The material of Sikh history (India)

This work seeks to explore how material forms of historical representation in the Sikh tradition---primarily as sacred object or "relic" and site---relate to the construction of the Sikh past as history in relation to shifting notions of the Sikh community as a cultural, religious and sometimes political entity. The practices and materials in question include: the collection, display, and interpretation of a set of objects---including clothing, texts, furniture, and weapons---and itihasik (historical) sites that are revered for their association with the ten Sikh gurus (teachers) and other heroes and martyrs. I consider these materials in relation to the production of Sikh textual historiography and other memorial practices since the eighteenth century, with attention to the social and ritual practices that are associated with them. The museological mode of representation, from colonial beginnings to contemporary transnational manifestations, provides a central context for understanding the relationship of ongoing memorial and historiographical practices to South Asian discourses of the modern.