Publications

The Spirit of Oriental Poetry

New edition of The Spirit of Oriental Poetry by Prof. Puran Singh was released by Naad Pargaas USA in the library hall of Gurdwara Mata Triptaji in Plymouth Michigan. Emphasizing the importance of aesthetics and art in developing creative forms of cultures, the idea to promote Śabda inspired culture was propounded during the launch of this book. Prof. Puran Singh who has authored many books in English and Punjabi has been instrumental in promoting such forms of art. The Spirit of Oriental poetry is his masterpiece, in which he discusses the literary traditions of the world, history, culture, and folk tales of Oriental societies.

While highlighting the importance of this book, Amandeep Singh, who has authored the introduction of this book, discussed different genres of poetry. He emphasized that the works of Puran Singh, who had a fine taste and acumen comparable to that of Tagore, Iqbal and Sri Aurobindo, require a revisit and productive engagement to develop rich tastes of literary arts. He noted that despite being an author of colonial age, Puran Singh maintained the idiom of literary currents of native spirit in his writings. 

 

AKĀL TAKHT - Revisting MIRI in Political Imagination

Providing insights into cultural practices, this book challenges predominant understandings that binds Sikhi to cultural imagination of Sikh society. Undertaking a few textual analysis, the author critically evaluates theoretical limitations of predominant accounts produced of history and critical theory. He evaluates how historical connections are established, rejuvenated and petrified in cultural understandings and many times divest Sikh doctrines of internal agency in its theorization. The book also evaluates academic discourses (like that of Harjot Oberoi, Arvind-Pal Mandair) and literary works of Harinder Singh Mehboob for making theoretical arguments.

Without displaying any over evaluations, this book, is an attempt to decolonize Sikhi from its internal constructions and contradictions especially in Punjabi society that circulates a deformed perception of Sikhi in everyday social behaviors, images, folk songs, literature, common pranks and other modes of cultural practices. Key features of this book become available through the nuances of challenges it offers to pre-set dispositions on colonizer-colonized relationship. This is indeed an enriching exposition that examines ontological ground of colonial relationships within the very body of colonized natives.

A good read for students and scholars of Post-coloniality, Religion and Critical theory.

Essays on Akal Takht – Tradition, History, and Conceptual Appraisals

Essays on Akal Takht – Tradition, History, and Conceptual Appraisals is a rare collection of seventeen important articles on the institution of Akal Takht. Serving as a brilliant introduction to Akal Takht, this book renders a wide range of historical, political, and doctrinal insights that have fundamentally influenced Sikh temporality. This concise volume offers intellectually stimulating discourse to trace different currents of political encounters in Sikh history and conceptuality. Postulating the institutional significance of Akal Takht, the book productively consolidates a rich account of temporality-spirituality relationship.

Amandeep Singh, the editor of this volume, has sutured a profoundly deductive analysis on dynamics of power and politics. Problematizing the authority of single sovereign in long standing debates around secularism and Indian theory of governance, the editor offers empirical investigation while revisiting the concept of dual sovereignty according to Sikh doctrines. He believes that the idea of dual sovereignty liberates Miri from ‘routine’ politics of Sikhs and enables a next step in the history and theory of governance. The commentary on routine politics, dual sovereignty, and Maryada, shall find interest with academic scholars and students of Sikh studies and religious philosophy.

Amandeep Singh is the author of Akal Takht: Revisiting Miri in Political Imagination and poetic prose Celestial Grace. His interests in Religion, Philosophy and Critical Theory spurred him to collect the essays inscribed in the current volume. He strongly believes that Sikh world view can illuminate with rigorous academic engagement on the institution of Akal Takht.