Proceedings from
the Sikh Studies Conference, "Guru Gobind Singh:
His Life and Mission," held at the University
of California at Santa Barbara, December 4-5 1999.
Prepared by Ami
Shah, Religious Studies, UCSB
In December 1999, the University
of California at Santa Barbara held a major conference
in the field of Sikh Studies in order to inaugurate
the Kundan Kaur Kapany Chair of Sikh Studies established
by Dr. Narinder Singh Kapany and family in conjunction
with the University. This international conference
witnessed the gathering of dozens of world reknowned
scholars in the fields of Sikh and Punjab Studies
and was well attended by scholars, graduate students,
and the Sikh community.
The success of the conference
was due not only to the enthusiasm and contributions
of the participants, but also to the organizers of
this event. Professor Gurinder Singh Mann, holder
of the Kundan Kaur Kapany Chair in Sikh Studies, was
the visionary behind this conference, and without
his patience and conviction this landmark event would
not have occurred. Dr. Mark Juergensmeyer, Director
of the Global and International Studies Program at
UCSB also played an integral part in the conference
proceedings. As a champion for Sikh Studies in North
America, Dr. Juergensmeyer played an instrumental
role in helping to establish the chair for Sikh Studies
at UCSB, and without his unflagging and generous efforts,
this event would not have been possible.
Although the duration of
the conference was two days in length, the scholarly
impact of this event will be felt well into the twenty
first century. In many ways, the conference represented
the consummation of years of scholarly discourse in
the academic and Sikh community. At the same time,
however, this conference placed Sikh Studies at the
crossroads of the twentieth and twenty first centuries,
with every indication that in the upcoming years the
field will expand by both building upon existing scholarship
and charting new paths of exploration and discovery.
The conference itself was
divided into four panel sections: i)The Life of Guru
Gobind Singh, ii)The Legacy of Guru Gobind Singh,
iii)Upcoming Voices in Sikh/Punjab Studies, iv)Challenges
Facing Sikhs in the Diaspora. As is evident from the
panels, this conference attempted to deal with the
broad and detailed strokes of history, religion, and
culture that have defined the Sikh community from
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries up to the
present day.
The first session dealt
with "The Life of Guru Gobind Singh," and
was presided over by Professor Ainslee T. Embree,
regarded by many as the "Father" of South
Asian Studies in North America. The morning started
with a groundbreaking presentation by the eminent
historian J.S. Grewal entitled "Guru Gobind Singh:
Life and Mission." In his presentation, Prof.
Grewal presented new ideas regarding the institution
of the Khalsa, Singh identity, and the possible intentions
of the tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh. Following the
presentation of Prof. Grewal, were three presentations
which focused on the Dasam Granth and upon certain
devotional and liturgical compositions found therein.
Professor John Stratton Hawley, a leading expert on
medieval Indian devotional bhakti poetry, focused
his discussion around "Devotional Hymns in the
Dasam Granth." Prof. Hawley presented his new
and original translation of the Shabad Hazare
in English and discussed the presence of Vaisnava
motifs in these devotional hymns. Dr. W.H. McLeod,
the leading Western scholar on the Sikh tradition,
continued the discussion on the Dasam Granth by presenting
the conference with a new translation of the Jaap
Sahib. The title of Dr. McLeod's presentation was
"Translating the Jaap Sahib," and in his
comments, he highlighted the difficulties attendant
upon translating the Jaap Sahib and the mysteries
regarding the authorship, contents, and historicity
of the Dasam Granth. Professor Christopher Shackle
of the School of Oriental and African Studies, rounded
out the discussion on the Dasam Granth by his presentation
of "The Zafarnama of Guru Gobind Singh."
Although the Zafarnama, 'Epistle of Victory', is a
relatively short composition that occurs at the end
of the Dasam Granth, Christopher Shackle stressed
its importance as a literary document and discussed
its message and stylistic qualities. Finally, Professor
Gurinder Singh Mann closed the first session through
his paper entitled, "The Khalsa of Guru Gobind
Singh." Using literary and scriptural sources,
Prof. Mann challenged conventional understandings
of the institution of the Khalsa by presenting new
ideas on the role and function of the Khalsa as understood
by Guru Gobind Singh.
The second panel took as
its subject matter "The Legacy of Guru Gobind
Singh," and was chaired by Professor Ninian Smart,
President of the American Academy of Religion and
Professor Emeritus at UCSB. Professor Lou Fenech started
the session with this paper entitled "The Concept
of Shahadat in 18th Century Sikh Literature."
