Tolerance in Sikhi - The divine is tolerance

In this article, Khushwant Singh explores how tolerance is situated within Sikhi. Based on the wisdom of Sikhi, known as Gurmat, which creates unity while preserving plurality, the Divine embodies the highest form of tolerance. The Divine provides everything necessary for life unconditionally, regardless of how living beings behave. Recognizing this unconditional love inspires a virtuous life characterized by respect beyond an indifferent form of cultural or religious relativism. This form of tolerance places dignity, harmony, and humanity at the center. At the same time, it opposes selfish and irresponsible attitudes that lead to intolerance, suffering, discrimination, war, environmental destruction, or forced conversion. If creation itself represents the highest form of responsible rather than indifferent tolerance, then, according to this insight, it is up to human beings to emulate the source of life and make the world more tolerant, peaceful, and worth living in.
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The divine is tolerance

The Divine, whether one calls it God, Yahweh, Allah, Ram, or Wahe Guru, embodies tolerance par excellence. This is one of the quintessences of Sikhi. To situate the subject of tolerance, in the Latin sense of tolerare, that is, enduring something with forbearance, appropriately from the perspective of Sikhi, it is necessary to understand its insights as well as important historical developments.

An introduction to Sikhi

Sikhi, known in the original as Sikhi, has approximately 25 million followers today and can be regarded as the world’s fifth-largest religion. Male Sikhs are easily recognized by their flowing beards and carefully tied turbans. They share the surname Singh, meaning lion, while women bear the surname Kaur, meaning princess. The religion originated in the Panjab, in what is now northern India. It is primarily associated with Gur Nanak, born in 1469, his nine direct successors, and other wise ones, known as Bhagat. The ten successive enlightened ones, who regard themselves as humble servants through whom the wisdom of the Divine speaks, known as Gurmat, are usually addressed by Sikhs as Guru, meaning Enlightener. In its original sense, the word Guru in the revelations refers solely to the Divine, which never assumes an incarnation. The enlightened ones, who may also be referred to as wise, devout, or awakened ones, gathered their revelations in writing and complemented them with those of more than two dozen other wise ones. The complete work containing these revealed insights is known today as the Guru Granth Sahib (GGS).[1] The writings represent a wisdom-oriented spiritual way of life in which the relationship between the student (Sikh), and wisdom (Gur), as transmitted orally and in writing through Gurbani, assumes outstanding importance.

The Guru Granth Sahib as a symbol of tolerance

The structure of the Guru Granth Sahib itself, which was completed as a poetic anthology during the lifetime of the enlightened ones in an initial version by Gur Arjan in 1604, contains numerous references to the subject of tolerance. The work is based on the Gurmukhi script-language. It developed from dialects of Old Panjabi and Old Hindi. It also contains loanwords from Persian and Sanskrit. The enlightened ones rejected Sanskrit as the only divine language, which Hindus regarded as especially sacred. In doing so, they emphasized that all languages and scripts enjoy equal status. The contents of their original compositions combine wisdom and praise with a high level of poetic and musical artistry. The musical embedding of the verses (Rag) enables devotional recitation and provides an intuitive point of access.[2]

The Guru Granth Sahib contains not only the writings of the enlightened ones, but also those of other wise ones, such as the Bhagat and the court poets known as Bhatt. The former were wise ones who are usually grouped under the term Bhakti (devotional) movement, including Bhagat Kabir and Sheikh Farid. They came from Hindu and Muslim families and in some cases belonged to the lowest Indian castes. By including their insights, the enlightened ones broke through the limitations imposed by religion and social origin. For the established religious and political authorities, this was at times an unheard-of act that called the existing social order into question.

