This is the first comprehensive study of the life and work of Master Tara Singh (1885-1967), Akali leader, freedom fighter, and arguably the foremost leader of the Sikhs. Master Tara Singh's vision of the 'Indian National State' was fundamentally different from that of Jawaharlal Nehru and the Indian National Congress. The partition of British Punjab and the formation of Punjabi Suba are the lasting legacies of his determined efforts to protect Sikh interests. Employing new and a broad variety of sources in English and Punjabi, J.S. Grewal weaves a comprehensive biography of Master Tara Singh. Divided into two parts, the first deals with Master Tara Singh's anti-British activity in colonial India, while the second traces the political and religious trajectories of the movements led by him in pursuit of a unilingual Punjab state. Lending unity to the two parts is Master Tara Singh's politics based on Sikh identity as a source of confrontation with the colonial state and the Congress government. Revealing new facts, ideas, and perspectives on Master Tara Singh, this book throws fresh light on the freedom struggle, the Akali movement, the politics of partition, and the working of the Congress governments in the states and at the Centre during a tumultuous and transformative period of Indian history.

Drawing on insights from theoretical engagements with borders and subalternity, Beyond Religion in India and Pakistan suggests new frameworks for understanding religious boundaries in South Asia. It looks at the ways in which social categories and structures constitute the bordering logics inherent within enactments of these boundaries, and positions hegemony and resistance through popular religion as an important indication of wider developments of political and social change. The book also shows how borders are continually being maintained through violence at national, community and individual levels. By exploring selected sites and expressions of piety including shrines, texts, practices and movements, Virinder S. Kalra and Navtej K. Purewal argue that the popular religion of Punjab should neither be limited to a polarised picture between formal, institutional religion, nor the 'enchanted universe' of rituals, saints, shrines and village deities. Instead, the book presents a picture of 'religion' as a realm of movement, mobilization, resistance and power in which gender and caste are connate of what comes to be known as 'religious'. Through extensive ethnographic research, the authors explore the reality of the complex, dynamic and contested relations that characterize everyday material and religious lives on the ground. Ultimately, the book highlights how popular religion challenges the borders and boundaries of religious and communal categories, nationalism and theological frameworks while simultaneously reflecting gender/caste society.

This book provides a critical investigation into Sikh and Muslim conflict in the postcolonial setting. Being Sikh in a diasporic context creates challenges that require complex negotiations between other ethnic minorities as well as the national majority. Unsettling Sikh and Muslim Conflict: Mistaken Identities, Forced Conversions, and Postcolonial Formations maps in theoretically informed and empirically rich detail the trope of Sikh-Muslim antagonism as it circulates throughout the diaspora. While focusing on contemporary manifestations of Sikh-Muslim hostility, the book also draws upon historical examples of such conflict to explore the way in which the past has been mobilized to tell a story about the future of Sikhs. This book uses critical race theory to understand the performance of postcolonial subjectivity in the heart of the metropolis.

Sikhism's short but relatively eventful history provides a fascinating insight into the working of misunderstood and seemingly contradictory themes such as politics and religion, violence and mysticism, culture and spirituality, orality and textuality, public sphere versus private sphere, tradition and modernity. This book presents students with a careful analysis of these complex themes as they have manifested themselves in the historical evolution of the Sikh traditions and the encounter of Sikhs with modernity and the West, in the philosophical teachings of its founders and their interpretation by Sikh exegetes, and in Sikh ethical and intellectual responses to contemporary issues in an increasingly secular and pluralistic world. Sikhism: A Guide for the Perplexed serves as an ideal guide to Sikhism, and also for students of Asian studies, Sociology of Religion and World Religions.

