Summary of 'Liberating Sikhism From The Sikhs , Sikhisms Potential For World Civilization' By Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia 

Liberating Sikhism from 'the Sikhs' is a critique of the 20th century Sikh praxis correlative to the blueprint for a new praxis addressing the imperatives of the present century.

The main stereotypes of the now outdated 20th century Sikh praxis, embedded in the Sikh mind as unchangeable, all time valid categorical imperatives, have been identified by the author as under: coalescent, rather than differentiated, unity between miri and piri; symbiotic relationship between religious and political institutions; ascendancy of sikh clergy as a class exercising roles of exegesis, prescription of code of conduct, imposition of religious punishment; ex-communication; the functioning, as theocrats, of statutory mahants who replaced hereditary mahants, predomination of the existential concerns of the Sikhs over the uniiversal concerns of sikhism, and the concept  of sovereign self-expression of a community becoming determinate only in territorial dimension. It is liberation from such stereotyped Sikh praxis that the author , euphemistically, calls liberation of Sikhism from the Sikhs - a liberation from an obsolescent mindset; a liberation from the hardened dogma encrusting the spirit of sikhism; a liberation from the theonomy of the Takht clergy; a liberation from the Jekyll-and-Hyde type of leaders who well qualify as dramatis personae of the political theatre of the Absurd; a liberation from mushrooming sants emitting scented stinks; a liberation from 'pop intellectuals' of sikhism; a liberation from Sikh theologasters with sprinkling of sakhis; a liberation from Stupid Sikhs. Such a liberation, feels the author, is essential for realizing the elan vital of sikhism as a world religion.

The author further contends that the 21st century society and the third millennium world civilization would be different from the modern Western civilization on the one hand, and the 'global culture' being fostered by globalization of national economies, on the other hand. In this context, the author, perhaps, is the first scholar who looks upon globalization not simply as an economic dispensation, but more than that as an ideology-the most anti-redemptive ideology known to human history. This characteristic of globalization as an ideology has to be addressed on ideological level and it is here that the role of religio-political praxis becomes most significant. For Sikhism to play such a role for the redemption of society and state, for the evolution of a new world civilization, the author pleads for a new Sikh praxis emanating from re-interpreted Sikh doctrine, with balanced stress on the universal concerns of Sikhism and the existential concerns of the Sikhs.

About The Author of 'Liberating Sikhism From The Sikhs , Sikhisms Potential For World Civilization'

Dr. Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia is nationally and internationally recognized as a leading Sikh scholar and Punjabi writer, with over three dozen books, in Punjabi and English. He has been recognized in the history of Punjabi literature as a pioneer of a literary era known as the modernist phase. 

Dr. Ahluwalia has extensively lectured abroad on Indian Philosophy, Sikhism and Punjabi Literature since 1973 when he represented India at the P.E.N.'s International Writers Conference in Moscow. The University of California, Berkeley, invited him for a series of lectures in 2000. He was deputed, as one of the two observers from Punjab, to participate in the Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders at the U.N. headquarters in 2000. He served on the International Editorial Board of WORLD FAITHS ENCOUNTER, a journal of the World Congress of Faiths (U.K.), and has the distinction of being the only Indian taken on the panel of International Consultants for International Interfaith Centre, Oxford.

Dr. Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia has been playing leading ideological role in contemporary Sikh praxis. He served as member-secretary of the Drafting Committee, notified by the State Govt. in 1986, for preparing, afresh, the Draft of All India Sikh Gurdwaras Legislation.