Anne Murphy offers a groundbreaking exploration of the material aspects of Sikh identity, showing how material objects, as well as holy sites, and texts, embody and represent the Sikh community as an evolving historical and social construction.

Acknowledgements ; Chapter 1 Introduction: The Forms of Sikh Memory ; Chapter 2 Sikh Materialities ; SECTION 1 The Past in the Sikh Imagination ; Chapter 3 Representation of a Community: Literary Sources from the Eighteenth Century ; Chapter 4 Into the Nineteenth Century: History and Sovereignty ; SECTION 2 Possessing the Past ; Chapter 5 A History of Possession ; Chapter 6 Colonial Governance and Gurdwara Reform ; Chapter 7 Territory and the Definition of Being Sikh ; Chapter 8 Conclusion Community, Territory, and the Afterlife of the Object ; Bibliography ; Index

"Through deft study of sites and objects revered within Sikh tradition, Anne Murphy explores the historical production of the representation of the past within Sikh tradition and how such representations were transformed from the eighteenth century to the early twentieth in Punjab. Murphy moves beyond the 'Sikh identity' debate toward a more substantive and historically-oriented accounting of the central sensibilities and commitments in the tradition. An excellent addition to the growing corpus of works in the colonial history of South Asia."--Arvind-Pal S. Mandair, Associate Professor and S.C.S.B Endowed Professor of Sikh Studies, University of Michigan "What does it mean to be a Sikh? In this rich historical exploration of Sikh identity, Anne Murphy traces the shifting roles of Sikh texts, objects, and holy sites through three centuries. This book will be valuable not just to South Asianists, but to anyone interested in issues of material religion or historical memory."--Richard H. Davis, Professor of Religion, Bard College