard to get official status and to be counted in many countries across the world. Through the efforts of Sikh organisations and communities in their respective countries, there is now readily available population data on Sikhs as part of the census or official statistics in the following territories: Census Data / Official Statistics: Territory Latest Data  Punjab 16,004,754 2011[140]  India (Rest of India) 4,828,362  Canada 771,790 2021[141]  England 520,092 2021[142]  Australia 210,400 2021[143]  New Zealand 40,908 2018[144]  Singapore 12,051 2020[145]  Thailand 11,124 2010[146]  Norway 4,318 2021[147]  Wales 4,048 2021[142]  Fiji 2,577 2007[148]  Ireland 2,183 2022[149]    Nepal 1,496 2021[150]  Northern Ireland 389 2021[151]  Scotland Pending 2022  Pakistan Pending 2023 2011-2021 Change in Sikh % Note: Official statistics do not count unregistered arrivals or those who have not completed the census or surveys. However, they do provide for a much more accurate depiction of Sikh communities as opposed to estimates from various Sikh organisations whose estimates can vary vastly with no statistically valuable source. Thus, official statistics and census data is highly important and Sikh communities continue to push for census inclusion in many countries where they are still not counted. Migration Sikh migration from British India began in earnest during the second half of the 19th century, when the British completed their annexation of the Punjab, which led to Sikh migration throughout India and the British Empire. During the Raj, semiskilled Sikh artisans were transported from the Punjab to British East Africa to help build railroads. Sikhs emigrated from India after World War II, most going to the United Kingdom but many also to North America. Some Sikhs who had settled in eastern Africa were expelled by Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in 1972.[152] Economics is a major factor in Sikh migration, and significant communities exist in the United Kingdom, the United States, Malaysia, East Africa, Australia, Singapore and Thailand. After the Partition of India in 1947, many Sikhs from what would become the Punjab of Pakistan migrated to India as well as to Afghanistan due to fear of persecution. Afghanistan was home to hundreds of thousands of Sikhs and Hindus as of the 1970s, but due to the wars in Afghanistan in the 2010s, the vast majority of Afghan Sikhs had migrated to India, Pakistan or the west.[153][154][155] Although the rate of Sikh migration from the Punjab has remained high, traditional patterns of Sikh migration favouring English-speaking countries (particularly the United Kingdom) have changed during the past decade due to stricter immigration laws. Moliner (2006) wrote that as a consequence of Sikh migration to the UK becoming "virtually impossible since the late 1970s," migration patterns evolved to continental Europe.[156] Italy is a rapidly growing destination for Sikh migration,[157] with Reggio Emilia and Vicenza having significant Sikh population clusters.[158] Italian Sikhs are generally involved in agriculture, agricultural processing, the manufacture of machine tools, and horticulture.[159] Growth A group of Sikh people Johnson and Barrett (2004) estimate that the global Sikh population increases annually by 392,633 (1.7% per year, based on 2004 figures); this percentage includes births, deaths, and conversions. Primarily for socio-economic reasons, Indian Sikhs have the lowest adjusted growth rate of any major religious group in India, at 16.9 percent per decade (estimated from 1991 to 2001) and it have further declined to just 8.4 per cent in 2011 census report.[160][161] Sikhs in the world have the lowest fertility rate of 1.6 children per women as per (2019–20) estimation research.[162][163] The Sikh population has the lowest gender balance in India, with only 903 women per 1,000 men according to the 2011 Indian census.[164] The estimated world's Sikh population was over 30 million in 2020, and it will reach 42 million by 2050. It is expected to increase up to 62 million by 2100, given that the anticipated growth rate of 1.7% per year and adding at least 400,000 followers annually.