Sikhism

====Partition of India====
Sikhs participated and contributed to the decades-long Indian independence movement in the first half of the 20th century. Ultimately when the British Empire recognized independent India, the [[partition of India|land was partitioned]] into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan (East and West) in 1947. According to Banga, the partition was a watershed event in Sikh history.{{sfn|Banga|2017|pp=99–100}}<ref name="Shani2007p86">{{cite book |first=Giorgio |last=Shani |title=Sikh Nationalism and Identity in a Global Age |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=HKu66SixH6AC |date=2007 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=Abingdon-on-Thames, England |isbn=978-1-134-10189-4 |pages=86–93}}</ref> The Sikhs had historically lived in northwestern region of Indian subcontinent on both sides of the partition line ("[[Radcliffe Line]]"). According to Banga and other scholars, the Sikhs had strongly opposed the [[All-India Muslim League|Muslim League]] demands and saw it as "perpetuation of Muslim domination" and anti-Sikh policies in what just a hundred years before was a part of the Sikh Empire. As such, Sikh organizations, including the [[Chief Khalsa Diwan|Chief Khalsa Dewan]] and [[Shiromani Akali Dal]] led by [[Master Tara Singh]], condemned the [[Lahore Resolution]] and the movement to create Pakistan, viewing it as inviting possible persecution; the Sikhs largely thus [[opposition to the partition of India|strongly opposed the partition of India]].<ref name="KudaisyaYong2004">{{cite book |last1=Kudaisya |first1=Gyanesh |last2=Yong |first2=Tan Tai |title=The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia |date=2004 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=Abingdon-on-Thames, England |isbn=978-1-134-44048-1 |page=100 |quote=No sooner was it made public than the Sikhs launched a virulent campaign against the Lahore Resolution. Pakistan was portrayed as a possible return to an unhappy past when Sikhs were persecuted and Muslims the persecutor. Public speeches by various Sikh political leaders on the subject of Pakistan invariably invoked images of atrocities committed by Muslims against Sikhs and of the martyrdom of their ''gurus'' and heroes. Reactions to the Lahore Resolution were uniformly negative and Sikh leaders of all political persuasions made it clear that Pakistan would be 'wholeheartedly resisted'. The Shiromani Akali Dal, which had a substantial following among rural Sikhs, organized several well-attended conferences in Lahore to condemn the Muslim League. Master Tara Singh, leader of the Akali Dal, declared that his party would fight Pakistan 'tooth and nail'. Not be outdone, other Sikh political organizations, rival to the Akali Dal, namely the Central Khalsa Young Men Union and the moderate and loyalist Chief Khalsa Dewan, declared in equally strong language their unequivocal opposition to the Pakistan scheme.}}</ref> During the discussions with the colonial authorities, Tara Singh emerged as an important leader who campaigned to prevent the partition of colonial India and for the recognition of Sikhs as a third community.{{sfn|Banga|2017|pp=99–100}}

When partition was announced, the newly created line divided the Sikh population. Along with Hindus, Sikhs suffered organized violence and riots against them in West Pakistan. As a result, Sikhs moved en masse to the Indian side, leaving behind their property and holy sites.<ref name="Abid2014"/> However, the anti-Sikh violence was not one-sided. As Sikhs moved to the eastern side of the partition line, they engaged in reprisals against Muslims there, forcing them into Pakistan.{{sfn|Banga|2017|pp=99–100}}<ref name="Mann2014p81" /> Before the partition, Sikhs constituted about 15% of the population in West Punjab, the majority being Muslims (55%). The Sikhs were the economic elite in West Punjab, however. They had the largest representation in West Punjab's aristocracy, and there were nearly 700 Gurdwaras and 400 educational institutions that served the interests of the Sikhs.{{sfn|Banga|2017|pp=99–103}} Prior to the partition, there were a series of disputes between the majority Muslims and minority Sikhs, such as on the matters of [[jhatka]] versus [[halal]] meat, the disputed ownership of [[Shaheed Ganj Mosque|Gurdwara Sahidganj]] in Lahore which Muslims sought as a mosque and Sikhs as a Gurdwara, and the insistence of the provincial Muslim government on switching from Indian [[Gurmukhi]] script to Arabic-Persian [[Nastaliq]] script in schools.{{sfn|Banga|2017|pp=99–100}} During and after the [[Simla Conference]] in June 1945, headed by Lord Wavell, the Sikh leaders initially expressed their desire to be recognized as a third community, but ultimately relegated these demands and sought a United India where Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims would live together, under a Swiss-style constitution. The Muslim League rejected this approach, demanding that the entire Punjab should be granted to Pakistan.{{sfn|Banga|2017|pp=99–104}} The Sikh leaders then sought the original partition instead, and the Congress Working Committee passed a resolution in support of partitioning Punjab and Bengal.{{sfn|Banga|2017|pp=99–104}}<ref name="Mann2014p81">{{cite book |first=Michael |last=Mann |title=South Asia's Modern History: Thematic Perspectives |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=TBscBQAAQBAJ |date=2014 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=Abingdon-on-Thames, England |isbn=978-1-317-62446-2 |pages=81–83}}</ref>
[[File:Sikh Light Infantry.jpg|thumb|[[Sikh Light Infantry]] personnel march past during the [[Delhi Republic Day parade|Republic day parade]] in New Delhi, India]]

