Sikh gurus at
Dehradun Guru Nanak is said to have travelled to the
Kamrup region (or
Karudesh) in the early part of the 16th century. Surindar Singh Kohli claims Guru Nanak entered Assam in the year 1505. According to Surjit Singh Gandhi, Guru Nanak visited Dhubri via a route from northern Bihar and northwest Bengal whilst other scholars claim Guru Nanak used the path later known as the
Sher Shah Suri Road. After Dhubri, he visited a location near Guwahati. The Sikh tales, known as
janamsakhis, of his travel in the region involve magic and witches, with the region being ruled by a woman named Nur Shah. As per the legend, Nur Shah and her entourage of witches tried to bewitch the Sikh guru and
Mardana using magic spells, then they tried dancing and singing, and lastly tried giving them valuable material goods, however they ultimately failed and ended-up ultimately surrendering to the guru. The guru then gave them
naam and requested them to stop practicing magic. While in Assam, it is claimed by Sikh accounts that the guru brokered peace between
Raja Ram Singh and the
Ahom ruler
Raja Chakradhwaj Singha (Supangmung). Whilst
Guru Tegh Bahadur was in
Dhaka, Raja Ram Singh petitioned that the
Akal Sena assist him in his crushing of a rebellion led by King
Chakradhwaj Singha of the
Ahom Kingdom in
Kamrup (located in
Assam) in
north-eastern India. The Guru agreed to the request because he had plans to visit that region anyways to rebuild a monument of
Guru Nanak's
udasi (travel tour) to the area. The Guru and his forces reached the region in February 1669. Whilst stationed in
Dhubri, Kamrup near the bank of a river, an encampment of the Akal Sena with Guru Tegh Bahadur had come under attack from the other side of the river by local Assamese forces. The Sikhs were able to defeat the enemy using archery. Afterwards, the Guru made peace with the locals after the latter informed him that they were rebelling to resist the conquests of the Mughal empire and to protect their sovereignty. Later-on, the
Ahom king honoured the Guru at the
Kamakhya shrine after Guru Tegh Bahadur brokered peace between the
imperial Mughal army under the command of Raja Ram Singh and the local Ahom resistance. It is further believed that Tegh Bahadur established a Sikh shrine at Dhubri in Goalpara district, known locally as
Dumdume Gurdwara, at the location of Guru Nanak's previous visit. In 1826, the
British annexed Assam and disbanded the barkandaze forces, pushing the local Sikhs who had served in it into an agricultural lifestyle. By the early 20th century, these Assamese Sikh rural dwellers had moved to higher-ground and established Barkola, their second settlement. Later, they lived in Hatipara and Lanka.
Arrival and settlement of Punjabi Sikhs During British-rule, Punjabi Sikh migrants from Punjab settled in Assam due to the tea-plantations and increased accessibility due to the establishment of the Assam-Bengal Railways in the early 20th century. These Punjabi Sikh settlers, initially mostly
Ramgarhias, first established themselves in
Guwahati and later in
Margherita. The Ramgarhia pioneers engaged in work related to the railways, as the century progressed they were joined by
Jatt Sikhs and
Dalit Sikhs. The first Punjabi Sikhs to arrive were a small number travelling through Guwahati on their way to Shillong in the late 19th century. The first station-master of the train station of Guwahati was a Punjabi Sikh man named Alla Singh, whom was a Ramgarhia. Alla Singh sheltered other Sikhs in his residence and helped establish a Sikh gurdwara in Guwahati in 1902, originally a tin-sheet structure until it was rebuilt with concrete in 1925–26, with it being named Ramgarhia Sabha. Post-1918, the British employed the Ramgarhia Sikhs in the area to expand the railway infrastructure to Central and Upper Assam from Guwahati, such as to Mariani. In 1922, Sundar Singh Bamra, another Ramgarhia Sikh, founded a gurdwara on railway land. Aside from railway work, the Ramgarhia Sikhs also found employment in the Assam Oil Company, which led them to going as remote as Digboi in Upper Assam. In 1926, a Ramgarhia gurdwara was established in Digboi while in 1935, another one was established in Jorhat, associated with tea-production. Many Ramgarhia Sikhs from the Gurdaspur district of Punjab would settle in Jorhat, where they worked a variety of jobs (such as in the railways, construction, oil, or transportation), such as Sohan Singh and Tehal Singh, whom were
thekedars (construction contractors). Other prominent thekedars of the community were Mohan Singh Hadiabadi of Dibrugarh, Sohan Singh of Jorhat, Kishen Singh of Guwahati, and Sundar Singh of Digboi. The growing timber-trade brought the Punjabi Sikhs to Dibrugarh (1930) and Tinsukia (1932), while settlement in Margherita was caused by other opportunities. Due to the skilled-labour and artisanry of the Ramgarhia Sikhs, they became prosperous and many went from
mistris to thekedars, and there was a strong sense of community and caste-solidarity amongst the Ramgarhia Sikhs of Assam. Literary works by Assamese
Hindus declared Assamese Sikhs as "predators" and "outsiders" to the
Brahmaputra Valley. The
Singh Sabha reformers were not aware of the existence of the Assamese Sikhs, thus they were unaffected by the religious and social reforms. Some Assamese Sikhs were followers of the
Gandhian Movement in the 1920s and beyond, such as Atma Singh Chhetri, Ranjit Singh, Phula Singh Chhetri, Kamal Singh, Phatik Singh, Mahatab Singh, and Janga Singh. Protests were held, national schools were supported, the usage of
khadi was promoted, with there being imprisonments of some Assamese Sikhs. In the 1930s and 1940s, Assamese Sikhs gradually shifted their support away from Gandhite movement out of concerns of being marginalized by Bengali Muslim peasant settlers in the region. After this, Assamese Sikhs and Assamese Hindus formed closer ties due to the ethnic issue regarding Bengali Muslims. Eventually, the Assamese Sikh Association was formed in 1939 with Jog Singh as its general-secretary and Lal Singh as its president (with the latter being a domiciled Punjabi Sikh). Local Sikhs were recruited during the Second World War.
Post-independence During the
Assam movement (1979–1985), Assamese Sikhs participated in the protests of the
Asom Sahitya Sabha, despite the organization grouping "Punjabis" among the "illegal foreigners", which the Assamese Sikhs did not know if the label included them or not. In-order to assert their Assamese-ness and dissociate themselves from being viewed as Punjabis, the Assamese Sikhs founded the Asomiya Sikh Santha in 1980, which promoted literature in the local language. Due to these factors, the relations between local Assamese Sikhs and Punjabi Sikhs in Assam deteriorated, when they had initially been friendly in the early 20th century. A group of local Assamese Sikhs from the Nagaon villages made a pilgrimage trip to the
Golden Temple in
Amritsar in March 2009. == Occupation, culture, and religiosity ==