Ques: What have the sikhs done for their country? Ans: The question should rather be, what have the Sikhs NOT done for their country. And the answer is, understandably, everything ! If we look at the humble beginnings of the Sikh faith, the first master Guru Nanak Dev made observed the narrow mindedness and superstitious nature of the people of the times and set out to rationally reason with the country folk and also started inter-faith dialogue. The consecutive Sikh masters of Gurus (Teachers) organized the people, emphasized on social equality, community kitchen ( langar ) , community wells ( baoli ) and also developed Gurmukhi letter and grammar system for the common man to understand read and write. The later 5 of the10 Gurus added a political side to the Sikh faith and resisted the tyranny of the Mughal rulers of Delhi. The last two Gurus openly challenged the tyrant emperor Aurangzeb to stop forcibly converting the Hindus esp Kashmiri Pandits into Islam.After administering Amrit (nectar) to Guru Gobind Singh instilled in his Sikhs a Saint Soldier Spirit. Details -> Sikh gurus Coming to the British Raj ( rule ) era in India, the Khalsa empire of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was the last sovereign empire to fall into the hands of the British East India Company. The Anglo - Sikh Wars took a very heavy toll on the British Indian Army owing to the European training of the Sikh Army. The Sikh troops were deployed in Africa, Jerusalem, Malay Archipelago, World War 1 and 2. Such was the importance of Sikh Troops in the World War 2 that British PM Sir Winston Churchill had to say : .British people are highly indebted and obliged to Sikhs for a long time. I know that within this century we needed their help twice and they did help us very well. As a result of their timely help, we are today able to live with honour, dignity, and independence BBC has made a beautiful video on the same : During the freedom struggle of India against the British yoke 90% of all the freedom fighters who died or were sent to Andaman Islands for life imprisonments were Sikhs , despite the fact that they formed just 2% of Indias population. After independence Sikhs have proved to be the most industrious ethnicity in modern India and boast the highest per capita GDP attributed to any ethnicity in India. Sikhs also form a disproportionally large part of the Indian army. Not just this, they have excelled in theri professions in adopted countries as well.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 09:27:08 +0000
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