Person
Harjot Oberoi
Historian of South Asian religion, retired from the University of British Columbia, whose 1994 book on the Sikh tradition remains among the most debated works in Sikh studies.
Harjot Oberoi is a historian of South Asian religious and social history and a retired professor in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia, according to the university. He studied history at Delhi University, took his MA and MPhil at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and earned his PhD at the Australian National University, where his dissertation won the J. G. Crawford Prize in 1987.
The book. He is best known for The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity, and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition, published by the University of Chicago Press in 1994. The Press summarises its argument this way: early Sikh tradition did not seek to draw firm religious boundaries, most Sikhs held overlapping local, regional, religious and secular identities, and in the late nineteenth century the Singh Sabha movement, supported by British colonial rule, viewed this diversity with suspicion and worked to standardise Sikh practice. UBC lists a Best First Book award from the American Academy of Religion among his honours.
The dispute. The book divided its readers. Wikipedia lists W. H. McLeod, T. N. Madan and Tony Ballantyne among those who praised it, and quotes the sociologist Surinder Jodhka calling it highly controversial within the Sikh community, though many consider it a landmark study of Sikh history. ABC Bookworld reported that it angered traditional Sikh groups, who hold that their faith is unique. Wikipedia's article on Sikh studies adds that some parties denounced his methodology and campaigned for his removal from his post, citing Pashaura Singh and N. Gerald Barrier's 1996 book on the Sikh diaspora.
Key moments
- 1987: his Australian National University dissertation wins the J. G. Crawford Prize.
- 1994: The Construction of Religious Boundaries is published.
What he is known for. He is known for the argument that Sikh identity was not drawn with sharp boundaries until the Singh Sabha period. That is the argument on which traditional Sikh groups, according to ABC Bookworld, objected.
Sources
- Harjot Oberoi, Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia. asia.ubc.ca
- The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity, and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition, University of Chicago Press. press.uchicago.edu
- Harjot Oberoi, Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org
- Sikh studies (Controversies), Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org
- Harjot Oberoi author page, ABC Bookworld. abcbookworld.com