‘The Story of a Sikh Museum’: Making of Sikh visual culture

Sikh tradition has long had an ambivalent relationship with visual representations of its past. Some of this stems, like in Islam, from its monotheistic roots. Yet, much like Shia traditions, Sikh patrons have also nurtured and developed a distinctive visual culture. This artistic tradition has always been contested because art is shaped not only by its subject — in this case, Sikh history — but also by its style, medium, and interpretation. Nevertheless, it has grown into a significant category, much like Sikh architecture.

The practice of painting in Sikh tradition dates back to the era of the misls, when sardars commissioned wall paintings, miniatures, and portraits of Gurus and leaders. The most popular subjects were scenes from the Janamsakhis, the hagiographical accounts of Guru Nanak’s life. These paintings, blending Pahari and Rajput styles, mirrored the treatment of Puranic tales, reflecting the shared pool of patrons and painters across Sikh, Hindu, and Muslim traditions.

This visual tradition continued through the 19th century but underwent a major shift in the 20th century. A new generation of patrons and artists began depicting familiar subjects in a realist style, heavily influenced by European art. Changes in treatment, technique, and medium dramatically reshaped the painting’s role in the reformist movements of the time. Like photographs, these works soon acquired an authoritative place in Sikh memory. One iconic example is Sobha Singh’s 1937 painting of Guru Nanak, which broke from earlier depictions that included Bhai Mardana and Bhai Bala.

Sobha Singh presented Guru Nanak as a towering, radiant figure with open hands, a luminous halo, and meditative eyes — an image that recalled Christ-like visual tropes and conveyed the Guru’s spiritual radiance directly to the viewer.

Kanika Singh’s book examines how this modern tradition of realist painting shaped Sikh perceptions of their own past. It focuses on the 169 paintings commissioned by the Punjab and Sind Bank (PSB) since the 1970s — one of the largest efforts to create an authoritative visual narrative of Sikh history. These works inspired popular calendar art and led to the establishment of the Bhai Mati Das Museum (BMDM) in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk in 2001 by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee.

Founded in 1908 as a “Sikh bank” and nationalised in 1980, PSB remained deeply connected to the ideals of the Singh Sabha reform movement of the 1920s through its founders and leadership.

This intersection of social reform, religious identity, and banking history offers fascinating insights into the evolution of patronage for realist art, especially in the form of thematic annual calendars. The paintings expanded the scope of Sikh visual narratives beyond piety-centred Janamsakhi themes to include portraits and episodes from the lives of later Gurus, their battles and martyrdoms, close devotees, bhagats, and significant events from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Singh argues that Sikh museums, like BMDM, challenge conventional definitions of a museum. Rather than displaying artefacts, BMDM showcases modern realist paintings. Temporal and religious functions merge within this space, turning the museum into more than a historical archive — it becomes a living witness to Sikh political and spiritual memory.

The book also explores the politics of representation, especially in depictions involving Muslims, such as those portraying Sikh martyrdom. A notable example is a series of paintings of General Baghel Singh and his “conquest of Delhi”, which Kanika Singh connects to the annual commemoration of this event at the Red Fort since 2014. This conquest narrative has also acquired renewed significance in the context of the farmers’ protests against the Central government.

The author’s account of the creation process behind these visual narratives is particularly compelling. Through extensive interviews with PSB’s Makhan Singh and master artists such as Devender Singh and Bodhraj, she offers rare insights into the collaborative processes, aesthetic decisions, and ideological considerations that shaped these works.

‘The Story of a Sikh Museum’ is a richly researched and deeply engaging study of how art, politics, and public memory intersect in the making of Sikh visual culture. It is an essential read for anyone interested in heritage, religious representation, and the evolving ways in which communities imagine and narrate their past.

— The reviewer teaches history at Dr BR Ambedkar University, Delhi