A certain kind of complex
On the side panel of this blog, I link to the blog of Amardeep Singh.
Amardeep Singh is an English Professor at some University on the east coast of the United States.
Considering that he's the only Sikh English professor at a mainstream North American university that I've ever heard of, I could only assume that he's a pretty smart person.
However... he seems to exhibit a sort of complex that too many Sikhs seem to have.
It may just be because Amardeep Singh is relatively secular when compared to other Sikhs, but there is undoubtedly a problem in my view that too many Sikhs have when referring to Sikh literature and Sikh art.
A few days ago, Amardeep Singh wrote a post about a Sikh Film Festival. In his post, when referring to movies that were going to be shown, he stated that "There do appear to be some propagandistic films in the mix on the full program, but also some films that might appeal to a general audience".
I wonder what makes him think that the "propogandistic" films might not appeal to a general audience. I do recall a number of my Sikh friends going to watch The Passion of the Christ.
I don't want to nitpick, and I definitely don't want to point to Amardeep Singh specifically, but too often have I seen what appears to be Sikhs apologizing for genuinely "Sikhi-based" literature or art.
To speak more generally, rarely do I see Sikhs dare to even state their belief in the superiority of their faith. I hear people from all other religions do this - Christians, Muslims and Jews among others, but Sikhs are usually the quickest and most likely (from my experiences) to state their belief in the equality of "all faiths" and they are also the most likely (from what I've seen) to misleadingly affirm their belief that most (some even say "all") faiths lead to god. While this is undoubtedly true (i.e. that all god-loving/fearing people will eventually find their way to god, according to Sikh doctrine), it nevertheless gives the impression of Sikhs believing that Sikhism is not at all more special than other faiths.
I don't know where this sort of thinking is founded - certainly not in Sikh scripture or history, but the vast majority of Sikhs nevertheless subscribe to this school of thought.
I'm going off-topic here, but I'd just like to say that it's perfectly fine to be diplomatic and therefore truthfully say that only god can judge a person's soul, deeds and destination in the after-life, but it is untruthful or simply misinformed for a Sikh to say that their religion is equal to all others, since Sikh scripture explicity rejects this way of thinking.
Sikhs who do go on about the equality of Sikhism in comparison to other faiths strike me as either uninformed about Sikh doctrine, or even worse, ashamed to proudly state their belief in the superiority and uniqueness of their religion.
Let me also just state that it's totally wrong to be bigoted and elitist when approaching this topic. For example, I would never tell a Christian, Muslim or Jew that he couldn't go to "Heaven" or Paradise, since firstly, I believe that he or she could as a god-loving person... though I don't subscribe to the belief that mechanically accepting Jesus, repenting for sins and realizing that you're a sinner automatically guarantees you a seat in Heaven (I only believe that Sikhs are capable, though for the vast majority it is unlikely, to reach even higher eternal spiritual states), and also, I wouldn't say such things for the sake of preserving respect and a certain understanding. It's completely unnecessary to bring someone to your set of beliefs through fear and self-doubt.
Amardeep Singh is an English Professor at some University on the east coast of the United States.
Considering that he's the only Sikh English professor at a mainstream North American university that I've ever heard of, I could only assume that he's a pretty smart person.
However... he seems to exhibit a sort of complex that too many Sikhs seem to have.
It may just be because Amardeep Singh is relatively secular when compared to other Sikhs, but there is undoubtedly a problem in my view that too many Sikhs have when referring to Sikh literature and Sikh art.
A few days ago, Amardeep Singh wrote a post about a Sikh Film Festival. In his post, when referring to movies that were going to be shown, he stated that "There do appear to be some propagandistic films in the mix on the full program, but also some films that might appeal to a general audience".
I wonder what makes him think that the "propogandistic" films might not appeal to a general audience. I do recall a number of my Sikh friends going to watch The Passion of the Christ.
I don't want to nitpick, and I definitely don't want to point to Amardeep Singh specifically, but too often have I seen what appears to be Sikhs apologizing for genuinely "Sikhi-based" literature or art.
To speak more generally, rarely do I see Sikhs dare to even state their belief in the superiority of their faith. I hear people from all other religions do this - Christians, Muslims and Jews among others, but Sikhs are usually the quickest and most likely (from my experiences) to state their belief in the equality of "all faiths" and they are also the most likely (from what I've seen) to misleadingly affirm their belief that most (some even say "all") faiths lead to god. While this is undoubtedly true (i.e. that all god-loving/fearing people will eventually find their way to god, according to Sikh doctrine), it nevertheless gives the impression of Sikhs believing that Sikhism is not at all more special than other faiths.
I don't know where this sort of thinking is founded - certainly not in Sikh scripture or history, but the vast majority of Sikhs nevertheless subscribe to this school of thought.
I'm going off-topic here, but I'd just like to say that it's perfectly fine to be diplomatic and therefore truthfully say that only god can judge a person's soul, deeds and destination in the after-life, but it is untruthful or simply misinformed for a Sikh to say that their religion is equal to all others, since Sikh scripture explicity rejects this way of thinking.
Sikhs who do go on about the equality of Sikhism in comparison to other faiths strike me as either uninformed about Sikh doctrine, or even worse, ashamed to proudly state their belief in the superiority and uniqueness of their religion.
Let me also just state that it's totally wrong to be bigoted and elitist when approaching this topic. For example, I would never tell a Christian, Muslim or Jew that he couldn't go to "Heaven" or Paradise, since firstly, I believe that he or she could as a god-loving person... though I don't subscribe to the belief that mechanically accepting Jesus, repenting for sins and realizing that you're a sinner automatically guarantees you a seat in Heaven (I only believe that Sikhs are capable, though for the vast majority it is unlikely, to reach even higher eternal spiritual states), and also, I wouldn't say such things for the sake of preserving respect and a certain understanding. It's completely unnecessary to bring someone to your set of beliefs through fear and self-doubt.
posted by Japnaam Singh at
10:40 PM
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