Jagtar Singh Grewal (1927 --2022)
The sad news of the death of a superlative Punjabi educator and research scholar reached us recently.
My husband Yashdip Bains recalls his relationship and long friendship.
I first met Jagtar when I was visiting in London enroute to take up a graduate Fellowship at Syracuse University.
Since I had never travelled outside of India, my friend Surjit Hans advised me to meet with Jagtar Grewal who was completing his doctorate in History at the University of London.
Both were appalled by my lack of a winter coat and advised me that it would be a very cold winter in Syracuse.They also warned me about the climate of racism in America.They told me to shake hands with a firm grip and never myself express any sense of racial difference. All good advice.
Before I went there, they found an old heavy coat which I was glad to have during the long snowy days in the Syracuse winter.
Three years went by. After finishing my own doctoral degree, I spent a few years teaching in Saskatchewan, Canada and then in Providence, Rhode Island. Through correspondence with Jagtar, I had learned of the establishment of a new university inAmritsar, Guru Nanak Dev University. My friend Surjit Hans was hired to teach Sikh Studies; he told me that a new English Department would be opened there.Would I be interested in returning to teach in Amritsar?
When I learned that Jagtar would create a new history department, I wanted to join this adventure in education in Punjab.
Jagtar was an admirable educater. He was immersed in his own research and writing and brought the fresh fruit of his labors into the classroom.
He was curious and enthusiastic, and he made the other faculty members feel that they were launching a great enterprise.
I was invited to join as Head of the new English Department and with that appointment Jagtar and I started a fruitful endeavor to raise the level of graduate education inAmritsar.
Jagtar had that rare talent that combined administrative ability and scholarly intellectual curiosity. His scholarly publications set a high standard for rigor and originality and were published over several decades from 1969 to 2012.
Grewal's long and productive intellectual productions mainly explored the history of Sikism and its impact on India's cultural life and development. The range of his interests and accomplishments is expansive and praiseworthy: an Indian writer, historian, scholar, and a vice-chancellor of the Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU). After securing his Ph.D. and DLitt from London, he joined the GNDU, where he founded the Department of History. He was the first Dean of the Academic Affairs of the University and was a former member of faculty at the Panjab University, Chandigarh. After his superannuation from GNDU in 1984, he joined the Indian Institute of Advanced Study.
We will miss this superb scholar and wonderful friend.
Bibliography[edit]
- J. S. Grewal (1969). Guru Nanak in History. Punjab University Press. p. 348.
- J. S. Grewal (1998). Contesting Interpretations of the Sikh Tradition. Manohar Publishers. p. 315. ISBN 9788173042553.
- J. S. Grewal (1998). The Sikhs of the Punjab. The New Cambridge History of India. Cambridge University Press. pp. 308. ISBN 9780521637640.
- J. S. Grewal (2001). Maharja Ranjit Singh: Polity, Economy and Society. Guru Nanak Dev University. p. 112. ISBN 9788177700268.
- J. S. Grewal (2004). Social and Cultural History of the Punjab. Manohar Publishers. p. 185. ISBN 9788173045653.
- J. S. Grewal (2007). Sikh Ideology, Polity and Social Order. Manohar Publishers. p. 303. ISBN 9788173047374.
- J. S. Grewal, Veena Sachdeva (2007). Kinship and State Formation. Manohar Publishers. p. 112. ISBN 9788173047183.
- J. S. Grewal (2009). The Sikhs: Ideology, Institutions, and Identity. Oxford University Press India. p. 400. ISBN 9780195694949.
- J. S. Grewal (2012). Historical Writings on the Sikhs (1784-2011). SAB. ASIN B00A3K71R2.
