Contesting Interpretations of the Sikh Tradition

This book by a eminent historian attempts to resolve a bitter international debate that has raged in Sikh studies for over a decade. With a deep commitment to the discipline of history and a genuine appreciation for the Sikh tradition, J.S. Grewal presents a historiographical treatise which becomes at the same time the first introduction of its kind to the Sikh tradition itself. The issues he takes up for discussion are: the status of Sikhism as a religious system; search for ‘the Nanak of history’; ‘militarization’ of the Sikh movement; the institution of the Khalsa; the doctrines of Guru-Granth and Guru-Panth; caste and the Sikh community; textual study of the Adi Granth; and historical methodology in relation to religious studies. Beginning with the eighteenth century European writers on the Sikhs, the author evaluates at length the works of Western and Indian scholars that have appeared till the 1990s.