NEW YORK (RNS) — In 1675, Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur completed a revolutionary act of selflessness that would change the faith’s trajectory and moral demands, according to Sikh martyrology.
At the time, the Mughal Empire in South Asia mandated conversion to Islam. Sikh tradition holds that Bahadur, the ninth of 10 Sikh gurus, chose to defend the religious freedom of Hindus in Kashmir, who had appealed to him for help, said Amandeep Singh Sandhu, a United Kingdom-based educator from Everythings 13, a Sikh educational organization. He and his disciples advocated on behalf of the Hindus in court, and as a result, they were executed.
His martyrdom and Sikhs’ two-fold desire to defend themselves from persecution and stand with others in need ultimately led to the establishment of the faith’s Khalsa, a community of ritually initiated Sikhs who commit to both rigorous spiritual devotion and martial courage.
In that vein, the origins of the spring Sikh festival of Vaisakhi lay in the guru’s radical decision to be in solidarity with the oppressed, said Harmeet Kaur Kamboj, an attendee at the Manhattan Sikh Association’s Vaisakhi celebration on Saturday (April 18). About 150 people gathered on the sixth floor of a West Village building to attend the community event.
A lay woman …