# Sanatan Sikh

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Sanatan Sikh (IAST: sanātana sikkha, Punjabi pronunciation:), a neologism and hypothesis formulated by Harjot Oberoi in 1987, to refer to Sikhs who formed the Amritsar Singh Sabha faction during the broader Singh Sabha Movement in 1873. It also describes those who while nominally identify as Sikhs, continue to follow Hindu beliefs and practices. While W. H. McLeod considers the dominance of the Khalsa identity to last well into the 19th century, Harjot Oberoi sees the emergence of a "Sanatan Sikh tradition" that displaced the eighteenth-century "Khalsa episteme."

## History

While the Khalsa was gaining political power in the 18th century, a large number of sehajdharis began joining its ranks from around the mid-18th century onwards. Sehajdharis Sikhs practiced religion in a more fluid manner without following boundaries, in-contrast to the Khalsa Sikhs, which had always been a small minority. This presented a paradigm where as Sikhs gained political power, they further relapsed back into Hinduism. Sikh theology began to be re-interpreted under a Brahminical lens, such as in relation to the varnasramadharma. Sikh rehatnamas (codes of conduct) from this period, such as Chaupa Singh's, are heavily influenced by Hindu practices, especially with regard to the status of women and interactions with Muslims. These manuals were more akin to the stridharma (moral system for women) laid out in Hindu texts, such as the Dharamshastra. Ranjit Singh's reign was marked by a move toward Rajputization and the Sanatan Sikhs were favoured by him, thus the demarcations between Sikhism and Hinduism as popularly practiced became blurred and mixed, whilst Khalsa Sikhs remained in-charge of the army which allowed the Khalsa Sikhs to maintain some authority despite the state patronage of Sanatan Sikhs.
Around the 19th century, former terms such as sehajdhari began to be replaced by the term Sanatan Sikh. The Sanatan Sikh faction was led by Khem Singh Bedi, Avtar Singh Vahiria and others of the landed aristocracy. Theirs was an interpretation that accepted a wide range of beliefs drawn from Hinduism and Islam, including belief in the Vedas, idols, Hindu epics, and Sufi pirs. According to Oberoi, the interpretation "deeply transformed Sikh thinking and practices." Under its auspices, Hindu priests publicly worshipped idols and images in the Golden Temple precincts, and it was considered legitimate to worship living Gurus, descendants of Sikh gurus and other prominent ancestries who had "inherited their charisma." In addition to himself, Khem Singh claimed special reverence for all members of clans to which the Gurus had belonged. For these groups the principle of authority of Sikh tradition was invested in living gurus (as Khem Singh Bedi, their leader, liked to be regarded) rather than the principle of shabad-guru, or the Guru Granth Sahib as the Guru, which was upheld by the dominant Khalsa tradition. Amid factional rivalry, the influence of the dominant Tat Khalsa ("true Khalsa"), due to the support of the Sikh masses, resulted in the decline of this socioreligious faction.