Dr. Harjot Oberai is a second generation dislocated Punjabi Sikh for West Punjab. While living in Sethi he got his exposure 4 History at the center of Historical studies at the Jawahar Lal Nehru University in Delhi at JNU he came under the influence of Marxist professors such as Bipan Chandre Romila Thapar KN. Pannikar and Satish Saberwal. He also wrote his M. I I thesis on Bhai Vir Singh from the style of his writing English as his second language few appears he must have gone to and English medium school in Delhi where the elects and cites Sent their children in the 60s.  At the Australian National University he studied for his Ph.D. degree with Dr. 17.F. Jordan who shaped his thoughts on Indian religion for a Eurocentric point of view.

The Eurocentric gang of self-appointed researchers on Sikhism Ted by Dr. W.H. McLeod J.T.O Connel Milton Israel Bruce de Erick J.S. Hawley Mark Juergensmeyer Jerry Barrier Rollin Jeffery after reading Br. Oberoi’s thesis entitled A world reconstructed religion ritual and the community among Sikhs Ph.D. dissertation Faculty of Asian Studies A.N. University and   a 1987) advised him to expand it into a book by collating into it the following articles that he had written from time to time. From Gurdwara Rikabganj to the Vice regal Palace: A study of Religious Protest the Punjab Past and Present (vol. 14.1980 pp. 182-98). The ship of Pir Sakhi Popular Culture in the Punjab studies in History (vol. 3 1987 Sikh question (1844-1915). In J.T.0 Connel Milton Israel W. G. Ox toby with W. H McLeod and J. S. Grewal visiting eds. Sikh history and religion in the 20th Century. Toronto: S. Asian Studies University of Toronto (1988 pp. 136158). So the present book entitled The Construction of Religious Boundaries In the Sikh Tradition is a careful mixing of his thesis and articles (paragraphs lifted from articles to the book). It also clearly shows that Dr. Oberoi

As Dr. Obert t is very fond of quoting Sapir-Whorf to show how language constructs the thought and reality of persons #5 a Sikh Psychologist would like to construct Dr Oberoi’s reality by using the written statements taken from his book (CRB) and articles.

  1. Adi Granth is an amorphous religious text (CRB p 22). Amorphous according to Webster’s Dictionary (1988 p. 30) means formless not conforming to normal structural organization having no crystalline form stratified
  2. By the closing decades of the 19th Century the Singh Sabha a wide ranging religious movement began to view the multiplicity in Sikh identity with great suspicion and hostility (CRB p. 25).
  3. A new cultured elite aggressively usurped the right to represent others within a singular tradition (CRB p 25).
  4. Tat Khalsa imposed monolithic codified and closed culture on the Sikhs by dissolving alternative ideals (CRB p. 25).
  5. This effort created many marginalized Sikhs who turned their backs in Sikh tradition and went their own way (CRB p. 7
  6. Rao parte Stem was replaced by a highly uniformed Sikh identity the one we know today as modem Sikh existence (CRB p.26)
  7. Through the process of silence and negotiation Skit historians of the past have not given true picture of what Singh Sabha did to the un-Sikh beliefs of the population (CRB p 27).
  8. The ideas of what Sikhism Ought to be were picked up by the Tat Khalsa from men like Emits Trump John Gordon and Macauliffe (CRB. p. 32). 9. Ideological blinkers imposed by various complex forces led by Tat Khalsa produced many distortions in the understanding the Sikhs (CRB p 32)

10 Mr. G.S. Dhillons Ph.D. thesis on Singh Sabha movement is based on the principles of negatives of Sikh Studies. Dr. Oberoi is upset because Dr Dhillon has given what could be called Khalsa centric view rather than Eurocentric social science anthropological view (CRB p. 35).

  1. Sikh studies need to fully open to this gaze of history so that the Sikhs become “sociological respectable” (CRB p. 35).
  2. Guru Nanaks paradigm of interior religiosity was cut with the axes of identity by Producing allegiance Foundation of Sangats Setting up pilgrims at Goindwal and Harminder Sahib Amritsar Convention of a communal meal (langar) was introduced

And compilation of an anthology commonly known as the Adi Granth whereby the Sikhs became a textual community. For further information on this topic Dr. Oberoi recommends that Dr. Pashaura Singhs Ph.D. Thesis University of Toronto (1991) is “major contribution to the study of Adi Graznth. Please note in item number 12 Dr. Oberoi is under the influence of Dr. McLeod’s writings. It is strange that this professor of Sikh studies accepts everything that Dr. McLeod has formulated and even goes to endorse Dr. Pashaura Singhs University of Toronto (1991) very controversial thesis as a major study. It is group thinking or “birds of an Eurocentric research get together” to further trample over the subjective faith of Sikhs (CRB pp. 52-53) to be continued in the next issue.

Article extracted from this publication >> July 15, 1994