Sikhs in the Mughal Empire: Interaction and Syncreticism with Dominant Religions of Hindustan and Borded Territories

Abstract

The article is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of the relations between the Sikh commu­nity and Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists during the reign of the Mughals (16th – 19th cen­turies). This period was of fundamental importance for the formation of Sikh identity, which evolved from a peaceful religious community into an independent political force. The study is based on an analysis of the empire’s religious policy, key historical events, and doctrinal principles recorded in Sikh sacred texts and secondary sources. Initially, under the founder Guru Nanak (1469–1639) and his early successors, Sikhism developed along the lines of bhakti, engaging in a constructive, albeit polemical, dialogue with Hindu traditions, just as Babur was creating the Mughal Empire in 1526. Relations with Muslim rulers under the first padishahs (Akbar (1542–1605)) were generally tolerant, which contributed to the in­stitutional strengthening of the community. However, a radical change came during the reign of Emperor Aurangzeb (1618–1707), whose policy of religious intolerance led to open con­frontation. The execution of Guru Tegh Bahadur (1621–1675) and the subsequent transfor­mation of the community by Guru Gobind Singh (1666–1708) into the militarised order of the Khalsa marked the transition to armed resistance. Special attention is paid to the spe­cifics of the Sikhs' relations with Buddhists, which, although less extensive, demonstrate ex­amples of regional interaction, particularly in the context of common practices of pilgrimage to holy sites. Later under pressure from external threats, that Sikhism emerged as an inde­pendent religion with a clear military-religious organisation, which predetermined its further political fate in the Punjab region. The article reveals the mechanisms of the formation of re­ligious and political identity in the conditions of imperial polycentrism and for the first time in Russian Indology presents comparative aspects of the formation of interethnic Buddhist-Sikh relations.