Guru Nanak Dev and the Bhagats: Understanding the Origins of Sikh Identity

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by Harjinder Singh Lallie

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The bhagatī movement inspired a period of intense spiritual enquiry which cultivated a spiritual and moral conscience unique to world religions. Some of the bhagats found their motivation in the often troubled intersection of Hindu/Islamic belief. The invasion and steady influx of Muslim settlers often caused apprehension driven by the draconian policies of the rulers which sometimes encouraged and perpetuated forced conversion to Islam. Although this motivated some of the bhagats in their work, others were motivated by the discrimination driven by the varan framework. The two groups of bhagats , the traditional and radical bhagats , shared a common ideology in advocating spiritual devotion to a personal God who was ever present, and in propagating the importance of practising nām , the name of God. This ideology became very popular amongst the masses who found the message to be simple and clear. But what their followers found more inspirational, were the revolutionary ideologies advocated by the radical bhagats . This book focuses on the earliest period of Sikh history, that of Guru Nanak Dev, and explores the lives of some of the bhagats to understand their motivations and how these impacted their teachings. We examine the phenomenon of longevity in the bhagatī panths and in the Sikh faith, or the Nanak Panth as it was known at the time. How was the Nanak Panth able to detach itself ideology of the Hindu Dharma whilst the bhagatī panths were not? The study explores the extent to which the views and ideologies of Guru Nanak Dev aligned with, parted from, and differed with those of the bhagats , sādhūs , and jôgīs , and outlines how Sikh identity was formed in the earliest period of Sikh history.

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