SikhArchive: Recent Episodes
Sukhraj Singh
A series of interview-based episodes with academics, authors, historians and activists with respect to Sikh and Panjabi history hosted by Sukhraj Singh.
Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 66th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, andactivists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode, we are joined by Sangeet Toor, who by profession is a cybersecurity analyst based in Chandigarh but beyond this, she is an activist and journalist who documents the history of land rights and peasant struggles in Punjab. She has also been working closely on the ground with the most recent farmers protest in Punjab.
Today we discuss how show she became an activist and what the farmers protest is about. Further, we talk about some of the historical movements that were the precursor of today’s farmers protest to explain how history is repeating itself. We close with a discussion on the role of women in today’s protest and the state of the justice system in India.
Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 63rd episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode, we are joined by Andrew Lownie; who is an author and prize-winning historian that also runs his own literary agency, and in 2019 he published the book, “The Mountbattens” which is a biography on the lives of Lord Mountbatten and his wife Edwina Mountbatten.
We discussed today to learn about who exactly Lord Mountbatten was, what was his connection to the royal family, and his role in the British Empire and the partition of Punjab. We also talk a little on the legal battle to declassify the files related to his diary that remain out of the public domain which may reveal findings that could impact how we understand international relations between India and Great Britain.
In this episode, we are joined by Professor Surinder Singh Jodhka, who is a prolific academic in sociology based in Delhi at Jawaharlal Nehru University specialising in structures of social inequality regarding caste and agrarian society.
Today we will be discussing a number of topics, for example the meaning of Rural transformation and also the historical timeline of Panjabi agriculture, the influence of the west, migration, both internal and external, and how power structures and land control have evolved over time in the region.
Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 65th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode, we are joined by Jaspal Singh Manjhpur, who is the proprietor of @PanjaabLawyers in Ludhiana and is also the Advocate for several Sikh Political Prisoners. He has recently released a list of those detained by Panjab Police online.
We discuss today his personal life, how he became a legal counsel for political prisoners, a brief history of the Indian penal code, UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) and how it’s applied in Panjab, an update on the case of Jagtar “Jaggi” Johal and more.
Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 60th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode, we are joined by Amardeep Singh, who is an Independent Visual Ethnographic Researcher with a background in in the Financial Services sector for 25 years and who was also the Head of the Asia Pacific Region at American Express for Revenue Management.
He has authored two books, ‘Lost Heritage, The Sikh Legacy in Pakistan’ and ‘The Quest Continues: Lost Heritage, The Sikh Legacy in Pakistan’. He has also produced and directed documentary films, which we will be discussing today.
NB: The 24 episode docuseries on Guru Nanak is available in 4 languages at TheGuruNanak.com
Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 59th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode, we are joined by Harjant Singh Gill, who is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and visual anthropologist. He makes films which cast a spotlight on urgent and often overlooked social issues, and makes marginalized members of society feel less isolated and more understood.
We discuss his personal life, the three documentaries he has made on Punjab, namely “Roots of Love”, “Sent Away Boys” and “Mardistan” as well as his forthcoming book “Coming of Age in Macholand”, all of which explore the intersections of gender, sexuality, religion, citizenship, transnationality and notions of belonging with a particular focus on Indian and diasporic masculinities.
Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 57th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode, we are joined by Amandeep Sandhu, who is a Panjabi journalist and the author of the book, “Panjab: Journeys through the fault lines”, where, on a journey to understand Panjab, he looks at the past and present of Punjab, including the backdrop of the Green revolution, State of Emergency, Punjab insurgency and the present.
We discuss his inspiration for writing the book as well as exploring chapter by chapter each of the themes that the book includes, namley Satt, Berukhi, Rosh, Rog, Astha, Mardangi, Dawa, Paani, Zameen, Karza, Jaat, Patit, Bardr, Sikhya, Lashaan and Janamdin.
Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 54th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode, we are joined by Nirinjan Kaur, who is a professor of theological studies at the Loyola Marymount University. Her work examines both historic and modern Sikh devotional music with particular attention paid to the mystical and embodied realms of performative practice as well as the ideological debates and identity politics surrounding its pedagogy and history.
Professor Khalsa also has a focus on the music and poetics of devotion in the Jain and Sikh as well as on the aspect of spiritual warriors in both traditions, which is the topic that we will be discussing today. We begin by exploring an introduction to the understanding of theology, the commonality and differences between the two philosophies and also the geographical and historical links.
Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 53rd episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode, we are joined by Pashaura Singh, who is a professor of religious studies at the University of California, Riverside. He is a leading scholar in Sikh studies where his research interests and expertise include the Adi Granth, Gurmukhi script and Sikh history.
Today we will be discussing his book, namely the Life and Work of Guru Arjan, and exploring this biography in detail. We talk about Guru Arjan Dev Ji’s childhood, his philosophy, his Guruship, engagement with Mughal rule and his legacy, to name but a few.
Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the 52nd episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Gunisha Kaur, who is an anaesthesiologist specializing in human rights. Her research interests focus on displaced populations such as migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.
She is also the author of the book, 1984: Lost in History which will be discussed today. The book documents the events of 1984, before, during and after with respect to the human rights violations in India, the subsequent trauma and the campaign for justice which continues to this day.
Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the 51st episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode, we are joined by Ali Raza, who is a historian specializing in the history of modern South Asia from the Lahore University of Management Sciences. His research and teaching interests include the social and intellectual history of South Asia, comparative colonialisms, decolonization, and post-colonial theory.
Today we will be discussing his work on the communist internationalism in Colonial India, in particular the establishment of the Ghadar Party, their role with the Communist Party as well as their connection with Moscow. We also take a close look at the Kirti Kisan Party in Punjab and the evolution of this movement after independence.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 50th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode, we are joined by Dr Ami Laws, who is a medical practitioner from California and an adjunct associate professor at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Dr Laws is an internationally known expert with a specialization in the practices of abuse and torture. As such, she has interviewed and examined clients from India, countries of South and Central America and Roma from Eastern Europe. Her expertise has also been called upon by Nepali Nationals and persons from several countries in Africa
And In 2002, She wrote an article for the President and Fellows of Harvard College on Health and Human Rights titled “Police Torture in Punjab, India: An extended survey.”
Today we will be discussing this article and the study and fieldwork she conducted in Punjab which led to the findings of her report. It should be noted that this episode includes details of torture and an exploration of some specific case studies that outline the methods and the subsequent psychiatric harm that followed.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the 49th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode, we are joined by Jessica Ordaz, who is a professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is the author of the book, The Shadow of El Centro: A History of Migrant Incarceration and Solidarity, which fascinated me to host this conversation for two reasons.
First, Akaal Security, a Sikh private security company, administered this detention facility in El Centro for a long time and it came to my attention a couple of years ago when the ICE stories were going viral. Secondly, in 2019, a six-year-old girl from Punjab, Gurpreet Kaur, died of a heat stroke in the Arizona desert on the US-Mexico border after her mother went in search of water during a border crossing.
This episode is dedicated to Gurpreet Kaur and her family.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the 48th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode, we are joined by Balbinder Singh Bhogal, who is a professor of Religious Studies and the holder of the Chair in Sikh Studies at Hofstra University. His research interests include decolonization, modernity, philosophy, yoga and Sikh studies, to name but a few.
Today we will be exploring the discussion on Sikhi and Yoga, in particular the Indic understanding of Yoga, its convergence to modernity and its relationship to Sikhi from a critical perspective. We take a close look at Sikhi during the bhakti movement, Guru Nanak’s relationship with his son Siri Chand and close the discussion with an understanding of how to understand and interpret Kundalini Yoga.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the 47th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Taylor Sherman, who is a professor of history at the London School of Economics where her research concerns the cultural and political history of South Asia between the 1930s and the 1970s.
We discuss today the politics of Nehru and his defining role in the formation of the Indian State with particular reference to high modernism and the establishment of Chandigarh, which is an element of her forthcoming book, titled, Nehru’s India: A history in Seven Myths.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the 46th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Richard Eaton, who is a professor of history at the University of Arizona where his primary interest is the social and cultural history of pre-modern India. He has most recently published the book “India in the Persianate Age” which explores the long-term interaction between the Persianate and Sanskritic worlds, between the Iranian Plateau and South Asia.
And today we discuss that book and pay close attention to the role of Punjab which is situated in the centre of these two worlds. We consider how important Persian culture was and what role it played in Sikh and Punjabi history given how dominant it was and what philosophies and traditions were bestowed onto the landscape as a result.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 45th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode, we are joined by Pritam Singh who is a scholar and professor of Economics at Oxford Brookes University where his main areas of teaching interest and expertise are development economics, environmental economics, comparative economic systems and competing economic paradigms.