[165][161] Since the Sikh growth rate dropped from 1.7% (16.9% in 1991 to 2001 estimate) to 0.84%(8.4% in 2001-2011) in 2011 report,hence based on their growth rate,their population will increase 196,316(0.84% based on 2011 figures) per year and will reach 36 million in 2050,it expected to reach 52 million in 2100 given that the anticipated growth rate of 0.84% and adding at least 200,000 followers annually..[166][167] Sikhism is the fastest growing religion in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The growth is mainly contributed by the immigration of Indian Sikhs there over the decades. Sikhism is fourth-largest religion in Canada, fifth-largest religion in Australia and New Zealand. The decadal growth of Sikhs is more in those countries as compared to the decadal growth of Sikh population in India, thus making them the fastest-growing religion there.[168][13][169][170] Canada has the highest proportion of Sikhs in the globe, which stands at 2.12% as of 2021,[13] as compared to India which stands at 1.72% as of 2011 respectively.[171] Castes Since Sikhism has never actively sought converts, Sikhs have remained a relatively homogeneous ethnic group. Caste may still be practiced by some Sikhs, despite Guru Nanak's calls for treating everyone equally in Sri Granth Sahib.[172][c] Along with Guru Nanak, other Sikh gurus had also denounced the hierarchy of the caste system, however, they all belonged to the same caste, the Khatris.[176] Most Sikhs belong to the Jat (Jatt), traditionally agrarian in occupation.[177] Despite being very small in numbers, the Khatri and Arora (Moneylenders) castes also wield considerable influence within the Sikh community. Other common Sikh castes include Ahluwalias (brewers), Kambojs or Kambos (rural caste), Ramgarhias (artisans), Brahmins (Priestly class), Rajputs (kshatriyas), Sainis (agrarian), Rai Sikh (rural caste), Labanas (merchants), Kumhars, Mazhabi and the Ramdasia/Ravidasias(Chamar).[178] Some Sikhs, especially those belonging to the landowning dominant castes, have not shed all their prejudices against the Dalits. While Dalits were allowed entry into the village gurdwaras, in some gurdwaras, they were not be permitted to cook or serve langar (communal meal). Therefore, wherever they could mobilize resources, the Sikh Dalits of Punjab have tried to construct their own gurdwara and other local level institutions in order to attain a certain degree of cultural autonomy.[172] In 1953, Sikh leader and activist Master Tara Singh succeeded in persuading the Indian government to include Sikh castes of the converted untouchables in the list of scheduled castes.[179] In the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, 20 of the 140 seats are reserved for low-caste Sikhs.[179] Other castes (over 1,000 members) include the Arain, Bhatra, Bairagi, Bania, Basith, Bawaria, Bazigar, Bhabra, Chamar, Chhimba (cotton farmers), Darzi, Dhobi, Gujar, Jhinwar, Kahar, Kalal, Kumhar, Lohar, Mahtam, Megh, Mirasi, Mochi, Nai, Ramgharia, Sansi, Sudh, Tarkhan and Kashyap[citation needed] Karnail Singh Panjoli, member of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, says that there are several communities within the term Nanakpanthis too. Apart from Sindhi Hindus, "There are groups like Sikhligarh, Vanjaarey, Nirmaley, Lubaney, Johri, Satnamiye, Udaasiyas, Punjabi Hindus, etc. who call themselves Nanakpanthis despite being Hindus.[180] Diaspora As Sikhs wear turbans and keep beards, Sikh men in Western countries have been mistaken for Muslim, Arabic, and/or Afghan since the September 11 attacks and the Iraq War.[181][182] Several days after the 9/11 attacks, Sikh-American gas station owner Balbir Singh Sodhi was murdered in Arizona by a man who took Sodhi to be a member of al-Qaeda, marking the first recorded hate-crime in America motivated by 9/11. CNN would go on to suggest an increase in hate crimes against Sikh men in the US and the UK after the 9/11 attacks.[181][182] In an attempt to foster Sikh leaders in the Western world, youth initiatives by a number of organisations exist. The Sikh Youth Alliance of North America sponsors an annual Sikh Youth Symposium. The Sikh diaspora has been most successful in the UK, and UK Sikhs have the highest percentage of home ownership (82%) of any religious community.[183] UK Sikhs are the second-wealthiest religious group in the UK (after the Jewish community), with a median total household wealth of £229,000.