Sikhism and Postmodern Thought by Gurbhagat Singh

This book explores the link between Sikhism and postmodernism. Both, attack all kinds of determinism and totalitarianism. While postmodern thinkers like Bataille, Foucault, Derrida, Lyotard, Deleuze, Guattari, Boudieu, Rorty, Geertz, Irigaray have, through their works, attacked the epistemic rationalist enterprise of the West that eliminates the difference of the Other/Subject. The main challenge before the postmodernism was to liberate the subject and the human beings from all types of Oedipal. The Sikh Gurus, although their texts were written in a different period in which the sultan/emperor was the central governing figure, evolved the concept of Sahaja to liberate the individuals from the Oedipal or the despotic ruler. To counter the territorializing strategies of then dominant classes, the Gurus established a God who is creative, libidinal and wonderous, is not a rational sign. The Gurus’ collective effort was not only transforming individual psyche, but transforming a cultural psyche from repression to celebrative of other’s difference. For this the Guru used multiple strategies. This work traces the central themes of postmodernism and Sikhism: liberation of humankind and living in co-existential/sahaja of others difference.

• Sikh Philosophy

ENG- English

• Hardcover