In Norway, Sikhism has approximately 5,000 adherents, mostly living in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

. Oslo collectively has two

gurdwara A gurdwara or gurudwara () is a place of assembly and place of worship, worship in Sikhism, but its normal meaning is "place of guru" or "home of guru". Sikhism, Sikhs also refer to gurdwaras as ''Gurdwara Sahib''. People from all faiths and rel ...

s (the Sikh place of worship).

History

Sikhs first came to Norway in the early 1970s. In 1969, the first Sikh who arrived in and settled in Norway was Amarjit Singh Kamboj. Sikhs and other work-related immigrants from India to Norway founded The Indian Welfare Society of Norway (IWS) in 1971. The troubles in Punjab after

Operation Blue Star Operation Blue Star was a military operation by the Indian Armed Forces conducted between 1 and 10 June 1984 to remove Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and other Sikh militants from the Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib), a holy site of Sikhism, and i ...

and riots committed against Sikhs in India after the

assassination of Indira Gandhi Prime Minister of India, Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated at 9:30 AM on 31 October 1984 at her 7 RCR, residence in Safdarjung Road, New Delhi. She was killed by her bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh (assassin), Be ...

led to an increase in Sikh refugees moving to Norway and other countries. Drammen also has a sizeable population of Sikhs; the largest gurdwara in north Europe was built in Lier. A Sikh organization, ''Ungesikher'' helps young Sikhs assimilate and has incentives to help make Sikhism better known. To increase knowledge of Sikhs and their culture, a professor of science of religion, Knut A. Jacobsen, who works in the

University of Bergen The University of Bergen () is a public university, public research university in Bergen, Norway. As of 2021, the university had over 4,000 employees and 19,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 1946 consolidating several sci ...

, published a textbook titled ''Sikhismen: historie tradisjon og kultur'',(‘Sikhism: history, tradition and culture’) Norwegian for schools.

References

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...