1. The Stakes of the Debate
- The Stakes of the Debate
- Methodological Approaches to Sikh Scriptural Attribution
- The Historical-Critical School: McLeod and His Legacy
- Traditional and Devotional Responses to Historical Criticism
- The Nihang Community's Position
- The SGPC and Mainstream Institutional Positions
- Kamalroop Singh and Recent Scholarship
- What the Absence of 18th-Century Evidence Actually Proves (and Does Not Prove)
- The Question of Canonical Status
- Authentic Praxis as Evidence
- How to Hold Both Positions with Integrity
- Looking Forward: What Future Scholarship Needs
Real Communities, Real Stakes
Debates about the authenticity of sacred texts are never merely academic. They are debates about identity, authority, and community. For the Nihang Singhs, the Sarbloh Granth is not a historical curiosity but the living scripture that shapes their daily practice, their ceremonies, their understanding of the divine, and their sense of who they are as a community. A conclusion that the Sarbloh Granth is not authentic Guru Bani would be, for them, an assault on the foundations of their religious identity. This is not a reason to dismiss the historical questions; it is a reason to engage them with appropriate seriousness and care (Oberoi 1994, 12).
For the Broader Panth
For Sikhs outside the Nihang tradition, the Sarbloh Granth debate raises questions about the boundaries of the Sikh canon, the criteria for scriptural authority, and the diversity of practice within the ਪੰਥ. If the Sarbloh Granth is authentic Guru Bani, what does that mean for the Sikh Rehat Maryada that does not include its recitation in the standard Nitnem? If it is not, what does that mean for the Nihang tradition's legitimacy? These questions do not have easy answers, and a course that pretends otherwise would not be serving its students honestly.
For Academic Scholarship
For academic scholars of Sikhism, the Sarbloh Granth represents a methodological test case. How do scholars of religion engage with contested sacred texts when the communities that hold them sacred are living, politically engaged communities with real stakes in the conclusions? The methodological choices scholars make in approaching the Sarbloh Granth have implications for how the broader field approaches contested scriptures across all religious traditions.