From dogma to timeless spiritual wisdom

It is more appropriate to speak of Sikhi than of the Sikh religion. One of the enlightened ones’ central concerns was to lead people back to the origins of a spiritually grounded way of life that transcends religious boundaries. According to their insight, this can be achieved by deconstructing dogmatic and ritualized forms and patterns of religious practice, as well as competing beliefs.[3]

The unity and interconnectedness of creation are regarded as fundamental in Gurbani. According to this view, the immeasurably virtuous mystery of the Divine, which simultaneously dwells within and beyond creation, loves everything it has brought forth without conditions.[4] Through natural principles such as gravity, it ensures that everything that exists follows ordered paths amid an apparent chaos. Through evolution, it opens spaces for development while ultimately subjecting everything to transience, since the deeper meaning of life lies in mystical self-knowledge rather than in the material world.[5]

The contents of Gurbani testify to an intensive engagement with a wide range of religious traditions. Theinclude references to Brahmanism, including the Vedas, Sufism and Islam, as well as ascetic traditions. The Guru Granth Sahib is therefore a significant work of interreligious spirituality.[6] However, the ideas of the various traditions are always reinterpreted in the light of the Divine, the true Enlightener, also called Satguru. These are depersonalized forms of wisdom that unfold a spiritual effect at every time and in every place.[7]

To do justice to the timeless principle, Gurbani contains above all praise of the wonders of creation, as well as wisdom expressed through metaphor. Historical treatises, abstract philosophical explanations, and speculation about the origin of existence or the future of humanity are nowhere to be found. The enlightened ones emphasize that no one, not even a religious scripture, is capable of adequately explaining the wonders of creation.[8] Nor does the work contain rules or prohibitions. Including such content would not have been consistent with the principle of timeless wisdom. Prohibitions or theories that appear meaningful today may be outdated tomorrow or may harden into dogmas. In addition, rival creeds, ideas about the afterlife, and theories of creation in particular lead to boundary-making and conflict. The insights revealed to the enlightened ones therefore contain wisdom that unites rather than divides.

Insight rather than separation

A recurring element in the work of the enlightened ones is that in all their encounters they sought what was true in every religion, beyond learned labels, historical context, and religious or political expectations. In their verses, they report countless encounters with representatives of many different religions.[9] It becomes clear that the enlightened ones consistently strived to embrace what corresponded to the principle of wisdom and to leave behind what brought them neither inner insight nor liberation from suffering. Accordingly, they did not hesitate to question ideas held by their ancestors or contemporary groups that appeared atavistic to them. The fifth wise one Gur Arjan emphasizes that, like the other servants, he belonged to none of the existing religions but was a humble devotee of the Divine. For this reason, he neither observed Hindu rituals and visited pilgrimage sites nor recited Muslim prayers or traveled to Mecca.[10]

ਨਾ ਹਮ ਹਿੰਦੂ ਨ ਮੁਸਲਮਾਨ ॥ ਅਲਹ ਰਾਮ ਕੇ ਪਿੰਡੁ ਪਰਾਨ ॥੪॥ ਕਹੁ ਕਬੀਰ ਇਹੁ ਕੀਆ ਵਖਾਨਾ ॥ ਗੁਰ ਪੀਰ ਮਿਲਿ ਖੁਦਿ ਖਸਮੁ ਪਛਾਨਾ ॥੫॥੩॥ GGS, 1136, M.5

In passages such as these, the enlightened ones are in no way seeking to criticize Muslims, Hindus, or Yogis as such. Rather, these groups are mentioned because they stand as examples of all seekers. For the enlightened ones, the focus is on wisdom capable of uniting all seekers and strengthening their virtues.[11] Symbolically, the enlightened ones draw on the image of the lotus flower, which remains rooted in the mud while resting within itself and shining with beauty. Spiritual people emulate it by meeting the worldly and divisive forces that keep them from their inner purpose with calmness and tolerance, while continuing to strive inwardly for purity amid impurity.[12]

The spiritual path is nevertheless described as difficult. Gur Nanak writes that it is difficult to become a Muslim, meaning a spiritual person. Only those who internalize the virtues of the Divine, including tolerance and humility, as well as its omnipotence, Hukam, through spiritual wisdom (Nam), may call themselves true Muslims.[13]

The veil of ignorance and the emergence of egoism

According to the insights of the enlightened ones, only a few people will attain full spiritual realization in this life.[14] In their view, the reason is that people identify above all with what they can perceive through their five external senses. As a result, they remain attached to the material world, Maya. They are unable to perceive the world through the hidden inner body, a metaphor for the soul that, like a drop, contains within itself the profound nature of the Divine’s oceanic source.[15] Consequently, people live under the illusion that they are separate, purely physical and emotional entities, rather like highly functional robots. Haumai, egoism, arises. It gives rise to all attitudes that lead to suffering.

