During the Sikh youth camps held in North America for the past 15 years, we have been bombarded with multitudes of questions about our religion. The Sikh Faith for Youth in the form of questions and answers is the need of the hour as it took care of all of the questions raised by the youth in a systematic manner. The author, Dr. Gurbakhsh Singh, has done a wonderful job in answering all these questions in the light of Gurbani and Sikh Reht Maryada.
Sikhism, ever since its existence, has been un-der constant threat of being absorbed back into the Hindu fold by those who never wanted Sikhs to exist as a separate entity. Sikh Gurus effectively eradicated the caste system which made the foundation of the fabric of Brahmanical society for centuries. Many religious and political analysts have warned us from time to time about the hostility of the Hindu majority com-munity towards others in India, but the chapters of the books which give the details of all the analyses are lying somewhere in the libraries or national archives, and most Sikhs do not even know that such material exists.
As early as 1899, Max Arthur MacCauliffe, in the preface of his book, The Sikh Religion, has very rightfully remarked, "A movement to declare the Sikhs as Hindus in direct opposition to the teachings of the Gurus is wide spread and of long duration."
In 1911, Mr. D. Petrie of the Criminal Intelligence, British Government of India, in his report on the development of Sikh politics indicated, "The activities of Hindus have, therefore, been constantly directed to the undermining of Sikhism both by preventing the children of Sikh fathers from taking Pahul (Amrit) and by reducing professed Sikhs from their allegiance to their faiths. Hinduism has strangled Buddhism, once a formidable rival to it, and it has made serious inroads into the domain of Sikhism".
Therefore Sikh youth, on whose shoulders lies the major responsibility of maintaining Sikhism in its original form, must have a proper understanding of their religion. This book will act as a catalyst to develop incentive in the Sikh youth to study the vast amount of Sikh literature and get intellectually armed to face those who are out to destroy the religious life of the Sikhs and others in North America.
This book has been prepared in response to a deeply felt need of Sikh youth to know about their faith and practices. Sikh children who live in North America are confronted daily with what they perceive to be a set of unjustifiable and unresolved contradictions. These confrontations arise both from within and from outside. When Sikh youth interact with other youth raised in western cultures and beliefs, they are obligated to ex-plain many beliefs and practices of their Indian-born parents. Curiosity about their faith arises naturally, be-cause their living styles and cultural practices often differ from those of their peers. Another factor that promotes questioning about their beliefs is the nature of contemporary education of Sikh youth. In their schools, young Sikhs are given westernized education, which is most modern in its scope and methodology. It is a western tradition to inculcate in the young mind the skills of reasoning and the attitudes of seeking factual information. They are encouraged not to shy away from asking challenging questions.
Traditional questions: It is obvious that Sikh youth develop a lot of curiosity and questions about every aspect of their life in which belief in the religion of their parents ranks high. However, there is little effort by our traditional institutions to provide answers to their inquiries. As a result, it is feared that they may rebel against their religion. This phenomenon is not peculiar to Sikh youth but is being observed in every community today. To leave the young mind in a state of doubt is a dangerous precedent. Community leaders are increasingly alarmed over the growing indifference of youth towards religion. Talking of Christianity, Tom Harper, a Christian theologian of the Toronto Star observes in his book, For Christ's Sake: Christianity may well be thriving in parts of Africa and Asia today, but in the West, Christian faith is eroding at an alarming rate Secular humanism is fast becoming the prevailing "religion" of the Western world. For instance, it is no longer true to describe either Canada or England as a Christian country, since the vast majority of their respected populations have no traditional ties with any religious body (the Church of England alone has closed nine hundred churches since 1974). Add to this the fact that only a small fraction of children and young people now receive any religious instruction whatever, and the prognosis for the year 2000 looks very bleak indeed but no amount of technical sophistication will avail unless the message itself makes sense.
The youth, not satisfied with the available sources of knowledge about their faith, feel torn be-tween loyalty to tradition and a lack of understanding of the tradition. Confronted with these situations, some Sikh youth have already begun to question many of their beliefs and practices. This is not because they wish to discard these beliefs but often simply because they need the answers to increase their understanding and pride in their beliefs. They ask straight and honest questions. They seek answers from their preachers, their parents and their teachers. Some of these questions might have rarely occurred to their Indian-trained preachers and Indian-born parents.
Hindu (935)
Agriculture (118)
Ancient (1086)
Archaeology (753)
Architecture (563)
Art & Culture (910)
Biography (702)
Buddhist (544)
Cookery (167)
Emperor & Queen (565)
Islam (242)
Jainism (307)
Literary (896)
Mahatma Gandhi (372)
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