Why is our community so un-intellectual?

[TejS]

What's the reason that we have not been able to cultivate an original culture based on Sikh values, yet have continued to propagate Punjabi culture which is a hodge-podge of foreign culture given an identity by the Mughal Jehangir?

Why have we not developed any meaningful or impactful pieces of art that reflect Sikh values?

Why have Sikhs made no innovation or strides in science or business?

What are we lacking or missing that prevents our community to have intellectuals?

[MisterrSingh]

Apathy. Intellectual laziness. Physically, we certainly can never be described as lazy, but only the rare among our people possess that quality of a poetic soul that is channelled into the direction of something beyond material measure. Our people don't nurture thinkers and artists, because it's considered to be a fruitless pursuit that doesn't guarantee status and success. They think it's a risk not worth taking. The "dreamer" is brow-beaten into conformity sooner or later. We have an unfortunate and deep-seated mentality of being predisposed to following instead of leading: this is evident in how eager Sikhs are to champion the causes and ideologies of outside parties whilst unable to see the value and positives in their own. How on earth are great pieces of Sikh inspired art supposed to be created when deep down most Sikhs - even the supposedly educated - assume there simply isn't any substance from which such things can be derived? You're more likely to get a western born Sikh getting teary-eyed at the beauty in Communist and Marxist theory than feeling the same level of affinity for Sikh philosophy. Intellectual midgets and sheep. 

 

[jkvlondon]

5 hours ago, TejS said:

What's the reason that we have not been able to cultivate an original culture based on Sikh values, yet have continued to propagate Punjabi culture which is a hodge-podge of foreign culture given an identity by the Mughal Jehangir?

Why have we not developed any meaningful or impactful pieces of art that reflect Sikh values?

Why have Sikhs made no innovation or strides in science or business?

What are we lacking or missing that prevents our community to have intellectuals?

err  Narinder Singh Kapany - fibre optics  ...if not for him internet would not be where it is now : Kapany coined the term fibre optics in 1960 after having demonstrated it experimentally in 1954.

• Widely acknowledged as the father of fiber-optics.
• Dr. Kapany has over one hundred patents. His research and inventions have encompassed fiber-optics communications, lasers, biomedical instrumentation, solar energy and pollution monitoring.
• He is a Fellow of numerous scientific societies including the British Royal Academy of Engineering, the Optical Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
• Named one of seven 'Unsung Heroes' by Fortune magazine in their 'Businessmen of the Century' issue.

Rabinder Singh

• The first judge in the United Kingdom to sit in the high court wearing a turban instead of a wig.
• Rabinder Singh co-founded the Matrix Human Rights Law Chambers with Cherie Blair, wife of Prime Minister Tony Blair.
• He holds a Bachelor of Laws with first class honors from the University of Cambridge and a Master of Laws from the University of California (Berkeley).
• Also thought to be the youngest person to sit as a judge in the U.K. high court.

 

Of course there is S Ajmer SIngh also , and SUkhpreet Singh Udoke
I'm sure there are other academics like Jasjit Singh and Opinderjit Kaur  dotted around plus there is a constant flow of lawyers training up with united sikhs and Sikh coalition to become advocates for human rights issues.

[genie]

7 hours ago, TejS said:

What's the reason that we have not been able to cultivate an original culture based on Sikh values, yet have continued to propagate Punjabi culture which is a hodge-podge of foreign culture given an identity by the Mughal Jehangir?

Why have we not developed any meaningful or impactful pieces of art that reflect Sikh values?

Why have Sikhs made no innovation or strides in science or business?

What are we lacking or missing that prevents our community to have intellectuals?

Its punjabi pendu macho mentality little villager thinking mostly by jatts (as they are the majority of the Sikh population but not exclusively though) as I've noticed the other castes tend to be alot more intellectually smart and professionally skilled. The jatt's tend to have a rural farmer mentally ie work hard in the fields/manual laboring basic jobs and drink and party hard too. Hence why you have out of all the punjabi families who have a huge problem with alcoholism it tends to be the jatts or those who have manual jobs that doesn't require to have high IQ or academic/ intellectual ability.

The families that are raise their kids in cities tend to be a bit more civilised more academic/ intellectual aware of their circumstances and solutions towards it using their minds rather than their braun.

The rest of the cowardly sly Indian population look at Sikhs and punjabi's as tough fighters, mostly uncivilised / rowdy but also prefer them that way so that they are pushed  into roles that require the defence of the country where hardly no thinking is require just have ability and willingness to fight. They look at punjabi's as slow in the brain and easy to praise and manipulate to do the bidding for nations best interest.

One of the fundamental teachings of Sikhi is to learn, the very word "sikh" means learner... a Sikh should always be seeking knowledge whether about geo-politicals, theology, science, technology or just social cohesion/personal inter-development. A Sikh's very essence should be to constantly learn so that them and there Sikh community can be uplifted out of ignorance and darkness.

