NIRANKARI

religious reform movement within Sikhism. The Nirankari movement was founded by Dayal Das (died 1855), who belonged to a half-Sikh, half-Hindu community in Peshawar. He believed that God is formless, or nirankar (hence the name Nirankari). The chief contribution of the Nirankari movement is its standardization of rituals connected with birth, marriage, and death based on the Sikh scriptures. Its members differ from the orthodox Sikhs in their disapproval of the militant brotherhood, the Khalsa, and in the homage they accord Dayal Das and his successors, to whom they accord the status of living Guru. The headquarters of the sect is at Chandigarh.