ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>DAKKHA&#7750&#298 SIKHS</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="DAKKHAF*,SIKHS"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279DAKKHA&#7750&#298 SIKHS or Sikhs of the Deccan, a distinctive ethnic community scattered in parts of &#256ndhr&#257 Pradesh, Mah&#257r&#257sh&#7789ra and Karn&#257&#7789aka, are the descendants of Punjabi Sikhs who went to the South during the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries and permanently settled in what was then the princely state of Hyder&#257b&#257d. The first Punjabi Sikhs to travel to the South comprised the 300-strong contingent which arrived at N&#257nde&#7693 in 1708 in the train of Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh (1666-1708). The Gur&#363 was assassinated and cremated at N&#257nde&#7693 in October 1708. Many of his followers returned to the Punjab but some stayed back. Those who stayed on established a shrine at N&#257nde&#7693 commemorating the Gur&#363 and tilled the land around it for sustenance. They married local women willing to be converted to Sikhism and brought up their children and grandchildren as Sikhs. N&#257nde&#7693 fell in the territory of &#256saf J&#257h (d. 1748), a noble of the Mu<u>gh</u>al court at Delhi, who became independent and founded the dynasty of the Niz&#257ms of Hyder&#257b&#257d. Several Sikhs found employment in the irregular force of the Niz&#257m. During the time of the third Niz&#257m, Sikandar J&#257h (1803-27), a Sikh force, 1200 strong, called Jam&#299'at Sikh&#257&#7749 was raised in 1810-11 on the recommendation of R&#257j&#257 Chand&#363 L&#257l, a Punjabi Khatr&#299 and influential dignitary at the Niz&#257m's court. These men immigrated from the Punjab through arrangement made with Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 Ra&#7751j&#299t Si&#7749gh. Besides, some Punjabi Sikhs enlisted in the personal troops of R&#257j&#257 Chand&#363 L&#257l and his brother, who was governor of Ber&#257r. Around 1830, Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 Ra&#7751j&#299t Si&#7749gh sent 150 men under a <i>sard&#257r</i>, Chand&#257 Si&#7749gh, for the construction of Gurdw&#257r&#257 Ta<u>kh</u>t Sachkha&#7751&#7693 Sr&#299 Haz&#363r S&#257hib Abichalnagar at N&#257nde&#7693. Not all of them returned to their native land on the completion of the edifice. Further immigration took place during the time of the fourth Niz&#257m, N&#257sir ud-Daul&#257 (1827-57). Most of them who settled in Hyder&#257b&#257d married local women; raised Sikh families, and built <i>gurdw&#257r&#257s</i> wherever they lived in sufficient numbers. Later generations usually intermarried within the nascent Sikh community, mostly concentrated in towns such as Hyder&#257b&#257d-Secunder&#257b&#257d, N&#257nde&#7693, Aura&#7749g&#257b&#257d, Niz&#257m&#257b&#257d, Kar&#299mnagar and W&#257ra&#7749gal. According to Captain A. H. Bingley, <i>Sikhs - A Handbook for Indian Army</i>, 1918, their total number, evidently based on the 1911 census, was 4, 637.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The Dakkha&#7751&#299 Sikhs jealously preserved their religious and cultural identity, though they could not remain totally immune to local influence. To quote Captain Bingley again, "The Dekhani Sikh is distinguishable from his Punjabi <i>confrere</i> by his dress, which is still much the same as it was in the time of Govind Singh. They wear the <i>kachh</i> or short drawers, and their head dress is a small tightly tied <i>pag</i> such as the Sikhs of the Punjab now wear under the turban. As true Govindi Sikhs they are careful observers of the five <i>kakkas</i> and conform strictly to the ordinances of the tenth <i>Gur&#363</i>. "</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Until the accession of Hyder&#257b&#257d state to India in 1948, the economic condition of the Dakkha&#7751&#299 Sikhs remained low and they were backward educationally, too. The situation has, however, improved considerably since. Among other factors, the influx of Sikhs uprooted from what became Pakistan in 1947, mostly belonging to trading class, deeply influenced the way of life of the Dakkha&#7751&#299 Sikhs. To-day there are among them flourishing businessmen, contractors, transporters, industrialists, educationists, lawyers and progressive farmers. Socially, they are no longer a diaspora struggling to preserve their identity in an alien land, but form an important element of the Sikh mainstream.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1">Bingley, Capt. A. H. , <i>Sikhs - A Handbook for Indian Army</i>. Calcutta, 1918<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Nirvair Si&#7749gh Arsh&#299<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>