the sikhs became a strong political & military force under guru gobind singh . Justify
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Answer:
Appeals to--and manipulation of--"history" play a greater part in the politics of Sikhs in the Indian state of Punjab than among people in most other parts of the world. This results from the effects of two vast institutions--the Indian Army and the committee that controls Sikh temples--and the relative newness of the Sikh religion, whose rise coincided with that of "scientific" history in the West. For analysis, it is useful to distinguish three types of history practisedin the modern world--"Popular," "Rhetorical," and "Academic." For the reasons outlined above, among Sikhs in modern Punjab a particular variant of Rhetorical History has come to overpower the other two. This has far-reaching implications, not only for the Sikhs and Punjab, but also for Indian politics.
Answer:
The history of Sikhism started with Guru Nanak Dev Ji. He was the first Guru of the fifteenth century in the Punjab region in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. The religious practices were formalised by Guru Gobind Singh Ji on 13 April 1699.[1] The latter baptised five persons from different social backgrounds to form Khalsa The first five, Pure Ones, then baptised Gobind Singh ji into the Khalsa fold.[2] This gives the order of Khalsa, a history of around 300 years.
Since the Mughal rule of India by Emperor Jahangir (1605-1707), Sikhism was in conflict with its laws, because they were affecting political successions of Mughals while cherishing saints from Islam. Many prominent Sikhs were killed by Mughal rulers for refusing to their orders,[3] and for opposing the persecution of Sikhs.[4] Of total 10 Sikh gurus,[5][6][7][8][9] two gurus themselves were tortured and executed (Guru Arjan Dev and Guru Tegh Bahadur),[10][11] and close kins of several gurus brutally killed (such as the 6- and 9-year old sons of Guru Gobind Singh),[12][13] along with numerous other main revered figures of Sikhism were tortured and killed (such as Banda Bahadur, Bhai Mati Das, Bhai Sati Das and Bhai Dayala),[9][12][13] by Mughal rulers for refusing to their orders,[3][5][13][12] and for opposing the persecution of Sikhs and Hindus.[4][11][6][9] Subsequently, Sikhism militarised to oppose Mughal hegemony.
The emergence of the Sikh Confederacy under the misls and Sikh Empire under reign of the Maharajah Ranjit Singh was characterised by religious tolerance and pluralism with Christians, Muslims and Hindus in positions of power. The establishment of the Sikh Empire is commonly considered the zenith of Sikhism at political level,[14] during this time the Sikh Empire came to include Kashmir, Ladakh, and Peshawar. A number of Muslim and Hindu peasants converted to Sikhism.[15] Hari Singh Nalwa, the Commander-in-chief of the Sikh army along the North West Frontier, took the boundary of the Sikh Empire to the very mouth of the Khyber Pass. The Empire's secular administration integrated innovative military, economic and governmental reforms.
The months leading up to the partition of India in 1947, saw heavy conflict in the Punjab between Sikh and Muslims, which saw the effective religious migration of Punjabi Sikhs and Hindus from West Punjab which mirrored a similar religious migration of Punjabi Muslims in East Punjab. At present, the efforts to win independence and build a modern nation of Khalistan over the course of a century continue to reverberate.