Postcolonial and Postmodern Perspectives on Sikhism

Socio-Onomastics of Distorted Names: Nicknaming Practices among Punjabi Speakers in Pakistan

“…Also revealed in this study, given wider process of civic and interfaith engagement underlying the nursery's creation, was the ways in which the production of ideas involved alternate leanings towards western religious and secular civic discourse. The resultant espousing and abandoning of conventional translations such as 'religion', 'faith' echo an ambivalence captured in the recent scholarly usage of a hybridized 'Sikh(ism)', where a qualitative, indigenous notion of 'Sikhi' is seen to be latent within more established modern/colonial constructions of 'Sikhism' (Mandair 2013;Bhogal 2014). Reflected in the emergence of such ideas is the distinction made by Ahluwalia (2011) between Sikh diasporic identities which have been forged in an 'age of colonization' and those which are being forged in an 'age of globalization'.…”

“…Ethnographic studies of preschools in three cultures (Tobin et al, 1989(Tobin et al, , 2009, and research by Gupta (2006) May (1999) contrasts this interest in cultural frameworks with the postmodern focus on 'cultural fragments ' (4.3.4), where the latter can potentially undermine group efforts to develop bodies of knowledge as a basis for transformative interaction, exchange and adaptation. Bhogal's (2014) view of Gurbani reflecting a 'pluriversal' exchange which 'tends towards interdependent networks' (contrasting notions of a kind of 'universalism' which 'tends towards totalitarianism') seems pertinent in this vision to enable cultural exchange in ideas (more so than commodities). Bhai Sahib and B. Kaur stressed the need for exchange between community/professional, religious/secular, commercial/third sector and other contrasting networks, to get past entrenched thinking in different camps and 'ignore nobody'.…”

“…His use of a hybridized Sikhi(sm) makes visible the distinction, accepts a historical condition and allows for new dynamics between the two framings. The idea of reanimating a Sikhi resting latent in modern/colonial constructions of 'Sikhism' is further developed byBhogal (2014) in his discussion of postcolonial and postmodern perspectives on the tradition.…”

‘The Home Beyond Home’: Dr. Balbinder S. Bhogal in conversation with Dr. Sunny Dhillon

“…I just thought "this is Protestant Christianity. It's a mimesis of Protestant Christianity: monotheism, morality, modernity, rationalism, scientific dogma" (Bhogal 2010;2014;2015).…”