Punjabi Sikhs

Punjabi Sikhs
	True-colour photograph of Punjabi Sikhs selling flower offerings to pilgrims at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, taken on 15 January 1914 by Stéphane Passet
Total population
	c. 24,000,000-29,000,000 approx. ; (Worldwide)[1][2][3]
Regions with significant populations
Punjab, India	16,004,754 (2011 census)[4][lower-alpha 1]
Haryana	1,243,752 (2011)[4][lower-alpha 1]
Rajasthan	872,930 (2011)[4][lower-alpha 1]
Uttar Pradesh	643,500 (2011)[4][lower-alpha 1]
Delhi	570,581 (2011)[4][lower-alpha 1]
Uttarakhand	236,340 (2011)[4][lower-alpha 1]
Maharashtra	223,247 (2011)[4][lower-alpha 1]
Madhya Pradesh	151,412 (2011)[4][lower-alpha 1]
Chandigarh	138,329 (2011)[4][lower-alpha 1]
Himachal Pradesh	79,896 (2011)[4][lower-alpha 1]
Languages
	Sacred language; Sant Bhasha; Ethnic language; Punjabi and its dialects; Code language; Khalsa bole; Other languages; Hindi, English
Religion
	Sikhism
Related ethnic groups
	Punjabi Hindus, Punjabi Muslims, Punjabi Christians

Punjabi Sikhs are adherents of Sikhism who identify linguistically, culturally, and genealogically as Punjabis and are native of Undivided Punjab region of Indian Subcontinent. Sikhism is an Indigenous religion born and brought up in Punjab region of South Asia during 15th century. Almost 96% of world's Sikh population are Punjabis.[5]

While Punjabi Sikhs are mostly found in the Indian state of Punjab today, where they formed 60% of the state population,[6] many have ancestry from the greater Punjab region, an area that was partitioned between India and Pakistan in 1947. In the contemporary era, Punjab Sikhs are found in large numbers across the Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Chandigarh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Large numbers are also found in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Britain, as various immigration waves over the centuries better prospects and career.[7]

History

The origins of the Sikhs, a religious group initially formed as a sect within the larger Punjabi Hindu community in Undivided Punjab region during 15th century. The Sikh religion founder, Shri Guru Nanak Dev ji (1469–1539), was roughly a contemporary of the founder of Mughal fortunes in India, Bābur. Guru Nanak dev ji was born in a Punjabi Hindu Khatri family, which was initially a community of scribes and traders.[8] In Un-divided Punjab region, the eldest son of every Punjabi Hindu families was nominated and was represented as Sardars and had protected their family and Indic communities from the tyrannies of Mughal rulers and their torture.[9][10][11] A huge number of peasants from Hindu and Muslim in Punjab have converted to Sikhism for various motives since the starting of new faith.[12]

Language

Punjabi Sikhs speaks the Punjabi language as their mother tongue. Various dialects of Punjabi language such as Bagri, Bilaspuri, Bhateali, Majhi, Doabi, Malwai, and Puadhi etc are spoken by Punjabi Sikhs across India and abroad as their mother tongue. In Indian Punjab, Punjabi is written in Gurmukhi script, While in Pakistan's Punjab, Shahmukhi script is used respectively.[13] Gurmukhi is written from left to right, while Shahmukhi is written from right to left.[14][15][16] The use of Gurmukhi script generally started and developed during the time of 2nd Sikh guru, Guru Angad Dev (1504–1552) who have standardized it.[17] It is commonly regarded as Sikh Script. While Shahmukhi script have been used by Punjabi Muslims since from the time of 12th century, when Punjabi Sufi Poets have used it to write Punjabi. Shahmukhi is a Perso-Arabic alphabet script.[18]

Culture

Festivals

The Punjabi Sikhs observe historic festivals such as Lohri, Basant and Vaisakhi as seasonal and cultural festivals in Punjab and outside of it. Other seasonal Punjabi festivals in India include Maghi and Teeyan respectively. Teeyan is also known as festival of females, as women enjoy it with their close friends. On the day of maghi, people fly kites and eat their traditional dish Punjabi dish khichdi.[19] Other festivals observed by Punjabi Sikhs includes the festivals of Sikhism like- Gurupurab, Bandi Chhor Divas, etc.

Notes

Figure is total Sikh population on census.

References

"Who are Sikhs and what do they believe?". 5 August 2012.
"Indianapolis Shootout: The US Has Long Lacked Understanding on Who Sikh People Are".
"Behind the decline". frontline.thehindu.com. 16 September 2015.
"Population by religion community – 2011". Census of India, 2011. The Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Archived from the original on 25 August 2015. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
"Sikhism | History, Doctrines, Practice, & Literature | Britannica".
"Census 2011: %age of Sikhs drops in Punjab; migration to blame?". The Times of India. 27 August 2015.
George, Usha, and Ferzana Chaze. "Punjabis/Sikhs in Canada." Mobility and Multiple Affiliations (2016): 91-104.
"India - the Sikhs in the Punjab | Britannica".
"From Guru Hargobind to Guru Gobind Singh: How the Sikh community militarised to take on the Mughals".
Why was the first son made a Sikh
"Sikhism | History, Doctrines, Practice, & Literature | Britannica".
Singh, Pritam (2008). Federalism, Nationalism and Development: India and the Punjab Economy. Routledge. ISBN 9781134049455. A lot of Hindu and Muslim peasants converted to Sikhism from conviction, fear, economic motives, or a combination of the three (Khushwant Singh 1999: 106; Ganda Singh 1935: 73).
"Shahmukhi: The window to Punjabi culture". The Times of India.
Sharma, Saurabh; Gupta, Vishal (May 2013). "Punjabi Documents Clustering System" (PDF). Journal of Emerging Technologies in Web Intelligence. 5 (2): 174. doi:10.4304/JETWI.5.2.171-187. S2CID 55699784. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
Handbook of Literacy in Akshara Orthography. Springer. 2019. p. 142. ISBN 978-3030059774.
"Guru Angad | Second Sikh Guru, Achievements, & Facts | Britannica".
"Punjabi language | Britannica".
Punjab Tourism https://punjabtourism.punjab.gov.in › ...PDF FESTIVALS IN PUNJAB 2021-22