The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Indentity, and Diversity in Sikh Tradition.

• Author: Gold, Daniel

Like the double-edged sword of the tenth Sikh guru, Gobind Singh - symbolically crucial for the Khalsa community he founded - Harjot Oberoi's finely crafted work cuts powerfully in opposite directions. Sharp with scholarly acuity on one side, it has, on the other, an edge that has raised cries of hurt protest from some Sikh groups. As a historical study of religion Oberoi's book gives a close analysis of the pluralistic Sikhism of pre-modern Punjab and its transformation in the nineteenth and early twentieth century into a more uniform tradition affirming Khalsa ideals. Exemplary in its genre, the work has been awarded the prize for the best first book in history of religions by the American Council of Learned Societies. Unfortunately, Oberoi's penetration into centuries just passed can also wound the sensibilities of modern Sikhs. Some, up in arms, are threatening Oberoi's university position, which was partially funded by Sikhs in Canada. The resulting clashes can easily dampen the academic enthusiasms of many students of living religions today, raising questions troubling to a post-colonial conscience.

To most liberal scholars, Oberoi's narrative line will not appear particularly radical, nor his tone vitriolic. He starts uncontroversially: the Khalsa began as a dedicated fighting band during Sikh struggles with Mughal rulers at the end of the seventeenth century, emerging successful in battles during the disintegration of the Mughal empire in the eighteenth. Then Oberoi proceeds to a less familiar story. Khalsa leaders, he tells us, prescribed normative codes of conduct that would preserve their socioreligious distinctness, but as they began to govern in the Punjab found natural allies in non-Khalsa Sikhs, who also flourished. These Oberoi collectively calls Sanatan Sikhs, a term that he takes from nineteenth-century writings. While all of these Sanatan Sikhs revered Nanak and the Adi Granth, they were otherwise highly diverse in their practice, most adopting customs of their Hindu compatriots, and some looking to particular continuing lineages of Sikh gurus. (The lineage of living gurus recognized by Khalsa Sikhs ended with Gobind Singh.) While understandable within their own fluid religious world, Sanatan Sikhs could prove problematic to British administrators seeking to classify their subjects on the basis of religion, often the basis of quotas for prized government jobs. As Sikh elites, organized as Singh Sabhas, strove for stronger...