Collections of objects of Sikh history and Sikh art exist in the hands of both private individuals and institutions. The most famous examples of private collections include those of the maharajas of Patiala and Nabha in India, the Kapany Collection and the Khanuja Family Collection in the USA (Taylor and Dhami 2017) and the Toor Collection in the United Kingdom (UK). A selection from the Khanuja family's private collection is now displayed in a dedicated gallery in the Phoenix Art Museum in Arizona, USA (Taylor 2022), and, similarly, a part of the Kapany Collection is housed in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal, Canada. Recently, in 2022, the Lahore Museum in Pakistan inaugurated a Sikh Gallery with objects from the time of Ranjit Singh (Ahmed 2022). The items in these collections range from handwritten and illustrated manuscripts (including of the Guru Granth Sahib), miniature paintings, sculptures, clothes, weapons, jewellery, coins, pieces of furniture—mostly associated with the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the colonial period, including paintings done or commissioned by colonial officials and early photographs of the Sikhs and their shrines (c. mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries). The Sikh Gallery at Lahore Museum, for example, displays portraits of the members of the royal family (of Ranjit Singh), administrative records of the court and even personal items like prayer beads of the maharaja. Illustrated folios of a nineteenth-century Janamsakhi are among the paintings available in the Kapany Collection. Some collections also include modern art by Sikh artists such as the UK-based Singh Twins and some of the artists whose works were discussed earlier in the book (such as Sobha Singh, Jarnail Singh, R. M. Singh and Devender Singh).

Bhai Mati Das Museum has a large collection of paintings on display (169) and a majority of these were not prepared for the purpose of exhibition in a museum. They were made over a period of three decades, from the 1970s to early 2000s, by the Punjab & Sind Bank (PSB) for publication in their annual calendars. These canvases which lay in the bank's collection for several years were subsequently donated to the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) for display in the Bhai Mati Das Museum. This chapter addresses three main questions: Why does a prominent public sector bank commission calendars on Sikh history? How were these paintings made and who made them? What is the relationship between the bank, the museum and Sikh heritage?

The PSB was founded in the year 1908, during the rise of the Singh Sabha movement, by three prominent Sikhs: Bhai Vir Singh, Sardar Trilochan Singh and Sardar Sunder Singh Majithia.

The Singh Sabha was a highly influential reform movement among the Sikhs which began in the 1870s in Punjab. The main objectives of the movement were social, religious and educational improvement of the Sikh community. The emphasis was on returning to a pure, original form of Sikhism, away from the influences of other religious traditions, which were considered deviant or corrupt. This was done through the establishment of several institutions to guide Sikh religious and educational practices and the publication of popular tracts on Sikh history and religion.

Gurdwara Sisganj in Delhi is one of the holiest Sikh shrines in India. It stands prominently on Chandni Chowk, the main street in the former Mughal capital of Shahjahanabad (now popularly referred to as purani Dilli, or old Delhi). The site of Sisganj is immensely significant for its association with the martyrdom of the ninth Sikh Guru, Tegh Bahadur (1621–75), and also for its location, very close to the Red Fort, the seat of the Mughals. Sikh tradition2 informs us that Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb (1618–1707) was forcing a group of Kashmiri brahmins to convert to Islam, and they approached Guru Tegh Bahadur for help. The Guru declared that if Aurangzeb could convert him, everyone else would convert; if not, the emperor must leave them alone. The Guru, along with three of his disciples, Bhai Mati Das, Bhai Sati Das and Bhai Dyala, was imprisoned at the Mughal kotwali (prison) in Chandni Chowk. The three Sikhs were tortured in the Guru's presence to scare him into converting to Islam. It is said that Bhai Mati Das was sawn in half, Bhai Sati Das was wrapped in cotton and burnt and Bhai Dyala was boiled alive. Even after witnessing the torture and death of his followers, the Guru refused to convert.

This chapter takes a specific example from the museum's narrative—the story of Baghel Singh's conquest of Delhi—to show the use of history paintings and the museum's narrative in contemporary heritage politics. The choice of this episode is relevant for several reasons. Bhai Mati Das Museum has four paintings dedicated to this story, and the event it describes unfolds at a site very close to the Gurdwara Sisganj and the museum, the Red Fort. Similar paintings on Baghel Singh appear in other Sikh museums too, including the Central Sikh Museum, Amritsar. Another prominent Sikh museum in Delhi, the Baba Baghel Singh Sikh Heritage Multimedia Museum (Baba Baghel Singh Sikh Virasat Multimedia Ajaibghar) at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib, not only includes this story but is also named after its main protagonist. Also, Dilli Fateh, or the Sikh conquest of Delhi, is a popularly known story and remembered with great pride in the Sikh community. And, in recent years, the story of Baghel Singh's victory over Delhi through his occupation of the Red Fort has acquired tremendous relevance in heritage politics. It is widely invoked and celebrated in prominent events (such as the Fateh Diwas celebrations at the Red Fort which began in 2014, and the historic Farmers’ Protests in Delhi in 2020–21). This claim and its symbolism are important to understand heritage politics in India today. This chapter includes a discussion of the different ways in which stories of the Sikh tradition are invoked. These ways of producing and consuming Sikh history offer insights into not only what the Sikhs think of their past but also what the Sikhs think of themselves today, of their place in contemporary India.

