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How to Initiate New Sikh Studies Programs:
The Making of a Sikh Scholar, Part VI

SIKHCHIC.COM

What makes a scholar? And what goes into the making of a Sikh scholar?

This series on sikhchic.com explores these very questions by looking closely at the life of one particular Sikh scholar. The subject selected for the purpose of this examination is Arvind-Pal Singh Mandair.

The following is Part VI in the series.
 

READERS' QUESTIONS

A reader has posed the following question(s) for Dr Arvind-Pal Singh:
 
Last fall my son started at Stony Brook University ("SBU"), New York, USA. SBU has a well-funded Asian studies department (thanks to Charles Wang). The department offers many courses in the various religions and languages of Asia. However, it saddened me to see not a single course in Sikh studies or Punjabi or Gurbani, even though SBU has a sizeable number of Sikh students. And when I brought this to the attention of a professor during open house, I got no response except, 'Yes, we should have one'. My question is how can we as parents/community members get SBU to offer Sikhi/Punjabi related courses?



Dr ARVIND-PAL SINGH:

I see two aspects to this question.

The first relates to Stony Brook University specifically.

The second aspect has to do with a more general problem of how parents and community members could or should approach colleges in order to get them to offer Sikh/Punjabi courses.

First of all, don’t assume that just any college or university will be interested in putting on Sikh studies classes. These days most colleges are faced with the very real and unenviable problem of having to cut programs and faculty. And it is usually the Arts and Humanities that get cut first and most deeply.

Because Sikhs are such a small minority in the US, and because there is still an amazing degree of ignorance about them (especially in the US) even in the higher education sector, it would be little more than wishful thinking to assume that colleges would be prepared to put in any of their own resources for something like this.

Having said that, colleges like SBU might be something of an exception to the rule, for the simple reason that SBU does indeed have a sizeable number of Sikh students enrolled at the university. Most come from the wider New York area and SBU has attractive medical and other professional programs which attracts Sikhs to send their children there.

I say that SBU is an exception to the rule for another reason. That’s because SBU did actually offer a course in Sikhism some years ago, without the community having put any resources in. The last (and to my knowledge) only time that SBU did this was back in the Fall of 2004.

I remember that because I was approached to teach that particular course in Sikhism by the Asian Studies department. I was teaching at Hofstra at the time.

From what I understand, the thinking of the authorities was that if the Sikhism class was successful it might spur on the community to collect resources for a formal Sikh Studies program at SBU, much like Hofstra had done in 2000.

Hofstra has far fewer Sikh students than SBU, so it was a perfectly feasible idea.

As it happened the Sikhism class at SBU was very successful indeed.

At very short notice, and without any real advertising, it still picked up around 35 students out of which 28 were from a Sikh or Punjabi background, the rest were non-Sikh. There were also several people from the community whom I allowed to sit in the class.

It was a great class – the students really loved the course. In fact many of them petitioned the department for a re-run of the course. Several out of that group of students continued to study in the humanities and at least two went on to do graduate work that is in some way related to Sikhs and Sikhism.

So the potential is definitely there.

The question remains, however, as to why SBU stopped putting on the Sikhism course, especially when the feedback from students was so positive, and the enrolment was relatively high?

Again, I think there were two main reasons for this.

First, the resources from the community weren’t forthcoming and there was no real enthusiasm from the people who were approached.

Secondly, and to tell you the truth -- this is just my gut instinct speaking here -- I think there was some sort of internal politics going on in the Asian studies department. You see, SBU had an India Studies Center whose mandate it was (and still is, I guess) to teach courses in Sanskrit and Indian culture.

My feeling is that the Sikhism class may have pulled prospective students away from these classes and so the authorities may have decided not to continue with it.

I did in fact offer to re-teach the Sikhism class a year later (at the behest of the Sikh students) but the department never responded enthusiastically, and in any case, by 2006 I had moved out of New York.

Let me now turn to the more general problem I mentioned earlier.

Basically what if there were other colleges like SBU that have a decent enrolment of Sikh students and could support a Sikhism maybe once a year? [There are indeed a large number of institutions across the continent that fit the bill.]

How should one move forward on this?

The obvious thing to do is to go and see either the Dean or the Head of the Asian studies department. Just having a conversation at an open house won’t be enough.

Go with a small delegation containing at least one person who has experience in the university sector. Try and open up a conversation using the demographic potential for a Sikhism class as a starting point (I assume from your question that you may have already tried this, but it doesn’t hurt to try again, only this time accompanied by a team of people rather than doing it on a one-to-one basis).

As I said earlier, in the current economic climate, you’ll need much more than demographic data to keep the Dean or head of department’s attention.

There has to be a promise of funding for the course - funding that would allow the department to hire a qualified scholar or experienced researcher to teach the course.

That’s the bare minimum.

If you can get process this far, you’re already doing great!

To take the idea seriously, however, the college or university will actually want to see firm evidence of a larger funding source, possibly enough to endow a position in perpetuity. That would be the ultimate aim and, as the history of Sikh studies in North America has shown, its always better if that kind of resource could come from individuals or foundations that have, (a) the financial muscle to endow a position, and (b) a firm and abiding commitment to the study of Sikhism in the West.

Going back to the case of SBU, I don’t think this case is likely to be unique. There are many other colleges where there may be competing interests between Sikhs and the broader Indian community which has added political clout behind it connected to Indian interests.

My suggestion would be to tread carefully. Try to get what you want by being as diplomatic as possible and certainly without getting into rhetorical spats that might give the impression that Sikhs have a narrow siege mentality.

May 21, 2013

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