ANAHIEM: Annual meeting of ‘American Academy of Religion as held at Anaheim, California on November 19, 1989.
For the first time in the history of the Academy, a full session on Sikhism was presented titled as “Belief and Behavior in the Sikh Tradition.”
First paper was presented by Dr. W.H. Mcleod on Sikh Rehit present and past.” He concluded that 5 K’s were formalized by the Sikh Sabha Movement as a reformation. He completely ignored Guru Govind Singh’s Hukamnama of 1699 and presumarg which have been quoted by Sikh scholars such as Dr. Kohli, Prof. Mohan Singh, and Dr. J. S. Grewal. This tactics of Dr. Mcleod in suppression of historical facts are a typical occurrence while writing on Sikhism.
Dr. Gurdharam Singh Khalsa from U.C. Berkeley, a scholar who was respondent of this session, characterized this paper as unacademic by suppressing the published historical facts. Later on Dr. Mcleod confessed that he was unaware of certain documents.
Second paper was read by Mr. Harjot Oberoi on Sikh fundamentalism. He looked like Sikh but his concept of Sikhism and practical life is a matter of embarrassment to the Sikh community. Instead of calling Sikhism a religion, he called a Sikh tradition. He accused Sikh fundamentalism as sole cause for troubles in India. He was heard saying that most of the Sikh community is rustic community assailing Indian government. He said if Khalistan is established then secularism will disappear. He completely ignored false encounters by police against Sikh youth published by Amnesty International, GoIden Temple massacre, holocaust in Delhi, religious and physical genocide against the Sikh nation.
Dr. Larson of U.C. Santa Barbara was another respondent, who corrected this young man for abusing the word fundamentalism in the context of Sikh movement. Dr. Larson did an excellent job teaching the meaning of word fundamentalism in English language. There were about dozen Sikh intellectuals who asked questions from Mr. Oberoi about his arrogant and controversial research which went unanswered ted in World Sikh News in the near future.
Dr. Barrier’s paper was on Sikh politics of last century. He read quotas from Khalsa Akhbar. There were no scholarly references given to support his ideas.
Now on, dedicated Sikhs will review lectures and articles and give proper reply to correct misleading propaganda.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 8, 1989
