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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian religions > Religions of Indic & Oriental origin > Sikhism
'the indispensable reference point for...an historical and
sociological understanding of the Sikh tradition...these volumes
are a tribute to [the] capacity for both a sympathetic and a
balanced rendition of Sikh history.' -Times of India 'Singh has
done a good job of turning dry history into informed reading.' -
Sunday Mail A History of the Sikhs First published in 1963, this
remains the most comprehensive and authoritative book on the Sikhs.
The new edition updated to the present recounts the return of the
community to the mainstream of national life. Written in Khushwant
Singh's trademark style to be accessible to a general,
non-scholarly audience, the book is based on scholarly archival
research. Volume 1: 1469-1839: This volume covers the social,
religious and political background which led to the formation of
the Sikh faith in the fifteenth century. Basing his account on
original documents in Persian, Gurmukhi and English, the author
trac es the growth of Sikhism and tells of the compilation of its
sacred scriptures in the Granth Sahib. The transformation of the
Sikhs from a pacifist sect to a militant group called the Khasla
led by Guru Gobind Singh is portrayed in detail, as is the
relationship of the Sikhs with the Mughals and the Afghans, until
the consolidation of Sikh power under Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
This volume offers a comprehensive overview of Sikhism, which
originated in India's Punjab region five hundred years ago. As the
numbers of Sikhs settling outside of India continues to grow, it is
necessary to examine this religion both in its Indian context and
as an increasingly global tradition. While acknowledging the
centrality of history and text in understanding the main tenets of
Sikhism, Doris Jakobsh highlights the religion's origins and
development as a living spiritual tradition in communities around
the world. She pays careful attention to particular events,
movements, and individuals that have contributed to important
changes within the tradition and challenges stereotypical notions
of Sikh homogeneity and stasis, addressing the plurality of
identities within the Sikh tradition, both historically and within
the contemporary milieu. Extensive attention is paid to the role of
women as well as the dominant social and kinship structures
undergirding Punjabi Sikh society, many of which have been widely
transplanted through Sikh migration. The migration patterns are
themselves examined, with particular focus on Sikh communities in
the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Finally, the volume concludes with a
brief exploration of Sikhs and the Internet and the future of
Sikhism.
Drawing on insights from theoretical engagements with borders and
subalternity, Beyond Religion in India and Pakistan suggests new
frameworks for understanding religious boundaries in South Asia. It
looks at the ways in which social categories and structures
constitute the bordering logics inherent within enactments of these
boundaries, and positions hegemony and resistance through popular
religion as an important indication of wider developments of
political and social change. The book also shows how borders are
continually being maintained through violence at national,
community and individual levels. By exploring selected sites and
expressions of piety including shrines, texts, practices and
movements, Virinder S. Kalra and Navtej K. Purewal argue that the
popular religion of Punjab should neither be limited to a polarised
picture between formal, institutional religion, nor the 'enchanted
universe' of rituals, saints, shrines and village deities. Instead,
the book presents a picture of 'religion' as a realm of movement,
mobilization, resistance and power in which gender and caste are
connate of what comes to be known as 'religious'. Through extensive
ethnographic research, the authors explore the reality of the
complex, dynamic and contested relations that characterize everyday
material and religious lives on the ground. Ultimately, the book
highlights how popular religion challenges the borders and
boundaries of religious and communal categories, nationalism and
theological frameworks while simultaneously reflecting gender/caste
society.
Sikhism's short but relatively eventful history provides a
fascinating insight into the working of misunderstood and seemingly
contradictory themes such as politics and religion, violence and
mysticism, culture and spirituality, orality and textuality, public
sphere versus private sphere, tradition and modernity. This book
presents students with a careful analysis of these complex themes
as they have manifested themselves in the historical evolution of
the Sikh traditions and the encounter of Sikhs with modernity and
the West, in the philosophical teachings of its founders and their
interpretation by Sikh exegetes, and in Sikh ethical and
intellectual responses to contemporary issues in an increasingly
secular and pluralistic world. Sikhism: A Guide for the Perplexed
serves as an ideal guide to Sikhism, and also for students of Asian
studies, Sociology of Religion and World Religions.
Sikhism's short but relatively eventful history provides a
fascinating insight into the working of misunderstood and seemingly
contradictory themes such as politics and religion, violence and
mysticism, culture and spirituality, orality and textuality, public
sphere versus private sphere, tradition and modernity. This book
presents students with a careful analysis of these complex themes
as they have manifested themselves in the historical evolution of
the Sikh traditions and the encounter of Sikhs with modernity and
the West, in the philosophical teachings of its founders and their
interpretation by Sikh exegetes, and in Sikh ethical and
intellectual responses to contemporary issues in an increasingly
secular and pluralistic world. Sikhism: A Guide for the Perplexed
serves as an ideal guide to Sikhism, and also for students of Asian
studies, Sociology of Religion and World Religions.
