The Sikh Times - Book Reviews - Sikhs Must Learn to Encourage Critical Scholarship

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Sikhs Must Learn to Encourage Critical Scholarship
By PUNEET SINGH LAMBA

The Sikh Times, Dec. 17, 2003

Photo: Surprisingly, I am not able to find a picture of this book cover in the public domain.

Mann, along with several other scholars (including G.B. Singh, W.H. McLeod, Pashuara Singh, Piar Singh and Harjot Oberoi), has been the recipient of much unfair criticism for authoring scholarship that dares to run counter to Sikh tradition.

Sikhs desperately need to realize that scholarship is of little value unless it is free to disagree with tradition.

The hostility with which scholars of Sikh studies have been greeted every time they deviate from tradition threatens to repel scholars of repute from the area of Sikh studies. Sadly, such a trend is already visible today.

I feel that both Sikhs (especially future generations) and the area of Sikh studies can only benefit from scholarly critique, investigation, and treatment of Sikh scripture and related documents.

Mann is a respected emerging scholar in the field of Sikh studies (he has a post-graduate degree from Harvard and a doctorate from Columbia) and deserves to be read.