Sikh: Two Centuries of Western Women's Art & Writing {Special Limited Edition}

About the Book

Chronicling two centuries of encounters between Sikhs and 170 western women, this groundbreaking work seeks to correct a major imbalance in western sources of Sikh history - which are dominated by male voices.

Among these women are queens, missionaries, journalists, big game hunters, novelists, nurses, spies, poets, artists, photographers and a flamenco dancer turned maharani. Almost every facet of Sikh history and culture is covered in their engaging travelogues, romantic fiction, reportage, philosophical engagement, enchanting watercolours and striking photographs.

From empires, warfare and political struggles to religion, sacred sites and village life, distinctive insights emerge regarding a dynamic culture – both in the Indian subcontinent and beyond – underpinned by a vibrant spiritual tradition.

This magnificent tome also brings together for the first time a remarkable treasure trove of over 440 illustrations from collections around the world including sketches, paintings and photographs by the women themselves.

Contents 

Preface
Acknowledgments
The Women
Timeline
Maps
Note on Transliteration of Names

I. THE WESTERN WOMEN

Chapter 1: Introducing the Women

Who the women are
Linguistic proficiency
Interconnections
The women’s menfolk 

Chapter 2: Writing about Sikhs

Three memoirs
Other genres – the making of poems, letters, journals, novels
Why the women wrote
How they wrote
Sources and influences
The challenges of portraying India
Encouragement and difficulties in getting published 

Chapter 3: Sikhs in Pictures and Sound 

Choosing their subjects 
The women as artists 
Women writing about painting 
The many challenges 
Lithography and ivory portraits 
Photography: a new medium 
Sound recording 

Chapter 4: Onward Christian Women 

Missionary encounters in India
Missionary encounters outside India
Idolatry
Inter-faith resonances
Sikh practices seen through Christian lenses
Interactions in the UK 

II. RELIGION 

Chapter 5: The Sikh Religion 

A pioneering study
An earlier account of Sikhism
Some brief summaries
Guru Nanak
Later Gurus
Guru Gobind Singh 

Chapter 6: Doctrines and Scriptures 

Doctrines of the Sikhs
The Guru Granth Sahib
Continuous reading
Special treatment of the Guru Granth Sahib 

Chapter 7: Expressions of Faith 

Langar: a cornerstone of the Sikh community 
Bathing: immersion in the lake of nectar 
Amrit: initiation into the Khalsa 
The Five Ks: identity among the Khalsa 
Death and funeral rites 
Spiritual leaders 

Chapter 8: The Hindu-Muslim Context 

Islam and the Sikh religion 
Hinduism and Sikhism 
Sikhism as a distinct religion 
Convergences between Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus 

III. PLACES 

Chapter 9: The ‘Golden Temple’ 

Amritsar visits omitting Golden Temple 
The earliest visits to the Golden Temple 
Some later nineteenth-century visits 
Fireworks at the Golden Temple 
Late nineteenth-century visits 
Twentieth-century visits 

Chapter 10: Sacred Spaces 

Amritsar: Baba Atal Rai 
Amritsar: Akal Takht 
Other Sikh takhts 
Kartarpur 
Other gurdwaras in North India and Pakistan 
The twentieth century: UK gurdwaras and changing attitudes 

Chapter 11: Secular Settings 

Lahore 
Amritsar 
Kapurthala 
Jalandhar 
Ludhiana and the Satluj plain 
Patiala 
Village life in Punjab

IV. SOCIETY 

Chapter 12: Sikh Women 

Sikh women’s creativity 
Reflections on Sikh women’s status 
Suttee 
Royal mothers and wives 
Portraying the character of Sikh women 
Hair and its social implications 
Sikh women’s clothing 
Sikh women’s jewellery 

About the Author

ELEANOR NESBITT grew up in the south of England and studied at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Nottingham and Warwick. Her family by marriage is Punjabi. She taught in Nainital (in north India), where many of her students were Sikh, and then subsequently in Coventry, mostly in the University of Warwick where she is now an emeritus professor. Her research has focused on the lives of young people in Hindu, Sikh, Christian and 'mixed-faith' families. In 1984, Eleanor co-founded the Punjab Research Group and she has received two lifetime achievement awards (one in the USA and one in the UK) for her contribution to Sikh and Punjab Studies. She has often featured on BBC radio and been a consultant for radio and TV programmes.

She has published extensively. With Robert Jackson she co-authored Listening to Hindus (1990) and Hindu Children in Britain (1993). With Gopinder Kaur she co-authored Guru Nanak (1999), winning the Shap Award in 2000 for 'making an outstanding contribution to the teaching of world religions'. She went on to author The Religious Lives of Sikh Children: A Coventry Based Study (2000), Interfaith Pilgrims (2003), Intercultural Education: Ethnographic and Religious Approaches (2010) and Sikhism: A Very Short Introduction (2nd ed, 2016). With Kailash Puri she co-authored Pool of Life: The Autobiography of a Punjabi Agony Aunt (2013). Eleanor is on the editorial board of the journals Fieldwork in Religion and Religions of South Asia, and was consultant editor and contributor for Sikhism in The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1997). She is a co-editor of Brill’s Encyclopedia of Sikhism. She recently published Open to New Light: Quakers and Other Faiths (2023, John Hunt Publishing). 

For many years, Eleanor has been a member of two poetry groups, the Coventry Live Poets and the Diviners. With Gavin D’Costa, Mark Pryce, Ruth Shelton and Nicola Slee she co-authored Making Nothing Happen: Five Poets Explore Faith and Spirituality (2014). She produced Coventry’s Literary Trail (2014) and her poems appear in several publications. 

Design: Book design, layout, typesetting and maps by Paul Smith (paulsmithdesign.com)
Publication Date: 19 September 2024
ISBN: 9781911271208