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Historical influences

The roots of the Sikh tradition are, states Louis Fenech, perhaps in the Sant -tradition of India whose ideology grew to become the Bhakti tradition. Furthermore, adds Fenech:

Few Sikhs would mention these Indic texts and ideologies in the same breadth as the Sikh tradition, let alone trace elements of their tradition to this chronological and ideological point, despite the fact that the Indic mythology permeates the Sikh sacred canon, the Guru Granth Sahib, and the secondary canon, the Dasam Granth... and adds delicate nuance and substance to the sacred symbolic universe of the Sikhs of today and of their past ancestors.

The development of Sikhism was influenced by the Bhakti movement; however, Sikhism was not simply an extension of the Bhakti movement. Sikhism, for instance, disagreed with some of the views of Bhakti saints Kabir and Ravidas. Sikhism developed while the region was being ruled by the Mughal Empire. Two of the Sikh gurus, Guru Arjan and Guru Tegh Bahadur, refused to convert to Islam and were tortured and executed by the Mughal rulers. The Islamic era persecution of Sikhs triggered the founding of the Khalsa, as an order for freedom of conscience and religion. A Sikh is expected to embody the qualities of a "Sant-Sipāhī" – a saint-soldier.