Summary: This trip was a unique opportunity to become more familiar with the library and archival resources in Panjab, as well as to make influential contacts within the academic and commercial publishing sectors of Panjab.  It was also an opportunity for formal study of the Panjabi language. The trip was organized by Prof. Gurinder Singh Mann, the holder of the Chair in Sikh Studies at UC Santa Barbara. Prof. Mann has extensive contacts in Panjab and he was able to acquaint program participants with academics, librarians, publishers, writers, artists, social activists, journalists, etc. in Panjab as well as giving special insight into the culture and language of the region.  I was able to acquire handlists for archival holdings of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar and Punjabi University, Patiala.  I was also able to acquire 4 microfilm reels from Guru Nanak Dev University of the complete run of Gadar, the journal of the Hindustan Gadar Party. Berkeley has a thriving program in Panjabi and the contacts made and skills acquired during this program have greatly enlarged my ability to serve the South Asian research community on campus.

Chandigarh

During this trip I participated in the Columbia University Summer in Chandigarh program.  This was a unique opportunity to study with Prof. Gurinder Singh Mann, the newly appointed holder of the Sikh Studies Chair at University of California, Santa Barbara.  The program in Chandigarh is a combination of  language study, meeting with cultural figures, and field trips.  Prof. Mann has done extensive work with early Sikh manuscripts and has published his research in The Goindwal Pothis, no. 51 in the Harvard Oriental Series. A more expanded version is forthcoming through Oxford University Press. The opportunity to spend time in Punjab with Prof. Mann was invaluable for library acquisition.  His extensive contacts in the academic and publishing worlds of Punjab proved invaluable and will facilitate acquisition of hard to obtain material from Punjab in the years to come.

I arrived in New Delhi on July 5.  After a morning of rest I took the Shatabdi Express to Chandigarh to meet the other program participants.  Our base of operations was the Hotel Shivalikview in Sector 17, Chandigarh.  The city is a planned community, designed after independence by the French architect Le Corbusier. Participants spent 9-11 a.m. each day, Monday through Friday, studying modern Punjabi language.  From 11-1:30 we had lectures by two renowned historians of Punjab, Dr. J. S. Grewal and Dr. Indu Banga. Afternoons were spent in special sessions with directors of government agencies,  Punjabi journalists, social activists, religious leaders, artists, and writers. Weekends were spent in fieldtrips/book buying expeditions.  We made a special  five day trip to Amritsar to visit Guru Nanak University  (University Library pictured above). 

We visited the Publications Department and  I was able to secure a number of titles for Berkeley that I had not been able to acquire in the U.S.  I was also able to meet the staff in the Publications Department and can now receive booklists and place orders with them directly or through the Library of Congress Field Office.  I also was able to obtain a microfilm copy of the complete run of Gadar.  GNU is the major university in Punjab and publishes in the areas of social science and humanities.  I was able also to acquire unpublished handlists to the libraries important manuscript collections.  The program participants also had the opportunity to meet with the University Chancellor who is very willing to facilitate future book purchases, both for Berkeley and Santa Barbara.  Part of the group, pictured above with Prof. Holly Simms of SUNY Albany (second from right) took a trip to Kausali cantonment to see architecture from the British raj and to visit a Hanuman temple.

The group also made a weekday trip to Panjabi University in Patiala.  Panjabi University is the major publisher for books on Panjabi language, literature, and linguistics.  We visited the Publications Department and I was able to find a number of books I had been unable to acquire including the Linguistic Atlas of Punjab.  We met with the founder of the Publications Department, Hazara Singh, who is a  personal friend of Dr. Mann.  This contact will be of enormous value in future acquisitions. In Patiala we also visited the Punjabi Bhasha Vibhag, another important Punjabi publications agency.  Prof. Mann is an alumnus of Berring Christian Union College and we were able to visit that college and tour their library and publications department. Field trips also included excursions to charitable institutions such as the Pingalwara Association, historic sites like Jallianwala Bagh, and various religious sites.

Besides making many important contacts within the academic publishing network we also met with important figures in modern Punjabi literature and literary criticism, including Rana Nayar, translator of Gurdial Singh, numerous short story writers and  Giani Gurdit Singh, author of Mera Pind. While in Amritsar we attended a mini-conference on the Punjabi folk epic. 

In Chandigarh we visited Nilam Mansingh who is a theater director and playwright.  She has worked internationally with Peter Brooks and her troop has made tours to France.  Her theater in Chandigarh receives support from the Ford Foundation. She incorporates folk forms into her work, but says that this is not "tradition as tradition, but tradition as transformation." 

Everyone was impressed that Westerners would be suffering through a Punjabi summer in order to visit libraries, publication departments, booksellers, and cultural sites. The intrepid group of scholars and their leader are pictured at the left.  While in Chandigarh I stayed in communication with the Library of Congress Field Office in New Delhi,  following up on the start of the microfilming of the holdings of the Marwari Library (arranged through Vasudha Dalmia, professor at UC Berkeley), the shipping of the Kazi archive from Kalimpong, and the shipping of materials acquired by Berkeley scholars during research in India.

Cancelled Trip to Pakistan

My planned trip to visit the Library of Congress Field Office in Islamabad, Pakistan had to be cancelled at the eleventh hour.  Several days before I was scheduled to travel to Islamabad,  the field director, James Armstrong, and his family were evacuated to Washington, D.C., as a result of the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa and subsequent threats to U.S. personnel in Pakistan. They are still in Washington, D.C. waiting for State Department clearance to return to Islamabad.  This is my second aborted acquisitions trip to Pakistan (the first had to be cancelled because of the murder of 4 Americans in Karachi and unrest that followed). It is unclear when I will have another opportunity to attempt a visit, but I will try again after U.S. personnel are allowed to return to Islamabad.

*Itinerary

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