[184] In May 2019, the UK government exempted "Kirpan" from the list of banned knives. The U.K. government passed an amendment by which Sikhs in the country would be allowed to carry kirpans and use them during religious and cultural functions. The bill was amended to ensure that it would not impact the right of the British Sikh community to possess and supply kirpans, or religious swords.[185][186] Similarly, the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund overturned a 1925 Oregon law banning the wearing of turbans by teachers and government officials in 2010.[187] Agriculture Historically, most Indians have been farmers and 66 per cent of the Indian population are engaged in agriculture.[188] Indian Sikhs are employed in agriculture to a lesser extent; India's 2001 census found 39 per cent of the working population of the Punjab employed in this sector.[189] According to the Swedish political scientist Ishtiaq Ahmad, a factor in the success of the Indian green revolution was the "Sikh cultivator, often the Jat and Kamboj or Kamboh, whose courage, perseverance, spirit of enterprise and muscle prowess proved crucial."[190] However, Indian physicist Vandana Shiva[191] wrote that the green revolution made the "negative and destructive impacts of science (i.e. the green revolution) on nature and society" invisible, and was a catalyst for Punjabi Sikh and Hindu tensions despite a growth in material wealth. Sikhs in modern history Main article: List of Sikhs Manmohan Singh is an Indian economist, academic, and politician who served as the 13th Prime Minister of India from 2004 to 2014. The first and only Sikh and non-Hindu in office, Singh was also the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to be re-elected after completing a full five-year term. Notable Sikhs in science include nuclear scientist Piara Singh Gill, fibre-optics pioneer Narinder Singh Kapany; and physicist, science writer and broadcaster Simon Singh. In business, the UK-based clothing retailers New Look and the Thai-based JASPAL[192] were founded by Sikhs. India's largest pharmaceutical company, Ranbaxy Laboratories, is headed by Sikhs.[193] Apollo Tyres is headed by Onkar Singh Kanwar. In Singapore, Kartar Singh Thakral expanded his family's trading business, Thakral Holdings,[194] into assets totalling almost US$1.4 billion and is Singapore's 25th-richest person. Sikh Bob Singh Dhillon is the first Indo-Canadian billionaire. Mastercard's CEO was a Sikh named Ajaypal Singh Banga. In sports, Sikhs include England cricketer Monty Panesar; former 400-metre runner Milkha Singh; his son, professional golfer Jeev Milkha Singh; Indian wrestler and actor Dara Singh; former Indian hockey team captains Sandeep Singh, Ajitpal Singh and Balbir Singh Sr.; former Indian cricket captain Bishen Singh Bedi; Harbhajan Singh, India's most successful off spin cricket bowler; Yuvraj Singh, World Cup winning allrounder; Maninder Singh, World Cup winning off spinner; and Navjot Singh Sidhu, former Indian cricketer-turned-politician. Sikhs in Bollywood, in the arts in general, include poet and lyricist Rajkavi Inderjeet Singh Tulsi; Gulzar; Jagjit Singh; Dharmendra; Sunny Deol; writer Khushwant Singh; actresses Neetu Singh, Simran Judge, Poonam Dhillon, Mahi Gill, Esha Deol, Parminder Nagra, Gul Panag, Mona Singh, Namrata Singh Gujral; and directors Gurinder Chadha and Parminder Gill. Sikhs in Punjabi Music industry include Sidhu Moosewala, Diljit Dosanjh, Babu Singh Maan, Surjit Bindrakhia, Ammy Virk, Karan Aujla, Jazzy B, Miss Pooja. In the Indian and British armies Main article: Sikhs in the British Indian Army According to a 1994 estimate, Punjabi Sikhs and Hindus comprised 10 to 15% of all ranks in the Indian Army. The Indian government does not release religious or ethnic origins of a military personnel, but a 1991 report by Tim McGirk estimated that 20% of Indian Army officers were Sikhs.[195] Together with the Gurkhas recruited from Nepal, the Maratha Light Infantry from Maharashtra and the Jat Regiment, the Sikhs are one of the few communities to have exclusive regiments in the Indian Army.[195] The Sikh Regiment is one of the most-decorated regiments in the army, with 73 Battle Honours, 14 Victoria Crosses,[196] 21 first-class Indian Orders of Merit (equivalent to the Victoria Cross),[197] 15 Theatre Honours, 5 COAS Unit Citations, two Param Vir Chakras, 14 Maha Vir Chakras, 5 Kirti Chakras, 67 Vir Chakras, and 1,596 other awards. The highest-ranking general in the history of the Indian Air Force is a Punjabi Sikh, Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh.[198] Plans by the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence for a Sikh infantry regiment were scrapped in June 2007.[199] Sikhs supported the British during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.[200] By the beginning of World War I, Sikhs in the British Indian Army totaled over 100,000 (20 per cent of the force). Until 1945, fourteen Victoria Crosses (VC) were awarded to Sikhs, a per-capita regimental record.[196] In 2002, the names of all Sikh VC and George Cross recipients were inscribed on the monument of the Memorial Gates[201] on Constitution Hill, next to Buckingham Palace.[202] Chanan Singh Dhillon was instrumental in campaigning for the memorial. During World War I, Sikh battalions fought in Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Gallipoli and France. Six battalions of the Sikh Regiment were raised during World War II, serving in the Second Battle of El Alamein, the Burma and Italian campaigns and in Iraq, receiving 27 battle honours. Around the world, Sikhs are commemorated in Commonwealth cemeteries.[203] Sikhs in the First World War, marching with their scripture, Guru Granth Sahib Sikhs in the First World War, marching with their scripture, Guru Granth Sahib   Postcard of marching Sikhs with rifles French postcard depicting the arrival of the 15th Sikh Regiment in France during World War I; the bilingual postcard reads, "Gentlemen of India marching to chasten the German hooligans"   Indian Sikh soldiers in the Italian campaign Indian Sikh soldiers in the Italian campaign   Sikh soldier with captured Swastika flag of Nazi Germany Sikh soldier with captured Swastika flag of Nazi Germany   See caption Japanese soldiers shooting blindfolded Sikh prisoners in World War II Khalistan movement Sikhs in London protesting against Indian government actions The Khalistan movement is a Sikh separatist movement, which seeks to create a separate country called Khalistān ("The Land of the Khalsa") in the Punjab region of South Asia to serve as a homeland for Sikhs.[204] The territorial definition of the proposed country Khalistan consists of both the Punjab, India, along with Punjab, Pakistan, and includes parts of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Rajasthan.[205][206][207] Khalistan movement began as an expatriate venture.[208] In 1971, the first explicit call for Khalistan was made in an advertisement published in the New York Times by an expat (Jagjit Singh Chohan).[209] By proclaiming the formation of Khalistan, he was able to collect millions of dollars from the Sikh diaspora.[210] On 12 April 1980, he declared the formation of the "National Council of Khalistan", at Anandpur Sahib.[211] He declared himself as the President of the council, and named Balbir Singh Sandhu as its Secretary General. In May 1980, Chohan traveled to London and announced the formation of Khalistan. A similar announcement was made by Balbir Singh Sandhu in Amritsar, where he began releasing stamps and currency of Khalistan. The inaction of the authorities in Amritsar and elsewhere was decried as a political stunt by the Congress(I) party of Indira Gandhi by the Akali Dal, headed by the Sikh leader Harchand Singh Longowal.[212] The movement flourished in the Indian state of Punjab following Operation Blue Star and the Anti-Sikh Pogroms. As proponents were able to generate funding from a grieving diaspora. In June 1985, Air India Flight 182 was bombed by Babbar Khalsa, a pro-Khalistani terrorist organization.[213] In January 1986, the Golden Temple was occupied by militants belonging to All India Sikh Students Federation and Damdami Taksal.[214] On 26 January 1986, a gathering known as the Sarbat Khalsa (a de facto parliament) passed a resolution (gurmattā) favouring the creation of Khalistan. Subsequently, a number of rebel militant groups in favour of Khalistan waged a major insurgency against the government of India. Indian security forces suppressed the insurgency in the early 1990s, but Sikh political groups such as the Khalsa Raj Party and SAD (A) continued to pursue an independent Khalistan through non-violent means.