At the same time, the emergence of a sense of self is a necessary condition by design, because without its existence it would not be possible to overcome it and experience unity.[16] In addition to egoism, Gurbani identifies four primary attitudes among the Five Thieves that lead to disharmony: desire, anger, greed, and emotional attachment.[17]

The Five Thieves are always connected with a lack of wisdom and hubris of the self. Wherever wisdom dwells, openness and love arise. Since, according to the enlightened ones, this is rarely the case, the Five Thieves are powerful companions. They prevent human beings from recognizing the unity of all existence. Overcoming the veil of materially induced ignorance, Bharam, requires human beings to strive for an independent and spiritual way of life.[18] In Gurbani, however, grace is the sufficient condition for this. The rare inner act of grace, which no one can summon for themselves or others through effort alone, relates to spiritual wisdom. When a person is able to draw on this indwelling spiritual primordial source, insight arises. Attachment to the material world and the cycle of birth and death then come to an end, and immortality, Amrit, is attained.[19]

Duality and unity

According to Gurbani, the nature of eternal unity remains a paradox as long as a person remains attached to dualistic thinking, Dubida.[20] Only awakened people who attain the highest insight, Param Gati, after overcoming the ego in the course of spiritual evolution experience the enduring joy of unity.[21] For them, it is not a contradiction that the source of all existence is experienced as a pluralistic mystical unity that encompasses every conceivable virtue and nevertheless allows suffering. According to this understanding, the nameless and genderless Divine, often referred to simply as the One or as the Beloved, unites all apparent opposites and forms of change – from creative acts to destructive ones. Life acquires a deeper meaning through deliberately created apparent opposites such as unity and diversity, male and female, or joy and suffering.[22]

Consequently, Sikhi recognizes neither inherent sins nor living beings or places that are inherently superior or especially sacred. Opposites such as good and bad or war and peace are to be understood as relative evaluations and phenomena.[23] A heroic act is just as much part of the omnipotence of the Divine as the vile murder of innocent people. Accordingly, even the failure to recognize omnipotence has its purpose. A person who regards only the material world as real and lives with ruthless intolerance fails to recognize their inner nature – yet that person too acts within the framework of divine omnipotence and remains subject to the principle of cause and effect.[24] The Divine, which holds all the strings loosely in its hand like a puppeteer,[25] therefore acts through its creation and through human beings within the course of time, not through ahistorical, isolated acts.[26]

The limits of religious tolerance – Circumcision and the sacred thread

The verses of Gurbani remind people to focus primarily on self-realization rather than on the affairs of others.[27] Accordingly, the enlightened ones advocate a tolerant attitude toward other ways of life. At the same time, they take a critical view of an indifferent form of cultural or religious relativism. For them, the questioning of human-made religious beliefs across religious boundaries plays an important role, particularly when the limits of humanity or truthfulness are crossed. The enlightened ones criticize discrimination against those presumed to belong to lower castes and against women, practices such as widow burning, and the dissemination and preservation of religion through subtle mechanisms of dependency or violent means, as well as ritualized and commercialized forms of religious practice.[28] Accordingly, they question above all ways of thinking and behaving that, especially when carried out in the name of religion, fail to uphold the principle of timeless wisdom.

For the influential wise one Bhagat Kabir, the limits of religious tolerance are reached in practices such as circumcision. He writes that if it were necessary, the Divine would already have brought all men into the world without a foreskin. Kabir then asks rhetorically whether women, who traditionally remain uncircumcised, would therefore have to live their entire lives as non-Muslims.[29]

In the popular ballad Asa Ki Var, which is recited early in the morning in many Sikh religious centers, today known as Gurdwara, accompanied by instruments, Gur Nanak appears to draw on a personal experience from his youth. According to the transmitted hagiographies, which contain legendary exaggerations, the enlightened one publicly refused as a young man to wear the sacred thread regarded as a Hindu initiation ritual for members of the higher castes. In doing so, he outraged not only his family and the villagers but also the religious elite. In his writings, Gur Nanak calls on the Brahman priests to place around him, if anything, only a thread that promotes compassion, contentment, and truth, that neither breaks nor becomes dirty, and that cannot be burned.[30]

