The religion of Sikhs was the main force of their unity. Comment.

Answer:

Sikhism, founded by Guru Nanak and developed by his successors, gave the community a common faith, scripture, institutions and identity. Religion was indeed the principal bond of Sikh unity, though political persecution and agrarian grievance also shaped the community decisively.

Religion as the unifying force

• Guru Nanak's teaching of one formless God rejected caste and ritual division.
• The institutions of sangat and pangat enforced equality in worship and in eating.
• Guru Arjan compiled the Adi Granth, giving the community a common scripture.
• The Golden Temple at Amritsar became a central place of pilgrimage.
• Guru Gobind Singh's creation of the Khalsa in 1699 gave a visible common identity.
• The five symbols and the common surnames Singh and Kaur bound members together.

Other forces at work

• The executions of Guru Arjan and Guru Tegh Bahadur turned the community towards militancy.
• Mughal persecution created a shared experience of resistance.
• Jat peasant recruitment gave the movement an agrarian social base.
• Banda Bahadur's revolt and later the misls provided political organisation.

Assessment

• Guru Gobind Singh vested authority in the Granth and the Khalsa, ending personal succession.
• The langar and the gurdwara sustained community cohesion in adversity.
• Ranjit Singh later welded the misls into a single Sikh state.
• Religion supplied the identity, while circumstance supplied the militancy.

Religion was therefore the foundation of Sikh unity, supplying the doctrine, scripture and institutions on which the community rested. As historians note, that religious core was hardened into political solidarity by persecution and by the agrarian discontent of the Punjab, so faith and circumstance together forged the Sikh polity.