Between March and August 1947, a series of riots, arson, plunder of Sikh and property, assassination of Sikh leaders, and killings in Jhelum districts, Rawalpindi, Attock and other places led to Tara Singh calling the situation in Punjab a "civil war", while [[Lord Mountbatten]] stated "civil war preparations were going on."<ref name="Abid2014">{{cite web |last1=Abid |first1=Abdul Majeed |title=The forgotten massacre |url=https://nation.com.pk/29-Dec-2014/the-forgotten-massacre |website=The Nation |date=29 December 2014 |quote=On the same dates, Muslim League-led mobs fell with determination and full preparations on the helpless Hindus and Sikhs scattered in the villages of Multan, Rawalpindi, Campbellpur, Jhelum and Sargodha. The murderous mobs were well supplied with arms, such as daggers, swords, spears and fire-arms. (A former civil servant mentioned in his autobiography that weapon supplies had been sent from NWFP and money was supplied by Delhi-based politicians.) They had bands of stabbers and their auxiliaries, who covered the assailant, ambushed the victim and if necessary disposed of his body. These bands were subsidized monetarily by the Muslim League, and cash payments were made to individual assassins based on the numbers of Hindus and Sikhs killed. There were also regular patrolling parties in jeeps which went about sniping and picking off any stray Hindu or Sikh. ... Thousands of non-combatants including women and children were killed or injured by mobs, supported by the All India Muslim League. |access-date=7 December 2020 |archive-date=2 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202231234/https://nation.com.pk/29-Dec-2014/the-forgotten-massacre |url-status=live }}</ref> The riots had triggered the early waves of migration in April, with some 20,000 people leaving northwest Punjab and moving to Patiala.{{sfn|Banga|2017|pp=104–105}}<ref name="Shani2007p86" /> In Rawalpindi, 40,000 people became homeless. The Sikh leaders made desperate petitions, but all religious communities were suffering in the political turmoil. Sikhs constituted only 4 million out of a total of 28&nbsp;million in Punjab, and 6&nbsp;million out of nearly 400&nbsp;million in India; they did not constitute the majority, not even in a single district.{{sfn|Banga|2017|pp=104–105}}<ref name="Wolpert2010p9">{{cite book |first=Stanley |last=Wolpert |title=India and Pakistan: Continued Conflict or Cooperation?|url= https://archive.org/details/indiapakistancon0000wolp |url-access=registration|date=2010|publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-94800-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/indiapakistancon0000wolp/page/n10 9]–12, 16–23}}</ref>

When the partition line was formally announced in August 1947, the violence was unprecedented, with Sikhs being one of the most affected religious community both in terms of deaths, as well as property loss, injury, trauma and disruption.{{sfn|Banga|2017|pp=108–111}}<ref name="Mann2014p81" /> Sikhs and Muslims were both victims and perpetrators of retaliatory violence against each other. Estimates range between 200,000 and 2&nbsp;million deaths of Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims.{{sfn|Banga|2017|pp=108–111}}<ref name="Mann2014p81" /> There were numerous rapes of and mass suicides by Sikh women, they being taken captives, their rescues and above all a mass exodus of Sikhs from newly created Pakistan into newly independent India. The partition created the "largest foot convoy of refugees recorded in [human] history, stretching over 100 kilometer long", states Banga, with nearly 300,000 people consisting of mostly "distraught, suffering, injured and angry Sikhs". Sikh and Hindu refugees from Pakistan flooded into India, Muslim refugees from India flooded into Pakistan, each into their new homeland.{{sfn|Banga|2017|pp=108–111}}<ref name="Wolpert2010p9" />