How do sikhs treat their women

In the case of married women barrenness was considered sinful. The birth of a son was the most desired thing. It led to frequent pregnancies and poor health of women. The birth of a female child was a sign of misfortune. So female infanticide came to be practised. A female child was not even entitled to the basic human right to live in the world. Similarly, a woman had no right to live after the death of her husband.

So sati-widow cremation was practised. It was only the birth of a male child that improved the position of a woman in her family and society.

The iniquitous barrier which the Hindu society had raised between man and woman drained the strength and liveliness of social and domestic life. Sikhism made a radical departure from Hinduism by demolishing the iniquitous barriers that the Hindu society had erected between man and man, and between man and woman.

The Sikh Gurus laid down the foundations of a healthy, egalitarian and progressive social order. They advocated the principles of universal equality and brotherhood as the only true basis of social relations. The Sikh concept of equality transcended the narrow considerations of caste, creed, clime, sex and colour.

The Sikh Gurus held woman equal to man in every field of life. They pleaded for equal rights and privileges for her, both in religious and socio-political fields. Sikhism does not debar woman from attaining salvation. She can realize the highest religious goal while remaining a woman. There is no need for her to first take birth as a man to attain mukti.

A woman is not debarred from reading the Scripture. She can act as a priest, conduct the service, and lead a prayer in the gurdwara. She can join any congregation without any inhibition and restriction. She does not have to veil herself while sitting in a congregation. She can receive as well as impart baptism.

She enjoys equal religious rights. Guru Amar Das even assigned to women the responsibility of supervising the community in certain sectors. They were invested with the office of preachership and missionary work. Mata Sahib Kaur, wife of Guru Gobind Singh, participated in the preperation of amrit by pouring sugar crystals in it which was administered to the Five Beloved Ones at the time of the formation of Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh.

Similarly, women were invested with equal rights in the social and political fields. Mata Kheevi was held in high esteem for her dedication to social work. Some of them assumed the role of a fighter for dharam yudh and fought against enemy forces.

The Sikh history records with appreciation the heroic deeds performed by these brave Sikh women. It was the impact of the egalitarian Sikh teaching that these women could come to the fore and distinguish themselves. The concept of equality of woman with man not only gave woman an identity of her own but tended to free her from all kinds of fetters to which she was bound in the Hindu society.

Condemned to a life of misery and degradation and deprived of all social privileges and rights, she had hitherto come to develop a slavish mentality. This coupled with social restraints had totally killed her initiative and restricted her mobility.

She had grown into a listless individual and wore a pathetic sight. It was in this setting that Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh faith, raised his voice for justice to women and provided the scriptural basis for equality which was not to be found in the scriptures of other India born religions.

In an age when the inferiority of women was taken for granted and female infanticide and the customs of purdah and sati were commonly practised, the Guru spoke out against them in a voice of reason and sanity. As the Sikh faith grew, his protest grew louder and it demolished one by one all centuries-old disabilities against woman. In an oft-quoted sermon the Guru tries to show the folly of treating woman with disrespect :.

The Sikh Gurus denounced all those practices and restrictions which tended to reduce woman to a position of inferiority. They gave them more freedom in the affairs of the society. The false notions that women were unclean were removed. Women were no longer considered a source of sin. They came to be respected as equally good members of the society. In the medieval India, the practice of sati immdation of a widow on the funeral pyre of her husband was common.

The Sikh Gurus condemned it long before any notice of it was taken by Akbar and later by the British rulers. Guru Amar Das carried out a vigorous campaign for the aboliton of this inhuman and barbarous practice. He observed :. The Guru denounced Sati as an infliction of unforgivable cruelty on women and strove hard for the emanicipation of women from this forced brutal social practice.

He also sought amelioration of the position of women by deprecating the custom of purdah veil and by encouraging widow remarriage. No woman could come to the conregation in purdah. Guru Amar Das also established twenty-two Manjis covering several parts of India for the growth of Sikh religion and organization.

He entrusted four of these to women. The Sixth Guru, Guru Hargobind called woman"the conscience of man "without whom moral living was impossible. The girls were also encouraged to receive education. Child marriage was discouraged and the practice of female infanticide severely banned. The latter was considered so important that it was subsequently made a part of the instructions given to the Sikhs at the time of baptism.

The oath requires that Sikhs will not practise female infanticide or have any association at all with those who practise it, will not take alcohol, tabacoo and other drugs, and will not marry their daughters for monetary gain. Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru, firmly endorsed the principle of human equality in all walks of life at the time of administering amrit to his followers.

A Sikh cannot be called a Sikh if he discriminates between a high and a low or between a man and a woman. Sikhism has thus been a potent influence in the emanicipation of Indian womanhood. According to the basic tenets of Sikh religion, a woman has full freedom for worship, education and vocation. She may work in a field or a factory or go to a battlefield as a soldier. There are no obstacles in her way.

