Research Paper On Guru Hargobind

In the early 17th century Punjab, Sikh societies were deeps divided by their communal identities because of contrasting needs from their Sikh communities. Guru Arjan was executed before choosing a successor to be the next guru. Being the descendent of Guru Arjan, his son Guru Hargobind was the next to become successor. However, Miharvan who was the son of Prithichand challenged Guru Hargobind’s way of lifestyle, appearance and vision when it came to taking lead the Sikh community. The two cousin brothers were rival Sikh gurus both with different visions of Sikhism in the 17th century. The meaning of the term “Guru” is a teacher, someone who can take forward and spread Sikhism and all of it’s teachings of the first guru, Guru Nanak to not only

According to Hardip Singh Syan, in Sikh Militancy in the 17th century, there were four main issues that the debates revolved around. Guru Hargobind had a very different version of what he would do when he became the guru. He announced that he would live like a king and would 1) practice martial arts, 2) engage in the hunting and meat eating, 3) raise a standing army and construct a fort.” (Syan 2013, 49). 4) He also rejected the seli topi which was the traditional turban worn by all the previous gurus and adopted a royal crown like turban which was uncommon to the Sikhs. The rejection of the turban as an apparel was significant because it drastically changed the view of what Sikh Gurus are supposed to look like visually and what their people expected them to look like. Many of the lay people thoughts crowns would be more suitable for kings rather than saintly figures like gurus. Furthermore, he began executing his ideas of 'piri' and 'miri' which were two swords that each represented miri (temporal power) and the other, piri (spiritual power). Now for this idea, the lay people were only used a guru representing spiritual power, no form of violence was evident by the previous gurus. He also started to employee an army which was soon known as the Akal Sena which means army of the immortal and built a fort called Akal Takht (throne of the immortal).” (54). Many of the lay people

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