The propensity of many Sikhs (I’ve noticed prominently in the diaspora) to highlight genetics and race in their understanding of Sikh martial heritage underlines a really poor understanding of social dynamics, genetics, history, and Sikh philosophy. Thread:

To start off, those who insist on this are insistent that Sikhs have a genetic martial heritage in terms of “martial valor”, predisposition to build muscle, and physical size. It is also, frankly speaking, disproportionately Jatt Sikhs who make the claim.

Any genetic differences would be seen on the caste level, given that Sikhs have been predominantly caste/tribe-endogamous. This is why some medical studies which actually look at metrics do so with a specific eye to caste. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3190178/ 

To that extent, although Sikh Jats typically only marry within religion, it would not provide for any substantive selective pressures making a marked genetic difference between them and Hindu/Muslim Jats — indeed, Muslim and Hindu Jats also consider themselves very much martial.

But are Jats really an inherently “martial” people? Soldiery was a common profession, but many Jats were also just farmers pastoralists. For example, among Muslims, Jats in the plains were considered placid - Rajputs, Khokhars, & Awans in the Salt Range were far more militarized.

Indeed, both Rattan Singh & European observers in the early 19th century did not regard the Jats as an inherently martial people — Rattan Singh’s thesis in the Panth Parkash is that the Guru empowered the weaker classes of society, including Jat peasants. https://twitter.com/JungNihang/status/1162473233389621250

Some people have presented the idea that centuries of war would have been enough of a selective pressure to bottleneck the Sikh population, ensure only the strongest survived, and thereby create a Sikh “genetic race”. It is true that in the misl era, Singhs were known to….

….sometimes take the strongest, tallest, and most muscular youth from a village to raise him amongst their Dal and misls. But the theory fails in that only a small proportion of the modern Sikh population is directly descended from these misl-era Sikhs.

Sikhs in the Malwa region were mostly unaffiliated with the misls, and many of the Sikhs in the Doaba region became Sikh during the colonial era and Singh Sabha parchar efforts in the region. Even in Majha, misl Sikhs effectively merged with the general populace.

This is all to entertain the [frankly ridiculous] theories there would even be for having a Sikh “race” with martial genetics. The theological problem with the theory, beyond its poor logic, is that it subverts the entire philosophy of the Khalsa and its psyche.

That Khalsa-Sikhs considered themselves a martial *people* is indisputable — but the keyword is that it was a community, a religious identity forged on top of various ethnic, tribal, and caste identities that subsumed them all for a greater collective power.

The Khalsa considered itself to be full of “danga” (aggression/violence) - but not because of “genetics”, but the institution. The lifestyle, the psyche, the moral code, down to the initiation of the double-edged sword. https://twitter.com/JungNihang/status/1135839543654047745

Telling people to hit the gym because they have the genetic potential to make big gains is a product of an modern urbanite mind who seeks to lift solely to look good — compared to the view that going to the gym is part of one’s physical duties alongside their spiritual ones.

Some of the fiercest warriors in Sikh history - from Bachittar Singh who drove a spear with full force into the forehead of an armed elephant, to Sukha Singh who cut the head off of Massa Rangarh, to Maharaja Ranjit Singh himself - were historically noted to have a smaller build.

Meanwhile, we have individuals like Karam Singh of Patiala - who was noted to be 6’4, “large boned, and muscular” by the British commander-in-chief who helped sign the papers for Karam Singh’s British protection from Ranjit Singh. Does that correlate with martial prowess?

I think it is more important for Sikhs to focus on recreating the genuine martial psyche of the Khalsa and becoming the most empowered versions of themselves — instead of luring people w/pseudo-scientific promises of bodybuilding potential based on shoddy history interpretations.

(BTW, this is not a knock against Sikh lifting-groups and Gurdwara fitness programs that are sprouting up - these are phenomenal initiatives. But they should be seen as an obligation for all Sikhs to participate in and not just an opt-in for dudes trying to “unlock” their genes)