The Sikhs in the 18th Century
The Sikhs in the eighteenth-century went through multiple cycles of violence. They were against a force of law that felt religiously obligated in dehumanizing the other. Since the Sikhs were the most distinguishable and the most defiant other, the Mughal establishment imposed a virtual ban on identifying as a Sikh. Despite the brutal violence that often advanced into genocides, the Sikhs managed to keep their integrity and identity intact and continue the struggle to establish their sovereignty.
The Sikhs in the eighteenth-century went through multiple cycles of violence. They were against a force of law that felt religiously obligated in dehumanizing the other. Since the Sikhs were the most distinguishable and the most defiant other, the Mughal establishment imposed a virtual ban on identifying as a Sikh. Despite the brutal violence that often advanced into genocides, the Sikhs managed to keep their integrity and identity intact and continue the struggle to establish their sovereignty. The Sikhs were successful as they established their rule during the eighteenth-century and they failed and lost their sovereignty by mid nineteenth-century. The roots of both the success and failure of the Sikhs can be located in the eighteenth-century history. Focusing on primary textual and historical sources, this course will analyze the role the historical consciousness and the historiographical approaches of the previous historians in constructions of the Sikh past. During the course, we’ll read through primary sources to develop a fresh account of the historical events. Simultaneously, we shall explore what do those events signify. Why did the Sikhs prefer to identify as Sikhs while death or Islam were the only options? What makes adherents of one religion prefer death over converting to another religion? In this context, how do we make sense of the idea of religion and the role it plays in emergence of cultural formation? How do discursive formations influence the process of history-making? How do we understand the conflicts between religious and discursive formations?
This course will be an interdisciplinary attempt to explore above question with reference to history, study of religion, philosophy, psychoanalysis, and literature. The course will offer a parallel analysis of theoretical and methodological commitments of a modern historian and the poetics of Sikh historiography we have traced in a variety of literary and historical works.
The course will be taught in English.
*Image Coutesy: Central Sikh Museum, Amritsar
summer 2024
Start Date: Sat 18 May 2024
Time: Saturday 1 PM - 4 PM PST
Lecturer: Prabhsharandeep Singh
Prabhsharandeep Singh is a Sikh scholar whose research involves areas such Sikh Studies, Study of Religions, Religious Experience, Religion and Literature, Religion and Violence, Postcolonial Theory, Intellectual History, and Continental Philosophy. He has Masters in English (Punjabi University), Masters in Study of Religions (SOAS, University of London), DPhil cand. (University of Oxford). He writes poetry in Punjabi and English. He has recently published a collection of Punjabi poetry titled Des Nikala that has poems on the themes such as exile, memory, trauma, time, and language.
Land Acknowledgment
We acknowledge and respect the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, on which the Vancouver Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies operates. We honour and recognize these nations as the true stewards of this land and are grateful to have the opportunity to work, study, and learn on this territory.