About a helpless Sikh girl kidnapped by Muslim invaders in 18th century.

In a revised edition of his original book, J. S. Grewal brings the history of the Sikhs from its beginnings in the time of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, right up to the present day. Against the background of the history of the Punjab, the volume surveys the changing pattern of human settlements in the region until the fifteenth century and the emergence of the Punjabi language as the basis of regional articulation. Subsequent chapters explore the life and beliefs of Guru Nanak, the development of his ideas by his successors and the growth of his following. The book offers a comprehensive statement on one of the largest and most important communities in India today.

This book is not intended to provide a list of the 100 ‘best’ books ever written and published by Punjabi authors. Given the sheer range of books written by Punjabi authors and the unpredictability of individual taste, any such definitive list is quite impossible. Secondly, the choice has been restricted to books that were written by them either in Punjabi, Hindi or Urdu but have been translated into English. Thus, personal choice restricted by availability has dictated this selection. The choice of books includes autobiographies, novels, short stories, poems, and plays. Research books, religious books, and books written originally in English have not been included. From the Introduction I am amazed at the scholarship, the passion and the love with which Paramjeet Singh has written this book. It will be a reference volume for all times. Nirupama Dutt Poet, Journalist & Translator Mr. Singh’s effort is commendable as he is making available some of the rarest of gems of Punjabi literature to the non-Punjabi readers. I congratulate Mr. Singh on putting together this selection and hope that non-Punjabi readers of this book would find new horizons of cultural experience opening up before them. Of course, for Punjabi readers, it may be yet another opportunity to experience a sense of genuine pride in their rich legacy of language, literature and culture. . Prof. Rana Nayar

In this major reinterpretation of religion and society in India, Oberoi challenges earlier accounts of Sikhism, Hinduism, and Islam as historically given categories encompassing well-demarcated units of religious identity. Through an examination of Sikh historical materials, he shows that early Sikhism recognized multiple identities based in local, regional, religious, and secular loyalties. As a result, religious identities were highly blurred and competing definitions of Sikhism were possible. In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, however, the Singh Sabha, a powerful new Sikh movement, began to view the multiplicity in Sikh identity with suspicion and hostility. Aided by cultural forces unleashed by the British Raj, the Singh Sabha sought to recast Sikh tradition and purge it of diversity, bringing about the highly codified culture of modern Sikhism. A study of the process by which a pluralistic religious world view is replaced by a monolithic one, this book questions basic assumptions about the efficacy of fundamentalist claims and the construction of all social and religious identities.

A Brief History of the Sikhs attempts to highlight that the inhabitants of Punjab have been free spirited, accommodating and companionate towards the peaceful settlers. But they were not accommodating towards the invaders from the north west. They accepted the new ideas like Sufism and the Bhakti movements with open arms. Out of the synthesis of the two, Sikhism was born. The Sikhs carried on their free spirited approach towards the Punjabi nationalism and onwards to uncompromising nationalist approach for the independence of India from the British slavery in 1947. Unlike other communities, the Punjabis fought against a common enemy not among themselves. The Punjabis have been hard working, honest, peace loving and pushing, irrespective of their ethnicity. The Muslims, Hindus and the Sikhs stood for the Punjabiat. That is what the, A Brief History of the Sikhs stands for.

Religion and Politics: New Developments Worldwide features ten articles about recent developments in the interaction of Religion and Politics in various countries of Asia, Africa, Europe, and both North and South America. Most articles focus on one country, and including China, South Korea, India, Nigeria, Malaysia, France, and Cuba. Others address issues across regions such as Latin America, Southeast Asia, or the Middle East. The fifteen contributors are scholars from diverse disciplines as well as diverse regions of Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Subjects include the Indian government’s favoritism for Hinduism over rival religions; the way the Sikhs of India avoid the religion–politics divide; the way the Western media fails to fully understand the Chinese government’s policies on religious minorities; the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo demonstrations in France; religious attitudes toward tax politics in South Korea as well as among Christians compared to Muslims; how to lessen the radicalization of Muslims in Southeast Asia; whether Nigeria should encourage its Muslims to be active in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation; the spiritual role played by the permaculture movement in Cuba; and how the former tendency of scholars to polarize religion and politics is no longer viable, especially in Latin America.

This major six-volume project, co-published with Macmillan, covers the historical experience of the peoples and societies of the Caribbean region from the earliest times to the present day. The sixth volume brings this series to an end as it takes in the whole of the modern period from colonial conquest and domination to decolonization; the Cold War from start to finish; the disintegration of the Soviet Union; and the renewed instability in certain areas. Not only did the colonial regimes lay a new patina over the region, but nationalism remoulded all old identities into a series of new ones. That process of the twentieth century was perhaps the most transformative of all after the colonial subjugation of the nineteenth. While it has been the basis of remarkable stability in vast stretches of the region, it has been a fertile source of tension and even wars in other parts. The impact and the results of such changes have been astonishingly variable despite the proximity of these states to each other and their being subject to, or driven, by virtually the same compulsions.