Table Of ContentEncyclopedia of Indian Religions
Series Editor: Arvind Sharma
Arvind-Pal Singh Mandair Editor
Sikhism
Encyclopedia of Indian Religions
SeriesEditor
ArvindSharma
Arvind-Pal Singh Mandair
Editor
Sikhism
With 64 Figures
Editor
Arvind-PalSinghMandair
DepartmentofAsianLanguages
andCultures
UniversityofMichigan
AnnArbor,MI,USA
ISBN978-94-024-0845-4 ISBN978-94-024-0846-1(eBook)
ISBN978-94-024-0847-8(printandelectronicbundle)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0846-1
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Preface
Although the Sikh tradition has been practiced actively for about 550 years,
sustainedacademicinterestandstudyofSikhismisarelativelyrecentdevel-
opment. For instance, one of the earliest academic journals dedicated to
studyingSikhism,TheJournalofSikhStudies,beganpublicationinFebruary
1974.Halfadecadelater,thespreadinginternationalinterestinSikhismcanbe
seeninitsinfancyinSikhStudies:ComparativePerspectivesonaChanging
Tradition(Berkeley,1979).Thisinternationalinterestcoincidedwithachange
inimmigrationpoliciesinNorthAmericathatenabledmanySikhstomigrate
toplaceslikeCalifornia,Michigan,andBritishColumbiaingrowingnumbers.
As Sikhs were highly visible but a relatively unknown people, many early
studiesfocusedonthenatureofSikhismthroughtwomainquestions:Whatis
Sikhism?WhoaretheSikhs?
Almost40yearsafteritsinternationalrecognitionasafieldofstudy,Sikh
Studiesrepresentsa rapidly growing discourse with arespectablenumberof
scholarly publications occurring across many disciplines through books and
journalsonthissubject.Introductorytextbooksinreligious studies routinely
includeSikhismasadistinctreligioustradition,andrecentyearshaveseenthe
creation of standalone textbook introductions to Sikhism. However, despite
this monumental shift in the body of knowledge on the Sikh tradition, there
remainsadearthofreferencematerialthatwouldfacilitateinformedinterdis-
ciplinaryengagementwiththecentralaspectsofSikhism.
Encyclopediasofreligionarenothingnew;theEncyclopediaofIslamwas
first published between 1913 and 1936 following increased interest in Islam
andMuslimsduringthenineteenthcentury.Comingaftertheinitialgrowthin
interest about Sikhism in the twentieth century, it is therefore fitting that a
stand-alone encyclopedic resource be devoted to the Sikh tradition. This
particular volume is not the first attempt to produce encyclopedic resources
about the Sikh tradition. One of the earliest and important encyclopedic
resourcesisBhaiKahanSinghNabha’sGurshabadRatnakar:MahanKosh,
firstpublishedin1930.WhileMahanKoshcontinuestobeoneoftherichest
andvaluableresourcesforlearningaboutSikhtradition,itslexicon,personal-
ities,places,history,andartifacts,itsaccessibilityislimitedtothosewhoknow
modernandclassicalPunjabilanguage.Anothermajorencyclopedicworkis
the four-volume Encyclopedia of Sikhism published by Punjabi University,
Patiala,in1986undertheeditorshipofProfessorHarbansSingh.Thisimpor-
tantworkhashelpedtobringin-depthknowledgeofSikhsandSikhismtoan
v
vi Preface
English-speaking audience around a broad number of topics including a
wealth of information regarding events, ideas, and personages central to
Sikhhistory.
Comparedtothesepioneeringandmonumentalworks,thepresentvolume
initscurrentformismorefocusseduponentriesthatpertaintotheconceptual
frames and important thinkers needed to engage the Sikh tradition critically.
Theaim ismeant toprovideacritical resource toscholarsinterestedinSikh
intellectualhistoryandphilosophy,notleastbecauseitcomprisesonesection,
albeitadistinctandimportantsection,ofaverydifferentproject,namely,the
EncyclopediaofIndianReligions.Initscurrentform,thereareapproximately
100 entries in this volume written by a wide range of scholars. The entries
cover some of the most important topics necessary for understanding the
nature of Sikhism. Unlike other encyclopedias, however, we have tried to
incorporate more thematically oriented entries which collectively give the
reader a better picture of the fluid and everchanging nature of contemporary
Sikhism and its relations with the other societies and contexts. In this sense,
our aim was, to some extent at least, to release this volume from a general
limitationoftheencyclopediagenreasawhole,whichhasbeenthetendency
tofixitssubjectmatterintoapasttimeframe.
