Researcher ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3597-5353
Graduation Year
2022
Date of Submission
12-2022
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Award
Best Senior Thesis in Religious Studies
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Science and Management
Second Department
Religious Studies
Reader 1
Gaston Espinosa
Reader 2
Daniel Michon
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2022 Samrath S Machra
Abstract
This thesis deals with how a religious community shapes itself in the face of powerful external pressures. It explores ways the Sikh religion (code, creed, and cultus) was influenced by its encounters with the British Empire and in process, gave birth to a new combinative tradition. This paper will look at where the Sikh people located themselves during the Colonial period, to understand Colonialism’s imprint on the Sikh tradition. It traces the thread of contact throughout Sikh history and argues that British contact resulted in religious and cultural exchanges which reoriented Sikh creed, code, and cultus. The resulting combinative tradition centered itself on the construction of religious boundaries and a normative Sikh theology.
Recommended Citation
Machra, Samrath S., "Sikhs and Colonialism: A Study of Religious Identity Across Time from Guru Nanak to the British Raj" (2022). CMC Senior Theses. 3158.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/3158
Included in
History of Religions of Eastern Origins Commons, Other Religion Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons
