Sikhism is the most recent in origin of the recognised Indian religions.
There are now more than ten million Sikhs in India (largely concentrated in the north-western state of Punjab and the surrounding areas), where they significantly outnumber the combined totals of all Indian Buddhists and Jains.
As a consequence of successive waves of emigration over the past hundred years, there are also perhaps a further one million Sikhs settled in other parts of the world, the most important communities of this diaspora being found in North America and in the United Kingdom, where the numbers of Sikhs are now comparable to those of British Jewry.Throughout its development from the time of its origins in the early sixteenth century, Sikhism has nevertheless remained closely linked to its homeland in the Punjab, where most ofits holy places are located and where the great majority ofits adherents still five. Most Sikhs are consequently Punjabi by culture and by language. Indeed, the word ‘Sikh’ itself (correctly pronounced to rhyme with ‘wick’ rather than with ‘week’) is the Punjabi for ‘disciple’. Without some understanding of the general background of historical events in the Punjab, it is therefore impossible to form a proper appreciation of the somewhat complex stages of development through which the Sikh religious tradition has evolved, whether these concern its attitudes to other religions in the area, or its own remarkable transformation over time from an initial core of pacific inner-directed adoration so as to accommodate a subsequent strong emphasis upon disciplined militancy.