This information is collected from the interviews and the personal collections of the artists and employees of the gurdwaras and the PSB and compiled with reference to the existing collection at the Bhai Mati Das Museum. The PSB does not maintain an archive of the paintings or the calendars. The following list provides the year of issue and theme of the calendar, the descriptions of the paintings, along with the credits as originally published in the PSB calendars. The calendars carried the text in English and Punjabi (and at times in Hindi); I have reproduced the English text here. All illustrations refer to history paintings unless otherwise mentioned; the more recent calendars mostly publish photographs. This is an incomplete list—due to the lack of available information. At times, it was difficult to find all the pages of a calendar or the text accompanying a painting; in some cases, no information was available about the annual calendar, which is visible as a gap or missing year (for example, the years 1977 and 1980–1988). The following text has been slightly edited for clarity and readability.

1974 Important Personalities [title provided by author, original title not available]

Bhai Vir Singh, Bhai Nand Lal Goya, Bhai Gurdas, Sant Mian Mir, Baba Buddha, Bhai Kanhaiya

1975 Women in Sikh History [to mark the UN International Year of Women]

First disciple: Bebe Nanaki

Soul of sacrifice and humility: Mata Khivi

Mata Sahib Devan contributing womanly sweetness to amrit

Mai Bhago leading forty muktas in the battlefield at Muktsar

Bibi Bhani: Guru's daughter, Guru's wife and Guru's mother

Women plying heavy grindstones in Mir Manu's prison, as punishment for their steadfast faith

The PSB's collection of paintings found its way to the Bhai Mati Das Museum through the efforts of Baba Harbans Singh Kar Seva Dilli Wale (1920–2011). He was a much-respected Sikh who organised kar seva (voluntary service) for the construction of gurdwaras, including the historic gurdwaras in Delhi, Darbar Sahib at Amritsar, Gurdwara Tarn Taran and Gurdwara Paonta Sahib, among others (Khatri n.d.). It appears that it was on his initiative that the building of Majestic cinema at Chandni Chowk was purchased by the DSGMC and replaced by a museum. The bank donated its paintings for the purposes of display, and the Bhai Mati Das Museum opened in 2001. There is little information available on the process of selection of paintings, curation of the display and the people involved. Initially, artist Amolak Singh (1950–2006) was in charge of the museum, but at present there is no artist or curator associated with it. The sevadars of the gurdwara act as caretakers of the museum, and their role is limited to opening, cleaning and closing it.

Bhai Mati Das Museum has 169 history paintings, each provided with a description in three languages, English, Hindi and Punjabi. Here, Sikh history is presented in chronological order, beginning with Guru Nanak (in the fifteenth century), covering the ten Gurus, the events of the eighteenth century that saw conflict with the Mughals and Afghans and subsequently the emergence of Sikh misls and Ranjit Singh's kingdom in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Beyond this, the story is patchy, with a few canvases on the bhagats, whose verses are included in the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikhs’ struggle against the British and their contribution to the army of free India.

The paintings in the Bhai Mati Das Museum have descriptions written in English, Hindi and Gurmukhi. I have provided the English titles and descriptions here, and as they appear in the museum. The text has been edited slightly to improve readability. The name of the painter and the year of creating the painting have been taken from the respective canvas. The paintings are numbered here in the sequence they may appear in to a viewer at the museum; no numbering is done at the museum itself.

This chapter discusses the variegated dynamics of English-language rap in the complex, stratified, and multilingual sociolinguistic environment of India. The first section provides a brief overview of the historical and sociocultural positioning of English in India. The following section lays out a genealogy of English rap in India, discussing its evolution over the past three decades. The third and final section, which forms the analytical crux of the chapter, uses examples from lyrics and an interview to contextually analyze how the choice to rap in English reproduces as well as contests the intersections between sociolinguistic dynamics, politics of regionalism and marketability, caste identities, and racialization. The chapter concludes with a discussion on how English rap in India is simultaneously rife with possibilities for artists while also transcending the oversimplifications associated with English usage in India.