Today we discuss the origins of Marxism in Punjab, its relationship with Sikhi and the evolution of Marxism throughout the 20th century with particular reference to the interwar period, communalism, the independence movement, post-partition, Nehruvian politics and secularism, the Suba Lehar, the Khalistan movement and beyond.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 44th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode, we are joined by Mark Juergensmeyer, who is a professor of global studies, sociology and also religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has a plethora of literature relating to the study of South Asian religion and politics, and the one that is being discussed today is called, Religious Rebels in the Punjab, which is about the Ad Dharam movement in the early 20th century which subsequently led to the formation of the Ravidassia community.
His scholarly work related to the Ad Dharam movement and Ravidassia religious formation is certainly unique since his fieldwork includes being in contact with many of the key members including Mangu Ram. Thus, I could think of no better person to have a conversation with about the religious reform movement concerning the scheduled castes which ran parallel to the Singh Sabha Lehar, Arya Samaj and others.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 43rd episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode, we are joined by Ronki Ram, who is a professor and leading scholar on the study of Casteism in Punjab. He is a professor at the Panjab University in Chandigarh and has now also more recently been appointed as a visiting Professor at the University of Wolverhampton in the UK.
Today, we will be discussing his latest book, Pagrhi Sambhal Lehar to Samyukt Kisan Morcha, which outlines the history of the Kisaan struggle in Punjab from 1907 to 2021. The book is structured in two parts: the struggle both before and after the great Partition and was released to contextualize the current farmer's protest historically.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 42nd episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Len Kenna and Crystal Jordan who are both from the Australian Indian Historical Society. They have devoted decades of their time into researching the history of Indian migration to Australia and the contribution made in the early days of settlement. They have also authored the book, “Sikh History in Australia”.
We discuss today what inspired them to enter this field of study, how their research methods have evolved over time, what their findings were and what more can be done. In addition to that, we also pay close attention to the Sikh and Punjabi migration to Australia.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 41st episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Jasvinder Kaur, who studied textiles at Delhi’s Lady Irwin College in 1969 and has since been continuously engaged with the subject. She has included consultancy assignments at the Musée d’art et d’histoire and Musée d’ethnographie, in Geneva, Switzerland, and has been lecturing as visiting faculty at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi.
She is also the author of the most recent book - 'Influences of the British Raj on the Attire and Textiles of Punjab', which explores how the British Raj brought lasting changes in the way people dressed and used textiles in Punjab. In today’s conversation, we talk about this book on how many men became Westernized and followed English fashions to the hilt and also how Women’s styles were impacted to a lesser degree among other interesting talking points.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 40th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Kanika Singh, who is a historian with a research focus on museums and heritage in contemporary India, with a particular interest in Sikh museums. Her PhD was on the representation of heritage in Sikh museums with a case study of the museum at Sis Ganj Gurdwara in Delhi.
In today’s conversation, we discuss her article, “Commemorating Baghel Singh’s ‘Conquest’ of Delhi: The Fateh Diwas", where we explore the significance of Baghel Singh, the interpretation of his historical visit to Delhi, how it is depicted in art and a critical examination of how it is commemorated today.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 39th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Parvati Sharma, who is a journalist and the author of the historical biography book, “Jahangir: An Intimate Portrait of a Great Mughal”. And in today’s discussion, we explore both the book and the life of Jahangir, with a particular focus on his upbringing, his role in power and his relationship to his father, Akbar, whom we had spoken about before in a previous episode.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 38th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Bartow Elmore, who is an award-winning professor and writer who investigates the impact of big business on our environment. He teaches as an associate professor of environmental history and is a core faculty member of the Sustainability Institute at the Ohio State University.
We discuss his latest book, Seed Money: Monsanto’s Past and Our Food Future, which explores the history of Monsanto, how they influence our food system, their role in the industry of agro-chemicals, as well as genetically engineered seeds.
Monsanto has had a huge impact on Punjab such as the debt crisis farmers are facing, the cotton industry and the alarmingly high rates fertilizer use, to name but a few.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 37th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Salman Siddiqi, who is a student of International Relations and Global Studies and has a great interest in the history of partitions, especially on Punjab and Palestine. He is the author of the article, “A Tale of Two Tragedies. A Historical Background and Comparative Analysis of the Nakba and the Partition.”
