The Sikh movement

The Sikh movement began with Guru Nanak in the Punjab in the late fifteenth century as a devotional path that rejected caste hierarchy and empty ritual and taught devotion to one formless God, honest work, and sharing with others. His successors built institutions, a scripture, and a community that gradually acquired a distinct identity and, under pressure, a military organisation. A concrete example is Guru Gobind Singh's creation of the Khalsa in 1699, which gave Sikhs a visible discipline and a collective identity. The movement thus moved from devotional reform to a community and, eventually, to political power in the Punjab.