ABSTRACT
In the mid-1970s, when militant young Sikhs first began to attack the Nirankaris–members of a small religious community perceived as being anti-Sikh–few observers could have predicted that that violence would escalate into the savagery that seized the Punjab in the 1980s. The pattern of religious violence of the Sikhs could be that of Irish Catholics, or Shi'ite Muslims in Palestine, or fundamentalist Christian bombers of abortion clinics in the United States. Destruction is a part of the logic of religion, and virtually every religious tradition carries with it images of chaos and terror. The socioeconomic and political explanations usually come from observers outside the Sikh community or from those inside it who are least sympathetic to the militant protesters. The symbols and mythology of Sikhism, for instance, are full of violence. The major tradition that appears to lack the notion that the cosmic struggle is played out on a social plane is Buddhism.