Today we will be discussing this article which outlines both the timeline and common themes and differences that can be found throughout these two histories that ran parallel in the 20th century. We begin by introducing the British Colonial regime which occupied both territories and end with a discussion on the current state of affairs after the independence movements.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 36th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Professor Renisa Mawani, who is a Professor of Sociology and Founding Chair of the Law and Society Minor Program at the University of British Columbia. She works on the conjoined histories of Indigeneity, Asian migration, and settler colonialism and is the author of Across Oceans of Law: The Komagata Maru and Jurisdiction in the Time of Empire.
We discuss today the book, which is a transnational history of the Komagata Maru, a Japanese steamship which carried 376 Punjabi migrants from Hong Kong to Canada and to India in 1914. It focuses on the interaction between human and nonhuman, problemtatizing the middle passage by focusing on the materiality of the ship, the vitality of water, and the forces of nature.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 35th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Professor Natasha Behl, who is an associate professor in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Arizona State University (ASU). Dr. Behl completed her Ph.D. in Political Science at University of California, Los Angeles, where her training focused on Race, Ethnicity, Politics and Comparative Politics.
Today, we discuss her book, Gendered Citizenship: Understanding Gendered Violence in Democratic India, which analyzes Indian women's unequal experience of democracy in multiple domains, namely the state, civil society, religious community, and the home.
This book also recently received the American Political Science Association’s 2021 Lee Ann Fujii Award for Innovation in the Interpretive Study of Political Violence, which was sponsored by the Interpretive Methodologies and Methods group.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 34th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Professor Valerian Rodrigues, who is an Indian political scientist known for his influential work on Babasaheb Ambedkar, and also for his formulations of themes in Modern Indian Political Thought.
We discuss the life of Dr Ambedkar from his early childhood to his education and later political life and thought. We also explore his engagement with the Indian constitution and the Sikh community of India with regards to mass conversion.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 33rd episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Professor Farina Mir, who is a professor of colonial and post-colonial South Asian studies with a particular interest in the social, cultural, and religious history of late-colonial north India. She is also the author of the book, The Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab, which is a study of the Punjabi language and its literature under colonialism (from 1849-1947), with a particular focus on Qisse, or epic stories/romances.
Today, we will be discussing more about this book, including the inspiration behind the book, the research methods and findings that surface and the role and survival of the Punjabi language under colonial rule to the current day.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 32nd episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Professor Anand Yang, who is a scholar of history, with fields of interest including comparative colonialism and south Asian studies. He is a professor of history at the University of Washington and author of the book, “Empire of Convicts” which we will be discussing today, and in particular the case studies of Bhai Maharaj Singh and Kharak Singh.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 31st episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Nikita Azad, who is a PhD candidate of Colonial History at the University of Oxford, where she has a strong focus on the history of communalism, religion and gender in Colonial Punjab.
We discuss a host of topics surrounding early 20th century Punjab such as Caste, Gender, Health, Medicine and Race with respect to colonial history of Punjab. It is a fascinating conversation which I am excited to share because it touches on so many themes, I am interested in.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the 30th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Balbir Madhopuri who is a prolific author and poet most well known for his auto-biography, Changiya Rukh, which is about his upbringing and life experiences as a Dalit in Punjab.
He has been awarded many achievements for his work, including the LifeTime Achievement Award (2013) by Punjabi Academy, Delhi, Govt. of Delhi and an acknowledgement from the former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh who honored Balbir Madhopuri for his contribution to Punjabi literature thanks to his classical writings.
I came across his work and his website whilst researching the topic of Begampura, which he has also written about before, and so I immediately reached out to him. We explore many anecdotes related to his life, his views on Punjab, Caste and Sikhi as well as other talking points such as Dalit history and assertion in Punjab.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 29th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Professor Robin Rinehart, who is a scholar of Religious studies at Lafayette University, with research interests in Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Religions of Asia. She is the author of the book, “Debating the Dasam Granth” which is our main topic of discussion today where we take a closer look at Professor Rinehart's inspiration into this field and her research findings.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the 28th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Jasdeep Singh, who is the editor of Trolley Times, which is the official Newsletter dedicated to the farmers' protest that is reporting from the protest, and for the protest. Jasdeep Singh works as a software engineer by profession but also has a large interest and passion for the arts, in particular theatre, poetry and writing.
Today we talk about Trolley Times, in particular its establishment and significance for the movement in the present moment of documenting the struggle as the first draft of history. In addition to that, we explore why the printing press is so important against the backdrop of state surveillance and censorship efforts by the government at the protest sites.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the 27th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Dr. Divya Sharma, who is a lecturer in Sustainable Development and the Co-Director of the Sustainable Development masters course at the University of Sussex.
