Affiliated Faculty

<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Dr. Balwant Singh Dhillon is a Sikh historian whose career-long investigation of Persian, Rajasthani, and Gurmukhi primary sources has significantly expanded the documentary foundation for the study of Sikh history and the Guru Granth Sahib. Over a forty-year career at Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar, he rose from Research Assistant in the Department of Guru Nanak Studies (1979) to Professor and Head of the department, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Religious Studies, and founding Director of the Centre on Studies in Sri Guru Granth Sahib (2011–2015).</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Dhillon's doctoral research, "The Sikh Gurus and the Mughal State" (GNDU, 1985), established the framework that has defined much of his subsequent scholarship: the political relationship between the Sikh Gurus and Mughal imperial authority, examined through close reading of contemporary Persian chronicles alongside Sikh sources. His published work spans the full arc of Sikh history from the founding of the Panth through the eighteenth-century struggle for sovereignty.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">His command of Persian historiography is demonstrated in <strong><em>Banda Singh Bahadur: Farsi Sarot</em></strong> (2011), a comprehensive study of twenty-one Persian chroniclers — many of them eyewitnesses — whose accounts reconstruct the life, military campaigns, and martyrdom of Banda Singh Bahadur, who established a sovereign Sikh territorial state in Panjab in 1710 after being dispatched by Guru Gobind Singh to conquer the region. The companion volume, <strong><em>Rajasthani Documents on Banda Singh Bahadur</em> </strong>(2016), introduced an entirely new category of source material — contemporary Rajasthani documents written in medieval Marwari by Vakils (representatives of Rajput chiefs at the Mughal court) — retrieved through extensive archival research at the Rajasthan State Archives, Bikaner, and private collections across Rajasthan. Together, these volumes widened the scope of Sikh historical research beyond Panjab and into multilingual archival traditions that had remained unexplored. His broader survey of Persian source material on Sikh history appears in <strong><em>Sikh Itihas Di Farsi Itihaskari</em></strong>.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">In the field of Sikh scriptural studies, Dhillon's <strong><em>Early Sikh Scriptural Tradition: Myth and Reality</em></strong> (2000) addressed contentious claims about the textual history of the <em>Adi Granth</em> through rigorous examination of manuscript evidence. His most recent publication, <em><strong>Hukamname: Sikh Itihas De Samkali Dastavez</strong></em> (2025), compiles 56 genuine hukamnamas of Guru Gobind Singh alongside 31 historical documents issued by Banda Singh Bahadur, Mata Sundri, Mata Sahib Devan, and the Sikh Takhts, bringing these primary sources into the public domain for the first time.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Dhillon's additional publications include <strong><em>Studies on Guru Granth Sahib</em></strong>, <strong><em>Guru Tegh Bahadur: Virsa Te Virasat</em></strong>, <strong><em>Sri Gur Panth Prakash</em></strong>, <strong><em>Ahwal-Ul-Khawaqin</em></strong>, and <em><strong>Pramukh Sikh Te Sikh Panth</strong> <strong>(Guru Hargobind Sahib Kal)</strong></em>. He has also edited <strong><em>Interfaith Study of Guru Granth Sahib</em></strong> (2005), reflecting his commitment to comparative religious scholarship. Across his career, he has authored over fifteen books and more than 100 articles in research journals, encyclopedias, and edited volumes.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">He received his M.A. in History from the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur (1974), his M.A. in Religious Studies from the Institute of Sikh Studies (now Gurmat College), Patiala (1976), and his Ph.D. from Guru Nanak Dev University (1985). At GNDU, he served as Editor-in-Chief of the <em>Journal of Sikh Studies</em> and <em>Perspectives on Guru Granth Sahib</em>, and played a central role in establishing the M.A. in Religious Studies and Philosophy program. He has represented India at international conferences in Canada, the United States, England, Germany, and Australia, and has contributed entries on Sikh history and religion to international encyclopedias.</p>

Sikh history from the Guru period through the eighteenth-century struggle for sovereignty, examined through Persian, Rajasthani, and Gurmukhi primary sources. Mughal-Sikh political relations, with particular attention to contemporary Persian chronicles and Vakil correspondence. Textual history and manuscript traditions of the Guru Granth Sahib. The life, campaigns, and state-building of Banda Singh Bahadur. Hukamnama studies and the compilation and authentication of early Sikh primary documents.