Sikhism in Pakistan



Sikhism in Pakistan has an extensive heritage and history, although Sikhs form a very small community in the Islamic Republic today. Most Sikhs live in the province of Punjab, where the religion was born in the middle ages. Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, is located in the Pakistani province.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Sikh community became a powerful political force, with Sikh leader Ranjit Singh founding the first Sikh empire, which had its capital in Lahore, the second-largest city in Pakistan today. Significant populations of Sikhs inhabited the largest cities in the Punjab such as Lahore, Rawalpindi and Lyallpur (now Faisalabad), as well as the neighbouring Northwest Frontier Province. However, when India was partitioned in 1947 to create the Muslim state of Pakistan, a significant portion of the Punjab region became part of the new state. Ethnic cleansing of Hindus and Sikhs led to a major exodus of those communities from Pakistan into India; conversely Muslims in the Indian territory were subject to the same ethnic cleansing and forced migration to Pakistan. Large numbers of Sikh places of worship (gurdwaras) were destroyed and hundreds of thousands of Sikhs were killed.

In the decades following Pakistan's creation, the Sikh community began to re-organise, forming the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (PGPC) to represent the community and protect the holy sites and heritage of the Sikh religion in Pakistan. The Pakistani government has begun to allow Sikhs from India to make pilgrimages to Sikh places of worship in Pakistan and for Pakistani Sikhs to travel to India.

Pakistan's estimated population was 172,800,000 in July 2008[1], 96% Muslim, with Christians (1.6%) and Hindus (1.85%) making up the largest minority faiths, according to the last census taken in 1998[2]. Sikhs, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Ahmadi Muslims and some adherents to animist religions make up the remainder.


 Before the Partition of India and Pakistan

Prior to the Partition of India in 1947, which divided British India into its successor states of Pakistan and India, Sikhs were spread all across the region of Punjab and played an important role in its economy as businessmen and traders. Lahore, the capital of (now Pakistan) Punjab was then and still is today the location of many important religious and historical sites for Sikhs, including the Samadhi of Ranjit Singh. The nearby town of Nankana Sahib has nine gurdwaras, and is the birthplace of Sikhism's founder, Guru Nanak Dev. Each of Nankana Sahib's gurdwaras are associated with different events in Guru Nanak Dev's life. The town remains an important site of pilgrimage for Sikhs worldwide. After the creation of Pakistan Nationwide, there are no reliable numerical figures for Sikhs in the country. Estimates vary, the US Department of State estimates 20,000[3]. The largest Sikh population in Pakistan is found in Peshawar, in the North-West Frontier Province, which was spared the scale of violence during partition that raged in Punjab. [4] There are small pockets of Sikhs in Lahore and Nankana Sahib in Punjab. The (West) Punjab and Sindh provinces of Pakistan were mostly emptied of their Sikh and Hindu population in the communal massacres of partition, with nearly all fleeing for India. Today, segments of the populations of East Punjab and Haryana states and Delhi in India can trace their ancestry back to towns and villages now in Pakistan, including current Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. There has been an influx in the population of Sikhs in Pakistan due to the turbulent civil war and conflicts that have ravaged neighboring Afghanistan. [5] Afghanistan, like Pakistan, has had a very small Sikh and Hindu population. There has been a massive exodus of refugees from Afghanistan into Pakistan during the past 30 years of turmoil up to the reign of the Taliban and the subsequent US invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001. Due to Pakistan's porous borders with Afghanistan, large numbers of Afghanistan's minority communities, based mainly around the cities of Kabul, Kandahar, and Jalalabad have fled, and some Sikhs have joined their kinsmen in Peshawar and Lahore. The Sikh community in Pakistan in modern times Until today, Sikhs have mainly kept a low profile within the monolithic population of Pakistan. [6] Though, Pakistan maintains the title of Islamic state, the articles twenty, twenty-one and twenty-two in chapter two of its constitution guarantees religious freedom to the non-Muslim residents[1]. Since indepdence in 1947, relations between Pakistan's minorities and the Muslim majority have remained fairly and politically stable. Until 2002, Pakistan held a system of separate electorates for all its national legislative assemblies, with only a handful of parliamentary seats reserved for minority members. Minorities were legally only permitted to vote for designated minority candidates in general elections. The regime of President General Pervez Musharraf has professed an agenda of equality for minorities and promotion and protection of minority rights, however, the implementation of corrective measures has been slow. The historical and holy sites of Sikhs are maintained by a Pakistani governmental body, the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, which is responsible for their upkeep and preservation. Nonetheless, many Sikh shrines have fallen into disrepair since 1947,[7] as the remaining Sikh population and its corresponding manpower, economic power and political influence is minuscule compared to that of the pre-1947 community. The emergence of the Sikh community within Pakistan After the creation of Pakistan the Sikh community's rights were diminished.[8] Recently the Sikh community within Pakistan has been making every effort possible to progress in Pakistan. For example Harcharan Singh became the first Sikh to join the Pakistan army. For the first time in the 58 year history of Pakistan there has a Sikh been selected into Pakistan's army. Prior to Harcharan Singh's selection in the Pakistani army no individual person who was a member of the Hindu or the Sikh community were ever enrolled in the army, but there are reports which states that the Pakistani Christian community has served in the army and some had even reached into to the ranks of a Brigadier in the army. Moreover, members of the tiny Parsi community have some representation in the Armed Forces. [9] First time in the history of Pakistan as well as in the history of Lahore a Sikh person has been appointed as a traffic Sub Inspector. Dr. Gulab Singh who is just 25 years old, is a practising homeopathic doctor and he is from the same place as Harcharan Singh (Nankana Sahib). Gulab Singh is fluent in Urdu, Punjabi, Pashto, Seraiki, Sindhi, and little bit of English.[10] In yet another contribution to the Pakistani Sikh community, Pakistan Government enacted the Sikh marriage act, Anand Marriage act, in November 2007. This Sikh marriage act allows not only the Sikhs in Pakistan, but also Sikhs living in anywhere in the world to register in Pakistan with the Sikh marriage act. [11] After the success of Harcharan Singh in Pakistan's army and Gulab Singh as a traffic inspector, now it's the turn of Kalyan Singh Kalyan who is the first Sikh Province Assembly Member in Pakistan and Kalyan is a member of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).[12] The first Sikh musician also emerged on the music industry in 2009, Jassi Lailpuria, launched his first song on independence day entitled, Sohna Pakistan.[13] Rupinder Singh Magon (Rup) from the band JoSH is also a superstar in Pakistan and is very popular among the youth of the country although he lives in Canada but travels to Pakistan a lot for Concerts and TV engagements. He, along with his band mate Qurram Hussain, was part of Coke Studio as well which is a big achievement. Pakistani Sikh diaspora According to the Pakistani religious laws that Sikhism is a monotheistic religion and therefore secured from violence beside the government, some Pakistani Sikhs have migrated abroad to countries like the United Kingdom and Canada, there is also a growing Pakistani Sikh community in Dubai. In the United Kingdom there are only a few hundred Pakistani Sikhs, 346 according to the 2001 census[14]. Persecution Persecution of Pakistan's Sikh minority has been on the rise in the Taliban-controlled portions of the country since 2009. The Taliban have imposed a jizya on Sikhs and forced to pay a type of tax or being killed, leaving many to flee to safer regions of Pakistan.[15] There are widespread kidnappings and murders of Sikhs in the Khyber and Orakzai Agencies.[16] By July 2009, the Darbar Sahib in Amritsar had become a haven for over 3,000 displaced internal refugee Sikhs.[17]