Punjab loses professor who broke fresh ground in Indian history, Sikh studies

Vishav Bharti

Chandigarh, August 12

Professor JS Grewal saw the past, the present, and the future in continuity. In spite of the changes, he was keen to know where we have come from. Perhaps that is why Sikh historian WH McLeod once said Jagtar Singh Grewal was “the greatest historian of the Sikhs”.

Did PhD from London

• Prof JS Grewal received PhD in history from the University of London in 1963 for his thesis on British historical writing on medieval India
• He taught at Panjab University, Chandigarh, and GNDU, Amritsar; he served as the GNDU Vice Chancellor
• He was the General President of the Indian History Congress; was awarded the Padma Shri in 2005

History contextualises our identity

The primary function of history is to enable you to understand yourself, your position in society and the position of other people in society. Prof JS Grewal in an interview

Grewal, who passed away at his Chandigarh home yesterday, is often considered the first historian in the region who applied the historical method consistently to diverse areas of study.

Dr Indu Banga, Professor Emerita, Panjab University, says Grewal published about 40 monographs, breaking fresh grounds in Indian and Punjab history and Sikh studies.

“He approached each subject with an open mind, examined evidence afresh and published only when he had something new to contribute. He preferred to closely analyse a text as a whole, and place it in its historical context,” she says and adds Grewal never hesitated to reinterpret and revise his earlier position in the light of new evidence.

Gurinder Singh Mann of the Global Institute for Sikh Studies, New York, says that from his first book on Guru Gobind Singh in 1966, its revised version in 2019, and several of his important research pieces awaiting to be published, now posthumously, Professor Grewal was a larger-than-life figure in the area of Sikh studies.

“From Baba Nanak to contemporary Sikh affairs, there is no facet of the Sikh Panth, on which this great scholar did not leave his mark. It is hard for me personally to foresee my visit to Chandigarh with him now absent, but it is more appropriate to think of how to celebrate his distinguished contribution to the field and perpetuate his outstanding scholarly legacy,” says Mann.

Pakistani historian and veteran journalist Majid Sheikh called Grewal a great historian of Punjab’s history and Sikh history. “His books are classics. A loss to the academic world,” he said.