AHC: Sikh majority Bengal

With a POD no earlier than the formation of the Khalsa (1699) make Bengal (the combined region of both modern West Bengal and Bangladesh) Sikh majority, this does not have to be an absolute majority in which Sikhs outnumber Muslims and Hindus combined, but a majority in which the Sikh population is larger than the individual Muslim and Hindu populations.

Bonus points for spreading Sikhism to be a major plurality in other areas outside the Punjab.
 
With a POD no earlier than the formation of the Khalsa (1699) make Bengal (the combined region of both modern West Bengal and Bangladesh) Sikh majority, this does not have to be an absolute majority in which Sikhs outnumber Muslims and Hindus combined, but a majority in which the Sikh population is larger than the individual Muslim and Hindu populations.

Bonus points for spreading Sikhism to be a major plurality in other areas outside the Punjab.

Doesn't look like Sikhism then. Sikhism is very reliant on Punjab to maintain its identity.
 
Doesn't look like Sikhism then. Sikhism is very reliant on Punjab to maintain its identity.

If they believe in the tenants of the Sikh faith and follow the practises of Sikhism, and call themselves Sikhs, are they not Sikhs?
 
Doesn't look like Sikhism then. Sikhism is very reliant on Punjab to maintain its identity.

The Sikh identity is connected to Punjabi culture in the same way Islam is connected to Arabic culture, yes it has its foundation in it but it's not a literal ethnic religion like Judaism, it's only become somewhat like one due to OTL socio - historical developments, there's nothing in the Guru Granth Sahib which doesn't suggest a universal message. Guru Gobind Singh himself was born in Bihar.

They can still use Punjabi as a holy language in this Bengali Sikh branch off, and be influenced by Punjabi customs, but they will still probably remain distinctly Bengali in many other aspects, maybe even forming a distinct sect of Sikhism. But the question is, with the POD stated, how can Sikhism dominate this part of the subcontinent?
 
The Sikh identity is connected to Punjabi culture in the same way Islam is connected to Arabic culture, yes it has its foundation in it but it's not a literal ethnic religion like Judaism, it's only become somewhat like one due to OTL socio - historical developments, there's nothing in the Guru Granth Sahib which doesn't suggest a universal message. Guru Gobind Singh himself was born in Bihar.

They can still use Punjabi as a holy language in this Bengali Sikh branch off, and be influenced by Punjabi customs, but they will still probably remain distinctly Bengali in many other aspects, maybe even forming a distinct sect of Sikhism. But the question is, with the POD stated, how can Sikhism dominate this part of the subcontinent?

The PoD is not earlier than the formation of the Khalsa though which really was when Sikhism became very much an ethnocentric religion.

To keep the Sikh message universalist you need a PoD within the reign of the first few Gurus.
 
The PoD is not earlier than the formation of the Khalsa though which really was when Sikhism became very much an ethnocentric religion.

To keep the Sikh message universalist you need a PoD within the reign of the first few Gurus.

Not just that. Islam spread despite a debate in its early days concerning conversion of non Arabs because it was also buttressed by conquest. In early Sikhism there was no guru who had a state apparatus to spread his message. The Sikh Empire only pops into being in the eighteenth century and by then it's simply too ethnocentric to spread out from there.
 
With a POD no earlier than the formation of the Khalsa (1699) make Bengal (the combined region of both modern West Bengal and Bangladesh) Sikh majority, this does not have to be an absolute majority in which Sikhs outnumber Muslims and Hindus combined, but a majority in which the Sikh population is larger than the individual Muslim and Hindu populations.

Bonus points for spreading Sikhism to be a major plurality in other areas outside the Punjab.

Err... Sikhism isn't a plurality even in the Punjab, is it?
 
Top