Harmandir Sahib, Amritsar · Bernard Gagnon · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sikhism

Tradition·Founded 1499 CE·est. ~26 million worldwide

Sikhism → 1 branch

Branch
G Figure of Sikhism

Guru Tegh Bahadur — the shield of India.

A delegation of Kashmiri Brahmins facing forced conversion asked him for help; he told them to inform the emperor that if he could be converted, they would follow. He was beheaded in Delhi in 1675 — a martyr for a religion that was not his own, which is why Sikhs call him the cloak of India.

Names & titlesGuru Tegh Bahadur — Hind di Chadar
DomainNinth Guru — martyr for another people's religion
RelationsYoungest son of Guru Hargobind; father of Guru Gobind Singh
Depicted asSeated in meditation, or at the block in Chandni Chowk
StandingBeheaded in Delhi in 1675 after telling the emperor to convert him before touching the Kashmiri Brahmins
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

Tegh Bahadur's martyrdom is the event Sikhs cite when explaining that theirs is not a self-interested community. The Kashmiri Brahmins who came to him at Anandpur were facing forced conversion under Aurangzeb; he told them to say that if the Guru of the Sikhs could be converted, they would all follow. He was arrested, held in Delhi, and beheaded in November 1675 in what is now Chandni Chowk, along with three companions killed in front of him to break his resolve. Gurdwara Sis Ganj marks the spot and Rakab Ganj marks where his body was cremated. The title Hind di Chadar — the cloak of India — is not a Sikh claim on Hinduism but a claim about religious liberty as a principle rather than a privilege, and it is the argument Sikh organisations still make in courts from Delhi to Strasbourg.

The same ground, other faiths

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The People of the Book are not idolaters. Islam · core tenet Go deeper →

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