Does Sikhi constitute a different world civilization? Do Sikhs have a solid ideological and historical foundation for building a unique state system? What would Sikh strategy look like? What are the relations between Sikhi and modernity, postmodernity, and democracy? What is the Sikh theory of warfare? What would a Sikh economy look like? What are the Sikh traditions of Gurmata and Sarbat Khalsa? What would a Sikh state look like? These are some crucial questions we will deal with in this course. Sikhi is a unique (naira) way of life. It contains the philosophical and ideological foundations of an alternative socio-political and economic system. However, this system has never been fully articulated. Most Sikh scholars who have written about these issues have done so only as passing remarks. It is tough to find sustained academic reflections on these questions.

ਪ੍ਰੋ. ਹਰਿੰਦਰ ਸਿੰਘ ਮਹਿਬੂਬ ਦੀ ਸਹਿਜੇ ਰਚਿਓ ਖ਼ਾਲਸਾ ਸਿੱਖ ਫ਼ਲਸਫ਼ੇ ਦੀ ਕਿਤਾਬ ਹੈ। ਇਹ ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਵਿੱਚ ਕਿਸੇ ਸਿੱਖ ਵਿਦਵਾਨ ਵੱਲੋਂ ਆਧੁਨਿਕ ਮੁਹਾਵਰੇ ਵਿੱਚ ਲਿਖੀ ਗਈ ਫ਼ਲਸਫ਼ੇ ਦੀ ਪਹਿਲੀ ਕਿਤਾਬ ਹੈ। ਮਹਿਬੂਬ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਨੇ ਇਸ ਕਿਤਾਬ ਵਿੱਚ ਵਿਸ਼ਵ ਧਰਮਾਂ ਅਤੇ ਵਿਸ਼ਵ ਫ਼ਲਸਫ਼ੇ ਨਾਲ਼ ਸੰਵਾਦ ਦੇ ਅਮਲ ਵਿੱਚੋਂ ਇਤਿਹਾਸਿਕ ਅਮਲ ਦੇ ਸੰਦਰਭ ਵਿੱਚ ਸਿੱਖੀ ਦੀ ਵਿਆਖਿਆ ਕਰਨ ਦਾ ਉਪਰਾਲਾ ਕੀਤਾ ਹੈ। 

The Sikhs in the eighteenth-century went through multiple cycles of violence. They were against a force of law that felt religiously obligated in dehumanizing the other. Since the Sikhs were the most distinguishable and the most defiant other, the Mughal establishment imposed a virtual ban on identifying as a Sikh. Despite the brutal violence that often advanced into genocides, the Sikhs managed to keep their integrity and identity intact and continue the struggle to establish their sovereignty.  The Sikhs were successful as they established their rule during the eighteenth-century and they failed and lost their sovereignty by mid nineteenth-century. The roots of both the success and failure of the Sikhs can be located in the eighteenth-century history. Focusing on primary textual and historical sources, this course will analyze the role the historical consciousness and the historiographical approaches of the previous historians in constructions of the Sikh past. During the course, we’ll read through primary sources to develop a fresh account of the historical events. Simultaneously, we shall explore what do those events signify. Why did the Sikhs prefer to identify as Sikhs while death or Islam were the only options? What makes adherents of one religion prefer death over converting to another religion? In this context, how do we make sense of the idea of religion and the role it plays in emergence of cultural formation? How do discursive formations influence the process of history-making? How do we understand the conflicts between religious and discursive formations?

This course will be an interdisciplinary attempt to explore above question with reference to history, study of religion, philosophy, psychoanalysis, and literature. The course will offer a parallel analysis of theoretical and methodological commitments of a modern historian and the poetics of Sikh historiography we have traced in a variety of literary and historical works.

The course will be taught in English.

*Image Coutesy: Central Sikh Museum, Amritsar

Panjab, much like its people, is a unique land. Its history is as little understood, or even misunderstood, as its people. Its extraordinarily violent history is enshrouded in an incomparably loving and welcoming culture. Today, Panjab is embroiled in a struggle for its very survival. Understanding this crisis and finding a way out are dependent on our grasp on its history and its collective psyche. This course is a step in that direction.

This course will introduce you to the rich history and culture of Panjab from antiquity to the present. Panjab, although a land rich in history, sorely lacks in historiography. This course is planned as a corrective. It deals with a span of almost 5,000 years. It starts from the antiquity, grapples with its early Harappa civilization, tackles the issue of Aryan invasion theory and the case of Indo-European origins of its language and genetic makeup, looks at the first encounter between the West (Alexander of Macedon’s invasion) and Panjab, takes a bird’s eye view of the first millennium Panjab, and delves into the history of Islamic invasions that shaped Panjab in so many ways. 

This course presents the emergence of Sikhi in the middle of the last millennium as a spiritual metamorphosis of its very being, tells the long story of the bloody history of the eighteenth-century Panjab, takes a look at the benevolent rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, takes deep dive into the colonization of Panjab, seeks to unravel the intricacies of colonial Punjab, tackles the complex story of the Partition of Panjab and its aftermath, and at the end, this course explores the political and psychic aspects of the greatest tragedy in recent Panjabi history, 1984. The course ends with a reflection on the future of Panjab. Will it survive the present crisis? Is it the end of the story for Panjab? Will it rise from its ashes once more, phoenix like?

These are topics that we will explore and try to understand during this course. It is an odyssey; it needs a daring heart more than a grasping intellect. 

We will roughly cover the following topics:

1.     Panjab: An Introduction to its History from Antiquity to the end of Harappa Civilization, with a note on its natural borders (from antiquity to around 1700 BCE)
2.     The Aryan Invasion and its aftermath (1700 BCE to 350 BCE)
3.     Alexander of Macedon’s Invasion of Panjab and its Aftermath (350 BCE to the start of the common era)
4.     Punjab during the first millennium CE (up to 1,000 CE)
5.     Islamic Invasions (1,000 CE to 1,500 CE)
6.     The Emergence of Sikhi (1469 CE to 1708 CE)
7.     The Sanguinary Story of the 18th Century (1708 CE to 1799 CE)
8.     The Reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1799 CE to 1839 CE)
9.     Anglo-Sikh Wars and the Colonization of Panjab (1839 CE to 1857 CE)
10.   Colonial Panjab (1857 CE – 1945 CE)
11.    Partition of Panjab and its Aftermath (1945 CE to 1966)
12.   1984: The Watershed Moment (1966 CE to 2024)
13.   Wither Panjab? From Endgame to Resurrection