Recent trends and prospects in Sikh studies

Abstract

Examining the recent trends in Sikh studies, the issue of academic freedom and religious authority has affected me on a most personal level. Readers may be aware of the controversy in the media over my doctoral thesis ("The Text and Meaning of the Adi Granth," University of Toronto, 1991) over the last few years. My unpublished thesis, filed at the University of Toronto library, was copied without my knowledge or authorization and circulated throughout the world. This led to a series of denunciations in letters and reviews in Sikh community newspapers, which accused me of committing blasphemy. The present article examines this controversy over scholarship on Sikh religion in the light of the historical situation of the recent past.