SikhArchive

Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 68th 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 Balbinder Singh Bhogal, who is a 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. He has been on the podcast twice before; the first time to discuss Sikhi and Buddhism, the second to discuss Sikhi and Yoga and now, in this episode, we will be discussing Sikhi on Death and Dying.This episode was inspired and named after chapter 18 from the book, “The Sikh World”, which was published two years ago and edited by Professor Arvind Pal Singh and Professor Pashaura Singh.Professor Bhogal’s chapter “Death and Dying: within the Guru Granth Sahib” explores the philosophical and spiritual understanding of life and death as presented in the Guru Granth Sahib, emphasizing the interconnection between existence, impermanence, and the illusion of the ego. We discuss this chapter in detail and more.

Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 67th 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 Panjabihistory.   In this episode, we are joined by Professor Aparna Vaidik, who is an Indian historian, author, and educator. Professor Vaidik is a scholar with significant public presence known for her extensive writings on history of the Andaman Islands, the Indian revolutionaries, histories of social and mythic violence, and histories of seditious conspiracies.In this interview, we talk about her latest book, titled "Revolutionaries on Trial: Sedition, Betrayal, and Martyrdom” which explores the history of the Lahore Conspiracy Case through the trail in the lower court. We discuss some of the interesting tales of what research went behind writing the book, what discoveries were made along the way, how the book has been structured and much more.

Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 66th 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 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 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. 

In this episode, we are joined by Professor Arvind Pal Singh Mandair, who is a prolific author, a philosopher by training, and a Professor of Sikh Studies at the University of Michigan. Arvind has recently released a book titled, “Violence and the Sikhs” which is published by Cambridge University Press as part a larger series that examines religion and violence. In this conversation, we discuss the motivation behind professor Mandair’s writings on the philosophy of violence in Sikhi, how it isunderstood as modern and premodern conceptions of violence, and finally inclosing, how we try to understand Sikhi and Violence with regards to recent events in relation to sikh resistance movements in Punjab and in the diaspora.

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 61st 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 Gurmeet Kaur, who is an Panjabi American author and publisher known for creating a series of children's books under the project Fascinating Folktales of Punjab. And in 2020, she wrote and published a book about Jaswant Singh Khalra in order to commemorate his 25th martyrdom, which will be the topic of the conversation today. We begin by learning more about Gurmeet Kaur and what motivated her to write the book. Then discover who Jaswant Singh Khalra was as well as understand how the book was written and all the careful thought that was considered in its publication.

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.