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Education and Modernity in Colonial Punjab

Khalsa College, the Sikh Tradition and the Webs of Knowledge, 1880-1947

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Takes an innovative micro-history approach to global, colonial and Sikh modernity
  • Offers the first in-depth study of Khalsa College, advancing research on South Asian educational institutions at the turn of the twentieth century
  • Explores ideas of Sikh modernity in the Punjab as distinct from the frameworks of British imperialism and mainstream Indian nationalism

Part of the book series: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies (CIPCSS)

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About this book

This book explores the localisation of modernity in late colonial India. As a case study, it focuses on the hitherto untold colonial history of Khalsa College, Amritsar, a pioneering and highly influential educational institution founded in the British Indian province of Punjab in 1892 by the religious minority community of the Sikhs. Addressing topics such as politics, religion, rural development, militarism or physical education, the study shows how Sikh educationalists and activists made use of and ‘localised’ communal, imperial, national and transnational discourses and knowledge. Their modernist visions and schemes transcended both imperialist and mainstream nationalist frameworks and networks. In its quest to educate the modern Sikh – scientific, practical, disciplined and physically fit – the college navigated between very local and global claims, opportunities and contingencies, mirroring modernity’s ambivalent simultaneity of universalism and particularism.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Religion, Tufts University, Medford, USA

    Michael Philipp Brunner

About the author

Michael Philipp Brunner is a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Swiss National Science Foundation and a Visiting Scholar at Tufts University, USA. He completed his PhD at the Institute of History at ETH Zurich.



Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access