In a similar way, repeated reference is made to practices that, in the eyes of the enlightened ones, provide no spiritual benefit, being primarily physical, ritual, or intellectual in nature, or even appearing hypocritical to them.[31] A priest, for example, may be religiously and secularly uneducated and lack devotion. Nevertheless, from the perspective of the devout, he continues unjustly to be regarded as a mediator between human beings and the Divine and, according to the normative ideas of the ancient Indian work Manusmriti, may even face a milder punishment for breaking the law. Elsewhere, it is criticized that no amount of meditation and yoga practices, rituals, recitations, bathing at religious sites, or pilgrimages can remove human beings’ inner impurity and ignorance.[32] The underlying principle attitude becomes evident: the effects of human thoughts and actions in daily life matter, not fleeting emotions, single acts, learnable techniques, self-perception, a title, or religious or social status. Accordingly, the wise ones' only prayer is the humble request to the all-knowing Divine for a life that fulfills its true spiritual purpose through the grace of enlightenment.

The limits of worldly tolerance

Sikhi also contains another dimension of tolerance: worldly tolerance. The enlightened ones do not identify with transient forms of human rule over others. No king, dynasty, institution, or politician receives their unqualified approval. They recognize only the mystery of the Divine as the ruler of everything that exists.[33] The enlightened ones warn all leaders, whether their authority is religious, military, political, or economic, that they will increase suffering whenever they are guided by selfish overconfidence and short-term worldly motives focused on profit while forgetting the common good. According to a verse attributed to the tenth and last enlightened one, Gur Gobind Singh, the greed for wealth and worldly power is above all the cause of hatred and war.[34] Ruthless and selfish conduct and governance that instrumentalize people merely as interchangeable numbers for one’s own following and for securing political, economic, or religious power ultimately always brings suffering upon rulers and ruled alike.

Egoism as the seed of evil

Here too, egoism is regarded as the seed of evil. It gives rise to anger and dishonesty, but also to expectations that will inevitably be disappointed. This, in turn, can develop into revenge and enmity. Enmity subsequently provokes counterreactions. In this way, a spiral of intolerance begins, ultimately producing psychological and physical forms of suffering.[36] Even today, displacement, rape, wars, suicide attacks, assaults, psychological violence, economic and financial crises, and skillfully staged media propaganda demonstrate the catastrophes to which individual and collective egoism can lead. Conflicts along national, economic, and religious boundaries created by human beings play a decisive role in this process.

To use Martin Fuchs’s words, the enlightened ones emphasize a right to “difference in the double sense” as a means of overcoming such developments.[37] On the one hand, they grant every person the right to think and act differently; on the other, they regard it as a fundamental right that every person, regardless of origin or religion, enjoy the same sovereign rights to freedom and be able to oppose the removal of discriminatory and degrading differences. In this context, they emphasize that their efforts are in no way aimed at worldly rule.[38] Instead, they turn toward inner development combined with the effort to achieve greater respect, tolerance, and justice in the world.

Intolerance toward Sikhs

Today, male Sikhs in particular face discrimination because of their appearance. This is often because, since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, they have mistakenly been identified as extremist Muslims or Taliban. The history of the Sikhs shows that they have repeatedly struggled with intolerance since the late medieval period. This also explains why a heroic tradition developed among them.[39]

The young religion was able to develop under largely peaceful conditions during the fifteenth century. The following two centuries, however, were marked by discrimination from Hindu-dominated local elites and persecution by Muslim invaders. It was not only the Sikhs’ sovereign and independent self-understanding that aroused suspicion.[40] Hostility toward the Sikh minority was fueled above all by their criticism of the caste system, the dominance of priests and religious scholars, the oppression of women, and the fanatical tendencies of Islamic conquerors.[41] In defensive battles in which the enlightened ones had been involved since the time of Gur Hargobind, thousands of Sikhs died and important original manuscripts were lost. The fifth enlightened one, Gur Arjan, and the ninth, Gur Tegbahadar, were murdered on the orders of the Mughal rulers Jahangir and Aurangzeb respectively, accused of disobedience and blasphemy. The tenth enlightened one, Gur Gobind Singh, lost all four of his sons, the Sahibzade, in war or through torture and died in 1708 as a result of an assassination attempt.[42]