We discuss the Green revolution as a regime that swept the global south, its particular manifestation in Punjab not just as a whole but also in its local regions and also towards the end a comparative analysis that can be made between Punjab and Tamil Nadu.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the 26th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Manimugdha Sharma, who is primarily a journalist but also a historian and is the author of the book, “Allahu Akbar - Understanding the Great Mughal in Today’s India”. We talk about the current state of India and the historical context of Akbar with particular reference to religious tolerance and right wing politics.
I am really glad I came across his work and I think it’s a very well timed piece which takes a closer look at India as a modern nation state and offers a critique of such nationalism in that respect against the backdrop of a Mughal history to challenge the ever increasing imagination of an exclusive Hindu India.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the 25th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Louis Fenech, who is a scholar of Sikh studies with previous publications including The Darbar of the Sikh Gurus and also Martyrdom in the Sikh Tradition. Today, we will be discussing his most recent book, namely The Cherished Five in Sikh History, which came out in January this year.
The book is about the Panj Piare, the first five Sikh disciples who form the nucleus of the Sikh martial community known as the Khalsa. We take a close look at who the Panj Pyaare were, what is their significance and the evolution of their perceptions over the last 300 years.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the 24th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Anna Bigelow, who is a professor of religious studies at Stanford University where she specialises in Islamic studies in South Asia, in particular Sufi Shrines in India and Turkey. She is also the author of “Sharing the Sacred: Practicing Pluralism in Muslim North India” which explores the significance of the small town of Malerkotla.
Malerkotla is significant in Sikh and Punjabi history for a number of reasons which we explore today in our conversation, some of the most known being the relationship to Guru Gobind Singh Ji, Banda Singh Bahadur and its role during partition in 1947. We discuss why it is so significant, why it is so peaceful and what does it mean for religious harmony.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the 23rd episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Yogesh Snehi, who is a Professor of History at Ambedkar University in Delhi and the author of the book, “Spatializing Popular Sufi Shrines in Punjab: Dreams, Memories and Territoriality”.
We explore the origins of Sufism in Punjab, its definition and origins, its relationship to caste and its evolution throughout history with respect to significant events such as Partition and beyond. We also take a closer look at the significant sites where the popular Sufi shrines are located in Punjab and consider their significance to the community and history of the land.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the 22nd episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Aamer Anwar, who is an advocate of civil liberties, with a career dedicated to defending the human rights of the vulnerable, where he has instructed in some of Scotland’s highest profile cases, including the one of Surjit Singh Chhokar which we discuss today.
The racial murder of Surjit Singh Chhokar became one of Scotland's most famous cases for a number of reasons and it was only after a long 17 year family campaign that justice was achieved, thanks to the legal advocacy work of Aamer Anwar. It is an honour to speak with him about this case where he is able to share his story, the legal proceedings and more.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the 21st episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Dr. Shreya Sinha who is a research associate at Cambridge University and her research interests lie in agrarian political economy, sociology of economic relations, regional development, neoliberalism, and India and South Asia.
We discuss Neoliberalism in Punjab with respect to the agrarian economy in Punjab, in particular its historical context and some of the consequences surrounding the policies that have had an impact on Punjab ranging from debt, farmer suicides, migration and more.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the 20th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics and researchers on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Dr. Suraj Yengde, who is a public scholar and the author of the bestseller “Caste Matters” and co-editor of award winning anthology “The Radical in Ambedkar”.
We discuss his personal profile where he describes his upbringing being born and brought up in Nanded, his own articulation of the caste system, his impression of Sikhi as an anti-caste philosophy as well as the role of the Khalsa and the relationship between Dr. Ambedkar and Sikhi.
I am a big fan of Dr Suraj Yengde’s work and really admire his critical voice and it's an honour to be conducting this interview with him. I am really looking forward to sharing with you all.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the nineteenth episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, journalists and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Joseph Alter, who is a Professor of anthropology and the University of Pittsburgh with interests in the relationship among religion, nationalism, health and the body in South Asia. Specific projects have focused on sport, sexuality, yoga, ayurvedic medicine, Unani medicine and transnational transformations of medical knowledge.
Today we explore the themes of masculinity and sexuality in North India and take closer look at topics such as Brahmanism, nationalism, sport, colonialism, Caste, regional differences and gender expression and see how they are all formulated with respect to each other.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the eighteenth episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, journalists and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh who is a Professor of Religion and Chair in the Department of Religious Studies at Colby College. She is the author of the books “The Feminine Principle in the Sikh Vision of the Transcendent” and also “The Birth of the Khalsa - A Feminist Re-Memory of Sikh Identity”.
