Religious Studies: Sikhism

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.

This unique and insightful book skillfully combines recent research in the area of Sikh studies to provide an accurate and comprehensive overview of Sikh history and religiosity against the backdrop of other major religious traditions of the world. Considers the Sikhs today, with focused discussion on the teachings of the Guru Granth Sahib, the Guru Panth, the Darbar Sahib, and Amritsar. Examines the founding of the Sikh community, the Guru Nanak, the Sikh doctrine, and the guiding ethics of the religion, and delves into the development of the community, including the influences of the Guru Gobind Singh, the establishment of Sikh Kingdom in the Punjab, and Sikhs move into the modern world. Explores Sikh beliefs, practices, family life and festivals, and concludes a thought-provoking chapter on the future of the Sikh religion—meeting spiritual needs away from the Punjab; replanting the Sikh institution in an alien soil, and moving toward a membership of the global community. For readers interested in World Religions.

The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies innovatively combines the ways in which scholars from fields as diverse as philosophy, psychology, religious studies, literary studies, history, sociology, anthropology, political science, and economics have integrated the study of Sikhism within a widerange of critical and postcolonial perspectives on the nature of religion, violence, gender, ethno-nationalism, and revisionist historiography. A number of essays within this collection also provide a more practical dimension, written by artists and practitioners of the tradition. The handbook is divided into eight thematic sections that explore different 'expressions' of Sikhism. Historical, literary, ideological, institutional, and artistic expressions are considered in turn, followed by discussion of Sikhs in the Diaspora, and of caste and gender in the Panth. Each sectionbegins with an essay by a prominent scholar in the field, providing an overview of the topic. Further essays provide detail and further treat the fluid, multivocal nature of both the Sikh past and the present. The handbook concludes with a section considering future directions in SikhStudies.

"Hew McLeod, one of the world's authorities on Sikh religion and authority, covers the universe of Sikhism, from origins to present, sacred texts to prohibitions and customs, the forces that Sikh soldiers were resisting, and the modern diaspora. His approach is that of a historian, methodical and removed. Having spent almost a decade in the Indian Punjab, the birthplace of Sikhism, McLeod writes with authority."-Amazon.com.