On Monday 22nd August, while visiting Havelock Gurudwara in Southall, a group of Sikh men allegedly surrounded Swami Ramdev and hurled abuse at him. Two of them also tried to assault him, but were stopped by Swami Ramdev's bodyguards and others present at the Gurudwara, and swiftly evicted from the premises.

The group responsible for the attempted assault are thought to all be in their twenties. Amongst other things, they called Swami Ramdev a 'Hindu bastard', accused him of being an 'Indian government agent' and that he had 'no business being in a Sikh gurudwara'.

In the week prior to the incident, there had been certain Sikh new websites that had been expressing their discomfiture at the generally warm reception that Swami Ramdev had been receiving at the number of Sikh temples that he had visited.

Why were they angry?

It is alleged by certain hard-line Sikh groups that Swami Ramdev is a supporter of a Hindu nationalist organisation known as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The RSS has always maintained that the Sikhs are part of Hinduism, and have a Sikh sub-group called the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat.

Many Sikhs find this very offensive. They see anybody who states that Hinduism and Sikhism are closely linked or who say that Sikhism is part of Hinduism as trying to destroy Sikhism by re-assimilating the religion into Hinduism. Marginal Sikh groups that still promote the idea of 'Khalistan' (a Sikh country partitioned from India) are particularly vocal and militant in their rejection of any connection with Hinduism.

A popular conspiracy theory amongst Sikh-separatists is that the Indian government sponsors groups that help in the assimilation of Sikhism into Hinduism as a ploy to weaken the Khalistan movement.

The huge popularity of Swami Ramdev amongst Sikhs, evidenced by the large number of Sikh temples he was invited to visit, and also by the large number of Sikh attendants to his yoga-workshops has sparked paranoia amongst Sikh-separatists that the Swami is 'converting' Sikhs or assimilating them back into Hinduism.

Is Sikhism part of Hinduism?

There has been much debate as to whether Sikhism can be considered as a sect of Hinduism. Traditionally, most Hindus consider Sikhs as just another branch in the diverse Hindu universe. This view is rejected by most Sikhs, although a number of pluralistic Sikhs still consider themselves as Hindus, particularly in India. The debate still continues in both the realm of scholarship, and politics, with no clear resolution likely in the near future.