Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
296one attempts to find introduc tory texts on women and religion that inc lude Sikhism.
An overview indic at es an almost c omplet e lac k of t his t opic in important texts
published wit hin a 30-year span. Simply put, there is a dearth of sc holars of
Sikhism and women and an apparent lac k of interest in the study of Sikhism and
w o me n.
...Contextualizing the Interfaith Movement
The Sikh Case
...By and large, writings on women in Sikhism have tended to remain in the
realm of apologetic s, sc ripture, and history. The ‘golden age’ of Sikh women during
the Guru period is iterated and reiterated and scriptural passages highlighting
women’s equal ac c ess t o liberat ion along with injunc tions against women’s impurity
are c onsistently upheld. When the issue of inequality is raised, the raison d’être for
suc h inequalit ies is quic kly deflec t ed t o t he religious milieu surrounding Sikhism.
Upinder Jit Kaur notes that the disc repancies between the Sikh ideal and lived
reality have everything to do with the detrimental influenc e of Hinduism: ‘‘The right
of Sikh woman to equality with man was forec losed by the Hindu soc iety... She is
st ill a lesser person... t hough her lot is c omparat ively better than that of women
belonging t o ot her major Indian religions’’ (314–5). Others c ontinue this approac h
in noting that ‘‘the overwhelming Hindu and Islamic presenc e has over the
c enturies reinforc ed and even today c ontinues to reinforc e the patriarc hal values
whic h are diffic ult to break’’ (Kaur Singh, Feminine Princ iple 51).
These examples serve to show that there is an understanding of Sikhism as
ult imat ely liberat ing, t hat equalit y is generally underst ood as being t he root
experience of the religion through the teac hings of the Sikh Gurus,^12 but that the
fault of t he t radit ion’s dec line int o pat riarc hy lies wit h ot her t radit ions. T hus it is
‘the other’ that is the oppressor. From the perspective of interfaith dialogue, this
approach is problematic. O’Neill notes that at interfaith gatherings, when the
attitude of ‘blaming the other’ comes into play, dialogue has tended to break down
into ac c usation and reproac h, with partic ipants who are and represent ‘the other’
being denigrated (80–3). It would appear then that a move from apologetics and
blaming ot her t radit ions for misogynist ic at t it udes t owards dialogic al approac hes
has not yet taken plac e among Sikh sc holars and writers. This attitude is also
abundantly represented on the Internet. A c ommon approac h is to show the Sikh
tradition as unique in the history of religions with regard to the position of women.
Ac c ording t o one popular Sikh sit e,
A Sikh woman has equal rights to a Sikh man. Unlike Christianity, no post
in Sikhism is reserved solely for men. Unlike Islam, a woman is not
c onsidered subordinate to a man. Sikh baptism (Amrit c eremony) is open
to both sexes. The Khalsa nation is made up equally of men and women.
A Sikh woman has the right to bec ome a Granthi, Ragi, one of the Panj
Pyare (5 beloved) ... Christian women must c hange their names after
marriage. T he c onc ept of maiden and married names is alien t o Sikh
philosophy. (Institute of Sikh Studies)