Sikh spiritual equality never translated into social equality because caste identity persisted.
Evidence
Guru Nanak (1469–1539) was the first of the ten gurus and founder of the Sikh religion. He started a strand of nirguni (without attributes) Bhakti tradition that advocated spending one’s life immersed in nam simran (remembrance of the divine name). Guru Nanak and the gurus that followed him preached spiritual equality against varnashrama dharma and imparted their teaching to devotees from all castes. Puri (2003, 2694) writes that while the Sikh holy book, Guru Granth Sahib, includes compositions by Kabir, a weaver, and Ravidas, a tanner (Chamar), the ten gurus of Sikhism came from Khatri families—the highest caste among Sikhs—and married their children within their caste. Despite the preaching of spiritual equality in the eyes of god, there was no expectation on the part of the gurus or their devotees to give up caste identity and thus the doctrine was not translated into social equality. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1058
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- XREF: Directly parallels Ambedkar’s core thesis that mere spiritual/ideological equality cannot erase caste’s social structure, and connects to the Varkari example at note 32.
Related
- Caste persists among Sikhs despite their faith rejecting it (similarity 0.82)
Broader Connections
- Caste Untouchability persisted inside non-Hindu religions
#exemplifies(0.80) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 408 - Caste among Muslims and Sikhs differs fundamentally from Hindu caste.
#qualifies(0.70) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 935