By Karminder Singh | Opinion |
Amidst a variety of things the Sikh world excels in, it also has a penchant for wasting resources. Two phenomena on which the Sikh world has continued to squander enormous energy, time and resources are discussed in this issue through two separate essays. The first is Nagar Kirtan and the second involves certain activities related to demands for Sikh Sovereignty.
Since Nagar Kirtan is categorized as Parchar, it needs to be stated at the outset that Parchar is not being critiqued – the effectiveness of Nagar Kirtan is. While our sangats and Sikh youngsters especially are in dire need of the most basic of Gurbani and Gurmat knowledge and on the verge of declaring their faith as outdated and irrelevant to their lives; our community is bent on educating people about Sikhi out in the city’s commercial areas, places frequented by tourists or other parade grounds. What is being critiqued is the chaos that accompanies the Nagar Kirtan – the inconsiderate parking, throwing of rubbish everywhere, acting loud, walking on anybody’s lawn and disregarding all rules – to the extent of drawing the ire of the local communities.
SEE ALSO: Nagar Kirtan in the Modern World: Faith, Visibility, and the Limits of Public Procession
SEE ALSO: Nagar Kirtan Beyond India: Faith in Motion or a Misplaced Idea?
Similarly, since Sikh demands for sovereignty are presented as being grounded in Sikh faith, history and culture, it also needs to be stated that none of these elements are the subject of a critique here. Political struggle or collective aspiration is not being critiqued either. What is being critiqued is sovereignty that is imagined entirely as control over land, institutions, or symbols. Such sovereignty rearranges domination under a different banner; replacing one master with another. What is being critiqued is the demand for power, borders, or recognition while remaining inwardly enslaved. This is a shallow ambition. It is shallow because without inner sovereignty, political sovereignty is fragile, easily corrupted, and easily lost.
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Sikh thinker, writer and parcharak Karminder Singh Dhillon, PhD (Boston), is a retired Malaysian civil servant. He is the joint-editor of The Sikh Bulletin and author of The Hijacking of Sikhi. (This article, entitled ‘Excelling And Squandering – The Paradox Of The Sikh World’, appeared as the editorial in The Sikh Bulletin, January – March 2026, Volume 28 Number 1. Click here to retrieve archived copies of the bulletin. The author can be contacted at dhillon99@gmail.com.
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