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Sikhism GUIDES for the PERPLEXED Sikhism GUIDES FOR THE PERPLEXED Guides for the Perplexed are clear, concise and accessible introduc- tions to thinkers, writers and subjects that students and readers can find especially challenging. Concentrating specifically on what it is that makes the subject difficult to grasp, these books explain and explore key themes and ideas, guiding the reader towards a thor- ough understanding of demanding material. The Bahá’í Faith: A Guide for the Perplexed, Robert H. Stockman Confucius: A Guide for the Perplexed, Yong Huang Kabbalah: A Guide for the Perplexed, Pinchas Giller Mysticism: A Guide for the Perplexed, Paul Oliver New Religious Movements: A Guide for the Perplexed, Paul Oliver Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed, Wouter J. Hanegraaff Zoroastrianism: A Guide for the Perplexed, Jenny Rose A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED Sikhism Arvind-Pal Singh Mandair LONDON • NEW DELHI • NEW YORK • SYDNEY Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 175 Fifth Avenue London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10010 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com First published 2013 © Arvind-Pal Singh Mandair, 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Arvind-Pal Singh Mandair has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. EISBN: 9781441117083 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India For my Parents: Sardar Karnail Singh Mandair and Sardarni Parkash Kaur Mandair CONTENTS List of Figures viii Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 PART ONE Evolution of the Sikh Tradition 15 1 Guru Nanak and His Early Successors 17 2 Martyrdom and Militancy: Rise of the Khalsa 47 3 Modernity and Colonialism 75 PART TWO Teachings and Practices 105 4 Way of Life 107 5 Sikh Philosophy 131 PART THREE Pluralism and Its Challenges 157 6 Sikh Ethics 159 7 Sikhs and the Public Sphere 189 Glossary of Indic Terms 217 Notes 223 Index 237 FIGURES 2.1 The willing sacrifice 58 2.2 Initiation of the double-edged sword 59 2.3 Immolation of the God-King 61 4.1 A Sikh woman reading from the Guru Granth Sahib 109 4.2 Structural organization of hymns in the Guru Granth Sahib 110 4.3 A room in a Sikh home with a Guru Granth Sahib 116 4.4 The Harimandar Sahib or ‘Golden Temple’ 117 4.5 Layout inside a typical Gurdwara 118 4.6 Anand Karaj or Sikh marriage ceremony showing a couple seated in front of the Guru Granth Sahib 126 4.7 A Sikh procession in London led by the Panj Piare on Baisakhi Day 129 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to thank the editorial staff at Continuum/Bloomsbury for taking this book from conception through to completion: Kirsty Schaper who originally commissioned the book, Lalle Pursglove, and especially Rachel Eisenhauer for her patience with my exten- sion of deadlines. I owe a debt of thanks to the anonymous reviewer for helpful comments on the original proposal. I also want to thank colleagues, friends and graduate students at the University of Michigan who have contributed to some of the ideas in this book either through conversations or feedback in various workshops, conferences and classes over the years: Balbinder Singh Bhogal, Navdeep S. Mandair, Gurharpal Singh, Pal Ahluwalia, Giorgio Shani, Prabhsharandeep Singh, Jaspreet Kaur, Tej Purewal, Virinder Kalra, Anne Murphy, Michael Nijhawan, Nikky Singh, Harjeet Grewal, Punnu Jaitla, Randeep Hothi, Prabhjap Singh Jutla, Ranjanpreet Nagra, Ajit Singh Heir, Manoher Singh, Prabhsharanbir Singh, Jasleen Singh, Daljit Singh (Watford), Sean Chauhan, Nirinjan Khalsa, Tavleen Kaur, Harjot Singh Sandhu, Deepinder Kaur, Amendeep Singh, Seth Harris, Satbir Singh, Gurbinder Kalsi, Dav Panesar and Jasdev Singh Rai. I thank Tavleen for last-minute help with the images! A special note of thanks to my nephew Varun Pal S. Mandair (then 13 years old) for undertaking a creative graphic depiction of the Khalsa’s creation. Photographs were kindly provided by Pardeep Singh, Nirinjan Khalsa, Dhamanvir Kaur Sidhu, Inderpal Kaur and Jasleen Kaur. As ever, this book would never have been completed without the love and support of Preet, Aman-vir and Sukhmani particularly during the summer of 2012. Finally, this book is dedicated to my father Karnail Singh Mandair, and mother Parkash Kaur Mandair. My interest in the x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Sikh tradition was originally kindled through a return visit to Punjab with my father when I was 9 years old. Since that time we had been in constant and lively conversation about Sikhi until March 2011 when he