a Sikh nation?

OK, so this gets raised a lot and it has some clear problems. First and foremost, pre-partition of India, there was no Sikh-majority territory in Punjab, anywhere.

POST-partition, with most Punjabi Sikhs (and Hindus) having fled Pakistani West Punjab, the refugee-boosted Sikh population of Indian East Punjab was now about 1/3. Later, the state was given a tripartite division, and the rump state of Punjab now had a moderate Sikh majority (55% or so).

The Khalistan movement in the '80s was never a broad-based mass movement, although its heavy-handed suppression caused immense anti-India sentiment among Sikhs for some time. It's possible you could get a breakaway, but given that plenty of Punjabi Sikhs did NOT want Khalistan, and given that the Hindu population did not want Khalistan, at best you might be able to get a self-declared "Khalistan" in a portion of Indian punjab - i.e. a Transdneister-style "state", perhaps under Pakistani military occupation and unrecognized by anybody else. In other words, a rebel force manages to seize control of part of the territory.

Around partition in 1947, it's not really possible. Yes, some Sikh groups asked, but nobody in any position of authority was interested in the idea and, as I said, no part of Punjab actually had a Sikh majority.
 
OK, so this gets raised a lot and it has some clear problems.


Very insightful as well as being very interesting. The population bits especially.

If I understand correctly, the Sikh religion is relatively new as these things go, 15th or 16th CE right? How easy is it to convert to? What sort of events could have caused more conversions from the more numerous Hindus and Moslems in the region?
 

Thande

Donor
If I understand correctly, the Sikh religion is relatively new as these things go, 15th or 16th CE right? How easy is it to convert to? What sort of events could have caused more conversions from the more numerous Hindus and Moslems in the region?
1. Yes, 2. Quite easy, and 3. The trouble is that the Sikhs were viewed as being too close to Britain (for obvious reasons--as a useful 'martial race' to keep order from our point of view, and to ensure their former persecution by Hindus and Muslims didn't resume from theirs).

Historically Sikhism has drawn its converts much more from Hindus than Muslims.
 
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