Sikh devotees distributing 'Sharbat' on the eve of Guru Arjan Dev Martyrs Day, in Bhopal.
Members of the Manchester Sikh Community attend a vigil in Albert Square, Manchester, England, the day after the suicide attack at an Ariana Grande concert that left 22 people dead...
Justin Trudeau at the Khalsa Day event in Toronto on April 30
Fireworks at Golden temple on the occasion of the Birth Anniversary of the second Guru of Sikhism Guru Angad Dev ji, in Amritsar.
Canadian Defene Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan paying obeisance at Golden Temple at Amritsar, in Punjab.
An illuminated view of the Golden Temple on the occasion of the Birth Anniversary of the Ninth Guru of Sikhism Guru Tegh Bahadur, in Amritsar.
Non-profit group 'The Sikhs of New York' celebrating 'Turban Day' at Times Square.
Non-profit group 'The Sikhs of New York' celebrating 'Turban Day' at Times Square.
Girls from Sikh community attend a religious festival in Hasan Abdal near Islamabad, in Pakistan. Sikh pilgrims arrived from neighboring India and other countries to attend the rel...
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visits Gurdwara Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Sahib Ji on the occassion of Baisakhi, in Lucknow.
Sikh devotees shout religious slogans as they leave to board a special pilgrimage train bound for Pakistan to pay obeisance and to take part in Vaisakhi festival celebrations, in A...
Punjab farmers during their protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.
Members of a local Gurdwara serve free food to people waiting a long queue outside the Reserve Bank of India building in New Delhi to exchange their old banknotes with new ones.
Sikh members under the banner of United Democratic Party protest over attack on a Sikh youth in Delhi, in Jammu.
Thousands of Sikh devotees at 'Hola Mohalla' procession at the Golden Temple, in Amritsar.
Services on at a gurudwara in Renton, Washington for Deep Rai, a Sikh
Men and women at the Gurudwara Singh Sabha of Washington, a Sikh temple in Renton, Washington, south of Seattle. Authorities said a Sikh man said a gunman shot him in his arm, as h...
Men and women at the Gurudwara Singh Sabha of Washington, a Sikh temple in Renton, Washington, south of Seattle. Authorities said a Sikh man said a gunman shot him in his arm, as h...
Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah pays obeisance to tenth Sikh Guru Gobind Singh at Takhat Harmandir Saheb, in Patna.
A 67-year-old Sikh postmaster in the UK was stabbed in the neck and head and his turban ripped off by a robber during a vi
British Columbia Supreme Court judge of Indian-origin Parbinder Kaur Shergill has become first turbaned Sikh woman Supreme
A 33-year-old Sikh convert was handcuffed and arrested in the US for carrying a kirpan after a customer at a grocery store
Sikh volunteers providing meals for the homeless in Manchester were allegedly abused by far-right activists after getting
A 25-year-old Sikh cab driver in the US was assaulted and his turban knocked off by drunk passengers, an incident the poli
Led by the House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, US lawmakers from both the Republican and the Democratic parties gr
A 39-year-old Sikh man in the US has been shot and wounded outside his home by an unidentified person who shouted "go back
Congress leader Jagdish Tytler today told a Delhi court that CBI has not given any reason in its plea to conduct lie detec
The Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, today moved the Delhi High Court seeking cancellat
Five Sikhs have been granted approval to serve in the US Army with their religious insignia intact, days after the army is
From Lalit K Jha
Washington, May 5 (PTI) Top American lawmakers and the Sikh-Americans have hailed the basketball go
What is the genesis of recent violence in Punjab and Haryana? Is it true that it all began in a Gurudwara (a Sikh temple) in Vienna?
Technically, the attack in Vienna was not in a gurudwara, but in a Gurdehera -- also commonly called a dera -- of the Dera Sachkand, a Ravidasi organisation. This is a new Ravidasi temple that has only recently been set-up on Rudolphsheim Street which also houses the only Gurudwara in the Austrian capital, which is said to be controlled by radicals loyal to Khalistan.
It is being suggested in some press versions, as in this Hindustan Times report, that "at the centre of the conflagration is a battle for the control of cash-rich overseas gurdwaras and an assertion of religious identity by Dalits who form roughly 29 per cent of Punjab’s three crore population. The new Ravidasi place of worship apparently took away a chunk of the offerings and the "tensions came to a head when visiting sect head Sant Niranjan Das was allegedly attacked by pro-Khalistani Sikhs" on Sunday, May 24. While Sant Niranjan Das, the sect-head, was injured, his second-in-command, Sant Ramanand, was fatally injured in the attack and the news of the latter's death on Monday ratcheted up the already inflamed passions of the Dera followers in Punjab and Haryana.
The ostensible reason for the attack in Vienna is said to be the alleged disrespect shown by the Dera leaders to the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book. But intelligence agencies are probing the possibilities of a larger conspiracy to stir up trouble between the Ravidasis and the Sikhs in India.
What exactly is Dera Sachkhand?...
