Good morning Everyone,
Sukh, the context within which I used the term "linear" was to show how a society comes into being as opposed to a ready made "state" waiting to be entered. The expression linear was to an end to show how the Hindu-Islamic "society" at the time of Baba Nanak paved the way for modern Sikh Society to come into existence.
Society originates because humans as individuals are not self-sufficient. They have many varied needs which they cannot supply for themselves. That as a result, promotes the idea of a group of individuals to come together to live in communities. When enough people are grouped together to satisfy their varied needs a social state is found. And, it was this kind of a social state that allowed social scientists such as Emile Durkheim to model it along those evolutionary traits found in biological "organisation's". He called Society a "living" organism analogous to the biological in that specific model of its "organisation".
I too in expressing a view of the origins of Sikhism applied the same, insofar, Sikhism has an "organic" relationship with Hinduism.
Good day !