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Sikhism, or more exactly, the religion of the "True Name" (Sat Nam), is of Indian origin, and of markedly Indian character. It arose four centuries ago as a quest for God. A "Sikh" is a "learner, or disciple, or, possibly, one who serves." The faith has had, as well, a distinguished political career, having become in time a nationalistic community. Sikhs (sikh is pronounced seek) are known as a people of military prowess; for warlike spirit some compare them with the Cossack and the Turk. Their martial exploits brought them fame in India, and have given them a name throughout the world. But their religion in itself is interesting. They have their own peculiar priesthood, Holy Book, lofty theology, code of rigorous morality, sacred ritual, and Holy City with its noble sanctuary.

The community numbers about four and one-quarter millions, of which about ninety percent live in their homeland, the Panjab, the northwest Indian region of the "five rivers." Although, in this region, they make up only about fifteen percent of the population, they have a prominence out of proportion to their numbers. The remainder of the Sikhs are found in various parts of India, and the East. In many provinces they serve as bodyguards to governors. There are several regiments of them in the British Indian Army, doing duty in widely separated garrisons. Small detachments are on military service in British possessions beyond India. Many are police patrolmen in India, or beyond, at Durban, Aden, Penang, Singapore, Hongkong, and Shanghai. Their service everywhere is valuable.

Many tribes and castes make up the Sikh community. Half of the Panjabi Sikhs are Jats, a stolid, sturdy, resolute folk, the best agriculturists in northern India. It is proverbial that "the Jat's baby is born with a plow-handle for a plaything." The women and children work side by side with the men in the open fields. They are a self-reliant stock, reserved in demeanor, slow to speak, but often quick to strike. They may be complacently disdainful, as a proverb shows.

The Jat stood on his dung-hill as the Raja's elephants went by; said he to the mahout, "Prithee, whose mice may these be?"

Some have been drawn from the Arora tribe of merchants, or petty dealers; others, from the Ramgarhia tribe, whose men are principally mechanics. Some are Khatris, "warriors," from whose stock Nanak, the founder of Sikhism sprang. There are Rajputs among them, although the Rajputs are the proud, warrior race of Hinduism, the purest-blooded "Aryan" stock remaining. Sikhs and Rajputs are distinct. The Sikh Jat is rated lower than the Hindu Rajput, for Jats have practiced window-marriage. While Jats may rank as "warriors" in their own estimation, high caste Hindus consider them as Shudras.

The Sikhs were first of all a convert people. Anyone may yet join the faith who accepts the doctrine and the baptism. The Panjab community has increased since 1900 by a million, partly by conversion, partly by natural increase, and partly by the reclamation of Sikhs listed with the Hindus by a former census. Whatever their extraction, they are usually affected by a common consciousness, which first developed out of differences from Hindu and Moslem neighbors, and was later magnified by wars with the Moslems, and the British. They are proud of their career, and their inheritance. They are in theory a democratic people, but dignified in bearing. What they have lacked in initiative and dash, they have made up in hardihood, courage, resolution, and loyalty. To the temperament of the Jat, Arora, Ramgarhia, and Khatri--often fighting-men by nature--Sikhism has added the stimulus of a militant religion. While Sikhs were not a great success in France, during the Great War, they are the finest soldiery in their homeland, steady in victory; in defeat, willing to die before yielding. Unquestioning loyalty to his leader dominates the soldier; his heart does not quail before overwhelming odds, because he deems death on the field of conflict an instant access to the bliss of heaven. . .

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