ABSTRACT
In line with the pattern established in the series of Routledge Worlds, the present volume on the “Sikh world” contains substantial thematic articles on a variety of topics that examine the living experience of the global Sikh community. Geographically and culturally, the Sikh tradition originated more than five centuries ago in the Punjab (“Five Rivers”) region of northwestern India, a frontier zone where the interaction between different segments of the society and cultures of the Middle East, Central Asia, and India was commonplace. The global population of the Sikhs is about 27 million, which has exceeded the worldwide population of Jewish people. The major demographic concentration of the Sikhs is in the Punjab, where they are about 2% of India’s more than one billion people. There is an urgent need to look at the Sikh world as a dynamic phenomenon, shifting through time, finding its manifestation to the pressures of the moment.
