Customer Reviews
Interesting and Informative - By: Mrs. K. A. Wheatley, 24 Oct 2007 
This book was a great relief to find. Tackling an essay on world religions I needed books that were intelligently written but concise, & believe me, they're not that easy to find. This fills the bill exactly. It gives what I imagine is a brief overview of a complex religion without being patronising to that religion or dumbing down too much for the reader. It's a good mix of history, spread of the faith & the nuts & bolts of that faithin practice & mind set. It's by no means definitive, & freely acknowledges it, but as a place to start study it's perfect.
Accurate but insipid - By: Sham Singh Atari, 26 Oct 2006 
Nesbitt's book has all the positive qualities one associates with the VSI series: it is clear, well-presented, readable & accurate. Just the sort of book Sikhs might think about giving to their non-Sikh friends & colleagues. There's a bit of theology, a touch of culture; politics makes an appearance, as does sociology. All the boxes seem to have been ticked.
But there's the rub: reading it feels like a box-ticking exercise. Nowhere does the author try to capture the allure of Sikhism. Why would anyone want to be a Sikh? What is it about the faith that its believers find so attractive? What does Sikhi feel like from the inside?
Of course the author can't answer those questions - she is not a Sikh. But she can ask them, bothin her capacity as an ethnographer and, as she puts it, an intellectual questioner. One for the second edition perhaps?
An Excellent Introduction to the Sikh Religion - By: Mr. Jasjit Singh, 09 Aug 2006 This book is titled "A Very Short Introduction to Sikhism" yet manages to cover all of the main points about Sikhismin an interesting & readable manner. A great strength is its contemporary feel, & its up-to-date references ensure that it becomes more than just another book about religion. Dr Nesbitt demonstrates her detailed knowledge about Sikhism describing the evolution of Sikhism from Guru Nanak Dev Ji to the modern day, making this book extremely readable by describing the `story' of Sikhism, with each chapter building on information presentedin the previous one. I can recommend this book to anyone who requires a concise yet lively & well informed text on the Sikh Religion & Sikh History. A very welcome addition to the bookshelf of anyone who is interestedin Religionin general, & Sikhismin particular.