Prof. Fenech fashioned his discussion around the question
of how Sikhs of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
understood Guru Arjan's martyrdom. While many of his
ideas proved controversial, Prof. Fenech's presentation
challenged notions of martyrdom within the Sikh tradition.
Professor Indu Banga , a leading historian of Sikh
and Punjab history at Panjab University, Chandigarh,
followed with a paper on "The Khalsa Raj."
Prof. Banga's paper provided unique insights into
the role that Sikh theology and tradition played in
shaping the social, cultural, and economic landscape
of Maharaja Ranjit Singh's kingdom. In a historical
move to more "recent" history, N.G. Barrier
continued the discussion by presenting a paper entitled
"The Khalsa Diwans (1900-1930)." Questions
regarding Sikh identity, both individually and communally,
have been an integral component of the legacy of Guru
Gobind Singh, and Prof. Barrier highlighted the importance
of those questions in light of the history of the
Khalsa Diwans with specific reference to the role
of Babu Teja Singh Bhasaur. The hotly contested nature
of Sikh identity came to the fore with even more force
in Professor Mark Juergensmeyer's paper entitled,
"Sant Jarnail Singh and the Khalsa Ideal."
In his comments, Prof. Juergensmeyer discussed notions
of cosmic war, and enumerated a list of five qualities
that could possibly consitute a paradigm for the Khalsa:
purification, homor, courage, sacrifice, and victory.
Professor Reeta Grewal of Panjab University, Chandigarh,
brought the day's discussion to a symbolic close as
she returned to the place of Anandpur and sifted through
its history in a paper entitled, "Anandpur through
the Centuries." Anandpur, a symbolic city par
excellence in Sikh history and imagination, was the
focus of her talk as she sifted through over three
centuries of transformation at Anandpur.
The second day of the proceedings
began with a panel of upcoming graduate students presenting
their research in the fields of Sikh and Punjab Studies.
Given the academic brilliance of the preceeding day,
this session began with a tremendous sense of humility
but with the hope that the ideas and work presented
by the graduate students would mark the beginning
of a new phase in Sikh and Punjab Studies. This session
was chaired by Arvindpal Singh Mandair of the School
of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Due to the fact that many of the graduate students
were at different stages of progress in their research
and publications, the list of interests presented
here will be brief. Some of the research interests
of the "upcoming voices" include:
University of Paris:
Francisco Luis (Nirmala Sikh tradition and history)
Christine Moliner (Sikh Diaspora in England and France)
University of Ottawa:
Suzanne Evans (Mothers of Martyrs in the Sikh tradition)
Columbia University:
Farina Mir (Punjabi Kissa Literature and Publication)
Anne Murphy (Sikh Relics)
University of Missouri:
Jugdeep S. Chima (Punjab politics)
University of Washington:
Virginia VanDyke (Role of Sikh Leaders in Politics)
UC Berkeley: Rubina
Singh (Analyis of Gender in Singh Sabha Ideology)
UC Santa Barbara:
Anna Bigelow (Study of Malerkotla and Religious Shared
Space)
Gibb Schreffler (Role of Bhangra in Diaspora communities)
Gurdit Singh (Study of Sikh Communities in Pakistan)
Varun Soni (History of Udasis and Study of Punjabi
Sufi Poets and Singers)
Ami Shah (Dasam Granth)
The final session of the
conference was entitled "Challenges Facing Sikhs
in the Diaspora," was chaired by Dr. Narinder
Singh Kapany. This panel featured community leaders
from North America who discussed their own work within
their respective communities. The speakers who participated
and shared their experiences were Dr. Rabinder S.
Bhamra (New York); Dr. Satnam Singh Bhugra (Michigan);
Dr. Avtar Singh Dhaliwal (Tennessee); and Dr. Jasbir
Singh Mann (Southern California).
This conference brought
together a large number of committed scholars, students,
and community members. Ideas of the highest intellectual
order were exchanged during these two days; friends
separated by continents but united by professional
and personal interest were brought together; students
sat at the feet of their teachers and imbibed knowledge;
scholars and community members engaged in dialogue
in the hopes of clarifying and resolving issues within
the Panth; and ultimately, the twentieth century closed
with great expectations for a new millenium in Sikh
Studies.
