Introductory - Global Sikh Studies

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When Guru Nanak settled at Kartarpur after completing his
missionary tours, the place became the central Dharamsala, the focal
meeting place for his followers. Guru Amar Das made Govindwal the
centre of his mission. He fixed two occasions when the Guru’s
followers would come from far and near for general meetings of the
panth. Guru Ram Das and Guru Arjan extended these centres to
Tarn Taran and Amritsar. In the course of time, the latter place became
to the Sikhs what Mecca is to the Muslims.
In addition to the consolidation of these institutions initiated by
Guru Nanak, Guru Angad invented the Gurmukhi script and Guru
Arjan compiled the Sikh scripture. These two steps went a long way
in establishing the separate identity of the Sikhs. With a distinct
organisation, separate religious centres, a separate script and a scripture
of their own, they became an entirely separate church and a new society.
It is not to our purpose to go into the details of the organizational
steps taken by the Gurus, but it may be mentioned that the militarisation
of the movement, as will be seen, only added a new dimension to this
development. Even before this militarisation, the Sikh movement
had established a firm and a separate organizational identity knowns
as the Sikh Panth.
2. Identity and Universality
While repudiating claims of others to exclusive religious
authority, the Sikh Gurus did not advance any such claim on their
own behalf. Guru Nanak calls himself ‘lowest of the low. ’35 Guru
Ram das describes himself to be the meanest of the whole creation 36
and Guru Gobind Singh regards himself as ‘the slave of the Supreme
Being. ’37 Of the ten Sikh Gurus, the hymns of seven have been
recorded. In not a single hymn do they indicate any claim to exclusive
religious authority. It was Guru Gobind Singh, the creator of the
brotherhood of the Khslas — a body devoted to the service of
humanity — who specifically made clear that the Hindu temple and
the mosque, are the same; and the whole humanity was to be regarded
as one. 38
The Single greatest step that the Sikh Gurus took to prevent
religious authority becoming the source of sectarianism was to
detach ideology from the person of the ideologue. It was the eternal