Sikhism
(ANALYSIS) On the festival of Baisakhi, celebrated usually on April 13, Sikhs the world over will joyously wear yellow saffron colors, symbolizing spring harvest and the solar new year, when the Sun enters the constellation Aries.
The group 3HO is currently made up mostly of white Americans converted to Sikhism, a 500-year-old religion with origins in Punjab, India. Members also regularly practice Kundalini yoga. They wear white and typically live in ashrams and abide by a lacto-vegetarian diet. Alcohol, drugs and sexual relations among the non-married is forbidden in the ashram.
Despite Sikhism’s denouncement of dowry, the tradition of demanding monetary or material gifts from the spouse’s family persists. As more individuals from Punjab pursue opportunities abroad, “reverse dowry” has left families shattered, marriages in ruins and spouses abandoned.
The caste system's historical legacy has prohibited dalits from owning land nationwide, and this pattern remains prominent in India's Sikh-majority state of Punjab, which has a population of about 30 million.
Amritpal Singh was born in Jullupur Khera in the Amritsar district of Punjab. He reportedly enrolled himself in a polytechnic college before moving to Dubai to join a transport business in 2012. In 2022 he returned to India to take over the leadership of “Waris Punjab De” after founder Deep Sidhu died on Feb. 15, 2022 in a vehicle accident.
(OPINION) The media shouldn’t ignore that Nikki Haley’s life story is more religiously intriguing than any of the 16 Republicans on CNN’s list of other potential challengers to Donald Trump. She’s been regularly subjected to questions about conversion from her parents’ Sikh religious faith to Christianity at age 24.
In Sikhism, a religion which originated in India about 500 years ago, unhealthy attachment is considered one of the five biggest sins. Therefore, alcoholism and drug addiction are discouraged. Despite this, the northern Indian state of Punjab, home to 16 million Sikhs, has struggled with substance abuse for decades.
Election results in India show a crushing defeat for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in the northern farming state of Punjab, the heart of Sikhism, after a surge of anti-Sikhism among the right-wing. The Hindu-first BJP needed support from Sikhs in the state but only bagged two seats out of 117 in the state’s legislative assembly.
(ANALYSIS) Four members of Indianapolis’ Sikh community were killed at the FedEx facility shooting. The community mourns, and some are calling for an investigation of bias as the shooter’s motive.
On Jan. 26, thousands of Indian farmers turned their months-long sit-in protest on the outskirts of the capital into a massive rally, driving their tractors over police barriers to enter the city and even climb up the walls of the historic Red Fort—all on one of India’s biggest national holidays, Republic Day. The farmers’ protest—led in Delhi by Sikhs— is proving one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s biggest political headaches.
A New Delhi-based Sikh organization is sponsoring dozens of Afghan Sikhs to settle in India after the March terror attack on a Kabul gurudwara, a Sikh temple. Although Sikh has ancient history in Afghanistan, Sikhs now make up only a tiny minority in the country, while the Indian government welcomes Sikhs, whose faith formed from Hinduism.
Jatindra Shunty and his family have helped cremate or bury the unclaimed poor in New Delhi for years. Now during a pandemic, they are also performing last rites for COVID-19 patients, whether Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian, aiming to give dignity in rest to people who may not have been treated with dignity in life.
The charity United Sikhs has organized volunteers to regularly clean and sanitize some of India’s most prominent religious sites of every faith to allow religious leaders and devotees to worship with minimized risk of infection from coronavirus. Many religious sites in India begin reopening Monday, June 8.
The region has long been plagued by atrocities against Kashmiri Muslims, some of whom advocate for separating from India, and ethnic Kashmiri Hindus, who support India’s military occupation and takeover. Caught in the conflict is a tiny minority of Sikhs, who say their voices are not being heard.
The faith leaders, representing Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Jewish, Ravidas and Bahá'í followers, declared to preach harmony and peace amidst rising religious violence in India.
Ranjit Singh, known as the “Lion of Punjab,” was responsible for the creation of the Sikh Empire in 19th century north India. A skilled warrior and revered king, as well as the first maharajah of the Sikh people, Singh is one of the most important figures in Sikh history. Now, his life and reign as a ruler are the subject of the exhibition “Ranjit Singh: Sikh, Warrior, King” at London’s The Wallace Collection.