Professor Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh has made a large contribution to Sikh studies with respect to interpreting Sikh literature, history, imagery and symbols from a feminine lens and also in the translations of Gurbani and understanding the message of Guru Nanak and so it’s an honour to have her on the show as part of this history and philosophy series we are working on.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the seventeenth episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, journalists and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Sahiba Kaur Chadha who is an architect by profession but also runs an online blog called PodCards from the Colonies, which is a series of podcasts episodes which tell the personal stories and oral histories of people that have lived experiences or memories of British Colonialism.
I came across this amazing series on Instagram and contacted Sahiba right away after listening to all of the episodes she has currently published. They are really refreshing because they are packed with anecdotes and interesting stories which convey brilliantly the realities of the empire which textbooks and traditional literature struggle to do.
To give an idea of what the PodCards are like, we begin this episode with a trailer from the introductory episode from the Podcard series where Sahiba speaks about her Grandfather.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the sixteenth episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, journalists and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Professor Balbinder Singh Bhogal, an associate professor in Religion and the holder of the Chair in Sikh Studies at Hofstra University. His research interests include decolonization, modernity, philosophy, yoga and Sikh studies, to name but a few.
Today we will be exploring a discussion on Sikhi and Buddhism and more generally the outlook of world religions with respect to western, Indic and east Asian faith and traditions. In addition to laying out the similarities and differences between the two faiths, Professor Bhogal really begins with a much needed introduction on how we perceive knowledge in order to lay the foundation of critically understanding what is meant by religion.
Professor Bhogal's academic profile and publications are available on his academia.edu profile via the following link, https://hofstra.academia.edu/BalbinderSinghBhogal
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the fifteenth episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, journalists and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Dr Dalvir Singh Pannu, who is a dentist by profession but also a scholar of Sikh heritage in Pakistan. He has led a life long self-funded campaign driven by his passion to document and illustrate the Sikh heritage sites in Pakistan through the lens of architecture and sikh history.
I discovered his latest book, titled The Sikh Heritage: Beyond Borders, and was immediately fascinated by the tremendous amount work he had done and invited him on the series to discuss how he was able to conduct his research and what drove him to success in his endeavour and more generally to understand his life passion and philosophy in educating others on Sikh history and heritage, which I think is really forward thinking.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the fourteenth episode in our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, journalists and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Professor Seema Sohi who is Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. We discuss her book, “Echoes of Mutiny” which examines the radical anticolonial politics of South Asian intellectuals and migrant workers based in North America during the early twentieth century as well as the inter-imperial efforts of the U.S. and British states to repress them.
This book is a personal favourite of mine and I have been a huge fan of Seema Sohi’s work because it really illustrates the radical dimension of history found among the Sikh and Panjabi diaspora. So it’s a pleasure to bring this episode to you all.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the thirteenth episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, journalists and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Professor Kate Imy from the University of North Texas, where she is a historian of war and empire teaching classes on questions of identity (race, gender, class, religion) in the twentieth-century British imperial world.
Today we will be discussing her book, “Faithful Fighters” which explores the racial and religious inclusivity of Indians in the British Empire against the backdrop of anti-colonial activism.
We explore the infamous construction of the martial race and how a military culture created unintended dialogues between soldiers and civilians and how this contributed to creating lasting legacies for the violent partition and independence of India, and the endemic warfare and violence of the post-colonial world.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the twelfth episode in our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, journalists and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Satwinder Kaur Bains who is a professor at the University of Fraser Valley in Social Cultural Media Studies. Her current research interests include migration, settlement, and integration; cross-cultural education and curriculum implementation; race, racism, and ethnicity; identity politics; South Asian Canadian Diaspora studies and Punjabi cultural historiographies.
We discuss today her latest article, titled “Interrogating Gender in Sikh Tradition and Practice” where we explore the meaning of Sikh feminism as well as trying to understand how ideas of representation and identity find expression in response to our understanding and practice of our faith and our institutions as well as in our everyday Sikh symbols.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the 11th episode in our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, journalists and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Dr Laura Hirvi who is from Finland and Germany and is currently the director of the Finland Institute of culture, science and business in German speaking Europe.