A tradition of self-defense

As violence against Sikhs increased, particularly from 1726 onward during the period of the governors Zakariya Khan, Yahiya Khan, and Mir Mannu, and the rule of Ahmad Shah Abdali, the religious minority began to build a defensive army on the basis of its emancipated self-understanding. The spiritual warrior tradition of the Nihang developed. They were inspired by the spiritual guiding principle of Gurbani:

Neither intimidate anyone, nor allow yourself to be intimidated.
ਭੈ ਕਾਹੂ ਕਉ ਦੇਤ ਨਹਿ ਨਹਿ ਭੈ ਮਾਨਤ ਆਨ ॥ ਕਹੁ ਨਾਨਕ ਸੁਨਿ ਰੇ ਮਨਾ ਗਿਆਨੀ ਤਾਹਿ ਬਖਾਨਿ ॥੧੬॥ GGS, 1427, M.9

The initiated defensive warriors of the community of the Pure, known as the Khalsa from 1699 onward, wore regal garments and carried swords and other weapons for self-defense. They also developed a particularly secure form of turban, the Dumala. Their appearance radiates a distinctive royal dignity. When bounties were placed on Sikhs, forcing them to live underground, and they nevertheless rescued young women abducted from the harems of the respective rulers, their swords became symbols of courage, justice, sovereignty, and the struggle against intolerance.

Alienation from the wisdom of Sikhi

During the turmoil of war, persecution took a heavy toll on the Sikhs not only numerically. The transmission of wisdom also faltered in the young religion which is not in favor of missionary activities. Significant secularization and alienation from the original spiritual insights could already be observed after the death of the tenth and last in the line of successive enlightened ones. This culminated in 1799 in a supposed Sikh Empire in the territory of the Panjab, led by Ranjit Singh as “king.” He placed less trust in the insights of the transmitted wisdom than in paid advisers, who apparently later betrayed him. Under his rule, the Darbar Sahib in Amritsar, which is said at times to have housed the first original work of the Adi Guru Granth Sahib in a protected environment, was expanded to the “Golden Temple.”

In 1849, the Panjab was annexed by the British colonizers. By then, the Sikhs had largely lost control of their religious places that had been established in the meantime. Hindu statues of deities were brought into the Gurdwara and worshiped, while verses from the Guru Granth Sahib were recited in ritualized form for payment and interpreted in worldly terms. As a result, there was a shortage of devout and religiously educated Sikhs who could have adequately understood, contextualized, and transmitted the inherited wisdom.

It was not until around 1873 that Sikhs began attempting to return to their origins. However, complex colonial interdependencies led to an institutionalized and one-sided understanding of transmission that increasingly became shaped by prescribed curricula and a fixed code of conduct. In addition, commentaries and English translations of the Guru Granth Sahib that remain influential to this day emerged with Hindu and Christian connotations.[43] Groups also formed that further reinterpreted the close relationship between scripture and student, as well as Sikhi’s principle of simplicity, in favor of a personality cult, profit-oriented ritualization, and a dogmatically exclusivist understanding of religion.[44]

Following the partition of India in 1947, partly irreconcilable attitudes developed under the influence of power-political interests relating to nation-states issues and minorities, both within the Indian central government and among Sikhs. In the 1970s, politicized groups emerged among Sikhs that called for an autonomous federal state of Panjab because of human rights violations and constitutional inconsistencies. Later, Sikh religious leaders such as Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and politicians advocated an independent Sikh state and also supported the use of weapons to defend themselves and achieve their goals. The separatist movement reached its violent peak in 1984 with the storming of the Darbar Sahib complex in Amritsar by Indian government troops and the nationwide pogroms that followed, in which, according to human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch, many innocent people also died. In the years that followed, young Sikh men in particular were placed under general suspicion, imprisoned, tortured, or disappeared overnight, including human rights activists such as Jaswant Singh Khalra. Before his murder in 1995, he exposed the fact that the police had secretly cremated thousands of bodies and registered them as unidentified in order to cover up extrajudicial killings.[45]