began to succumb to a neurological disorder, eventually losing most of his bodily functions including, perhaps the most painful loss of all, the faculty of speech. This is a small token of my gratitude to him and to my mother who now cares for him in the final phase of his life. Introduction What is Sikhism? Who are the Sikhs? If these questions had been posed 50 years ago to the average person in the United Kingdom or North America, most would probably have shaken their heads and guessed that it was an obscure religious sect, perhaps from India or the Middle East. In the 1960s when Sikhs began to emigrate to the West in large numbers, there were few if any, resources for obtaining knowledge about Sikhs and Sikhism even in well-stocked libraries. Twenty-five years later, by which time there was a visible presence of Sikhs in many large cities, a small but growing number of scholarly monographs on Sikhism and a checkered media pres- ence, the same questions might have garnered a different response: a fundamentalist sect demanding a separate state? A cross between Hinduism and Islam? People who carry swords and wear turbans and beards and fight a lot in their places of worship? During the 1980s and early 1990s, it was common to hear Sikhs complaining (and rightly so) not only about their discomfort with such represen- tations of their community and their tradition in the media and in scholarly publications, but also about the lack of access to the tools for generating a body of knowledge that Sikhs themselves could identify with and feel comfortable about. Now imagine posing these same questions to non-Sikhs today. Chances are that most people, certainly in the United Kingdom and Canada, will have met a Sikh or read about Sikhism. And even if one hasn’t it is not difficult to imagine that he or she could simply google the terms and almost instantaneously immerse one- self in a wealth of information about Sikhs and Sikhism. Unlike 25 or 50 years ago, today, there is a respectable body of scholarly publications in the form of books and journals on this subject, an ever-increasing number of textbooks on world religions that routinely include Sikhism, excellent film documentaries and a vast store of movie clips on YouTube. Indeed, in this information age, 2 SIKHISM there seems to be no reason why a non-Sikh would continue to be perplexed about Sikhism or why Sikhs themselves would have any reason for further complaint. Surely the available body of infor- mation helps non-Sikhs to easily identify who Sikhs are and what Sikhism is? Or for Sikhs to easily identify themselves in the mirror of these representations? Indeed many Sikhs would not see a prob- lem with the available representations as it gives them an easily identifiable location within the kaleidoscope of world cultures and a level of comfort derived from the understanding that they have a meaningful place in the order of things. Before coming back to some of these questions let us take a quick look at what answers we might expect to the questions ‘What is Sikhism? Who are the Sikhs?’ in currently available sources such as school and university textbooks, encyclopaedias and film documentaries. Most accounts of Sikhism begin by acknowledging the popular media image of Sikhs as turban-wearing males. But while many do wear turbans to cover their long uncut hair and sport full beards, there are many Sikhs who do not conform to this image. It is also common to present Sikhism as the fifth largest and youngest of the so-called world religions. Current census figures suggest that there are 23 million Sikhs in the world. Of these 21 million reside in India (17 million in the state of Punjab and 4 million settled in other parts of India). The remaining 2 million live in what is known as the Sikh diaspora, with main places of settlement being the United Kingdom (0.6 million), North America (0.6 million) and smaller numbers in Europe, Malaysia, Singapore, East Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Sikhs are regarded as energetic, hardworking and hospitable to outsiders almost to a fault. Although they make up only 1.5 per cent of India’s population, Sikhs constitute the most successful minority and have made significant contributions to sectors such as the armed forces, business and agriculture. Sikhs have routinely held posts as cabinet ministers in various govern- ments and as the President of India. A Sikh currently serves as the Prime Minister of India. Wherever they have settled abroad Sikhs have established a vast network of more than 700 gurdwaras (places of worship and community centres).
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