Do Sikhs believe in the caste system?

The obvious answer to this question is no, because most Sikhs will know that every Guru including the Guru Granth Sahib condemned the Indian caste system. For those of you who don't know the Indian Caste system was introduced by the Hindu religion, which places everyone in a certain group based on their family heritage. For example if your surname is Golak then you are Brahmin (highest caste) and you are treated as royalty, but if your surname is Advany then you are casted as a Dalit (untouchable) which is the lowest caste.

The main reason for the Sikh religion condemning the caste system begun with Guru Nanak Dev Ji who solely taught equality for everyone regardless of age, gender, religion etc. One story which exemplifies this is when Guru Nanak Dev Ji visited a lower caste man, Bhai Lalo, and an upper caste man, Malik Bhago. To make a point Guru Ji asked for bread from each mans house, he then squeezed the bread and from Bhai Lalo's dry, stale bread out poured pure milk. But from Malik Bhago's fresh and rich bread out poured blood. The moral of the story is that regardless of your caste and wealth everyone is equal and there is no caste system in God's eye.

In contrast, the Sikh culture is actually guilty for keeping a small sense of a caste system. For example: Sikhs who work on the farm a commonly known as Jatts and Sikhs who own businesses are known as Bhapa. Although these generalizations don't affect everyday Sikh life, compared to the Hindu system, it still has an impact on certain things such as marriage. Many Sikhs will only marry people within their own caste and that have a similar family background to theirs.

To summarize, the Sikh religion does condemn the caste system but it has still managed to creep into Sikh culture and life. It is not a major concern but it is an issue which should be highlighted and dealt with!!

Thank you for reading!