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Need help with School essay-uni level


DarshaPyasi1984
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Some Background Info which could be skipped-

Sangat Ji I am in grade 11 and in the IB programme in Ontario, Canada. It is basically a program meant to prepare one for university. An important part of finishing the IB program and getting the special diploma they give is writing this extended essay(EE). It is a 4,000  word essay, and is supposed to be professional like at unversity kind of level. They gave us access to many online databases that maybe some of you in university use like JSTOR, which we are supposed to find research on our topic to use to write it. You also need a supervisor who specializes in your topic or subject who can help you write a good essay. The big problem is, I cannot narrow down to a good topic. I found a conditional supervisor. Basically, they agreed to supervise my essay if I can find more research on a topic and make more personal to me as a Sikh. My current topic which I proposed to this conditional supervisor was basically: How does asian culture influence modern american television? (I kept the question here short and simple but the actual one is just more wordy and detailed).My supervisor is a religion and human sciences or social sciences kind of specialist. The Supervisor asked which tv shows I would look at. I said Avatar the Last Airbender, and the Simpsons as these shows have asian culture influence. However she asked me how does it relate to Sikhi, and how does it relate to me? It does not really, not from what I can think even now and now I am thinking of changing my topic to a more Sikhi or personal based one. I wanted to make a sikhi based one before, but I thought it would be awkard trying to explain to my supervisor and writing an essay on the whole struggle and events of 1984 as that is something sikhi based and personal that I could definitely talk about. However, the problem is that it is difficult to find sources on this. Also, I can't think of an essay question or point to prove or something to show by writing this essay which relates to the subjects the supervisor specialiszes in like religion or human science or social anthropolgy.

 

The problem and questoin

I was thinking of writing something about Sant Jarnail  singhJji Khalsa Bhindranwale and sikhs in that time. Something to throw in the face of the kind of people who say sant ji is a terrorist or that the movement was violent and was a terrorist movement with Kharku singhs, or Khalistanis speratists etc. and the list goes on. However, i don't how I would put this into some kind of question or something that could e investigated, along the subjects of human sciences religion anthropolgy or social sciences as stated above let alone how awkard it would be trying to explain to the catholic supervisor at my catholic school about the government of India and terrorism. Then I also have to find "reputable" research from these databases and the information and journals that come up when looking for this kind of information is usually written by the real extremists associated with Indian govt, as most of you know. If i go on jstor or academic one file and type operation bluestar these are the kinds of things that show up:

From academic one file full link

http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.torontopubliclibrary.ca/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T003&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=2&docId=GALE|A6515194&docType=Article&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=&prodId=AONE&contentSet=GALE|A6515194&searchId=R1&userGroupName=tplmain&inPS=true

Short para from there- 

HOLY WAR AGAINST INDIA It is one of the grimmer and more ironic developments of the late twentieth century: religion, which is on the whole a benign force in Western societies, often combines combustibly with nationalism to fuel political murder in the Third World. In India, for example, the teachings of a militant guru are used to justify the atrocities committed by Sikh terrorists in their campaign to dismember the nation and establish "Khalistan"

Continued Benti from here

I cannot find academic sources that this essay requires me to base my facts on like how the army trained to invade Darbar sahib before sant ji lived on the complex, or how out of the 6000 people who gathered during the week of the attack, only a handfew survived, despite the government claiming otherwise, and etc. and the list goes on as to so many evidences against the government which are somehow magically hidden on these "reputable" sources. I could write a b.s essay on asian culture influence in tv shows like avatar the last airbender to argue that success from tv shows can arise from different cultures and dont neccessarily have to be "white" culture. I was also considering writing an essay in my opinion that Sikhi is the greatest religion and comparing it to other religions and I think it would be easier to find  reputable evidence  for this. However, I am not sure whether my supervisor would approve of this topic as it is my opinon and is obviously biased as I am a sikh, but I dont think she would have a problem specializing in it as it all about religion. But again, how would I put in a question form or as a thesis, that sikhi is the greatest religion in a "professional manner" as this essay should have.

