Four generations of Sikh studies: A personal view1

This perspective on the development of Sikh Studies over the twentieth century intersperses personal reminiscences from the past four decades with a chronological overview of the modern development of the subject. Beginning with an outline of some of the pioneering achievements of the great Singh Sabha scholars and of subsequent developments in the Punjab in the succeeding generations, it then discusses some of the tensions between traditional scholarship and the different emphases which have typically marked the work of western academics. While critical of some of the infighting which has characterized Sikh Studies in the West, it concludes with an overview of the exciting contemporary developments of the subject by young Sikh scholars working in North America and Britain (of which the appearance of Sikh Formations is itself such an encouraging sign), and with a plea for the urgent necessity of informed interfaith understandings.