[215][216][217] Pro-Khalistan organisations such as Dal Khalsa (International) are also active outside India, supported by a section of the Sikh diaspora.[218] In the 1990s, the insurgency abated,[219] and the movement failed to reach its objective due to multiple reasons including a heavy police crackdown on separatists, divisions among the Sikhs and loss of support from the Sikh population.[220] However, various pro-Khalistan groups, both political and militant, remain committed to the separatist movement. There are claims of funding from Sikhs outside India to attract young people into militant groups.[221] There have also been multiple claims that the movement is motivated and supported by the Pakistan's external intelligence agency, the ISI.[222][223] Art and culture Main articles: Sikh art and culture and Punjabi culture Intricate design Opaque watercolour-on-paper Nakashi art; about 1880, by an unknown artist from Lahore or Amritsar, and used to decorate the walls of Harmandir Sahib Large building on the water Darbar Sahib, circa 1870 Sikh art and culture are nearly synonymous with that of Punjab, and Sikhs are easily recognised by their distinctive turban (Dastar). Punjab has been called India's melting pot, due to the confluence of invading cultures from the rivers from which the region gets its name. Sikh culture is therefore a synthesis of cultures. Sikhism has forged a unique architecture, which S. S. Bhatti described as "inspired by Guru Nanak's creative mysticism" and "is a mute harbinger of holistic humanism based on pragmatic spirituality".[224] The American non-profit organization United Sikhs has fought to have Sikh included on the U.S. census as well, arguing that Sikhs "self-identify as an ethnic minority" and believe "that they are more than just a religion".[225] During the Mughal and Afghan persecution of the Sikhs during the 17th and 18th centuries,[226] the latter were concerned with preserving their religion and gave little thought to art and culture. With the rise of Ranjit Singh and the Sikh Raj in Lahore and Delhi, there was a change in the landscape of art and culture in Punjab; Hindus and Sikhs could build decorated shrines without the fear of destruction or looting.[227] The Sikh Confederacy was the catalyst for a uniquely Sikh form of expression, with Ranjit Singh commissioning forts, palaces, bungas (residential places), and colleges in a Sikh style. Sikh architecture is characterised by gilded fluted domes, cupolas, kiosks, stone lanterns, ornate balusters, and square roofs. A pinnacle of Sikh style is Harmandir Sahib (also known as the Golden Temple) in Amritsar. Sikh culture is influenced by militaristic motifs (with the Khanda the most obvious), and most Sikh artifacts—except for the relics of the Gurus—have a military theme. This theme is evident in the Sikh festivals of Hola Mohalla and Vaisakhi, which feature marching and displays of valor. Although the art and culture of the Sikh diaspora have merged with that of other Indo-immigrant groups into categories like "British Asian", "Indo-Canadian" and "Desi-Culture", a minor cultural phenomenon that can be described as "political Sikh" has arisen.[228] The art of diaspora Sikhs like Amarjeet Kaur Nandhra, and Amrit and Rabindra Kaur Singh (The Singh Twins)[229] is influenced by their Sikhism and current affairs in Punjab. Bhangra and Giddha are two forms of Punjabi folk dancing which have been adapted and pioneered by Sikhs. Punjabi Sikhs have championed these forms of expression worldwide, resulting in Sikh culture becoming linked to Bhangra (although "Bhangra is not a Sikh institution but a Punjabi one").[230] Painting Painting of Guru Nanak with companions, Bhai Mardana and Bhai Bala, in debate with the Siddhs Sikh painting is a direct offshoot of the Kangra school of painting. In 1810, Ranjeet Singh (1780–1839) occupied Kangra Fort and appointed Sardar Desa Singh Majithia his governor of the Punjab hills. In 1813, the Sikh army occupied Guler State, and Raja Bhup Singh became a vassal of the Sikhs. With the Sikh kingdom of Lahore becoming the paramount power, some of the Pahari painters from Guler migrated to Lahore for the patronage of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh and his Sardars. The Sikh school adapted Kangra painting to Sikh needs and ideals. Its main subjects are the ten Sikh gurus and stories from Guru Nanak's Janamsakhis. The tenth Guru, Gobind Singh, left a deep impression on the followers of the new faith because of his courage and sacrifices. Hunting scenes and portraits are also common in Sikh painting. Shrines There is an old Sikh shrine called 'Prachin Guru Nanak Math', which lies at a small hill, just next to Bishnumati bridge at Balaju. Guru Nanak is said to have visited Nepal during his third Udasi while returning from Mount Kailash in Tibet. Nanak is said to have stayed at Balaju and Thapathali in Kathmandu. The Nanak Math shrine at Balaju is managed by the Guru-Ji and the Udasin Akardha, a sect developed by Guru Nanak's son, Sri Chandra.