Conclusion

Conclusion

I must make it clear that I have no personal animosity against Dr. Jakobsh. I wish her the best in future. We Sikhs are not perfect people. In fact we have a lot to learn from others, but certainly not from Dr. Jakobsh. Rather, she is an example who can be instrumental in unlearning and then bluffing the reader with falsehoods.

My concerns are about her professional role. Her curriculum vitae is impressive: She earned her B.A. degree from the University of Waterloo with honors in Social Development Studies/Religious Studies and, Master of Theological Studies from Harvard University before moving on to the University of British Columbia for Ph.D. degree. Given this background, it is quite clear that Sikhism was not her area of training until she moved to UBC. Her latest website says she instructs or has instructed in courses: Eastern Religions; Sikhism; Hinduism; Women in the Great Religions; East Comes West, West Turns East; Women in Asian Religions; World Religions in Cultural Perspective; Asian Spiritual Disciplines; and History of Modern Asia. In addition she also instructs on Mahatma Gandhi.

In the United States, there has been a controversy brewing for a while. A number of us have seen a decline in education standards, especially with the academia associated with humanities. It is evident that a sizeable number of these professors have taken upon themselves the mantle to promote their hidden private agendas under the disguise of academia, thereby influencing the next generation of students. It is almost like a cancer growing on the academic body, and that professional academia is helpless in instituting remedies and policing its runaway members.

David Harowitz in his book, “The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America” addresses his mounting concerns about perverse culture of academics that are poisoning the minds of today's college students. It appears that this disease afflicting American institutions of higher learning have penetrated its Canadian counterpart. We need not look for examples north of our border -- thanks in part to Prof. Jakobsh for presenting herself as a specimen to examine.

To her credit, she admits that her direct knowledge of Aad Guru Granth Sahib (AGGS) is minimal at best. This in of itself doesn’t render her incompetent or disqualify her unless she takes concrete steps to compensate for this weakness. From her thesis and consequently the book being released, it is evident that Prof. Harjot Oberoi was to fill in the slot to both provide an account and a cover for her weaknesses. This was her major blunder. Prof. Oberoi is incompetent in matters of Sikhism and the subjects that ensue from it. All other professors who had “participated” in her thesis development amounted to just nothing: pure futile exercise in the delivery of a doctorate degree! They might as well have not participated for sake of academia and its integrity.

“Scripture Twisting” is a rampant phenomenon among Christians. Twisting the scriptures comes in various guises, which Jakobsh utilized to the fullest extent either directly or indirectly. Let’s take the indirect example of Brihaspatismriti, one of the Hindu scriptures, classed under the Hindu law-books, in the same category adjoining Manusmriti. While linking Guru Nanak’s humanism with the author of Brihaspatismriti, Dr. Jakobsh cited the following two references:

1. Why then should the father's wealth be taken by another person (Aiyanger 1941, cited in Bose 1996: 3).

2. Bose, Mandakranta, ed., Visions of Virtue: Women in the Hindu Tradition, Vancouver: M. Bose, 1996.

Instead of relying on the above secondary or tertiary references to make her case, Jakobsh should have looked for a primary source. Had she done so she would have prevented herself from committing a grave error! How difficult is it to find the primary source? Hardly! I asked Colonel G.B. Singh and in the next five minutes he had the English translation of Brihaspatismriti in his hands. Once this scripture is read, in all likelihood, Jakobsh would have not erred. Similarly had she taken the safeguards while discussing so much of her error-ridden research including mountain of literature twisting (already analyzed in this paper) against the Sikhs and their religion, she would have avoided the pitfalls and, would have nurtured credibility and prestige to her name, faculty (even to Oberoi) overseeing her research, and above all, to the University of British Columbia. Sad to say, she failed on all counts.

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