Affiliated Faculty

<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal" data-sourcepos="35:3-35:668;740-1405">Harinder Singh is an educator, author, and institution-builder whose work integrates the political and the spiritual dimensions of the Sikh tradition. He is a co-founder and Senior Fellow (Research & Policy) of the Sikh Research Institute (SikhRI) and the Project Lead of The Guru Granth Sahib Project, SikhRI's long-term initiative to render the Guru Granth Sahib in contemporary Panjabi and English for a global audience. He holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Wichita State University, an M.S. in Engineering Management from the University of Kansas, an M.Phil. from Panjab University in the linguistics of the Guru Granth Sahib, and a Diploma in Persian.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal" data-sourcepos="37:3-37:772;1410-2179">The Guru Granth Sahib Project, which Harinder Singh conceived and has led since its inception in 2018, is a translation and transcreation initiative that works composition by composition (bani by bani) rather than sequentially, producing for each passage a literal translation, an interpretive transcreation, and a commentary that incorporates the musical, poetic, grammatical, etymological, and historical dimensions of the text. The work is released openly and without charge online, and is designed to serve as an English-language bridge for the further translation of Gurbani into other world languages. Its first public release, on the composition Asa ki Var, ran to roughly 300,000 words; the full undertaking is projected across a fifteen-to-twenty-year horizon.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal" data-sourcepos="39:3-39:649;2184-2830">Harinder Singh is the author of <strong>Guru Gobind Singh Sahib: Life, Vision & Wisdom</strong> (SikhRI), a study of the tenth Guru's life and thought, and <strong>Sikhi: Faith & Followers</strong>. He is co-author of <em><strong>Gurū Granth Sāhib: Its Language and Grammar</strong></em>, and the translator of <strong><em>Prit Vina</em> </strong>(Love Harp). As an editor he has worked on <strong><em>Guru Gobind Singh Sahib & Sikhs in Bihar</em></strong> and <strong><em>The Khalsa Raj: Banda, Battles & Body-Politic</em></strong>. He has written numerous articles and reports addressing subjects including caste and race, women and gender in Sikhi, the <em><strong>ghallugharas</strong></em> (the eighteenth-century massacres) and the question of <em><strong>raj</strong></em> (sovereignty), and the meaning of martyrdom.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal" data-sourcepos="41:3-41:625;2835-3457">Beyond SikhRI, Harinder Singh co-founded the Panjab Digital Library, which locates, digitizes, and preserves Panjab's manuscript and documentary heritage, including material relating to the Sikh tradition. He envisioned the Kaur and Singh Academy and organized the Free Akal Takht campaign, which addressed questions of Sikh institutional sovereignty and the independence of the Akal Takht. His current work includes the <strong><em>State of the Panth</em> report</strong> series, which applies critical analysis to the condition and governance of Sikh institutions, and continued development of the open-source decoding of the Guru Granth Sahib.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal" data-sourcepos="43:3-43:696;3462-4155">He speaks and lectures widely at universities, parliaments, museums, conferences, and civic institutions, and has addressed the U.S. Congress, the White House, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Education, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Smithsonian Institution, and the U.K. Parliament, among others. He consults on curricula, exhibitions, and films, and has been featured in documentaries on the Sikhs, the Panjab, and South Asian affairs. He has served on the boards of the National Conference on Community and Justice, The Fellowship of Activists to Embrace Humanity, and The Nanakshahi Trust.</p>

The language and grammar of the Guru Granth Sahib, including translation, transcreation, and the open-source decoding of Gurbani for contemporary audiences. Sikh sovereignty and political thought, including the Akal Takht, the concept of raj, and Sikh institutional governance. The life, writings, and vision of Guru Gobind Singh. The integration of the political and the spiritual in the Sikh tradition. Caste, race, and gender within a Sikh worldview. The digitization and preservation of Panjab's manuscript and documentary heritage, and the use of technology to make Sikh knowledge globally accessible.