editorial articles reviews news & views - Institute of Sikh Studies
editorial articles reviews news & views - Institute of Sikh Studies
editorial articles reviews news & views - Institute of Sikh Studies
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REVIEWS<br />
THE OTHER SIKHS – A VIEW FROM EASTERN INDIA<br />
103<br />
THE OTHER SIKHS<br />
– A VIEW FROM EASTERN INDIA –<br />
A REVIEW BY JASWANT SINGH *<br />
Author : Himadri Banerjee<br />
Publisher : Manohar Publishers & Distributors 4753/23, Ansari Road, Daryaganj,<br />
New Delhi<br />
Pages : 279; Price : Rs 550/-<br />
Himadri Banerjee is Guru Nanak Pr<strong>of</strong>essor <strong>of</strong> Indian History,<br />
Jadavpur University, Kolkata. His in-depth and intense interest in <strong>Sikh</strong>s<br />
and Punjab is evident from his earlier book, Agrarian Society <strong>of</strong> the Punjab<br />
and the other volume, The Khalsa and the Punjab <strong>Studies</strong> in <strong>Sikh</strong> History<br />
edited by him. The present book is the first <strong>of</strong> the two volumes. The<br />
Other <strong>Sikh</strong>s – A View From Eastern India. Very few non-historian <strong>Sikh</strong><br />
scholars in and outside the Punjab are aware <strong>of</strong> such a work from the<br />
Eastern India. In fact there are three books woven into this volume.<br />
To catalogue all the authors, poets, essayists and lecturers will be an<br />
uphill task, so that only an overall view is being attempted.<br />
After a comprehensive introduction about religious intolerance,<br />
the raproachement between the two communities as ‘healing touch’,<br />
the agony <strong>of</strong> the Operation Blue Star, Singh Sabha Reformers<br />
establishing <strong>Sikh</strong> identity including Anand Karaj as <strong>Sikh</strong> marriage,<br />
Gurdwara reforms, formation <strong>of</strong> the Akali Dal, the author takes up<br />
his main theme <strong>of</strong> Assamese, Oriya and Bengali <strong>Sikh</strong> studies in their<br />
regional languages. He emphasises that the Brahmos in Bengal and<br />
Orissa were the earliest to be interested in <strong>Sikh</strong>ism. During the last 3<br />
decades <strong>of</strong> the twentieth century, emergence <strong>of</strong> separate <strong>Sikh</strong> identity<br />
as in Ham Hindu Nahi by Bhai Kahn Singh, added a further dimension<br />
* Maj Gen (Dr), AVSM, # 1801, Sector 33-D, Chandigarh