Preface
The Institute of Sikh Studies, a non-political organisation, is devoted to the objectives of spreading of Sikh religion and culture. It publishes a quarterly journal entitled Abstracts of Sikh Studies with a view to project, correct image of Sikhism, Sikh History, the Sikh community in India and abroad. It is a quarterly journal and is being published regularly. Another feature of the Institute is to arrange seminars on some current topic concerning Sikhs and Sikh studies. Every year some suitable topic is selected and Sikh intellectuals present their papers. We have been publishing the proceedings regularly.
Last year there were two topics for the seminar (i) Institutional Failure in Punjab with Respect to Sikhism; and (ii) Missing Sikh Prisoners. The seminar was held on 3rd and 4th November, 2001. Twentytwo papers were presented which have been divided in the following manner. Part I deals with papers relating to Institutional Failure in Punjab with respect to Sikhism and Part II contains papers on Missing Sikh Prisoners. The papers presented in Punjabi are given in the end.
I am grateful to Sardar Gurdev Singh, the President of Institute of Sikh Studies, for writing the foreword to this volume and for his valuable co-operation. I am thankful to my esteemed colleagues in the Editorial Board for their willing co-operation especially Dr Kharak Singh for his help and guidance, Gen Jaswant Singh for proof reading and also in the production, printing and setting of this book and Prof. Prabhjot Kaur for looking after the Punjabi section. My thanks are due to all those writers who wrote papers for the seminar and particularly to Dr Gurdarshan Singh Dhillon who wrote the Keynote Address. Last but not the least I am thankful to Sardar Sadhu Singh for going through the proofs and office staff for their willing co-operation.
Kirpal Singh
¤
