Sikhism: A Guide for the Perplexed

Reviews / Votes

Sikhism - A Guide for the Perplexed is an insightful and well-crafted introduction to the study of Sikhism as a dynamic and internally fluid tradition. Mandair offers a novel approach in this introductory text that avoids the common pitfalls of historicism and that denaturalizes the tendency to frame Sikhi as purely religious experience within the parameters of the secular-religious binary. Focusing on key issues that reflect what animates Sikh activity and the lived experiences of Sikhs today, Mandair is able to achieve what might seem incommensurable objectives: introducing novices to a field of study, while challenging those already engaged in Sikh Studies with new insights and perspectives. Intriguing and at times provocative, this text will without doubt stand out among introductory texts to Sikhism for its interdisciplinary format, its success in engaging readers intellectually, and its capacity to actively relate ideas from the history and philosophy of religion in a way in which the encounter between these disciplines and Sikhi as an emerging philosophy and way of life remains always in sight. -- Michael Nijhawan, Associate Professor of Sociology, York University, Canada