A Brief History of the Sikhs attempts to highlight that the inhabitants of Punjab have been free spirited, accommodating and companionate towards the peaceful settlers. But they were not accommodating towards the invaders from the north west. They accepted the new ideas like Sufism and the Bhakti movements with open arms. Out of the synthesis of the two, Sikhism was born. The Sikhs carried on their free spirited approach towards the Punjabi nationalism and onwards to uncompromising nationalist approach for the independence of India from the British slavery in 1947. Unlike other communities, the Punjabis fought against a common enemy not among themselves. The Punjabis have been hard working, honest, peace loving and pushing, irrespective of their ethnicity. The Muslims, Hindus and the Sikhs stood for the Punjabiat. That is what the, A Brief History of the Sikhs stands for.

Sikhism traces its beginnings to Guru Nanak, who was born in 1469 and died in 1538 or 1539. With the life of Guru Nanak the account of the Sikh faith begins, all Sikhs acknowledging him as their founder. Sikhism has long been a little-understood religion and until recently they resided almost exclusively in northwest India. Today the total number of Sikhs is approximately twenty million worldwide. About a million live outside India, constituting a significant minority in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. Many of them are highly visible, particularly the men, who wear beards and turbans, and they naturally attract attention in their new countries of domicile. This third edition of Historical Dictionary of Sikhism covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 1000 cross-referenced entries on key persons, organizations, the principles, precepts and practices of the religion as well as the history, culture and social arrangements. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Sikhism.

In the field of medieval Indian historiography, an eight-volume magnum opus, History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, by Sir Henry Myers Elliot (1808-53) and the editor-compiler of his posthumous papers, John Dowson (1820-81), was published from London between 1867 and 1877. These landmark volumes continue to retain their popularity even nearly hundred and fifty years later, and scholars still learn from and conduct their research on the basis of this work. However, an enterprise of this scale and magnitude was bound to suffer from some serious shortcomings. An eminent Indian scholar, S.H. Hodivala undertook the daunting task of annotating Elliot and Dowson’s volumes and worked through all the new material, selecting or criticizing and adding his own suggestions where previous comments did not exist or appeared unsuitable. The first volume of Hodivala’s annotated Studies, was published in 1939, while the second was published posthumously in 1957. Over the years, while the work of Elliot and Dowson has seen many reprints, and is even available online now, Hodivala’s volumes have receded into obscurity. A new edition is presented here for the first time. Hodivala also published critical commentaries on 238 of about 2000 entries included in another very famous work, Hobson-Jobson (London, 1886) by Sir Henry Yule (1820-89) and Arthur Coke Burnell (1840-82). These have also been included in the present edition. These volumes are thus aimed at serving as an indispensable compendium of both, Elliot and Dowson’s, and for Yule and Burnell’s excellent contributions of colonial scholarship. At the same time these would also serve as a guide for comparative studies and critical appreciation of historical texts. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

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