Golden Temple and the Punjab Historiography

This book of articles deals with the British Discovery of Sikhs their literature and history. Further it reminds us the Sikh Political success after the occupation of Lahore by Ranjit Singh in 1799. True that the British enquiry was diplomatic and Military during the 18th century. However the Anglo-Sikh Relations after the fall of Delhi and Hansi into the hands of Company in 1803 and more so the Anglo-Sikh Treaties of January 1806 and April 1809 widened the scope of the enquiry. With Malcolm''s work published in 1810 the Punjabi and Sikh writings especially the Bani of the Gurus or its elaborations by the Bhai''s such as Gurdass and Mani Singh entered the field under investigation. Sikh History and Religion emerged as a common genre by the middle of the 19th century. J.D. Cunningham gave a firm basis to this genre though H.H. Wilson had acted differently in 1848 because he was a Sanskritist. The use of Bani Sakhi and Rahit by the British the Christian Missions the early Sikh reformers like the Nirankaris and the Namdharis necessitated the further use of Sikh Scriptures Hukamnama and Ardasan carrying letters of Baba Ram Singh (1872-1885). In fact by 1857 the idea of having the Sikh Holy granths translated into English was conceived by the British. First attempt in this regard took twenty years i.e. 1857-1877. The attempt was official and made through Trumpp. These twenty years also saw the printing of the Adi Granth in the Damdama Bir twice i.e. in 1864 and 1868 in Lahore. A Janam-Sakhi (Bhai Bala version) was also printed. The book reveals how and why the political patronage and use of Golden Temple Amritsar continued under the British despite the Sikh awakening and protest against it by the Namdhari Movement and the Singh Sabha Lehar between 1863 and 1919. In addition to Golden Temple Sikh Literature and History had drawn the Colonial attention through Griffin between 1914 and 1923 ga