Hindus - Sikhs

[DaffyDuck]

Re: Hindus - Sikhs

Phir kia bachta hai Queen... oh sorry Queer?

[queer]

Re: Hindus - Sikhs

a big part of the blame goes to the highly successful british imperialist policy of “divide and rule” they employed in their colonies.

The British maintained their power by pitting Hindu against Moslem in a policy called “divide and rule.” This policy exacerbated tensions between the religious factions in India and contributed to decades of communal strife, countless deaths and the eventual partition of India into two separate countries, India and Pakistan.

‘Divide and rule’ was generally responsible for sowing the seeds of racial, religious and ethnic discord and mistrust which led to many instances of inter-racial and inter-religious conflict. This in turn helped justify the presence of the colonial powers in the colonies as a foreign policing agent which kept the unstable situation in check by keeping the different groupings forcibly apart. Most of these colonies remain fragmented thanks to these policies which were not reversed or corrected during the hasty process of decolonisation in the 1940’s-60’s.](The British Policy of Divide and Rule in Burma, Malaya and India | San Oo Aung's Weblog)

The British had followed a divide-and-rule policy in India. Even in the census they categorised people according to religion and viewed and treated them as separate from each other. They had based their knowledge of the peoples of India on the basic religious texts and the intrinsic differences they found in them instead of on the way they coexisted in the present. The British were also still fearful of the potential threat from the Muslims, who were the former rulers of the subcontinent, ruling India for over 300 years under the Mughal Empire.

another chunk of blame goes to the hindu nationalists who had their complexes over centuries of muslim rulers, and saw muslims as enemies.

and then some on the muslim nationalists who short-sightedly (imho) wanted to impose an islamic country over what had been a mixed population for centuries.

[DaffyDuck]

Re: Hindus - Sikhs

Was Divide & rule applicable only to Muslims & Hindus?

[queer]

Re: Hindus - Sikhs

not exactly, daffy. it was employed in every possible matter. right from the battle of plassey - the first imperialist step by the british into india - here it was applied to mir jafar and siraj ud dawla. pretty much every battle won by the brits. and once they took over, they made sure they kept the society as fragmented as possible - muslims vs. hindu, zamindar vs. ryots, the class system in indian railways..

but hindus vs. muslims was the easiest way to maintain the fragmented nature - hindus were preferentially set up in high government posts in muslim majority areas, and vice versa. in the parts of india that had dared revolt in 1857 - UP/bihar etc, the british were ruthless in dividing the people. urdu was made the only official language in a majority hindi belt where hindi and urdu were both taught in schools, thereby giving muslims an advantage to all government jobs in the area. this was pretty much where all the resentment fomented.

sikhs couldnt really be used into this angle as they were mostly localized to punjab.

[hrh80]

Hindus - Sikhs

Having Sikh and hindu friends and going to their respective weddings I can't see any difference between the two

[the_kaur]

Re: Hindus - Sikhs

Keeping the caste system aside, isn't the difference between monotheism & polytheism enough to not want to marry into the other religion? That is a huge difference Sikhism & Hinduism has.

Caste system is part of social dynamics, and that is what leads to common culture between two communities. Shia and sunni have fought bloodily against each other, but shia turks and sunni turks fight against Shia kurds and sunni kurds, because both communities have common culture in their respective countries. Hinduism is monotheistic as well by its design, poluthestic gods are manifestation of Omkar, a monotheistic god. Secondly majority of sikhs are hindu converts hence worshipping hindu gods like Durga is common tradition. Common tradition and shared social values were always more important than theological differences in determining future course of multi-religious civilization.

[muqawwee123]

Re: Hindus - Sikhs

That is even the reason behind Sikhi in the starting that it denied the unnecessary rituals of both the (Hinduism-Islam) and taken good things of both the religions to make a new faith.
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Philosophy of Baba Guru Nanak**

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Nanak did not subscribe to blind ritualism or mindless superstitions. He believed that there was just one God, who was almighty omnipresent and all encompassing. The chanting of whose name, and a life of purity and charity would lead to freedom from the cycle of birth and death. He believed in the theory of Karma and Rebirth. He spread Sikhism to Burma, Iraq, Tibet and Sri Lanka as a message of love.
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Baba Guru Nanak on rituals**

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Nanak preferred to eat with the poor than the rich. When asked why, he took two slices of bread, one belonging to a rich man and one to a poor man. When he squeezed the poor man's bread, it oozed milk. And the rich man's bread oozed blood. In this manner he taught that people should make an honest living.

Once, while at Mecca - Medina, Nanak was taking a nap with his feet pointing to the 'Kaba'. An angry moulvi, shifted his feet. And in whichever direction Nanak's feet were shifted the 'Kaba' also shifted. In this way the omnipresence of God was explained.

At Haridwar, Nanak observed people offering water to the Sun. He started throwing water in the opposite direction. On being asked why he was doing that, he explained, that as others were offering water to their forefather's he was offering water to his fields. And if the water could reach the forefathers who had already passed on, it could certainly reach his fields too. In this manner, he explained the futility of rituals.
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