Rai Sikh

The Rai Sikh is a Sikh community, mainly found in the states of Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Delhi and Haryana in India.

They came to India after the partition of India from Okara, Pakpattan, Kasur, Minchinabad, Haroonabad, Nankana Sahib, Bahawalnagar, and Sahiwal in the newly created state of Pakistan. Rai Sikhs originated from the banks of the river Ravi from where the caste got its name. They were likely converted to Sikhism from Hinduism and Islam between 1792 and 1815, in the Misl era and early stages of the Sikh Empire. Historically, the majority of the Rai Sikh lived in territory that is now Pakistan, mainly in undivided Sahiwal, and Multan districts, and the erstwhile Bahawalpur state.

In terms of distribution, the Rai Sikh are living mainly in over two hundred villages in Firozpur District and Fazilka district, sixty villages in Kapurthala District, fifty villages in Jalandhar and Ludhiana districts. In neighbouring Haryana, the Rai Sikh are now living in the districts of Karnal, Hisar and Kurukshetra. Almost of all these are refugees from Sheikhupura District in Pakistan.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.