Being a PhD student at the University of Toronto, I’m fortunate enough to have access to a wide range of resources to pursue my academic interests. For most subjects or areas of research, innumerable books, articles, courses and experts to whom I can reach out for advice are easily available. But, as a student whose interests have led to a study of Sikh politics and political thought, I’m often left wanting for more.
In my search for guidance on the questions, subject matter and methods that are pertinent to my research, I came across the Global Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies (GIIS). I’ve since taken multiple courses through the Institute, which have greatly benefited my research both in terms of substance and orientation. In this article, I share my impressions about the barriers I’ve encountered while studying Sikhi and the importance of educational initiatives like the GIIS for generating Panthic scholarship.
Where to begin?
It’s perhaps a safe bet that every Sikh is interested in learning about the socio-religious tradition that, to various degrees, informs and shapes their lives. In this process, the Sikh (a student by definition) confronts not only the question of what it means to be a Sikh, but what it means and requires to study Sikhi itself.
For undergraduate students, graduate students, and others who are interested in developing their understanding of Sikhi and its position within the world, it’s often difficult to know where, how and even when to start. What themes, figures and time periods do we prioritize? What texts are “essential”? Which writers should we rely on? What information is outdated? What might outdated mean in the study of a tradition?
The loosely formulated field of Sikh studies is often of surprisingly little help on this front. There is simultaneously an abundance of academic writing on Sikhism and a dearth of scholarship that engages Sikhi as a tradition on its own terms and with requisite theoretical sophistication.
The present state of Sikh studies is full of discursive traps. When scholars fundamentally educated in analytical frameworks refined in and by the West apply these frameworks to their analyses of Sikhi, their conclusions may be radically removed from readers’ lived experiences. A decontextualized reading of a hymn from Gurbani or cloaked biases in the rendering of a historical event may not always transgress academic norms, but they can make unfamiliar a spiritual-political tradition that one holds dear in a manner that confuses and misdirects rather than illuminates. In the bombardment of jargon, “facts” and the layering of citations, it becomes easy to lose one’s bearings and submit to the perceived higher authority of the writer.
Unfamiliarity and discomfort are, to be sure, vital to the learning process overall. But, for those trying to study marginalized traditions like Sikhi, it is important to remember: just because something is written in a book does not mean that it is “true”, indisputable or final.
While we may have intuitions that guide our engagement with the multi-disciplinary literature on Sikhism, new students especially often lack the conceptual tools for reconstructing what we may call a “Panthic” perspective on issues like identity, spirituality, gender, power, etc. from the things that we read.
These difficulties are compounded for those living in the diaspora, for whom different cultural experiences and language skills may act as stubborn barriers to this sort of study. Works of translation, while invaluable, cannot in themselves provide contextualized presentations of the primary texts that constitute the Sikh scriptural-historical tradition and serve as the base of many contemporary studies.
For both new students making their forays into the study of Sikhi and those seeking to deepen their understanding, new or more information isn’t what’s lacking. To sift through existing scholarship, what is required is an orientation and perspective that can locate Sikhi within the problems of modernity alongside existing theoretical frameworks in a manner that does not compromise the terms of the tradition itself and that helps students reach the analytical problems they feel but are perhaps not able to effectively articulate.
Education is a process, and how we study is also critical to the questions and subjects we end up pursuing. To study Sikhi, not as some sort of object or relic of the past, but as a living tradition that has and continues to confront questions of the self, community, politics, etc. requires confronting the broader theoretical and political developments that mark being Sikh in the contemporary world.
Unfortunately, even for those near the scarce institutions with dedicated Sikh Studies programs, the pedagogical combination of Panthic sensibility, rigorous theoretical analysis and practical urgency is hard to come by.
Beyond the University
In this context, alternative educational initiatives are increasingly important for mediating, and in some cases supplanting, the role of the university. Events and seminars held by Gurdwaras or community organizations, katha, podcasts and online discourses can be crucial for supplementing and orienting how one approaches their study of Sikhi.
Initiatives from within the community, however, are not all alike. The institutional neglect of Sikhi as a subject of education both in and outside of Punjab has meant that much of our efforts are channelled into basic and repetitious reconstructions of historical and spiritual narratives. These, to be sure, play their role in providing a ground for addressing the challenges noted above. But, for those who find themselves wanting more, hoping to expand, nuance and even make actionable their knowledge of Sikhi, an environment of academic rigour, structure, and narrative continuity is needed.
