Sikhi

Sikhi or Sikhism is a monotheistic religion with a revolutionary and community-based tradition.

Sikhi respects the prophets Jesus and Mohammed and their religions, considering them as alternate paths to unity with God. The Sikh book, Guru Granth Sahib, says, "The One Lord is within both Hindu and Muslim." Even atheists may meet God if they do good deeds and do not live by ego.

Sikhi grew out of the meditations of Guru Nanak and the following nine Gurus. Nanak was originally a Hindu but met with holy men of Islam, especially the Sufis, Buddhism, and more. He criticized the Hindu caste system and oppression of women, forming a new religion.

Sikhi discarded rituals like the sacraments, criticizing the Pharasaical corrupt pretenses of established religions, and focused on getting the soul closer to God through understanding. "Sikh" means "student", and Sikhs reject the need for miracles because a prophet's message is more important.

Sikhi believes that this world is temporary, and our souls grow apart from God due to a delusional attachment to this world, such as in ego, greed, and lust. The pillars of Sikh practice are Naam Simran i.e. meditation, Sangat i.e. community, and Seva i.e. selfless service. The meaning of Sangat is that God is not found in reclusion, in asceticism or abandoning the world - rather, Sikhi believes in living as a normal person in a strong community and finding God in the people around you.

Though favored by the great Mughal Emperor Akbar, Sikhs were forced into conflict by his tyrant grandson Aurangzeb. The Sikh community took up arms and fought a bourgeois-democratic revolution based in the peasants and workers. This is why Sikhs still refuse to cut their hair: At the time, it openly marked them as rebels.

The Sikh teaching of equality (their effort to reconcile Hinduism and Islam) became the ideology of the peasant movement against the Indian feudals and Afghan invaders in the late 17th century.

- Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the CC of the CPSU(p. 186)

Multiple Sikh Gurus were martyred by the Mughals. In the Maoist style, the Sikh guerrillas finally won and established the Sikh Confederacy. This was a New Democracy dominated by the proletariat, via the Panchayat system of Khalsa army councils.

The proto-Dengist Khalsa harnessed the bourgeois to accelerate the productive forces. However, the Sikh bourgeois betrayed the Khalsa to the British Empire.

In spite of the fine organisation of their army, which fought against the British with stubborn bravery, the Sikhs were defeated.... The chief cause of the defeat was treachery on the part of their supreme command. (p. 195)

In 1845, the British colonialists enlisted the support of traitors among the Sikh gentry to provoke a conflict with the Sikhs, and in 1846 succeeded in turning the Sikh state into a vassal principality. In 1848 the Sikhs revolted, but were totally subjugated in 1849. With the conquest of Punjab all India became a British colony. (p. 186)

- Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the CC of the CPSU

The Sikhs are remembered by historians, Punjabis, British, and Russians universally as ferocious enemies of the British.

The Sikhs were always the most formidable opponents of the British among the natives of India.

- Marx and Engels(p. 163)