'This fine study of the Sikhs in Britain is a splendid addition to
the field. Not only does it provide an invaluable mapping of the
community's origins and development which should make it a standard
work of reference for years to come, but in its sophisticated
interrogation of the sociological and political tensions which have
marked that development it makes a uniquely informed wider
contribution to the ongoing debates about the nature of
"multicultural" Britain'. Professor Christopher Shackle, SOAS,
University of London 'This book is of very great importance for
anyone who wishes to understand the crucial role of Sikhs in
defining the possibilities of multiculturalism in Britain at a time
when the very notion is under attack from many sources. It should
be essential reading for policy makers as well as students.'
Professor John Rex, Professor Emeritus at the University of Warwick
'This work is a major review of the history and issues affecting
Sikhs in Great Britain since the Second World War. Balanced and
extremely well documented...it marks an important contribution to
Sikh and multicultural studies'. - Professor Norman G. Barrier,
Professor of History University of Missouri 'This is an important
book which details the coming to self-consciousness of the Sikh
community in Britain under local, national and transnational
exigencies'. Professor Uday S. Mehta, Department of Political
Science, Amherst College 'This book comes at a time when new limits
to multiculturalism and to free speech are being drawn and these
wider debates are brilliantly interwoven with an account of the
public and private lives of Sikhs. The book is politically charged,
but sensitive, humane and open-minded at the same time.' Robin
Cohen, ESRC Professorial Research Fellow, University of Warwick.
'This first major account of the development of the British Sikh
community is very welcome. Scholarly, analytical and deeply
empathetic, it is a major contribution.' Professor Judith M. Brown,
University of Oxford
The Sikhs, a colorful and controversial people about whom little
is generally known, have been the subject of much hypothetical
speculation. Their non-conformist behavior, except to their own
traditions, and their fierce independence, even to demanding
autonomy, have recently attracted world-wide attention. Hew McLeod,
internationally known scholar of Sikh studies, provides a just and
accurate description in his introducion to this religious community
from northern India now numbering about sixteen million people,
exploring their history, doctrine, and literature.
"The Sikhs" begins by giving an overview of the people's
history, then covers the origins of the Sikh tradition, dwelling on
controversies surrounding the life and doctrine of the first
Master, Guru Nanak (1469-1539). The book surveys the subsequent
life of the community with emphasis on the founding of the Khalsa,
the order that gives to Sikhs the insignia by which they are best
known. The remaining sections concern Sikh doctrine, the problem of
who should be regarded as a Sikh, and a survey of Sikh literature.
Finally, the book considers the present life of the community --
its dispersion around the world to Asia, Australasia, North
America, Africa, and Europe, and its involvement in the current
trials of the Punjab.
Sikh culture is believed to have been settled and unchanging
from the time of the Gurus onwards. "The Sikhs," a major new work
by a leading authority, reveals that this is a very misleading
view. McLeod treats a variety of questions sympathetically and in
so doing he establishes a new understanding for students of
religion and for all those interested in current events in
India.
Village people in the Punjab have lived with the terror of the
conflict between Sikh militants and Indian security forces since
the attack on the Sikh Golden Temple in 1984. In this remarkable
book, a courageous anthropologist who knows the region intimately
presents a very human portrait of the struggle. She argues that,
despite its apparent defeat, it can only be in abeyance while the
root causes, which have prompted so many young Sikhs to take up
arms and fight for an independent Khalistan, remain unaddressed.
Through the skilful use of interviews, Dr Pettigrew takes us into
the worlds of Punjabi farmers, Sikh militants, and the police
commanders responsible for containing a vicious conflict whose
ramifications have spilled beyond the Punjab into wider Indian
politics.
Filled with the rigorous detail of a historian, this dynamic
history of the Sikhs covers their origins in the 16th century, the
expansion and transformation of the community, the establishment of
a military order, the reformist movement of the 19th century, how
Sikhism has separated itself from Hinduism and Islam as well as
contemporary issues. Analyzing the essential traits of the Sikh
doctrine and touching on important topics like castes and the
diasporas, this work is an ideal introduction. "Con rigor y animo
divulgativo, esta dinamica historia de los Sikhs cubre los origenes
en el siglo XVI, la expansion y transformacion de la comunidad, el
establecimiento del orden militante, los movimientos reformistas y
politicos a finales del siglo XIX, como se ha demarcado del
hinduismo y el islam, al igual que los problemas contemporaneos.
Analizando los rasgos esenciales de la doctrina Sikh y tocando
temas importantes como las castas y la diaspora, esta obra es una
introduccion ideal al mundo Sikh."
McLeod is a renowned scholar of Sikhism. . . . [This book] confirms
my view that there is nothing about the Sikhs or their religion
that McLeod does not know and there is no one who can put it across
with as much clarity and brevity as he can. In his latest work he
has compressed in under 150 pages the principal sources of the Sikh
religion, the Khalsa tradition and the beliefs of breakaway sects
like the Nirankaris and Namdharis. . . . As often happens, an
outsider has sharper insight into the workings of a community than
insiders whose visions are perforce restricted.--Khushwant Singh,
Hindustan Times
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