Episode 405: Sick of Not Knowing About Sikhi

Transcript!

PDF transcript. Also available via our Buzzsprout page.

Shownotes
(because citations are political)

THE HISTORY OF WORLD (RELIGIONS), PART I continues with SICK OF NOT KNOWING ABOUT SIKHI. Because face it: you don’t know about it and you’re sick of being embarrassed by your ignorance. We won’t cover everything you need to know in 40+ minutes this time, but we sure will get your interest piqued and, hopefully, point you to where you can learn more.

The 101:

(where we did the professor-work)

Today, we’re talking about Sikhi, or Sikhism, for two reasons: first, because like we’ve been telling you for 35+ episodes, religion is imperial. The fact that most “world religions” textbooks don’t include Sikhi despite being the 5th-largest religion in the world? Is both white supremacist nonsense and Euro-American imperialism at work.

And second, because we think you can’t call yourself religiously literate without actually knowing Sikhi is, how it came about, and why it matters—to scholars, regular folk, and practitioners. Sikhi has beautiful, intricate practices that are also deeply pragmatic and always changing, rooted in a South Asian milieu but also global, and guess what? Because there are Sikhs all over the world, this is a global religion—meaning it has obvious limits but also can teach us about this world religions problem.

We know we can’t include everybody’s everything. So in a world or global or comparative religions class (or textbook), we make choices about what to include and who to leave out. Same for this podcast. Our goal for today and also for this season is to show you that those choices are political, that they have consequences, and that they—like the study of religion itself—have their roots in white supremacy and imperialism, whether we recognize it or not. 

So few textbooks, classes, podcasts even get to Sikhi, even in classes on Asian religions. We are doing so on purpose and with our chests. But we didn’t do it alone:

We were joined on this episode by extra-special guest expert, and our first-ever returning guest, Dr. Simran Jeet Singh.

Dr. Simran Jeet Singh is the Executive Director of The Aspen Institute’s Inclusive America Project, and you may remember him from such podcast episodes as E303: Simran Jeet Singh Keeps Going, in which he talked about public scholarship and his best-selling, award-winning children’s book, Fauja Singh Keeps Going. He is one of the leading experts on Sikhi, so make sure you check out the homework section below and read what he’s written.


In this episode, we outlined why Sikhi seems like it would “rank” on the world religions paradigm—but doesn’t. Spoilers: it’s the racialization of religion, bias, and white imperialism. But then we also give you some hashtag-basics about Sikhi, since, well, you probably don’t know any of those.

So what are some of those basics?

Sikhi is a South Asian religion, meaning that it began and is rooted—geographically, linguistically, historically—in South Asia. Even more specifically, in Punjab—which Ilyse was keen to tell you is not the Punjab. It is just Punjab. We don’t say the New York. Punjabi is the language of this region, and in turn, the primary (though not exclusive) language of many Sikhs, and the primary (though not singular!) language of the Sikh holy text, the Guru Granth Sahib.

We talked about some of the basics like who founded Sikhi (Guru Nanak), what are some of the major ideas or characteristics of Sikhi (“ik onkar” “there is One God,” and sharing with others, earning an honest living, meditating on God’s name).  We listed the 5ks, which are:

  1. kesh, uncut hair, which is kept covered usually by a dastār, also known as a turban;

  2. kara, an iron or steel bracelet;

  3. kirpan, a dagger-like sword tucked into a gatra strap or a kamal kasar belt;

  4. kachera, a cotton undergarment; and

  5. kanga, a small wooden comb.

We talked about the discrimination Sikhs face, especially as the major visible feature of Sikhs—the turban some Sikhs choose to wear—is a marker of difference, and in some cases, Islam. (We talked about Islamophobia, and how our guest, Dr. Singh, asserts that Sikhs don’t throw Muslims under the bus.)

In addition to us talking about Dr. Singh’s Daily Show appearance, he talked about Sikhi practices, how the world religions model is not a neutral system because it ignores Sikhi. It is the 5th largest religion, demographically. It has features that we associate with “traditional” or “authentic” and “major” religions, like a (male) founder, a holy text, a physical space for gathering where prayer happens, garb, a holy language… all of those things, Dr. Singh argues, should let us see Sikhi in world religions textbooks, classes, and podcasts. And yet. Here we are.

Dr. Singh also dragged us with puns and jokes, as he is wont to do.

TL;DR: this episode did the following

  1. World religions is problematic AF—there is no way to think about the world religions paradigm as capable of ignoring the 5th largest religion and also assert that it is “a good system.”

  2. Sikhi demands and deserves our attention, systematically (like in institutions of higher and primary/secondary education) and as scholars of religion looking to know the most about how people make sense of this wild world we share.

Little Bit, Leave It

(the segment where we leave you with a little bit to remember)

Megan said that The World Religions Model and its BFF/partner-in-crime White European Christian Imperialism move the goalposts (that’s a Bend It like Beckham reference, you’re welcome).

Ilyse went ham on the first translation of the Sikh holy text, and how racist and horrible it was—and how it was translated so as to save it, since such a minor religion would not possibly survive modernity and colonialism. So, no wonder our system cannot accommodate Sikhi: it was assumed to be minor, dying, waning originally, and that indirect line of history feels visible here.

If you dont know, now you know

(the segment where we get one factoid)

Megan talked about gender equality and egalitarianism in Sikhi, which is her favorite. She named specifically Harnaam Kaur, a model who happens to be a woman with facial hair.


Homework!

(that’s right, nerds, there’s always more to learn)

Ilyse assigned:

Megan then also assigned:

Nerds of the Week!

Thanks for listening, rating and reviewing. This week’s nerds are: Anna and Jon Kara Shields, Confused Old Woman, & MHale85. You make our whole day.

sick of too many dad jokes