[231][232] See also History of Punjab Ganga Sagar (urn) Jat Sikh List of British Sikhs Mazhabi Sikh Sects of Sikhism Sikhism by country Sikhism in India Turban training centre Indian Sikhs number approximately 21 million people and account for 1.7% of India's population as of 2011, forming the country's fourth-largest religious group. The majority of the nation's Sikhs live in the northern state of Punjab, which is the only Sikh-majority administrative division in the world. India is home to the majority of the global Sikh population, and also has the second-largest Sikh proportion in the world, behind Canada. History Main article: History of Sikhism Partition Sikh organizations, including the Chief Khalsa Dewan and Shiromani Akali Dal led by Master Tara Singh, strongly opposed the partition of India, viewing the possibility of the creation of Pakistan as inviting persecution.[4] Demography The Gurdwara Bangla Sahib Population India's Sikh population stands at 20.8 million, which is only 1.72% of the country's total population. Out of approximately 25-30 million Sikhs in the world, the majority of them, 20.8-22 million, live in India that is about (83.2%-84.1%) of the world's Sikh population.[5][6] Sikhs have a fertility rate of 1.6 in India, which is the lowest in the nation as per as according to year 2019-21 estimation.[7] Half a million Sikhs have made Canada their home, and though they constitute 1.4% of the total population, they have had a notable impact on Canadian society and national politics.[8] Out of the total Sikhs in India, 77% are concentrated in state of Punjab. Sikhism is the dominant religion in Punjab, India, where it is followed by 16 million constituting 57.7% of the population, the only Indian state where Sikhism is the majority faith. By 2050, according to Pew research center based on growth rate of current Sikh population between (2001-2011), India will have 30,012,386 Sikhs by half-century which will be more than that of any country including the west.[9] National and ethnic origins Although Punjabi Sikhs form the majority of the Sikh population, the Sikh community is varied and includes people who speak the Pashto language, the Brahui language, the Telugu language, Marathi language, Assamese language, Hindi language, Sindhi language, Bengali language and many more. The many communities following Sikhism is detailed below. Afghan Sikhs Main article: Sikhism in Afghanistan The Sikhs of Afghanistan are primarily Punjabi merchants and immigrants.[10][11] They speak the Punjabi language within themselves but are usually fluent in Dari and occasionally Pashto as well.[12] Bengali Sikhs Sikhism in the Bengal region dates back to 1504 but has declined after the partition.[13] Sikhism first emerged in Bengal when Guru Nanak visited Bengal in 1504 and established a number of Gurdwaras.[14] By the early 18th century, there were a few Sikhs living in the region of Bengal.[15] One famous Sikh who lived during this time period was Omichand, a local Khatri Sikh banker and landlord who participate in the conspiracy against Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah with the East India Company.[15][16] The Flemish artist Frans Baltazard Solvyns arrived in Calcutta in 1791 and observed many Sikhs, whom one could differentiate from the rest of the land's inhabitants by their garbs and traditions.[15] He etched depictions of a Khalsa Sikh and a Nanakpanthi, which was published in 1799.[15] Gurdwara Nanak Shahi is the principal Sikh Gurdwara (prayer hall) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is located at the campus of the University of Dhaka and considered to be the biggest of the 7 Gurdwaras in the country. After the Partition of India, the Sikh community left for India.