“Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh,” says the Bible verse in the Book of Ecclesiastes. As a Sikh (and thus, by definition, a perpetual student) and an avid admirer of the writings of I.J. Singh, I would certainly hope that the first part of this quote is true, but the second part is not the case! Indeed, Sikhs Today: Ideas & Opinions is I.J. Singh’s fifth book, truly an impressive achievement for any author. It is surely as sorely needed as were its quartet of predecessors, not only as required reading in the Sikh community, but also for a wider audience – the public-at-large – that remains considerably ignorant of our faith, despite Sikhi’s standing as the world’s fifth largest religion.
Like all of I.J. Singh’s writings since the publication of his first collection of essays in 1994, this fifth installment is penned in his inimitable signature style. “I like to connect factoids of Sikh history, as well as snippets of its doctrine and teachings to the way our contemporary society is formed and the way we live,” he avers in the book’s Preface, and this laudable desire is the driving force behind Sikhs Today, as it was in all his earlier works.
“I think it is essential that we define Sikh teachings without compromising them in the context and culture in which they will shape us – and that is here,” I.J. Singh soon goes on to say, firmly situating himself in the North American Diaspora, where he has made his home for more than fifty years.
Right from the book’s first essay, “Finding, Losing & Having Fun,” we are immersed in the U.S. Sikh experience, as the author recalls the mantra of “finding oneself” so emblematic of the American 1960s, and emphasizes Sikhi’s embrace of the idea that we must accomplish this aim in our everyday, worldly lives, not by dropping out of society or meditating alone on an isolated mountaintop. Guru Granth, the Sikh Scripture and the Eternal Guru of the Sikhs, challenges us to find our self-definition through the universal connectivity that binds us all as “Divine sparks” of the One Creator. In a seeming paradox, it is by joyfully moving away from the self – with our mind grounded in the peaceful equanimity of sehaj and in alignment with Hukam, Divine order – that we truly “find ourselves” and thereby live a full and meaningful life.
The author’s enthusiastic charting of his progress along the Sikh path is especially emphasized in “A Sikh Writer’s Journey,” echoing the overarching theme of “being and becoming a Sikh” so deeply intrinsic to his entire body of work. For I.J. Singh, the act of writing as self-examination is not an onerous task, but rather a transcendental process which “holds the seeds of ecstasy.” “An examined life and a reality explored is the essence of a life grounded in Sikhi,” he reminds us. Indeed, for anyone who is committed to integrating Sikh teachings into his or her daily existence, how could it be otherwise!
The development of the Sikh nation is another topic that I.J. Singh takes relish in recurrently parsing, and his exploration is again clearly evident here, in “Vaisakhi Redux.” “I have no doubt that nation building is what Guru Nanak had in mind, as did all succeeding Gurus, including Guru Gobind Singh, ”the author firmly states. The establishment of new towns by successive Gurus was not because of political and familial rivalries, he opines, considering this overly simplistic interpretation a serious misreading of Sikh history. Instead, each and every Guru whose Guruship lasted for a significant length of time founded a new community of Sikhs as an intentional contribution to the growing “economic and cultural richness and diversity of the Sikh nation,” by which “the infrastructure of a nascent Punjab” was built. Moreover, along with a shared culture, the Gurus endowed Sikhi with the ideology, philosophy, vision and common ethics that were also necessary components of nation building. Vaisakhi of 1699 was the crowning glory of this process, “when Guru Gobind Singh established, within the feudal, caste-driven society of India, a new Sikh egalitarian nation with democratic institutions of accountability, transparency and participatory self-governance.” “Now the onus of seeing the Guru is on us,” the author reminds us at the end of this powerful essay. We must ask ourselves: Are we up to the challenge?
I.J. Singh’s profound delight in the life of the mind and the world of words and books continues to be quite evident in Sikhs Today. He has often gently chided Sikhs for their perceived lack of interest in these cerebral pursuits that he deems so essential to his own existence, and continues to do so here in “On Books & Bookshops Etc.” and “The World of Words.” With “On Thinkers, Writers & Public Intellectuals,” he takes his passionate paean to the inner life a step farther by lauding “those great minds whose specialty is the expansiveness of their vision,” people with extraordinary abilities to synthesize and stitch together complex, otherwise-isolated ideas and interpret them in the language of the educated layman. While “connecting the dots where others barely see any dots at all,” they “influence the nature, quality and diversity of public debate and dialogue.” As a worldwide cadre of devoted readers would undoubtedly agree, to the list of eminent public intellectuals enumerated in this essay must surely be added I.J. Singh himself!
The author’s pinpoint sense of accuracy in “connecting the dots,” one of the principal hallmarks of his writing, is on full display in “Price & Value: A Tale of Two Cities.” For who else would have thought of linking New York City with Anandpur Sahib, much less creating an entire essay out of this astute comparison? If Anandpur “speaks to us from a distant, hoary past,” it also still evokes “a revolution of the mind in a people, the transformation of a society, the building of a community and a nation, indeed, of a message that is unique, timeless and universal …” This eloquent elegy to this “center of a Sikh’s sense of self” not only wryly dubs Anandpur as “the ‘Big Apple’ of Sikh reality” (lending it the playful moniker often given to New York City), but also poignantly portrays this iconic locale as a place of eternal legacy.
In “Infinite Courage: Sikhs as Warriors,” I.J. Singh goes far beyond a basic discussion of Sikh military prowess, so often cited by non-Sikhs when stereotyping Sikhs as” a martial race.” In probing the intriguing concept of the “battlefield of the mind,” as well as the revolutionary sense of empowerment bestowed by the Gurus on a formerly disenfranchised people, he gives an inspirational definition to the true meaning of infinite courage: not the shedding of fear, but the transcendence of it.
The scope of this stirring essay on courage is expanded in “Brand Recognition.” Here, I.J. Singh turns the admission of the fact that “most non-Sikhs remain monumentally unaware of the richness of Sikhi,” into a rousing challenge to all Sikhs. “Do we understand enough of our own beliefs to incorporate them into our lives, so that the market perception of the brand would change, and then others would automatically know us as we know ourselves, and would want to know more?” he demands. Perhaps it is a bit too optimistic for Sikhs to believe others would know us “automatically,” but, as the author says, it nevertheless remains “the only strategy that holds any promise.”
“The Tenth Amendment: A Sikh View,” is certainly one of the book’s most America-centric chapters. This somewhat circumscribed viewpoint should not be seen as a shortcoming, however, but rather as one of this book’s greatest strengths. After all, this perspective is totally natural, given that the author is indeed very much an American, both in fact and in his personal outlook. This essay is an excellent example of I.J. Singh’s trademark penchant for joining seemingly disparate concepts to form an integral whole. The Tenth Amendment, providing for separation of powers, is meant to ensure the diversity of power centers in the U.S. and provide a system of checks and balances, with individual states ceding some of their inherent authority (for example, the rights to coin money and to declare war) to the federal government. In this astutely-crafted essay, the author uses the U.S. constitutional framework to draw some much-needed parallels and lessons aimed squarely at Sikhs. When “We the People” return to the Gurus’ idea of “a limited government of delegated powers,” the resulting decentralization would lead to more participatory self-governance and transparency, and hence a revival of our Sikh institutions. Rediscovering the virtues of the Tenth Amendment is necessary for us, the author opines, as “our global Sikh reality is now much more complex than any time in history, even more so than as Misals during the post-Guru period.”
“When Outsourcing Just Doesn’t Work,” relating Akhand Paaths (uninterrupted recitations of the Guru Granth) done for proxy with the contemporary business phenomenon of outsourcing, is yet another essay that shows off I.J. Singh’s formidable talent for creative dot-connecting and cogent comparisons. He decries contractual agreements with gurdwaras – often historical gurdwaras in India – whereby a reading of the entire Sikh Scripture is undertaken in return for monetary donation. Generally, the ones paying the fee are not present at all, or only in attendance when the last four pages of Guru Granth are read. It is not God these people are cheating by this “unholy bargain,” the author declares, but their own selves. Citing examples from his many decades as a professor in academia, he convincingly argues that, since a student needs schooling and training that cannot possibly be completed by proxy, why should putting forth the personal dedication and effort intrinsic to being and becoming a Sikh be any different?
The last essay of this work is “Telling Truth to Power,” which connects in a most gratifying manner the Zafarnama of Guru Gobind Singh, an epistle the Tenth Master sent to the emperor Aurangzeb, to modern notions of war and peace, and also to the timely (and timeless) idea of speaking truth to authority. “Forgiveness liberates the doer of evil as well as the victim, but mixing the two – forgiveness and forgetting – does not serve the cause of justice, peace or reconciliation,” I.J. Singh reminds us. This inspiring chapter brings the collection of thirty essays to a most resounding crescendo conclusion.
Fortunately, though, “Telling Truth to Power” does not quite end the book. It is followed by a valuable Glossary, where nutshell explanations of key Sikh concepts mentioned throughout the work are provided, as well as by a short biographical profile of the author.
The Glossary mitigates one of the book’s few shortcomings: Sikhs Today can sometimes be a bit puzzling, even virtually opaque, to readers who do not possess a firm grasp of Sikh principles. To be sure, I.J. Singh is far too active in interfaith matters and outreach activities to ever be accused of being among those who simply “preach to the choir.” He never addresses himself only to committed Sikhs or to those who have at least a modicum of knowledge about Sikhi. However, despite the helpful definitions given in the Glossary, more explanation is definitely needed on some basic Sikh concepts; the essay on Nitnaym, the daily devotional readings recited by observant Sikhs, is a prime example of this lack. More background information would have made such otherwise excellent essays even more instructive and powerful.
On a related note, beginning Sikhs Today, with a piece on Guru Granth and the primordial Sikh concept of “Guru,” as the author did in his fourth book, would have been a much-appreciated touch. In this way, all readers (especially non-Sikhs) would know right from the start, at least in some measure, what is involved when the all-important idea of “the Guru” in the Sikh sense is repeatedly discussed throughout the rest of the work.
This book would also have benefitted from more assiduous proof reading and editing. A particular example of this can be found in the “Vaisakhi Redux” essay, where there is an error in the listing of the names of the Panj Pyare (the first five Sikhs who responded to Guru Gobind Singh’s call for “a head” at the Vaisakhi of 1699). Of course, the author’s accidental substitution of Fateh Singh for Himmat Singh is unquestionably a simple oversight, and in no way a sign of ignorance! However, such an inadvertent mistake would have been caught, and corrected, if more attention to detail would have been part of the redaction process.
These minor caveats aside, this work is undeniably “vintage” I.J. Singh: a thought-provoking blend of the adroitly parsed ideas, the trenchant wit, and the fearless dialogue and debate for which he is so well known – and so very justifiably celebrated – both throughout the Sikh community and far beyond. In the case of Sikhs Today: Ideas & Opinions, calling this book “more of the same” is one of the highest compliments it could possibly receive.
(Reprinted from The Sikh Review, Volume 61, No 11, November 2013, pages 76-80, 2013. Pictures added by Sikhpoint)
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Sikhs Today: Ideas & Opinions by I.J. Singh
Published by EthnicIsland.com, Yorba Linda, California, USA.
Pages: 211, Price: US$ 15.00
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