Decline of Sikhi in Rural Punjab

Once the vibrant heart of Sikhism, Punjab, especially rural areas of it, is eroding. The land that carries the legacy of thousands of Sikhs is witnessing a quiet shift, a steady decline in religious and cultural values. In 2001, Sikhs made up 59.91% of Punjab’s population. By the 2011 census, that number had dropped to 57.69%, marking a 2% decline. For a faith that stands as the fifth largest religion in the world, Sikhism today appears to be stagnating. But beyond statistics, the shift is evident in everyday life. In many parts of Punjab, especially in rural areas, religious identity is becoming more superficial. You’ll see more people with trimmed hair than turbans, more willing to abandon the values and morals of Sikhi in favor of self-interest. The deep, purposeful connection that is emphasized in Sikhi is being replaced by passive observance devoid of genuine engagement.

Disillusionment with Sikhism

The major factor behind this trend is growing disillusionment surrounding Sikhi, particularly among rural communities. For many struggling farmers and laborers, Sikhism no longer holds the same meaning or promise it once did. The core values of equality, service, and justice seem increasingly distant. For example, despite Sikhism’s clear opposition to the caste system, casteism remains entrenched in many parts of Punjab. Lower-caste rural Sikhs, who often face the harshest realities, find little comfort in a religious community that, in practice, has failed to uphold its egalitarian ideals. As the faith appears to drift away from its foundational mission of supporting the marginalized, many of those very people are turning away from it.

This spiritual vacuum is being filled by other religions, especially Christianity. Known for its active conversion efforts, Christianity has capitalized on the disenchantment in rural Punjab, offering monetary and material incentives in exchange for conversion. In areas like Amritsar, churches are now outnumbering gurdwaras, a stark reflection of how far Sikhism’s influence has waned and the growing perception that Sikhi no longer speaks to the struggles of the people who once found their strength and identity from it. This trend is disheartening and paints a distressing image for the future of Sikhi, making it increasingly important to understand and address the issues driving this disillusionment with Sikhi in rural Punjab.

Historical Events Have Manifested into a Sikh Decline

This decline has been apparent since the events of 1984. Because of the Indian army’s invasion of Harmandir Sahib and the anti-Sikh riots, thousands of Sikhs were persecuted and unfairly killed. Many Sikhs in general felt that they could no longer trust their own government and were left fearful of living as a Sikh in India. Through this fear, many were encouraged to give up Sikhi or cut their hair as a way of protecting their lives, diluting Sikh identity and values.

During this time, Punjab was also at the epicenter of the Green Revolution, which is now manifesting as the economic despair of much of rural Punjab. The Green Revolution increased dependence on expensive farming methods like synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel-powered machinery. At first, it brought prosperity with wheat and rice production soared, and many farmers became relatively wealthy. But over time, the cost of farming rose sharply, while crop prices stagnated. As a result, small and marginal farmers fell into debt traps. Today, Punjab has one of the highest farmer suicide rates in India. Entire families have been pushed to the brink, and the promises of prosperity have collapsed into cycles of poverty.

Amid this economic despair, Sikh institutions have struggled to provide relief, with the SGPC facing criticism for corruption, mismanagement of gurudwara funds, and prioritizing political success over the needs of the Sikh community. This economic uncertainty has been further emphasized by social inequality within the Sikh community. As mentioned earlier, the historically rooted caste-based discrimination still thrives, especially in rural areas where certain types of Sikhs face exclusion. This contradiction between Sikh values and reality drives many away from the faith.

When a religion is seen as offering no practical support in a time of crisis, evidenced by Sikh leadership seeming disconnected from the struggles of ordinary farmers, many begin to drift, often to faiths like Christianity that appear more materially or emotionally supportive. Christian groups have been offering financial aid, medical assistance, and education; tangible benefits that seemed attractive, especially during recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. These benefits have been working as well; as such, according to recent estimates, Christians make up as much as 15% of Punjab’s population, an unprecedented increase from the 1.5% of the 2011 census.

Modern Pressures Encourage This Decline

Despite how the ramifications from past events against Punjab have contributed, the diaspora of young Sikhs in Punjab have tended away from Sikhi on their own. One of the biggest contributors to this is globalization and migration. In contemporary rural Punjab, the dream of a better life is almost synonymous with emigration. For many young Sikhs, especially men, the ultimate goal is securing a way to live abroad, especially in Canada. With over one million Punjabis now settled there, the idea of success is often measured through cultural values, but in the acquisition of material wealth and an escape from Punjab. This mass migration has led to a subtle but powerful shift in values. In the pursuit of assimilation and acceptance in foreign societies, many Sikhs gradually compromise or abandon external markers of their faith. Through these sentiments, not only is Punjab losing much of its Sikh population through emigration, but is also sacrificing Sikh ideologies in exchange for Western ones.

Another modern pressure has been the drug epidemic and the widespread use of narcotics and opioids. According to a 2018 report by the AIIMS-supported National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, over 860,000 people in Punjab were dependent on drugs, many of them young men between the ages of 16 and 35. This crisis has eroded the moral and spiritual grounding that Sikhism once provided for rural communities. Youth who would traditionally have been a part of productive activities and religious involvement are instead caught in cycles of addiction. Addiction has also broken the intergenerational transmission of Sikh values. Parents watching their children succumb to drugs feel helpless and ashamed, often distancing themselves from religious practice out of guilt or sorrow. Youth, meanwhile, either reject religion as part of a failed system or adopt only the surface-level aspects of Sikh identity, resulting in a widening religious disconnect.

In the end, Sikhism is struggling from a declining investment among Punjab’s population, especially in rural areas. This downturn is the product of political trauma, economic hardship, persistent social inequality, and the evolving pressures of modern life. For the current Sikh community, it is imperative to protect Sikh values and resist efforts to divert Sikhism from the values the Gurus intended.