UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Living and Learning with Guru Nanak: Participation and Pedagogy in the Janam-Sakhi Narratives
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Living and Learning With Guru Nanak: Participation and Pedagogy in the Janam-Sakhi Narratives A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Religious Studies by Toby Braden Johnson March 2015 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Vivian-Lee Nyitray, Co-Chairperson Dr. Pashaura Singh, Co-Chairperson Dr. Tabassum “Ruhi” Khan Copyright by Toby Braden Johnson 2015 The Dissertation of Toby Braden Johnson is approved: Committee Co-Chairperson Committee Co-Chairperson University of California, Riverside Acknowledgements All citations and images in this study fall under typical fair-use guidelines and are used solely for the purpose of this dissertation. They are the property of their creators and proper citations have been made in each instance. I have used these solely as the points in the discussion, as it is necessary to talk about narratives by actually talking about the narratives themselves, and reproducing those presentations as accurately as possible. Earlier explorations of ideas and themes discussed in this dissertation appear in the following published works: “Pedagogy in the Janam-sakhis: ‘Teaching Texts’ Moving Past Old Categories.” Re- Imagining South Asian Religions: Essays in Honour of Professors Harold G. Coward and Ronald W. Neufeldt. Ed. Pashaura Singh and Michael Hawley. Leiden: Brill, 2013. “Pre-Colonial Sikh Literature.” The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies. Ed. Pashaura Singh and Louis E. Fenech. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. “Sikh Children’s Literature and Identity.” Sikhism in Global Context. Ed. Pashaura Singh. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. iv This dissertation would not have been possible without the guidance and help of so many people through the process. My thanks to the following professors (in chronological order): Chris Bierwirth, Kentucky Institute of International Studies James Robinson, University of Northern Iowa Susan Hill, University of Northern Iowa Lou Fenech, University of Northern Iowa Tom Lawson, Western Michigan University Pashaura Singh, University of California, Riverside Vivian-Lee Nyitray, University of California, Riverside Ruhi Khan, University of California, Riverside A special note of thanks to family friend Kirpal Singh, whose encouragement spurred me to pursue my PhD. Of course, none of this would be possible without the support of Geeta Bhatia Johnson. And to Alia and Kabir, who went to bed early enough for me to get some work done. I love you all. v ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Living and Learning With Guru Nanak: Participation and Pedagogy in the Janam-Sakhi Narratives by Toby Braden Johnson Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Religious Studies University of California, Riverside, March 2015 Drs. Vivian-Lee Nyitray & Pashaura Singh, Co-Chairpersons This dissertation examines the ways Sikhs relate to Guru Nanak and the tradition he founded through the janam-sakhi (birth stories) narratives that present his life’s story. Advancing the claim that pedagogy informs participation and demonstrating how various janam-sakhi authors condition their pedagogical presentations of Guru Nanak’s life story through the form and content of their presentation, this dissertation examines the impact of the janam-sakhis, not simply as historical relics, but as holding a continuing role facilitating and conditioning Sikhs’ relationships with Guru Nanak and the Panth (community). As social narratives, the janam-sakhis are a shared discourse about how Sikhs choose to commemorate and honor Guru Nanak, conveying interpretations of his life as relevant to their own and acting in accordance with that interpretation. Sikhs reflect on his life, example, and instruction in order to achieve the religious goals he revealed. Participation in the janam-sakhis, then, is a product of the narratives’ instructional impact, their social functions, and the participants’ direct loving relationship with Guru Nanak himself. All of vi these processes work in varied and intertwined ways through the pedagogical and participatory projects of the janam-sakhis. Sikhs’ identity, rooted as it is in the relationships constructed by the janam-sakhis, is still being negotiated and defined by their understandings of who Guru Nanak was, how he lived his life, and how they are to live in accordance with the traditions he established. Sikhs participation with the janam-sakhis connects them to Guru Nanak as a personal teacher, their Guru, and all other Sikhs who have or are devoted to the same goals. This study advances previous scholarship regarding historical janam-sakhi manuscripts by taking modern presentations into account, showing how these modern iterations and those same academic treatments continue to refine and define these processes through their specific presentation and discussion of these stories. vii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. viii List of Figures ................................................................................................................... xii List of Tables ................................................................................................................... xiii 1. Participating in Stories: Steps toward a Narrative Theory of Participation ................... 1 Language and Terminology ............................................................................................ 4 Historical Narratives and Social Narratives .................................................................... 8 The Janam-sakhis: A Sikh Example of Participation ................................................... 11 Guru Nanak at the River Bein, Beginnings of a Community and Worldview ............. 15 Modes of Pedagogy and Participation in the Janam-sakhis .......................................... 23 The Process of Demonstrating a Theory of Pedagogical Participation and the Relationships They Foster (The Plan of this Dissertation) ........................................... 30 2. The Janam-sakhis: A History of Devotional Participation .......................................... 33 Traditional Modes of the Janam-sakhis ........................................................................ 34 Janam-sakhi Textual Lineages ...................................................................................... 37 The Bala Janam-sakhi [48/ 74/ 77 sakhis] ................................................................ 40 The Purātan Janam-sakhi [67 sakhis] ....................................................................... 43 The Miharban Janam-sakhi [65 sakhis] .................................................................... 44 Other Janam-sakhi texts ............................................................................................ 45 A Summation of the Historical Janam-sakhis ........................................................... 47 Select Sakhis ................................................................................................................. 48 A Life Presented ....................................................................................................... 60 A Life Analyzed and Re/Presented: Colonial-era Janam-sakhis .................................. 61 3. Academic Participation in the Janam-sakhi Project..................................................... 70 W. H. McLeod: A Historian’s Approach to the Janam-sakhis ..................................... 72 McLeod’s search for History in the Janam-sakhis .................................................... 73 Examining the History of the Janam-sakhis.............................................................. 79 Compositions in the Janam-sakhis ............................................................................ 80 viii The Evolution of Sakhis............................................................................................ 86 Reflecting on McLeod, a Calm Before the Storm .................................................... 88 Tradition and a Response to McLeod: Other Views of Sikh “History” ....................... 89 J. S. Grewal’s Guru Nanak in History ...................................................................... 89 W. Owen Cole’s Sikhism and its Indian Context 1469-1708 ................................... 94 Sikh Tradition as History ............................................................................................ 104 Kirpal Singh's Janamsakhi Tradition: An Analytical Study [73 sakhis] ................. 104 Theological Presentations of the Janam-sakhis .......................................................... 112 Surjit Hans’ A Reconstruction of Sikh History from Sikh Literature ...................... 113 Harbans Singh’s Guru Nanak and the Origins of the Sikh Faith [71 sakhis] ......... 116 A Socio-cultural Presentation of the Janam-sakhis .................................................... 124 Harjot Oberoi’s The Construction of Religious Boundaries ................................... 124 Pedagogy and the Janam-sakhis: A Third Order Discourse ....................................... 128 A Comparative Pedagogical Model ........................................................................ 131 Internal v External Hermeneutics: an Illustrative Model ........................................ 140 History as an