If anyone hasn't gone to the Golden Temple in Amritsar, it is a place I highly recommend people visit it. This is the most revered location in the Sikh faith, which is thought to be built on a lake with healing properties.
Considering that Sikhs are a very small minority in India, what is it exactly that has drawn so much attention to this beautiful temple? The answer is politics. Sikhism was created by Guru Nanak, in an attempt to take the best of both the Hindu and Muslim faiths. It was also created in an attempt to get away from the two mega- Indian faiths.
One political event forever changed how the temple was viewed is the invasion by Indian troops in 1984. Because Indira Gandhi had taken up alliances with a fundamentalist Sikh leader, she was nearly powerless when he took refuge with his armed men in the holy Sikh temple. Indira Gandhi then made the extremely controversial choice of sending in armed soldiers and tanks. When the attack occurred, all Sikhs were dismayed, and some wanted revenge. This was obviously the mindset of Gandhi's Sikh bodyguards as they assassinated her a few days later.
What is unfortunate is that this holy Sikh site is most remembered for the political conflict that embroiled it in controversy.
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