NEW DELHI, Sept 2 — The internationally-renowned Smithsonian Institution in the USA has decided to set up a Sikh heritage museum as part of its 154-year-old edict of increasing and diffusing knowledge.

It is a recognition of the industrious Sikh community’s independent identity and its contribution to US society and the industrialised West.

The institution which was established as an independent trust in 1846 has begun the spadework in setting up the Sikh heritage museum as part of its international chain of museums and galleries to focus on the special attributes of Sikhism and its impact on the cultures of the world.

The blueprint for the project has been finalised and an advisory committee of eminent Sikh personalities constituted, according to Dr Paul Michael Taylor, Director of the Asian Cultural History Programme and Curator of Asian, European and Middle Eastern Ethnology of the Institution in the Washington DC.

In a communication to the Vice- Chairman of the National Minorities Commission, Mr Tarlochan Singh, Dr Taylor said he had gone round three museums in London and that work connected with the museum had begun. Dr Taylor had already had some extended sittings with a few acclaimed authorities of Sikh history and thought.

Dr Taylor proposes visiting India in October accompanied by Dr Amrik S. Chattha, for discussions with a cross-section of Sikh scholars, museum officials and curators both in the national capital and Punjab. Dr Taylor also plans going to Lahore for a meeting with Mr Iqbal Qauser, Executive Director, Punjab History Board. Mr Qauser has offered his assistance to Dr Taylor for the project.

Dr Chattha is a neurologist and an erstwhile president of the Sikh Council of North America. He is actively involved in social and cultural organisations and is the brother of Mr Ajit Singh Chattha, former Chief Secretary of Punjab.

Dr Jeevan Singh Deol, who has been working as a fellow at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, has been specially selected to work on the project.

Post doctoral fellows will be recruited to work on the project. During his stay in India, Dr Taylor is expected to hold interviews and shortlist some doctoral fellows who will be authenticating and interpreting Sikh artifacts in the possession of the institution.

The institution will be touring various sites and countries in different parts of the world on a collection spree to put together an exhaustive exposition on Sikh arts, culture and religion.