Fortunately, in this endeavor we are aided by recent advancements in
publishing technology which have allowed our publisher, Springer, to make
useofdigitaltechnologythatallowsentriestobeupdatedandpublishedona
digital platform as opposed to being restricted to the printed book. Once the
volume is published (both in print and static e-version), it is moved to the
digitalplatformwhereitbecomesavailableforupdatesandexpansion.Need-
lesstosay,thishelpstoevolvenotonlytheformbutalsotheveryconceptofan
encyclopedia in the sense that it can be periodically updated with newly
commissioned articles that have not materialized in this current edition.
Given that individual entries can also be updated online enabling more up-
to-date editions of the encyclopedia to be printed much sooner than was
previously the case, the benefits to readers and contributing authors of this
encyclopediasectionareobvioustosee.Wethereforeurgereadersaswellas
ourcontributorstoseethisencyclopediaasthefirststageinaninteractiveand
evolvingorganicprocessofknowledgeproduction,whichmayinvolvemore
contributorsinyearstocome.
MI,USA Arvind-PalSinghMandair
(Editor)
Series Editor
ArvindSharmaFormerlyoftheI.A.S.,ArvindSharma(b.1940)istheBirks
Professor of Comparative Religion in the School of Religious Studies at
McGillUniversityinMontreal,Canada.Hehasalsotaughtatvariousuniver-
sitiesinAustraliaandtheUnitedStatesandhaspublishedextensivelyinthe
fieldsofcomparativereligionandIndology.Heiscurrentlythegeneraleditor
of Encyclopedia of Indian Religions (Springer, 2017) and his forthcoming
works include Orientalism Two, Our Civilization, and How to Read the
Manusmṛti.
vii
About the Editor
Arvind-PalSinghMandairteachesattheUniversityofMichiganwhereheis
AssociateProfessorofSikhStudies.HeholdsdoctoraldegreesinPhilosophy/
ReligionandChemistry.BroadlygroundedinSouthAsianstudieshisresearch
interestsincludecomparativeandcontinentalphilosophy,translationstudies,
postcolonial theory, secularism and the theoretical study of religion and
violence. His book publications include Religion and the Specter of the
West: Sikhism, India, Postcoloniality and the Politics of Translation
(Columbia University Press, 2009); Secularism and Religion-Making (with
MarkusDressler,Oxford2011);Sikhism:AGuideForthePerplexed(Blooms-
bury 2013), a major volume of translations Teachings of the Sikh Gurus:
Selections from Sikh Scripture (with Christopher Shackle, Routledge 2005).
He is founding editor of the journal Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture and
TheorypublishedbyRoutledge.
ix
Assistant Editor
Harjeet Singh Grewal recently completed his dissertation entitled
Janamsākhī:RetracingNetworksofInterpretation(2017),attheUniversity
ofMichiganintheDepartmentofAsianLanguagesandCultures.Harjeetis
interestedinquestionsfromthePhilosophyofLanguagepertainingtomean-
ing, reference, translation, and textuality. He grounds these in South Asian
devotionaltraditionsfocussingespeciallyuponSikhism.Hisworkcritically
engagesdevotionalismbyinterrogatingcontemporaryideasaboutdevotional
archives and notions of textual materiality. Harjeet’s interests and writings
extend to questions about postsecularism, critical religion, diaspora, and
literature.
xi
Contributors
PalAhluwalia ProViceChancellor(ResearchandInnovation),Universityof
Portsmouth,Portsmouth,Hampshire,UK
Gurnam Kaur Bal Sri Guru Granth Sahib Studies Department, Punjabi
University,Patiala,Punjab,India
DepartmentofSriGuruGranthSahibStudiesofPunjabiUniversity,Bramp-
ton,ON,Canada
Himadri Banerjee Department of History, Jadavpur University, Kolkata,
India
Balbinder Singh Bhogal Department of Religion, S.K.K. Bindra Chair in
SikhStudies,HofstraUniversity,Hempstead,NY,USA
VerneA.Dusenbery HamlineUniversity,SaintPaul,MN,USA
Louis E. Fenech Department of History, University of Northern Iowa,
CedarFalls,IA,USA
ManjitSinghGill No5Chambers,London,UK
Rahuldeep Singh Gill CaliforniaLutheranUniversity,ThousandOaks,CA,
USA
Harjeet Singh Grewal Department of Asian Languages and Cultures,
UniversityofMichigan,AnnArbor,MI,USA
Michael Hawley Religious Studies, Mount Royal University, Calgary, AB,
Canada
ReligiousStudies,UniversityofCalgary,Calgary,AB,Canada
RandeepHothi DepartmentofAsianLanguagesandCultures,Universityof
Michigan,AnnArbor,MI,USA
Prabhjap Singh Jutla Department of the Study of Religions, School of
OrientalandAfricanStudies,UniversityofLondon,London,UK
VirinderS.Kalra Sociology,SOSS,UniversityofManchester,Manchester,
UK
TavleenKaur UniversityofCalifornia,Irvine,CA,USA
GurnamKaurBalhasretired.
xiii