In this respect, I’ve found the Global Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies (GIIS) to be an invaluable platform for Panthic education. Operating through a virtual classroom format, the GIIS offers a wide range of interdisciplinary courses in Sikh philosophy, politics and history, as well as Punjabi literature. Individual classes within these courses include carefully curated historical presentations, close textual analyses, engagement with pertinent theoretical literatures, and structured periods for questions and class discussion.
Crucially, these offerings are delivered in both/either English and Punjabi. The importance of engaging the study of Sikhi in Punjabi-medium cannot be overstated, as the seminal textual sources as well as the predominant cultural paradigm demands familiarity with the terms, concepts and flavour of Punjabi. Nonetheless, in either medium, the language is by and large simple and easy to follow, and the classes themselves serve as an environment in which students can develop the requisite familiarity. This accessibility does not, however, compromise the depth of the arguments and ideas that the instructors have worked meticulously to develop, making the courses rewarding for specialists and non-specialists alike.
The courses themselves have generated novel interventions into dominant paradigms that animate both academic and mainstream Sikh discourses. The instructors, whose profound knowledge of Gurbani, Sikh history, and other politico-religious traditions and histories, weave complex continuities between the theological foundations, historical experiences and contemporary problems of the Sikh tradition.
I’ve taken two courses on the history of twentieth century Sikh politics, taught by Prabhsharandeep Singh. These courses have not only provided me with detailed historical information but also the opportunity to explore crucial questions concerning the interrelated discourses of nationalism, statism, Hindutva and modernity through a theoretical lens involving engagement with thinkers like Foucault and Derrida in tandem with a critical standpoint fundamentally grounded in the philosophical insights from Sikh texts and historical experience.
Through the careful deconstruction of hegemonic narratives (both those imposed on and developed within the Sikh community) and the foregrounding of the processes of discursive violence produced by layers of imperialism and coloniality (Mughal -> British -> Indian) the courses stage, in various ways, the repetition of Sikhs’ ongoing struggles over representation, agency and autonomy in political, cultural and academic spaces.
Nuance, novelty and accessibility interface with a normative goal of not just studying Sikhi as an object of knowledge but of thinking about what it means to study the tradition as a Sikh. The delivery of the curriculum has the effect of galvanizing students to consider their immanent relation to the material and to regard their academic study as a responsibility. By forwarding Panth-centric critiques that locate the position of Sikhs in relation to dilemmas shared by marginalized and minority groups in the contemporary world, the instruction at GIIS equips students with the necessary discursive tools to both understand and carve out a space for the intellectual pursuit of their tradition as both a heritage and a future.
Global Connections
An important by-product of the GIIS’s academic initiatives has been the cultivation of a truly global cluster of like-minded Sikh students and scholars. The classrooms generate conversations that touch on issues urgent to Sikhs in both Punjab and the diaspora, and there is already a strong cohort of students from around the world that attend the online classes and foster connections beyond them.
The courses inevitably open space for contemporary discussions between students from different subjective standpoints. On current issues like transnational repression, Punjab’s elections, controversies surrounding the kirpan, etc., students from Punjab, Canada, UK, Australia and elsewhere get exposure to perspectives beyond their immediate social environments. In contrast to university settings, where the diasporic bias can be overbearing, the courses’ conceptual interventions are combined with classroom discussions in a manner that resolutely ties the Sikh context to Punjab. The critical comparative work thus occurs not just along the axis of Sikh-Western scholarship but in relation to Sikh experience across the diaspora and Punjab.
Whether one is merely interested in learning more about Sikhi in the context of modernity or is committed to making their learning actionable in an academic or professional field, developing these networks and viewpoints is integral to furthering our collective understanding of, and generating a robust intellectual front in relation to, the problems faced by the Panth.
Where learning is becoming increasingly complex, specialized and in some ways detached from the exigencies faced by Sikhs today, initiatives like GIIS are critical for cultivating a vibrant, intellectually capable and theoretically refined Panthic approach to not simply the academic study of Sikhi, but for contending with the responsibility of being a “student” in the contemporary moment.