Introduction

Abstract

The last two decades have witnessed a considerable increase in the publications on Punjab and the Sikhs. Much of this interest has been generated by the events in Punjab after 1984, but it is also the result of the growth of Punjab and Sikh studies in higher education in Europe and North America. A major preoccupation of this literature has been the concern with Sikh identity reflected in the emergence of two schools of thought: the traditional historians, instrumentally inclined political scientists and anthropologists, and post-structuralists for whom Sikh identity is essentially a modern construction; and anthropologists, Sikh historians and theologians for whom the essentials of Sikh identity were present from the time of the gurus.’ What has been missing from this debate are the dynamics of mobilization which compelled the Sikh community into competition with Punjabi Hindus and Muslims in the late nineteenth century and its response to nation and state-building after 1947.