Kanika Singh, "The Story of a Sikh Museum: Heritage, Politics, Popular Culture" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

About this episode

Kanika Singh discusses her book on Sikh museums, exploring their cultural and political significance in contemporary India.

The Story of a Sikh Museum: Heritage, Politics, Popular Culture, published by Cambridge University Press in July 2025, is a pioneering study on Sikh museums, a unique phenomenon of contemporary India—for their sheer numbers, distinctive display, malleability and presence in multiple cultural spheres and their political significance. This case study of Bhai Mati Das Museum at Gurdwara Sisganj, Delhi, examines the process of creation of Sikh heritage through history, paintings, and museums, unearths networks of patronage, and analyses the ways in which specific versions of the Sikh past are used to make present-day claims. It is based on interviews with artists and patrons, material from personal and institutional archives, a visual analysis of Sikh popular art and a critical examination of the museum's narrative. This book brings together Sikh history, popular art, politics and museums to discuss some of the most important current debates (of nation, identity and heritage) and reveals new ways in which we may understand museums, especially in a non-Western context. Kanika Singh is a historian, founder of Delhi Heritage Walks and Director at Centre for Writing & Communication at…

People in this episode

Host: Marshall Poe

Guest: Kanika Singh

Topics covered

• Sikh museums
• heritage
• politics
• popular culture
• identity
• nation
• art

Keywords

• Sikh museums
• heritage
• politics
• popular culture
• identity
• art
• Gurdwara Sisganj
• Delhi

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cambridge University Press

Books & works: The Story of a Sikh Museum: Heritage, Politics, Popular Culture

Places: Delhi, Gurdwara Sisganj

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