Sidhu Dabinderjit Singh: Sikhs stood for equality, religious freedom for centuries

Sikhs have championed equality, religious freedom, and social justice for centuries, Sidhu Dabinderjit Singh, Executive Director of the Sikh Federation UK, said during a conference in Baku entitled "Racism and Violence Against Sikhs and Other Minorities in India: The Reality on the Ground," Report informs.

He noted that 556 years ago, Guru Nanak Dev Ji openly spoke out against social inequality, championed women's equality, and condemned the caste system and the medieval practice of sati, in which widows were forced to burn themselves on their husbands' funeral pyres.

He emphasized that the ideas of equality proclaimed by Sikhs were significantly ahead of their time, while in Western countries, women only gained the right to vote about a hundred years ago.

He added that Sikhs played a key role in the struggle for Indian independence, despite making up less than 2% of the population.

Speaking about the events of 1947, Singh emphasized that the partition of Punjab was a tragedy for Sikhs: millions were forced to flee their homes, and hundreds of thousands died or were subjected to violence.

In conclusion, he stated that Sikhs never recognized the Indian Constitution adopted in 1950 because it did not recognize Sikhism as a separate religion.

According to him, none of the subsequent Indian governments has ever addressed this gap.