Courses
Craft, Caste & Its Rejection
A plain-English but graduate-depth look at how the Sikh Gurus rejected caste (jati), built langar and sangat as institutions that act it out in daily life, and an honest sociological accounting of where caste has nonetheless persisted among Sikhs.
Organising the Panth: The Gurdwara, the SGPC, and Sikh Collective Authority
Introduces the gurdwara as a social institution and the central place where Sikh community life is organised.
Sarkar Khalsa: The Sikh Empire of Maharaja Ranjit Singh
An advanced survey of the ਸਰਕਾਰ ਖਾਲਸਾ (the Sikh state) under ਮਹਾਰਾਜਾ ਰਣਜੀਤ ਸਿੰਘ, ruling from the Lahore ਦਰਬਾਰ between 1799 and 1849. The course traces the rise of the ਮਿਸਲ confederacy into a unified kingdom, the ਖਾਲਸਾ army's French-trained modernization (the ਫੌਜ-ਏ-ਖ਼ਾਸ), territorial expansion from Lahore to Multan, Kashmir and Peshawar, and a deliberately pluralist administration that placed Muslims, Hindus, Dogras and Europeans in the highest offices. Students examine the empire's revenue and trade economy, the symbolic politics of the ਕੋਹਿਨੂਰ diamond and the ਸਰਕਾਰੀ patronage of ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰੇ and the rebuilding of ਸ੍ਰੀ ਹਰਿਮੰਦਰ ਸਾਹਿਬ, and the structural fragilities — succession, the Dogra factions, and the British frontier — that brought the kingdom down in the two Anglo-Sikh Wars by 1849.
