Making Sense of Dalit Sikh History

Abstract

Growing out of a powerful anti-Brahmanical heterodox tradition in northern India in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Sikh sect of Guru Nanak and his successors gradually evolved into an organized religious movement in Punjab. It became a rallying point for untouchables and members of low castes to use in regaining their lost respect and dignity. The crucial role of untouchable communities in the success of the Sikh experiment is largely absent in the largely Brahmanized scholarship on Sikhism. A vibrant religion, Sikhism has witnessed high and low points in its journey of five hundred years. And so have the Dalits of Punjab. In the process of its growth and expansion from 1750 to 1850, the Sikh body politic came to be afflicted by casteism and untouchability, due to upper-caste Sikhs’ perceived benefits in hierarchical structures. The chapter examines the history of the Sikh religion from the Dalit perspective to recover untouchables’ immense contributions to the making of an egalitarian religion in Punjab.