[jkvlondon]

 

[puzzled]

There have been many great Punjabi artists but we have never celebrated them. The Singh twins have great work and then there is Amrita shergill. There are many great young Sikh artists but we just don't appreciate them. Problem is Sikhs don't appreciate art and culture. Amritsar is a treasure trove of beautiful old building dating back to the Sikh empire. Amritsar is full of old Havelis, gurdwaras, mandirs etc but they are in really bad condition and probably don't have long left till they collapse. The old heritage of Amritsar is priceless and its all our history, but who cares! no on does...  Jassa Singh Alluwalias fort has been half demolished and turned into a car park, beautiful artwork on the old haveli walls dating back to the Sikh empire have been painted over with white paint. Recently they re opened Gobindgarh Qilla and now they have bhangra and gidda shows inside it! a mighty fort which once protected Amritsar has been reduced to a theme park with lassi stalls and gidda performances. Our own history and culture is being destroyed but no one cares. Maharaja Ranjit Singhs summer palace is in Amritsar too but much of that has been destroyed too its now used as gulf clubs etc 

[TejS]

8 hours ago, jkvlondon said:

err  Narinder Singh Kapany - fibre optics  ...if not for him internet would not be where it is now : Kapany coined the term fibre optics in 1960 after having demonstrated it experimentally in 1954.

• Widely acknowledged as the father of fiber-optics.
• Dr. Kapany has over one hundred patents. His research and inventions have encompassed fiber-optics communications, lasers, biomedical instrumentation, solar energy and pollution monitoring.
• He is a Fellow of numerous scientific societies including the British Royal Academy of Engineering, the Optical Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
• Named one of seven 'Unsung Heroes' by Fortune magazine in their 'Businessmen of the Century' issue.

Rabinder Singh

• The first judge in the United Kingdom to sit in the high court wearing a turban instead of a wig.
• Rabinder Singh co-founded the Matrix Human Rights Law Chambers with Cherie Blair, wife of Prime Minister Tony Blair.
• He holds a Bachelor of Laws with first class honors from the University of Cambridge and a Master of Laws from the University of California (Berkeley).
• Also thought to be the youngest person to sit as a judge in the U.K. high court.

 

Of course there is S Ajmer SIngh also , and SUkhpreet Singh Udoke
I'm sure there are other academics like Jasjit Singh and Opinderjit Kaur  dotted around plus there is a constant flow of lawyers training up with united sikhs and Sikh coalition to become advocates for human rights issues.

A handful of people, yes. Compare this to the Jews and I would find it difficult to fit in all their intellectuals into one post. Yes, we have gems like Narinder Singh Kapany but they are very rare and few.

[Ranjeet01]

13 hours ago, TejS said:

What's the reason that we have not been able to cultivate an original culture based on Sikh values, yet have continued to propagate Punjabi culture which is a hodge-podge of foreign culture given an identity by the Mughal Jehangir?

Why have we not developed any meaningful or impactful pieces of art that reflect Sikh values?

Why have Sikhs made no innovation or strides in science or business?

What are we lacking or missing that prevents our community to have intellectuals?

It's because we are a people of action. We don't like to overthink. 

The problem with too much intellectualism is that you create paralysis by analysis. 

We are the type  of people that get things done.

We are great problem solvers but it comes in the practical way in a three dimensional way.

 

[TejS]

2 hours ago, Ranjeet01 said:

It's because we are a people of action. We don't like to overthink. 

The problem with too much intellectualism is that you create paralysis by analysis. 

We are the type  of people that get things done.

We are great problem solvers but it comes in the practical way in a three dimensional way.

 

I agree that we are a people that cannot analyse, thus ending up in the current predicament that we are. I respectfully disagree with the notion that people of action cannot be intellectuals or that analysis leads to paralysis, and the tenets of Sikhi will disagree as well.

If we take a glance at the Ancient Greeks, whose people have had considerable influence on the Western world, they too believed that one should and can possess both traits and they claimed, ""The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."

 If we take a look at the Ancient Persians, who were a people of action through out their conquests, they too have had a significant amount of scholars as well and continue to nurture that scholarly attitude. 

I don't think the two need to be mutually exclusive for any community.

[Ranjeet01]

9 minutes ago, TejS said:

I agree that we are a people that cannot analyse, thus ending up in the current predicament that we are. I respectfully disagree with the notion that people of action cannot be intellectuals or that analysis leads to paralysis, and the tenets of Sikhi will disagree as well.

If we take a glance at the Ancient Greeks, whose people have had considerable influence on the Western world, they too believed that one should and can possess both traits and they claimed, ""The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."

 If we take a look at the Ancient Persians, who were a people of action through out their conquests, they too have had a significant amount of scholars as well and continue to nurture that scholarly attitude. 

I don't think the two need to be mutually exclusive for any community.

Notice that I said "too much intellectualism ".

Also note also that there are quite a few of us on this website that provide analysis. There must be so many more Sikhs that are out in the Sangat. 

 

There is going to be a particular percentage that are going to be intellectuals, not everyone is going to have a PhD.