Book Review: “Sikh Philosophy: Exploring gurmat Concepts in a Decolonizing World”

Abstract

Though there has been significant study of Sikhism in contemporary Western academia, the prospects for engaging with Sikhism from a philosophical perspective have largely been ignored. The limited literature that is explicitly about Sikh philosophy has almost exclusively been written by scholars in Punjab, whose writing has largely been ignored by Western audiences even when written in English. Arvind-Pal Singh Mandair’s “Sikh Philosophy: Exploring gurmat Concepts in a Decolonizing World” seeks to intervene by providing, as the book’s description says, “the first rigorous engagement in the West with Sikh philosophy.” In writing about Sikh philosophy for a Western audience, Mandair has undertaken an important and valuable project.