Today, supporters of the separatist movement, who overall represent more of a minority, have established themselves primarily in the leadership circles of Gurdwara in the diapora. It is striking that disputes repeatedly arise in politicized religious institutions led by certain ideologically led groups, often for financial and power-political reasons as well. At times, conflicts end violently because of a lack of insight, willingness to engage in dialogue, and tolerance.[46] This demonstrates that intolerant and divisive attitudes emerge among Sikhs whenever they become alienated from the inherited wisdom that creates unity.[47] Violent escalations not only make the ideals of peace and tolerance in Sikhi absurd; they also alienate subsequent generations from Sikhi’s unifying way of life and cast a negative public image on an otherwise relatively quiet model minority regarded as tolerant, hardworking, and well integrated.

Conclusion

The inspiration that people can draw from the wisdom of Sikhi today lies in a responsible form of tolerance. This form of tolerance places harmony and humanity at the center and opens space for a universal ethic. At the same time, it opposes irresponsible attitudes that lead to intolerance, suffering, discrimination, war, environmental destruction, or forced conversion. If creation itself represents the highest form of responsible rather than indifferent tolerance, then, according to this insight, it is up to human beings to emulate the source of life and make the world more tolerant, peaceful, and worth living in.[48]

Footnotes

[1] All content based on the insights of the enlightened ones and wise ones is taken from the current standard edition of the Guru Granth Sahib, published by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Amritsar. The abbreviation M. 1 indicates which enlightened one is being referred to. In the case of the Bhagats, the respective name is added.

[2] Among ascetics, as well as among Muslims, there was an idea that music was evidence of sinful worldliness. For the enlightened ones, by contrast, sung praise offered a way to give devotion an artistic form and also helped people memorize texts.

[3] GGS: 197, M. 5; GGS: 682, M. 5; GGS: 468, M. 1; GGS: 885, M. 5

[4] GGS: 290, M. 5; GGS: 924, M. 5; GGS: 784, M. 5

[5] GGS: 12, M. 5; GGS: 1075, M. 5

[6] Singh, Sher: Philosophy of Sikhism. Amritsar, SGPC 2003 (1944).

[7] GGS: 22, M. 1; GGS: 286, M. 5

[8] GGS: 4, M. 1

[9] GGS: 938, M. 1

[10] GGS: 1136, M. 5; GGS: 250, M. 5; GGS: 587, M. 3; GGS: 628, M. 5

[11] GGS: 766, M. 1

[12] GGS: 949, M. 3

[13] GGS: 141, M. 1

[14] GGS: 562, M. 5

[15] GGS: 900, M. 5

[16] GGS: 446, M. 2; GGS: 469, M. 1

[17] GGS: 560, M. 3; GGS: 344, Kabir; GGS: 230, M. 3; GGS: 385, M. 5

[18] GGS: 6, M. 1; GGS: 264, M. 5

[19] GGS: 514, M. 3

[20] GGS: 28, M. 3

[21] GGS: 103, M. 5; GGS: 1, M. 1; GGS: 9, M. 1; GGS: 917, M. 3; GGS: 470, M. 1

[22] GGS: 13, M. 1

[23] GGS: 1349, Kabir; GGS: 353, M. 1

[24] GGS: 1, M. 1; GGS: 470, M. 1; GGS: 134, M. 5; GGS: 474, M. 2

[25] GGS: 206, M. 5

[26] The omnipotence of the Divine, as well as its creative facets, which are without form, time, or enemies, are condensed in the opening verse of the Guru Granth Sahib. According to this verse, living beings are limited in their actions but relatively free in their thinking. They do not decide on their birth or bodies, nor on the circumstances into which they are born. Nevertheless, within the interconnectedness of all existence, they help shape life (GGS: 1, M. 1; GGS: 472, M. 1; GGS: 134, M. 5).

[27] GGS: 441, M. 3; GGS: 727, Kabir

[28] GGS: 349, M. 1; GGS: 468, M. 1; GGS: 473, M. 1; GGS: 590, M. 1

[29] GGS: 447, Kabir

[30] GGS: 471, M. 1

[31] According to the Guru Granth Sahib, spirituality and science operate on different levels. Science is therefore based on worldly knowledge processed by the intellect. Such knowledge may serve worldly regression or progress. Spirituality is devoted to existential introspection and cannot be taught in the same way as natural sciences or social behavior. It arises from within and requires insight (GGS: 461, M. 1; GGS: 467, M. 1; GGS: 1372, Kabir).

