In April each year Sikhs around the world celebrate Vaisakhi. While it marks the Indian spring harvest, the festival has a much deeper significance for adherents of Sikhism – it commemorates the birth of a nation of warrior-saints.
Over the weekend some of Britain’s 423,000 plus Sikhs began these festivities with impressive street processions called Nagar Kirtans in both London and Glasgow. The latter included a beturbanned bagpipe player to boot. It’s a family friendly affair, with an abundance of free food (langar), martial arts displays (gatka) and speeches from ‘community leaders’ and politicians. But it’s the story at the heart of Vaisakhi — the life and death struggle for India’s freedoms — which doesn’t always get the recognition it truly deserves.
In 1699, in the face of constant Mughal aggression, Sikhism’s 10th Guru, Gobind Singh formed a military fraternity called the Khalsa.
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