Contesting Plagiarism and Historiographical Distortions: The Image of Guru Tegh Bahadur
Balwant Singh Dhillon
Abstract:
In 1975, the tercentenary of Guru Tegh Bahadur’s martyrdom ignited a significant academic debate and controversy. In 1975 a renowned historian published an article in a respected research journal, depicting the Ninth Guru as a collaborator in acts of plunder and extortion alongside a Muslim Sufi, Hafiz Adam Sarhandi. This portrayal elicited strong objections from Sikh organizations and prompted immediate responses from Sikh scholars in major academic publications. Two decades later, similar objections arose over NCERT textbooks that similarly depicted Guru Tegh Bahadur. Even Audrey Truschke’s recent comments on the Ninth Guru as a rebel executed for armed opposition misreads the evidence and perpetuates these distortions.
This study traces the origins of such misrepresentations in key Persian chronicles from the Mughal to the Colonial times by examining the motives and methods of Persian historians writing under the patronage of the Mughals and the British Colonial Government of India. On examining the Persian sources, it has been revealed that the distortion of Guru Tegh Bahadur’s mission and martyrdom can be traced back to Persian historians loyal to the Mughal court, plagiarism promoted by the British Colonial administration, and misinterpretation of Persian texts by their English translators/editors. To honor the Guru’s 350th martyrdom anniversary scholars must rigorously reexamine Persian chronicles, disentangle interpolations by colonial translators, and contextualize the Mughal-Sikh relations within the politics of Mughal orthodoxy and the legitimate socioreligious concerns and dissent of the Sikh Gurus.
Keywords:
Persian Historiography, Plagiarism, Guru Tegh Bahadur, Aurangzeb, Sujan Rai Bhandarii, Yahya Khan, Ghulam Hussain Khan, Raymond, John Briggs, Siyar-ul-Mutakherin.
Citation: J. Balwant Singh Dhillon (2025). Contesting Plagiarism and Historiographical Distortions: The Image of Guru Tegh Bahadur. Horizon J. Hum. Soc. Sci. Res. 7 (2), 175–189. https://doi.org/10.37534/bp.jhssr.2025.v7.n2.id1324.p175
Download Full PDF