In her post graduate studies, she completed a PhD about the Sikhs in Finland. She was also part of the “Sikhs of Europe” project which is dedicated to understanding and documenting Sikh migrants in this part of the world and understanding their religious expression in Europe.
We discuss today how and why the Sikhs migrated to Finland and how they settled and established the community in Helsinki. We also take a closer look at the work and research conducted by Laura Hirvi with regards to the cultural and religious expression of the Sikhs in Finland.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the tenth episode in our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, journalists and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Professor Radhika Chopra, who is the author of the book, Militant and Migrant which is the book we will be largely discussing today, but she’s also written the most recent book titled, Amritsar 1984: A City remembers.
The book Militant and Migrant offers a detailed analysis into the social and political landscape of Punjab prior to the events of 1984 such as the role and impact of the Panjabi Suba Lehar as well as the infamous Green Revolution. Professor Radhika Chopra considers the environmental factors that surrounded the demands for greater autonomy as well as the consequences of policies that contributed to the reconstruction and displacement of Panjab.
In addition to that, the book explores how the movement and its legacies extend and contribute to exist beyond India with respect to migration and the significant role of the diaspora in preserving the memory of those that gave their lives for the movement as well as the commitment to keep the remembrance of the overall Khalistan struggle and narratives ongoing.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the Ninth episode in our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, journalists and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Professor Himadri Banerjeewho has spent the last 40 years researching the Sikhs outside of Panjab, namely those found in the North Eastern territories of India such as Bengal, Assam and Orissa. We discuss his longstanding research area on this topic and more.
He wrote a book about it which is called “The Other Sikhs” where he explores the religious identity and formation of Sikhs in the North East in comparison to the Sikhs of Punjab.
It was a really fascinating conversation because there were many dimensions to it where we were able to discuss the question of caste identity, in particular on the Dalit Sikhs of the North East and also how the Sikhs in the East responded to the Singh Sabha movement and were subsequently labelled as fake Sikhs for choosing to keep their Sanatan traditions.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the eighth episode in our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, journalists and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined byProfessor Ronki Ramwho is a leading scholar on the study of Caste with a particular focus on it in Punjab. He is a professor at the Panjab University in Chandigarh and now also more recently has been appointed as a visiting Professor at the University of Wolverhampton in the UK. Some of his publications include
“Ravidass Deras and Social Protest: Making Sense of Dalit Consciousness in Punjab” and also “Beyond Conversion and Sanskritisation: Articulating an Alternative Dalit Agenda in East Punjab”. Both of which I encourage everyone interested in this topic to read.
I came to learn of Professor Ronki Ram’s work in my preparation for the episode with Professor Mark Juergensmeyer on the Ad Dharm movement and the Ravidassia, and I was immediately inspired by his literature and analysis on Casteism in Punjab with reference to British Colonialism, Sikh leadership, the agricultural landscape of Panjab as well as his outlook on Dalit consciousness in Panjab.
I would like to take a moment here to especially thank Sarvpriya Raj for her help in establishing communications with Professor Ronki Ram as well as her commitment and collaboration in helping to prepare for this episode. I am very grateful and we are working now on another episode for part 2 of this discussion with Professor Meena Dhanda to see how Caste manifests in the diaspora and why it remains prevalent beyond borders.
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Hi my name is Sukhraj Singh and welcome to the seventh podcast episode by SikhArchive in our Sikh history series, where today we are joined by PhD researcher Asha Sawhney, to discuss the Sikhs of Iran with respect to the religious association between Iran and Sikhi as well as the current day community that migrated there throughout the 20th century.
Asha is well versed in Sikh literature and used to work with the Sikh Research Institute where she had hosted several episodes about the Persian contributions in Gurbani and Sikh philosophy. She also has Iranian Sikh heritage and has conducted a lot of independent research on the history of the Iranian Sikh community in documenting their oral history.
In this episode we discuss the legacy of Guru Nanak in Iran, the linguistic identities of Persian in Sikhi as well as the significance of the geographical position of Iran. And in the second half, we take a look at the history of the diaspora, the impact the revolution had on the Sikh community and their current standing in the country with regards to their legal status and minority rights.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh and welcome to the sixth history podcast by SikhArchive, today we are joined by the journalist and activist Phil Miller from the organization called Declassified UK, to discuss his monumental work of 2014 which exposed the British involvement and collaboration with the Indian State in 1984 regarding Operation Bluestar and the State violence that subsequently followed.