I am sorry, this a longer topic but i am completely lost with this and I am going to India soon and need to get this cleared with my supervisor before I do which is in about 2 weeks after all my final exams coming next week and final assignments from TOK which is basically a philoshophy class in IB. Thanks for your time and patience. Time spent writing this that could have been spent studying for exams: 1h45min

btw- I posted this on sikh awareness to try to get more response

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21 minutes ago, DarshaPyasi1984 said:

I was thinking of writing something about Sant Jarnail  singhJji Khalsa Bhindranwale and sikhs in that time.

Extremely bad idea, in my opinion. First of all, you're asking strangers to side with you in a militant fight against an established government, one which was ostensibly democratically elected in, as they say, the "largest democracy in the world". When people think of India, they think it's the land of spirituality and non-violence and Gandhi. Anybody who would opposed the elected government of such a country is automatically suspect.

So you'd be swimming upstream right from the start.

You simply don't have the ability in 4000 words to refute all possible objections. You also don't have space to relate why the Sikhs should be viewed as relatable or favored figures. The spirituality of the Gurus or good works done by the Sikhs (charity, langar, helping the poor, digging wells, stopping Islamic invasions). Even if you were to demonstrate that the Indian government "started it", and the Sant was only responding to the invasion of Darbar Sahib, readers of your essay still won't know why the Sant was opposed to the government in the first place.

So then you'd have to get into the entire story of the Sikhs' grievances, the level of water available in the Indus river basin, Haryana being or not being in the Indus river system or the Jamuna river basin, water requirements, etc., etc. You only have 4000 words.

What's strange to me is their insistence that your essay have to do with you as a Sikh. Why should that be? Can't Sikhs do research on non-Sikh topics? There's a famous Jewish historian named Bernard Lewis who does research on Islam. According to IB, he shouldn't do so, and should just stick to Judaism?

If I were you, I'd do something completely unrelated to Sikhism, like say economic development in Latin American dictatorships in the 2nd half of the 20th century. Doing it on Sikhism (in the topic you proposed) seems like a way to get yourself labeled as a budding Sikh terrorist, not a good idea in the current climate.

If they insist on you doing something related to your "background", can't you ask that the background be expanded? Why does it have to be about your religion, can't it be in relation to the fact that you're an Indian? What about doing the essay on the Kaveri river dispute in southern India? If you do that, you can get your digs in about water belonging to riparian states without having to be labeled a Sikh extremist.

Or, the topic of problems of the former socialist industrial policy of India, under which you had to get a license from the government to open up industry (leading to corruption, lethargic economic growth, unemployment, lack of innovation, etc.).

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how about enviromental science , future predictions of water and food wars and link it back to riparian rights as defined by UN agreed international laws , make the case for crunching down heavily on wholesale abuse of water rights by Governments e.g.  USA Colarado and India Punjab .Linking to sarbat da bhalla and vand ke shakna and the ancient unspoken rule it is wrong to refuse water to the thirsty. That sikhi extols protection and good stewardship of this planet .

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My supervisor "strongly advises" that I make it more personal with my religion since her specialty is in that kind of stuff. IB would probably agree with your perspective, but there are not many supervisors who specialize in subjects like human sciences etc. The ones which do are booked by the other students. I am stuck with this. I agree with what you are saying and so I don't think I am going to write it on Sant ji. However, as the supervisor insists on religion and personal based essay what would you advise about writing it on why I think Sikhi is the best religion or something along that line?

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7 minutes ago, jkvlondon said:

how about enviromental science , future predictions of water and food wars and link it back to riparian rights as defined by UN agreed international laws , make the case for crunching down heavily on wholesale abuse of water rights by Governments e.g.  USA Colarado and India Punjab .Linking to sarbat da bhalla and vand ke shakna and the ancient unspoken rule it is wrong to refuse water to the thirsty. That sikhi extols protection and good stewardship of this planet .

