Dear Editor,
You have provided excellent and extended coverage of the unfortunate remarks by Spellman and the attending controversy but 1 am intrigued by one significant matter the silence of our Sikh Scholars.
North America has at least three scholars who currently occupy community funded academic positions from which they teach and conduct a research on Sikhs and Sikhism. These three scholars – at Columbia University (New York) and the Universities of Michigan (Ann Arbor) and British Columbia (Vancouver) – have been conspicuously silent on what another academician Spellman had to say.
Spellman raised some interesting and important questions and our scholars should have joined the discussion. Have they nothing to add? Do they agree with Spellman? Yes McLeod spoke on the issue forthrightly and honestly and we appreciate that but what about the others. Is this thundering silence the best they can offer? In their silence are they being true to their own academic calling? Wonder how they view their responsibilities to themselves, to the community that nurtures them and to the profession that they have chosen? Have the professionals opted to abrogate their duty and leave the matter to the amateurs?
I.J. Singh, D.D.t., Ph.D.
New York, New York
Article extracted from this publication >> April 8, 1994
