The Source Book On Sikhism

KHALSACENTRICISM AND SIKH RESEARCH

Khalsacentric research believes in essence, wholism introspection and retrospection. It rejects the hypothetical - statistical - interventionist model of research and the use of European social science methods. The Khalsacentric researcher does not approach the subject of study with a 'prestored paradigm' in her/his psyche.

Through retrospection, a Khalsacentric researcher questions to ascertain if the interpretations of his findings are causing psychic or spiritual discomfort to the people who belong to the culture under study.

A Khalsacentric researcher looks for the wholistic reality rather than the detached reality. He looks for the essence of the culture rooted in a particularistic view of reality. False proportion of one culture are not applied to study the other culture to produce distorted and hurtful knowledge.

The Khalscentric researcher seeks total immersion in the culture before rushing to study it. Researchers can’t stay separate from the object of the study. The distance distorts the view. The Khalsacentric researcher “cleanses the doors of his/her perception, through introspection of any pre-existing paradigms”.

The Khalsacentric researcher uses retrospection to see if the interpretation is not intentionally made convergent to provide a “good fit to the existing paradigms of knowledge”.

The Khalsacentric researcher does not use “Freedom of expression as a Crutch”. His personality is very important and his knowledge of techno-methodology of research is very crucial for the research outcome.

It must be pointed out that the Khalsacentric scholar assumes the right and responsibility of describing Sikh realities from a subjective faith point of view of the Khalsa values of ideals. He centres himself and the Sikh community in his research activity.

Khalsacentrism recognizes the pivotal role of history, especially the history of Sikhs vs. Muslims/Hindus and Christians and uses ideological, humanistic and emancipatory anti-racist awareness to formulate his hypothesis. Colonial, Calvinistic, elitist, and arrogantly elect behaviour is not accepted in Khalsacentrism. Part of the mandate of the Khalsacentric research is to screen out oppressive assumptions.

The Khalsacentric researcher stresses the importance of centring Sikh ideals, codes and symbols in Panjab as a place and the struggle that was put up to oppose the oppression of the foreign rulers.

The Khalsacentric researcher self-consciously obliterates the subject/object duality and enthrones Khalsa wholism in his research.

The perspective which a Khalsacentric researcher brings to the research exercise depends upon his experiences both within and without the Sikh culture. When centering Khalsa values, the researcher must centre his own ideals. It is therefore important that Khalsacentric scholars should declare who they are and what has motivated them to study Sikhism (If Sikhs had known what McLeod was going to write in his articles in the Sikh Review (January and April, 1994), stating his own contradictions about Christianity and his repression - projection of those contradictions to Sikhism, their reaction to his indulging in Sikh research since 1968, would have been different). The same argument could be applied to the recent research produced by Oberoi, Gurrinder Mann, and Pashaura Singh. While McLeod was running away from Christianity using the missionary money of New Zealand; Oberoi, Pashaura, and Gurrinder Mann were busy selling the Sikh Soul for landing a University position.

Even though Sikhism has become a living, assertive way of life a Khalsacentric researcher can extract the following specific Sikh values and apply them to “discover himself”. These values are easily traceable in Sikh scriptures and ethos.
1. Khalsacentrism is an assertive way of life which attempts to decrease the dichotomy between spiritual and empirical life of a person. It has successfully challenged the initial structure of existing religions through “structured inversion and negation of the negation”.

2. In Khalsacentric living, Sikhs reject the unreality of life, withdraw from life, indulgence in asceticism or Sanyas, rejection of varnas, caste, pollution, ritualism and avtarhood.

3. All ten Sikh Gurus developed a life affirming system and asked Sikhs to model life as a game of love, truthful and assertive living.

4. Khalsacentrism believes in universal consciousness and deep mystical saintliness. The Sikh’s concept of God is “the sole one, self existent, creator person, without fear, and without enmity, timeless, un-incarnated, self-created, gracious, enlightener, benevolent, ocean of virtue and ineffaceable”. The Sikhs are urged to internalize these attributes by repeating them in their prayers.