Regarding your advice-

I will ask about this with my supervisor if she doesn't mind about this, because at this point, I really don't want this to be a stress and just want a topic to start writing on. However, she explicitly stated that I should return with more research regarding the topic I asked her about with " To what extent does Asian culture play a role in the success of Cartoon American Television between 2005 and 2015". Also when I asked her about changing my topic, she did not seem happy, or enthusiastic. All in all this essay is a useless piece of work which is only worth 1 point out of 45 from the total IB score, but is a mandatory requirement to complete the program and receive the diploma

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1 hour ago, DarshaPyasi1984 said:

Regarding your advice-

I will ask about this with my supervisor if she doesn't mind about this, because at this point, I really don't want this to be a stress and just want a topic to start writing on. However, she explicitly stated that I should return with more research regarding the topic I asked her about with " To what extent does Asian culture play a role in the success of Cartoon American Television between 2005 and 2015". Also when I asked her about changing my topic, she did not seem happy, or enthusiastic. All in all this essay is a useless piece of work which is only worth 1 point out of 45 from the total IB score, but is a mandatory requirement to complete the program and receive the diploma

it seems she wants you to answer with something in her knowledge bank/ or area of research . If she insists on this clarify what kind of 'asian' it refers to . You will be able to find loads of enviromental issues can look up vandana shiva for the asian/indian perspective .

your essay title seems to be hanging onto the coattails of the Apu -Simpson controversy in the news. i.e. how real cultures being caricatured  and then exploited for laughs , simpsons also have stereotyped chinese and indians , I'm not sure how many other cartoon shows have done this .

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Also SadhSangat ji, since my supervisor won't let me do anything that is not personal or religious I must do it on Sikhi. Also it must apparently be on something that "inspires" me. So what if I did my essay on one of these topics:

1. Comparing Sikhi to modern sciences, and trying to prove how advanced sikhi is in comparison

2. The  science of Naam simran or "meditation" and how that leads to healing

3. Why India is not a real democracy.

4. How Mahatama Ghandhi laid the foundation for the Sikh independence movement after the partition of India in 1947 

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7 minutes ago, jkvlondon said:

it seems she wants you to answer with something in her knowledge bank/ or area of research . If she insists on this clarify what kind of 'asian' it refers to . You will be able to find loads of enviromental issues can look up vandana shiva for the asian/indian perspective .

your essay title seems to be hanging onto the coattails of the Apu -Simpson controversy in the news. i.e. how real cultures being caricatured  and then exploited for laughs , simpsons also have stereotyped chinese and indians , I'm not sure how many other cartoon shows have done this .

That topic I was b.s. I made it up last minute because I could not really find a topic which would be politically correct, yet meet the requirements of these people. Only real things that inspire me would be Sikhi, however, I did some more research, and I can talk about politics. I am going to ask my teacher about political-religious issues, like environmental sciences issues, or other ideas suggested. 

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1 hour ago, DarshaPyasi1984 said:

Also SadhSangat ji, since my supervisor won't let me do anything that is not personal or religious I must do it on Sikhi. Also it must apparently be on something that "inspires" me. So what if I did my essay on one of these topics:

1. Comparing Sikhi to modern sciences, and trying to prove how advanced sikhi is in comparison

2. The  science of Naam simran or "meditation" and how that leads to healing

3. Why India is not a real democracy.

4. How Mahatama Ghandhi laid the foundation for the Sikh independence movement after the partition of India in 1947 

4. is a false premise because the Ghadari babey started waay before Gandhi even got to India , apart from the peaceful non-violent resistance shown at Nankana Sahib (saka Nanakana Sahib )  also Guru ka bagh Morcha  also sikhs sitting on the line so prisoners who were being transported could get water and food (langar)  was before Gandhi tied his dhoti and bought his goat.

 

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