"Hindu tradition lay at the basis of the Rahit and had much to do with the shape which it took. It performed this function in two ways. First, it provided the cultural soil in which the Rahit first grew. It was not Muslim India which provided this cultural background, though the eighteenth century period was one, which directly pitted the Khalsa against the barbarian Muslims. Except for some minor features the Rahit was not Muslim but rather almost wholly Hindu in origin. The social organisation of Khalsa Sikhs was entirely Hindu, with the same caste structure. Karma, transmigration, and liberation formed key parts of Sikh doctrine; Hindu dating was used for all Sikh events; key terms were drawn from Hindu precedent;30 and a knowledge of Hindu mythology was an ever-present source to be drawn on whenever need should arise. With this background the diverse items of the proto-rahit fitted neatly into the Hindu concept of various panths which together constituted the pattern of Hindu society."
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W.H. McLeod - Sikhs of the Khalsa, A History of the Khalsa Rahit (2003, Oxford University Press)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/W._H._McLeod
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W. H. McLeod
1932 – 2009
William Hewat McLeod (1932–2009; also Hew McLeod) was a New Zealand scholar who helped establish Sikh Studies as a distinctive field.
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