Contrary to popular opinion, there is more to Sikhism than the distinctive dress. First of all, there is the emergence of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, and the long line of his successors. There are the precepts, many related to liberation through the divine name or nam. There is a particularly turbulent history in which the Sikhs have fought to affirm their beliefs and resist external domination that continues to this day. There is also, more recently, the dispersion from the Punjab throughout the rest of India and on to Europe and the Americas. With this emigration Sikhism has become considerably less exotic, but hardly better known to outsiders. This reference is an excellent place to learn more about the religion. It provides a chronology of events, a brief introduction that gives a general overview of the religion, and a dictionary with several hundred entries, which present the gurus and other leaders, trace the rather complex history, expound some of the precepts and concepts, describe many of the rites and rituals, and explain the meaning of numerous related expressions. All this, along with a bibliography, provides readers with an informative and accessible guide toward understanding Sikhism.

'This fine study of the Sikhs in Britain is a splendid addition to the field. Not only does it provide an invaluable mapping of the community's origins and development which should make it a standard work of reference for years to come, but in its sophisticated interrogation of the sociological and political tensions which have marked that development it makes a uniquely informed wider contribution to the ongoing debates about the nature of "multicultural" Britain'. Professor Christopher Shackle, SOAS, University of London 'This book is of very great importance for anyone who wishes to understand the crucial role of Sikhs in defining the possibilities of multiculturalism in Britain at a time when the very notion is under attack from many sources. It should be essential reading for policy makers as well as students.' Professor John Rex, Professor Emeritus at the University of Warwick 'This work is a major review of the history and issues affecting Sikhs in Great Britain since the Second World War. Balanced and extremely well documented...it marks an important contribution to Sikh and multicultural studies'. - Professor Norman G. Barrier, Professor of History University of Missouri 'This is an important book which details the coming to self-consciousness of the Sikh community in Britain under local, national and transnational exigencies'. Professor Uday S. Mehta, Department of Political Science, Amherst College 'This book comes at a time when new limits to multiculturalism and to free speech are being drawn and these wider debates are brilliantly interwoven with an account of the public and private lives of Sikhs. The book is politically charged, but sensitive, humane and open-minded at the same time.' Robin Cohen, ESRC Professorial Research Fellow, University of Warwick. 'This first major account of the development of the British Sikh community is very welcome. Scholarly, analytical and deeply empathetic, it is a major contribution.' Professor Judith M. Brown, University of Oxford

The Sikhs, a colorful and controversial people about whom little is generally known, have been the subject of much hypothetical speculation. Their non-conformist behavior, except to their own traditions, and their fierce independence, even to demanding autonomy, have recently attracted world-wide attention. Hew McLeod, internationally known scholar of Sikh studies, provides a just and accurate description in his introducion to this religious community from northern India now numbering about sixteen million people, exploring their history, doctrine, and literature.

"The Sikhs" begins by giving an overview of the people's history, then covers the origins of the Sikh tradition, dwelling on controversies surrounding the life and doctrine of the first Master, Guru Nanak (1469-1539). The book surveys the subsequent life of the community with emphasis on the founding of the Khalsa, the order that gives to Sikhs the insignia by which they are best known. The remaining sections concern Sikh doctrine, the problem of who should be regarded as a Sikh, and a survey of Sikh literature. Finally, the book considers the present life of the community -- its dispersion around the world to Asia, Australasia, North America, Africa, and Europe, and its involvement in the current trials of the Punjab.

Sikh culture is believed to have been settled and unchanging from the time of the Gurus onwards. "The Sikhs," a major new work by a leading authority, reveals that this is a very misleading view. McLeod treats a variety of questions sympathetically and in so doing he establishes a new understanding for students of religion and for all those interested in current events in India.

Village people in the Punjab have lived with the terror of the conflict between Sikh militants and Indian security forces since the attack on the Sikh Golden Temple in 1984. In this remarkable book, a courageous anthropologist who knows the region intimately presents a very human portrait of the struggle. She argues that, despite its apparent defeat, it can only be in abeyance while the root causes, which have prompted so many young Sikhs to take up arms and fight for an independent Khalistan, remain unaddressed. Through the skilful use of interviews, Dr Pettigrew takes us into the worlds of Punjabi farmers, Sikh militants, and the police commanders responsible for containing a vicious conflict whose ramifications have spilled beyond the Punjab into wider Indian politics.