In January 2014, Phil Miller went to the national archives in London to research documents that had just been declassified by the British government regarding any files related to the foreign office in 1984. What he had come across with reference to India and the Sikhs of 1984 has radically changed the narrative concerning any discussion on Operation Bluestar, especially for the Sikhs that reside in the UK.
I reached out to him as we approach the remembrance of the battle of Amritsar 36 years on to talk to him about his research, methodology, the challenges he faced and other important talking points related to his work and findings, including his information tribunal appeal that followed in the years after for his fight for further documents that remain classified which may reveal much more regarding what happened after 1984 and also to what extent the SAS and intelligence services were involved.
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Hi my name is Sukhraj Singh and welcome to the fifth podcast episode by SikhArchive in our Sikh history series, where today we are joined by the author and activist Zarina Patel from Kenya, to discuss her book, “Unquiet”, which explores the life and times of Makhan Singh, who was the great trade unionist and anticolonial revolutionary in Kenya.
I’ve been wanting to do this podcast for a very long time because I am deeply inspired by the life and activism of Makhan Singh. Not only was he a Marxist and a trade unionist but he was the founding father of the trade union movement in Colonial Kenya and eventually formed the East African Trade Union congress.
His labour organising was a key moment in history in the build up to the Mau Mau uprising and the Kenyan independence movement. In fact, he was imprisoned by the British for 11 years without charge or trial for largely being a voice against colonial rule and invoking independence.
In this episode we discuss with Zarina Patel what inspired her to write the book and her methodology, who was Makhan Singh as a person, his affiliation with the Ghadar Party and some of the reasons why he is a lesser known person in South Asian history.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the fourth episode in our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, journalists and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode we are joined by Professor Kama Maclean, who is a professor of South Asian History and the author of the book, “A Revolutionary History of Interwar India: Violence, image and Text, which we will be discussing today.
The book delivers a fresh perspective on the revolutionary activity that was taking place in the build up to the independence movement with a strong focus on the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army formed by Chandrashekar Azad and Bhagat Singh.
We discuss a lot of important themes in our conversation such as the important role that the revolutionaries played in influencing Congress policy and provoking colonial responses, in the process bringing India closer to independence as well as understanding why the revolutionaries of the HSRA have long been marginalized in the academic historiography of nationalism, despite their extraordinary popularity in popular culture.
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Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the third episode in our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, journalists and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.
In this episode, we are joined by Visvajit Sriramrajan, who is a journalist and a Sikh studies research assistant from New York. He is Tamil and will be discussing the parallels between the Tamil and Sikh community with respect to the shared philosophy from the time of Guru Nanak to the resistance against the Indian state from both communities in the 1980s.
I came to learn about Visvajit from his twitter thread which really sparked a conversation about the involvement of Sikh soldiers in the Indian Army that inflicted horrific war crimes including murder, torture and rape against the Tamil people, and what lasting impression that had on the Tamil community with regards to who the Sikhs were. We discuss in our conversation that tweet among a plethora of other important talking points which I hope you enjoy listening to and learning more about today.
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Hi, my name is Sukhraj Singh and Welcome to the second episode of SikhArchive podcasts, a series of conversations with historians, authors and academics on topics related to their areas of expertise of Sikh history.
In this episode, we are joined by Professor Karen Leonard. She is a historian and anthropologist at the University of California. With a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin (1969) on the history of India Mexican Americans, South Asian Americans, and Muslim Americans.
This episode is about her book, Making Ethnic Choices, which was published in 1992 and is a thorough study about the Punjabi Mexican community, it’s formation and a fantastic oral history expose on the early Sikh pioneers of California.
There are a lot of theories that float around about this small but historically unique community and our conversation with Professor Karen Leonard really does clear up a lot of these misconceptions and we hope you enjoy listening to this episode.
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Hi everyone, I’m your host Sukhraj Singh and I would like to welcome you all to our thirteenth podcast episode however it is the first episode in our brand new series of revamped podcasts.
This is because we are in the process of working through all of our old episodes so that they have a better quality in production and that they can be available on most platforms such as Google Podcasts, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
In this week's episode, our guest is Dr. Kamal Arora, an anthropologist whose research area explores the religious practices of Sikh women and in particular our focus today is on the Sikh women of New Delhi’s Widow Colony.
In our conversation, we discuss her most recent article titled “I get peace:” Gender and Religious life in a Delhi Gurdwara. We also talk about her field work in Delhi, what it means to be a widow in North India and the role of the Shaheedganj Gurdwara among many other important talking points.
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