Further, not only are there no prejudices in Sikhism against women engaging in productive work, it is made obligatory for all individuals, both men and women, to engage in gainful and productive activity and contribute something for the public weal. In Sikhism, a woman is not considered an evil who leads man astray. Nor is she regarded an obstacle in the realization of the spiritual ideals. The Sikh Guru honoured the institution of marriage and strongly denounced asceticism.

They castigated those yogis who left their houses and lived on the generosity of the common people. The yogis took pride in being celibates but inwardly they were in fact craving for sexual indulgence. In their view, there is nothing unclean about the normal sex life. All the Sikh Gurus were married men, except the eighth Sikh Guru who died very young. They also led a normal life of a householder and regarded sex desire as a natural phenomenon.

In Sikhism, spiritual freedom is to be secured not by the unnatural suppression of human desires but by their judicious organization. In other words, Sikhism is for temperate gratification of bodily desires.

It deprecates animality in man and approves the institution of marriage as the practical and natural artifice for taming and controlling the biological instincts. The Sikh religion does not make any virtue of sexual abstinence as Hinduism does and vowed celibacy is not upheld as any more virtuous than normal living. What is stressed again and again in the Sikh scripture is self-restraint and self-control.

Guru Nanak observed in this context. The life of the householder is a life of service and austerity. It is in fact the performance of social duties that make a home a true home. A Sikh is ordained to be an "ascetic within and secular without.

Man and woman are equal companions in life. Their role is complementary and not competitive. A married woman performs a very useful role in society through maintaining sexual discipline and establishing a morally healthy society. She is an embodiment of virtue and fortitude and not a force that seduces man to evil. She must be respected because mand and all his social life would be incomplete without her.

In Sikhism, man and woman are regarded as complements to each other; one is incomplete without the other. Woman is considered ardhangni, that is the other half of man. The basis of man-woman relationship is true love, nothing else. Marriage is considered essential but marriage is not regarded as a contract subject to dissolution at will. It is an unbreakable spiritual union. Ths basis of marriage is not simply a physical union, but an everlasting true love.

According to Guru Amar Das, "Bride and groom are not they who pose as one whole; bride and groom are they who are two bodies with one soul" AG, p. It is a means by which the two souls attain spiritual growth. Marriage is thus a loving comradeship between a man and a woman who seek to live creatively in partnership to gain the four objects of life : dharma, artha, kama and moksha.

Its main purpose is the enrichment of the personality of husband and wife in a way that each may suplement the life of other and both may together achieve completeness.

Marriage is also a means by which a person gains self-fulfilment. It becomes workable only on the basis of mutual trust, understanding and fidelity. Sikhism upholds monogamous ideal of marriage. I for one was surprised at how you have chosen to keep your hair as a push back to Hindu Nationalism, but once I digested it, it made sense to me.

I feel blessed to be one of the few who challenged what I was taught, and went against the norm as a teenager and decided to throw off the shackles people had placed on me as a young child — and it has made all the difference to me as an adult.

I sometimes feel sad being unable to follow the wonderful religion I was born into, but to do so inevitably has me being exposed to, lectured and policed by other hype religious Sikhs whose narrow mindedness and mysoginy is far too much for my progrrssive soul. So I have chosen the non-kes way of being myself, while keeping close to me the values that I learnt from Sikhism — I have defiantly cut my hair most of my life and will continue to grow it as long and short as I please.

No one tells me what to do with my hair, or how good a Sikh that makes me! Even to those who claim to be guardians of the faith you were born into. While I am sure you will not agree with everything I have said, I wanted to let you know — I respect your right to intepret the Sikh faith in your own way, as much as I respect mine to do the same. And ginormous respect to the young lady you mention in your article who chose to grow her facial hair after being baptised!!!

I am immensely grateful to have been born Sikh, and even though I have largely left my birth religion behind and chosen to be non-religious, having studied the Sikh religion and history as a child helped me become an impassioned humanist as an adult. How awesome to have served Langar as a child and learnt how to respect every single human there — irrespective of gender, age, religion or caste! Recognize when you are unfairly placing a standard on your […].

This is a great article. I always had questions about Sikh women growing or cutting their hair and never got clear answers from sikh friends. I never probed too much because I was afraid of being rude. This article provides all the answers. I agree with you. Then I asked him why men are allowed to wear t-shirts and jeans. He had no answer. Which means by decent clothing as we our going to our guru there is no point of show off which most people are doing while going to gurdwara secondly, decent clothing meaning so that any person is not distracted that may b due to clothing , or when mostly people do while bowing putting there hand at the back , covering the body To avoid all this..

Buy Now! Friday, November 12, Sign in. Forgot your password? Get help. Password recovery. Feminism In India. About the author s. Jasveen Kaur Sarna. Feminist media needs feminist allies! Get premium content, exclusive benefits and help us remain independent, free and accessible. Today, Sikhism encourages women to seek leadership roles in the faith, including leading congregations.

Women work with men during langar community kitchen and join the sangat congregation , as well as participate in all other social and religious activities in the gurdwaras Sikh place of worship. He insisted that they receive […]. Skip to content.

His Teachings Women's Empowerment.