Interrogating the Experience of Quaker Scholars in Hindy and Sikh Studies: Spiritual Journeying and Academic Engagement

Quaker Studies Volume 14 | Issue 2 Article 2 2010 Interrogating the Experience of Quaker Scholars in Hindy and Sikh Studies: Spiritual Journeying and Academic Engagement Eleanor Nesbitt University of Warwick, Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/quakerstudies Part of the Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, and the History of Christianity Commons Recommended Citation Nesbitt, Eleanor (2010) "Interrogating the Experience of Quaker Scholars in Hindy and Sikh Studies: Spiritual Journeying and Academic Engagement," Quaker Studies: Vol. 14: Iss. 2, Article 2. Available at: http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/quakerstudies/vol14/iss2/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Quaker Studies by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact . QUAKER STUDIES 14/2 (2010) (134-158] ISSN 1363-013X INTERROGATING THE EXPERIENCE OF Q UAKER SCHOLARS IN HINDU AND SIKH STUDIES: SPIRITUAL JOURNEYING AND ACADEMIC ENGAGEMENT Eleanor Nesbitt University of Warwick, England ABSTRACT This article reports a recent investigation of the relationship between the spiritual and academic journeys of seven scholars whose fields involve the study of aspects of Sikh and/or Hindu faith. Several frameworks for the study are suggested, including Quaker encounter with Indic religions; the changing nature of social diversity; and the insider/outsider discussion in religious studies. Discussion of their experience highlights the participants' faith background and promptings to attend a Quaker Meeting for Worship as well as the initial impetus to their academic specialism, their guiding values and their self-identification. Multiple connections between the two journeys' emerge-not least the convergence between participants' values and the Quaker testimonies-and this 'career coherence ' illustrates an emergent emphasis in literature on the role of spirituality in career development. KEYW ORD S Hindu, Sikh, spirituality, inter-faith, career, Buddhism, testimonies, truth, peace, equality MAPPING OUT WHAT F OLLOWS An alternative title for this article, which is a longer version of the George Richard son Lecture given atWoodbrooke Quaker Study Centre on 3 October 2009, would be 'Truth, Peace and Non-violence, Equality, Service and Spirituality: Convergences between Personal Faith and Academic Practice'. But that is to pre-empt my findings. On 6 May 2009 in its regular 'Face to Faith' column, Th e Guardian published a piece on the Ravidassia movement, a dalit religious movement which is variously defined as being Hindu and as being Sikh (Lum 2009) .1 I start with this article for two reasons. First, the author, Kathryn Lum, is described as being 'a Quaker' as well as'an anthropologist'. Second, the 'Hindu and Sikh studies' of my title are not two discrete fields but a continuous field, and the Ravidassia (or Ravidasi) movement 158] �NCE OF QUAKER SCHOLARS S: SPIRITUALJOURNEYING ENGAGEMENT "Jesbitt rwick, England .ACT elationship between the spiritual and academic 1e study of aspects of Sikh and/or Hindu faith. :luding Quaker encounter with Indic religions; msider/outsider discussion in religious studies. ticipants' faith background and promptings to he initial impetus to their academic specialism, lultiple connections between the two 'journeys' :ipants' values and the Quaker testimonies-and phasis in literature on the role of spirituality in )RDS hism, testimonies, truth, peace, equality THAT F OLLOW S a longer version of the George Richard Study Centre on 3 October 2009, would :y, Service and Spirituality: Convergences tice'. But that is to pre-empt my findings. �aith' column, Th e Guardian published a ' religious movement which is variously (Lum 2009). 1 I start with this article for 1., is described as being 'a Quaker' as well and Sikh studies' of my title are not two the Ravidassia (or Ravidasi) movement NESBITT QUAKER SCHOLARS IN HINDU AND SIKH STUDIES 135 which Lum featured (see Takhar 2005) is one of the communities in North India, and in the European diaspora, including theWest Midlands region of the UK, which highlight the arbitrariness of attempting to draw firm boundary lines between sup posedly discrete religions with the names of 'Hinduism' and 'Sikhism' (see Ballard 1999; Geaves 1998; Nesbitt 1991, 2005). I should also clarity right away that the 'Hindu and Sikh studies' of my title are both multi- and inter-disciplinary: they encompass the work of specialists not only in religious studies but also in anthro pological and sociological research on Hindu and Sikh communities as well as scholarship adopting historical, theological and philosophical approaches. To return to the matter of Lum's identification as 'a Quaker' in Th e Guardian : other scholars of religion, too, have seen fit to inform their readers of either their current Quaker allegiance or (in the case of Paul Heelas in his introduction to his book on the New Age Movement) their Quaker upbringing (Heelas 1996: 10) . Kim Knott, who is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Leeds, entitled the first chapter of her book, Hinduism : A Very Sh ort Introducti on (1998) , 'The Scholar and the Devotee'. Here she set out the importance of recognising how the back grounds and viewpoints of the authors of books on Hinduism affect what they write. Accordingly, she explained that she is a 'woman scholar', 'a white British person' and 'Additionally, I am a Quaker by religion, not a Hindu' (1998: 5). Similarly, and in the interests of transparency, in the methodology chapter of my study of 'the reli gious lives of Sikh children' I mentioned my 'Quaker commitment' (Nesbitt 2000: 37) , and in the introduction to a publication which brings together a number of my studies of young people in various Hindu and Sikh UK communities, I mentioned that 'For over 30 years I have been part of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) ' (Nesbitt 2004: 6) . Why did we do it? Knott seemed to be acknowledging the importance of her readers knowing that she was not Hindu, rather than to be claiming any particular relevance for being Quaker as compared with being, say, Methodist or Buddhist. At the same time her statement that 'what I have written is not intentionally influenced by my own religious identity' (1998: 5) might be an admission that there is the likelihood or the possibility of an unintentional influence, and so an indication that readers should read her work in the light of it. The relationship between individuals' cultural backgrounds, their values and their career choices and trajectories is complex. Commentators on distinguished scholars increasingly see fit to identity connections. For forty years the central concern of the American South Asianist, Eleanor Zelliot, has been 'bringing the condition of oppressed people in Sou (...truncated)