5. In Khalsacentric living, householder’s life is a must. Khalsa has no use for recluses, ascetics and other-worldliness.

6. Rejection of celibacy made the status of woman equal to man.

7. Khalsacentrism believes in the importance of work and production. Work should not be divided through castes. A Sikh attempts to break free of the convoluted cycle of higher vs. lower castes.

8. Khalsacentrism recommends work and sharing of incomes. Sikhism like socialism deprecates the amassing of wealth. In Sikhism, a wealthy man has a social responsibility of sharing.

9. Khalsacentrism fully accepts the concept of social responsibility. The oppressor who dehumanizes and hinders in the honest and righteous discharge of a householder’s life has to be tackled. A Khalsa becomes the protector or Rakha, whether they are Brahmins from Kashmir or the powerless woman being taken to Ghazni for the slave trade.

10. A Khalsa undergoes constantly what psychologists call positive disintegration and cognitive dissonance, because of his truthful living and believing in the principles of “Adde So Jharre”. His reality is formed through his internalizing of the remarkably powerful Sikh Ardas and Guru Bani. He becomes a Gurumukh by killing his ego and then is expected to re-enter the Fannah phase of his life to fulfil his social responsibilities. Guru Arjan Dev, Guru Teg Bahadur, Guru Gobind Singh, and his children and many of his followers up to the present time, followed this path of social responsibility producing a compulsion of re-entry into the oppressed world and enjoying martyrdom.

11. 
    In Khalsacentrism, the oppressive status quo has to be challenged. Sikhism teaches politeness to friends and defiance to oppressors.
    

12. Through social participation and resistance against wrong doings, a Khalsa becomes “the instrument of his attributive Will and wants to bring Haleemi-Raj or kingdom of God on Earth for everybody. He wants Sarbat Ka Bhala (Goodwill for all)”.

13. By repeating and internalizing Naam, the Khalsa stops seeing lines of duality in his reality. He becomes cosmocentric and the pain of the universe becomes his own pain. Haumain (Egoism) the neurosis of the soul, dies through this awakening.

14. In Khalsacentrism, remembering Karta Purakh in the company of Sadh Sangat is the means to evolve. A Khalsa develops a sense of cosmocentric awareness and power of “discrimination”. Naam repetition is a psychological method of removing an “I-am-ness” attitude, the greatest malady of human beings. It also awakens in “Khalsa” his will through love, contentment, truth, humanity, other-orientedness, and unconditional positive regard for the oppressed. Naam removes lust, anger, greed over attachment, and excessive pride. The Khalsa (purified) emerges to defend the claims of consciousness against oppression. Khalsa becomes the Vanguard of righteousness by defining himself in the image of the Guru.

15. Khalsacentrism believes in an egalitarian society and joins the cosmocentric universal culture where only “the pure will be allowed to rule”.

16. Through Khalsa, Guru Gobind Singh took Sikhism to the “Phoenix Principle” of Khalsacentric - life-affirming systems and brought revolutionary liberation.

The Khalsacentric researcher rejects subject/object separation, encourages collectivism rather than individualism, grounds himself in complementarity, leaves false consciousness of Eurocentric thinking, looks at struggles as a way of transferring human consciousness, makes research centred in its base community (Panjab), and gets grounded in Panjab experience of 500 years, and familiarizes himself in the language, philosophy and myths of the Sikhs through cultural immersion.

The Khalsacentric researcher must examine himself or herself in the process of examining any subject. The introspection and retrospection are an integral part of Khalsacentric research. Introspection means that the researcher questions herself or himself in regard to the subject under study. In retrospection the researcher questions himself or herself after the project is completed to ascertain if any personal biases have entered, or are hindering the fair interpretation of the results. He should attempt to know how the community being studies will feel about his research findings.

The first question that the Khalsacentric researcher asks is "who am I?" In defining himself he defines his place and the perspective he brings to the research exercise. The data collected must include the personal knowledge of the subjective faith of the researcher, his personality functioning, experiences, and his motivation (repression, projection, spiritual, mystical) in order to provide some source of validation for the result of his inquiry.