The Source Book On Sikhism

Chapter Sixty-Two

A Note on

Pashaura Singh’s M.A. Thesis:

“The Sikh Self-Definition and Bhagat Bani”

(Faculty of Graduate Studies)

University of Calgary

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

1987

Dr. S.S. Sodhi

Dr. J.S. Mann

Pashaura Singh arrived in Calgary, Canada in 1984 to serve as a Granth. There he came in contact with Dr. Ronald W. Neufeldt, a Eurocentric "instant" Sikh scholar who believed in the McLeodian paradigm of Sikh research and worked as a professor of Religious Studies, University of Calgary, Calgary Canada. The other two professors who influenced Pashaura Singh were:

a. Dr. Harold Coward, Dept. of Religious Studies, University of Calgary

b. Dr. Inder Nath Kher (a Panjabi) Dept. of English, University of Calgary

All the above mentioned professors or supervisors of Pashaura Singh were non-Sikhs, and had no orientation towards Sikh traditions, culture, values, and other. Professor Coward has published a book on Jung and Eastern Thought (1985), the others were not “Sikh Scholars” but were willing to help a Sikh student with a MacLeodian paradigm. So, Dr. Neufeldt, Dr. Kher and Dr. Coward with their “role dancing” graduate student decided to produce a thesis based on Guru Bani and Guru Granth Sahib. It must be emphasized that none of the supervisors was a Sikh or could read Guru Granth Sahib,

The main chapters in this Eurocentric thesis are:

1. The issue of Sikh self-definition in relation to the "received" tradition of the Bhagat Bani included in the Guru Granth Sahib.

2. Comments of Sikh Gurus on Bhagat Bani of Farid and Kabir.

3. After including the Bhagat Bani into Guru Granth Sahib, Gurus wanted to emphasize their agreement and disagreement with the poet-saints.

4. The views of Kabir and Farid which verge on "the erroneous" were corrected by the Gurus, so as to develop a Sikh self-definition.

5. No process of integration of the Bhagat Bani in the Guru Granth Sahib was based on whether the Bani harmonizes or disharmonizes with Guru’s thoughts. If it disharmonized the Gurus took the liberty of correcting and editing it by providing an alternative commentary to cultivate a particular Sikh view.