[32] GGS: 4, M. 1; GGS: 378, M. 5; GGS: 761, M. 5

[33] GGS: 6, M. 1

[34] Dasam Granth: 115

[35] GGS: 264, M. 5

[36] GGS: 722, M. 1

[37] Fuchs, Martin: Kampf um Differenz. Repräsentation, Subjektivität und soziale Bewegungen in Indien, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1999, p. 343.

[38] GGS: 534, M. 5

[39] For further discussion of the social challenges faced by Sikhs in the German-speaking world and in Europe, see: Nijhawan, Michael: Sie hören uns einfach nicht. Sikhs in Frankreich und Deutschland sehen sich im Abseits des öffentlichen Diskurses um religiöse Symbole, 2004, www.sikhi.eu.

[40] GGS: 918, M. 3

[41] GGS: 473, M. 1

[42] An overview of Sikh history can be found in: Grewal, J. S.: The Sikhs of the Punjab, New Delhi, Cambridge University Press 1999.

[43] A detailed discussion of this can be found in: Mandair, Arvind-Pal Singh: Religion and the Specter of the West: Sikhism, India, Postcoloniality, and the Politics of Translation, Columbia University Press, New York 2009.

[44] Singh, Khushwant. (2011). “Von Entfremdung und Orientierung. Religiöse Unterweisung der zweiten Generation der Sikhs in Deutschland.” In Helga Nagel and Mechtild M. Jansen, eds., Religion und Migration. Signale und Veränderung: Rückblick – Ausblick – Perspektiven, pp. 54–63. Amt für multikulturelle Angelegenheiten der Stadt Frankfurt am Main and Hessische Landeszentrale für politische Bildung.

[45] For example, under the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955, Sikhs, as well as Buddhists, but not Christians, Muslims, Parsis, or Jews, were required to marry under the Act. It was not until the Anand Marriage (Amendment) Act of 2012 that the Indian states were required to establish their own registers and rules so that marriages could be registered directly under the Sikh Anand Marriage Act. Regarding violence against Sikhs and the case of Jaswant Singh Khalra, see, among others:

https://www.pudr.org/publicatiosn-files/1984-11-Who%20are%20the%20guilty-1.pdf

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2005-11-03/pdf/CREC-2005-11-03-pt1-PgE2273.pdf

https://www.mha.gov.in/sites/default/files/2022-08/Nanavati-I_eng_0%5B1%5D.pdf

https://www.hrw.org/news/2005/11/01/letter-human-rights-watch-national-human-rights-commission-india

https://www.amnesty.org/es/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/asa200312005en.pdf

https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/05NEWDELHI6310_a.html

https://www.hrw.org/reports/2007/india1007/india1007.htm

https://hrdag.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/ensaaf_report_48pp_2009.pdf

https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/10/29/india-no-justice-1984-anti-sikh-bloodshed

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2016/10/7/1984-anti-sikh-riots-calls-for-justice-in-india

[46] An analysis of the fatal incident in the Vienna Sikh and Ravidasi community can be found in the following article: Nijhawan, Michael: Kampf um Anerkennung und Differenz, aber kein „Kastenkrieg“, 2009; see also Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 17, 2010. Reports on further incidents of violence can be found, among other places, in the following sources: Fresno, United States, January 11, 2016; Frankfurt, Germany, May 15, 2017; Greenwood, United States, April 16, 2018; Tauranga, New Zealand, August 30, 2024; Southampton, England, December 22, 2025; Moers, Germany, April 19, 2026; Bergamo, Italy, April 20, 2026.

[47] GGS: 470, M. 1; GGS: 711, M. 1

[48] GGS: 1372, Kabir

The article is based on the following publication:

Singh, Khushwant (2013). “Toleranz in der Sikh-Religion.” In Hamid Reza Yousefi and Harald Seubert, eds., Toleranz im Weltkontext. Geschichten – Erscheinungsformen – Neuere Entwicklungen, pp. 145–152. Springer VS.