[14] After the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and Bangladesh Liberation War, Indian Sikh soldiers helped renovate the Gurdwaras left in Bangladesh.[citation needed] Shri Guru Tegh Bahadur ji visited Dhaka. There is another Sikh temple known as the Gurudwara Sangat Tola. Many Sikhs also used to visit a well at the ruins of Jafarabad which they believed has waters with curative powers.[17] There was a presence of Sikhism in Sylhet Division after Guru Nanak's visit in 1508. Kahn Singh Nabha has stated that in memory of Nanak's visit, Gurdwara Sahib Sylhet was established.[citation needed] This Gurdwara was visited twice by Tegh Bahadur and many hukamnamas were issued to this temple by Guru Gobind Singh. In 1897, the gurdwara fell down after the earthquake. Nearly all the Sikhs of Sylhet in the early 18th century were found in North Cachar where they used to work for the Assam Bengal Railway.[18] There are around 1 lakh Bengali people who follow Sikhism as their religion in both West Bengal and Bangladesh.[19] Assamese Sikhs The presence of Sikhism has been existing in Assam[20] for over 200 years. The community traces its origins to the times of Maharaja Ranjit Singh who took his army to Assam and put some influence of the religion towards the locals. According to the 2001 census, there were 22,519 Sikhs in Assam,[21] out of which 4,000 are Assamese Sikhs.[19] Assamese Sikhs follow the Sikh religion and celebrate Sikh festivals as they also celebrate cultural festivals such as Magh Bihu and wear traditional Assamese dress. Their language is the Assamese language.[19][22] Agrahari Sikhs Agrahari Sikh is a Sikh community found in Bihar and Jharkhand. Agrahari Sikhs, also known as Bihari Sikhs, have existed for centuries in Bihar and Jharkhand.[23] Bihari Sikhs share their culture with the local Bihari community. The men generally wear the local dhoti and women wear the Sari. They also celebrate Hindu festivals such as the Chath festival.[24] Dakhni Sikhs Dakhni Sikhs are from the Deccan Plateau in India located within the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.[25] The traditional dress of women is the sari. The native language of Dakhni Sikhs is the Telugu language.[26] Kashmiri Sikhs Ethnic Kashmiri Sikhs speak the Kashmiri language and observe Kashmiri culture. They trace their religious heritage to the influence of Sikh soldiers who settled in Kashmir under the Maharaja Ranjit Singh rule in 1819. However, the soldiers permanently settled in Kashmir.[27] Punjabi Sikhs Punjabi Sikhs are the native Sikhs of undivided Punjab region who speaks the Punjabi language as their mother tongue and practice Punjabi culture. Their traditional dress includes the Punjabi Salwar Suit, Punjabi Tamba and Kurta, Punjabi juti and Patiala salwar. In addition to the Sikh festivals using the Nanakshahi calendar, Punjabi Sikhs observe traditional Punjabi festivals using the Punjabi calendar. Sindhi Sikhs Main article: Sindhis in India See also: Sikhism in Pakistan In addition to celebrating Sikh festivals, Sindhi Sikhs celebrate cultural festivals such as Cheti Chand, the Sindhi new year. Sindhi Sikhs speak the Sindhi language. Most of the Sindhi Hindus are Nanak Panthis who believe in 10 Sikh Gurus and regularly go to guru dwara and most of the Marriage also takes place in Gurudwara.[28] South Indian Sikhs There are Sikh communities in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra who converted to Sikhism centuries ago. The Sikhs comprise Banjara and Satnami. The process of blending the religion into southern India for the Sikligars began at the time of 10th Sikh Guru Gobind Singh, who came to the Deccan and died in 1708 at Nanded (Maharashtra). It all came by the Sikligars as they came to southern India as expert arms-making camp followers of the tenth Guru. Sikligar is a compound of the Persian words `saiqal` and `gar` meaning a polisher of metal.[25] The traditional occupation of the Sikligars is crafting kitchen implements. Banjaras are a nomadic tribe who traditionally travelled with merchandise and are found across a large swathe of northern India, as well as in the south. Sikh Banjaras too travelled with armies of the past supplying them with provisions.