ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the emergence, development, and future prospects of the field of modern Sikh studies in the Western academy. Instead of a conventional chapter, the editors decided to engage in a dialogue that allows them to draw upon their different backgrounds and research orientations with the aim of showing how alternative approaches and visions can nevertheless work in productive harmony to take the field forward. The dialogue ranges from a discussion about the growing pains of the field in the early 1990s, to its eventual stabilization and importance beyond academia. The editors make the case for adopting interdisciplinary approaches to keep pace with the developments in the humanities and social sciences and the changing nature of the knowledge system.