[25] Geographical distribution Sikhs as percentage of total population in different districts of India, 2011 Census Indian Sikhs by state and union territory  State/U.T. 2011 Indian Census[29] Pop. %  Punjab 16,004,754 57.69%  Haryana 1,243,752 4.91%  Rajasthan 872,930 1.27%  Uttar Pradesh 643,500 0.32%  Delhi 570,581 3.4% Uttarakhand 236,340 2.34%  Jammu and Kashmir 232,585 1.9%  Maharashtra 223,247 0.2%  Madhya Pradesh 151,412 0.21% Chandigarh 138,329 13.11% Himachal Pradesh 79,896 1.16%  Jharkhand 71,422 0.22%  Chhattisgarh 70,036 0.27%  West Bengal 63,523 0.07%  Gujarat 58,246 0.1%  Telangana 30,340 0.09%  Karnataka 28,773 0.05%  Bihar 23,779 0.02%  Odisha 21,991 0.05%  Assam 20,672 0.07%  Tamil Nadu 14,601 0.02% Andhra Pradesh 9,904 0.02%  Kerala 3,814 0.01% Arunachal Pradesh 3,287 0.24%  Meghalaya 3,045 0.1%  Ladakh 2,263 0.83%  Nagaland 1,890 0.1%  Sikkim 1,868 0.31% Manipur 1,527 0.05% Goa 1,473 0.1%  Andaman and Nicobar Islands 1,286 0.34%  Tripura 1,070 0.03%  Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu 389 0.07%  Puducherry 297 0.02%  Mizoram 286 0.03%  Lakshadweep 8 0.01%  India 20,833,116 1.72% Notable Indian Sikhs Main article: List of Sikhs Though Sikhs are a minority in India, the community occupies a significant place in the country. The former Chief Justice of India, Jagdish Singh Khehar, and the former Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh[30] are Sikh, as is former President of India Gyani Zail Singh. Almost every council of ministers in India has included Sikh representatives. Sikhs are also conspicuous in the Indian army, primarily because of their history as defenders of righteousness, they formed the sword arm of the British empire. The Late Indian officer with a 5 star rank, Arjan Singh, is a Sikh. Sikhs have also led the Indian army through JJ Singh and the Indian Air Force was led by Air Chief Marshal Dilbagh Singh. Sikhs have been prominent in Indian sports, with the Indian individual gold medalist in Olympics, Abhinav Bindra, being a Sikh. Similarly they occupy important official positions, like Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia;[31] governor Surjit Singh Barnala. Sikhs are also known for entrepreneurial business in India. Milkha Singh, also known as The Flying Sikh, is a former Indian track and field sprinter who was introduced to the sport while serving in the Indian Army. One reason for visibility of Sikhs in the Indian spectrum is the disproportionate role played by the Sikh community during the Indian freedom struggle, with Bhagat Singh remaining a youth icon to Indian youth.[32] See also flag India portal List of famous Sikhs Religion in India Cochin Sikhs Sikhism Sikhism in Pakistan Sikh culture The Sikhs are adherents to Sikhism, the fifth largest organized religion in the world, with around 25 million adherents.[1] Sikh History is around 500 years and in that time the Sikhs have developed unique expressions of art and culture which are influenced by their faith and synthesize traditions from many other cultures depending on the locality of the adherents of the religion. Sikhism is the only religion that originated in the Punjab region with all other religions coming from outside Punjab (with the possible exception of Punjabi Hinduism since the oldest Hindu scripture – the Rig Veda – was composed in the Punjab region. Some other religions, like Jainism, may also claim to have originated in Punjab since Jain symbolism has been found among artifacts of the Indus Valley Civilization). All the Sikh gurus, many saints, and many of the martyrs in Sikh history were from Punjab and from the Punjabi people (as well as other parts of the Indian Subcontinent). Punjabi culture and Sikhism are mistakenly considered inseparably intertwined. "Sikh" properly refers to adherents of Sikhism as a religion, strictly not an ethnic group. However, because Sikhism has seldom sought converts, most Sikhs share strong ethno-religious ties, therefore it is a common stereotype that all Sikhs share the same ethnicity. Many countries, such as the U.K., therefore misconcievingly recognize Sikh as a designated ethnicity on their censuses.[2] The American non-profit organization United Sikhs has fought to have Sikhs included on the U.S. census as well, arguing that Sikhs "self-identify as an 'ethnic minority'" and believe "that they are more than just a religion".[3] Cultural societies of the Sikhs
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