Rating: 
Summary: Knocking the wrong side
Review: Patwant Singh's 'The Sikhs' is the same re telling of Sikh history written a thousand times before by a thousand different writers - most if not better certainly more qualified to write on the subject. Singh's USP is his inclusion of more recent Sikh history in independant India. Here Singh uses the book to blame the Hindu's for all of the problems with Sikhs today. This may have been fashionable with Sikhs 15 years ago but today it just doesnt wash. Singh knows which side his bread is buttered and fails to recognise the negative impact of the British on Sikhism during their days of empire building in the subcontinent. A really poor book designed to play on the emotional prejuidices of the Sikh diaspora.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Introduction to the Sikhs
Review: Patwant Singh's book is an excellent introduction to the Sikh tradition and its history. Sikh philosophy strongly repudiates the highly retrogressive and morally bankrupt institutions that continue to be endorsed, enforced, and encouraged by the Brahminical elements of Indian society. The Sikh religion is opposed to those forces that seek to divide people, and favors the promotion of a world free of caste, gender inequality, and religious intolerance. Read this book.
Rating:
Summary: An essential study of India's affairs and history.
Review: Patwant Singh's Sikhs provides a comprehensive history of the Sikhs, from their origins and traditions to recent history, considering how a humane-based movement came to blend spirituality with military beliefs. This is an essential book for any studying Indian affairs and history, providing the depth of cultural and historical reflection lacking in more casual overviews of Indian's peoples. Diane C. Donovan Reviewer Diane C. Donovan Reviewer
Rating:
Summary: An account of Sikh History
Review: The book looses its veracity because of its unnecessary diatribe against the Brahmins. The author is propagating a dangerous attack on a minority community, which was started by the foreign invaders to weaken the Hindu community. To classify Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi as Brahmins and condemn all Brahmins for their actions is insane. If the above three, meat eating,atheists were Brahmins, then Guru Nanak was definitely a Brahmin. Stories of Sikhs attacking Hindu villages, buses ambushed and selectively killing Hindus and many acts of terrorism which is part of the history of Sikhs are missing. He puts a favorable spin on Jinnah in comparison with Gandhi.
Rating:
Summary: Nanak, a Brhamin
Review: The book looses its veracity because of its unnecessary diatribe against the Brahmins. The author is propagating a dangerous attack on a minority community, which was started by the foreign invaders to weaken the Hindu community. To classify Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi as Brahmins and condemn all Brahmins for their actions is insane. If the above three, meat eating,atheists were Brahmins, then Guru Nanak was definitely a Brahmin. Stories of Sikhs attacking Hindu villages, buses ambushed and selectively killing Hindus and many acts of terrorism which is part of the history of Sikhs are missing. He puts a favorable spin on Jinnah in comparison with Gandhi.
Rating: 
Summary: The Sikhs
Review: The prologue of the book was very interesting due to the brief discussion and comparison done by the author between the Brahmins and the game of chess. What the author lacked to do was put more detail into the missions of the Sikh Gurus. Also the author makes statements, which are debatable, because he makes them without giving any references. Example of this type of statement is when the author goes on to claim that Guru Gobind Singh had two wives and does not give any proof of where he recieved this debatable information. Overall the book is well writen and suits well those who are new commers to the understanding of the Sikh Gurus and their mission and how it effected the history of the Sub-continent.
Rating:
Summary: A must read to understand the misunderstood
Review: THe Sikhs are the least understood of the great religions of the world. In bookstores across America shelves and shelves are given over to Buddhism and Taoism but it is rare to find even one book on the Noble warriors, the Sikhs. Yet these people are in many ways a unique and amazing religious group that inhabits northwest India and has followers all over the globe(a diaspora due to their persecution). The story of the Sikhs, as painted so well in this book, shows how they have fought so hard against the attempts of the Muslims to create genocide upon them. Their Hindu neighboors have also been hostile, although this hostility has become more blatent recently under Indira Gandhi. The Sikhs were slughtered like animals during partition in 1948 by the Muslims who cleansed them from Pakistan, where not one Sikh remains in what had been their ancestral homeland. In the west Sikhs have been the target of racist attacks partly because neo-nazis think they are Muslim(due to the turbans) and partly due to jealousy since they own so many businesses. I recommend this book wholeheartedly. It is obviously partisan but the author has an intricate understanding of Sikh lure and history. The author does not touch on Sikh militism unfortunatly to an extent that should be touched upon. He does not explain the Sikh revenge attacks upon Muslims in 1948. He does not explain Sikh terror which is the reason so many Hindus dislike them. But the book is nevertheless excellent.
Rating:
Summary: A must read to understand the misunderstood
Review: THe Sikhs are the least understood of the great religions of the world. In bookstores across America shelves and shelves are given over to Buddhism and Taoism but it is rare to find even one book on the Noble warriors, the Sikhs. Yet these people are in many ways a unique and amazing religious group that inhabits northwest India and has followers all over the globe(a diaspora due to their persecution). The story of the Sikhs, as painted so well in this book, shows how they have fought so hard against the attempts of the Muslims to create genocide upon them. Their Hindu neighboors have also been hostile, although this hostility has become more blatent recently under Indira Gandhi. The Sikhs were slughtered like animals during partition in 1948 by the Muslims who cleansed them from Pakistan, where not one Sikh remains in what had been their ancestral homeland. In the west Sikhs have been the target of racist attacks partly because neo-nazis think they are Muslim(due to the turbans) and partly due to jealousy since they own so many businesses. I recommend this book wholeheartedly. It is obviously partisan but the author has an intricate understanding of Sikh lure and history. The author does not touch on Sikh militism unfortunatly to an extent that should be touched upon. He does not explain the Sikh revenge attacks upon Muslims in 1948. He does not explain Sikh terror which is the reason so many Hindus dislike them. But the book is nevertheless excellent.
Rating: 
Summary: Well Written.
Review: This book gives a fairly accurate depiction of the history of Sikhs, and the current strained relationship between the Indian government and people of Punjab. Although not the subject of discussion, I wish the author had spent a bit of time discussing the specific divide and conquer policies that the Indian government borrowed from the British and later, the Soviets, to maintain control of Punjab (and other parts of India) since post-Partition. Specifically the decision to divide Punjab into two parts - Haryana and "new" Punjab based on a language bias, and then re-routing the waters of the Punjab into other neighboring states is a tragedy that has further estranged common brothers. The consequences of the nationalism movement in India that exists today, created to overthrow the British and presently advocated by leaders to construct an "Indian" identity and common enemy in Pakistan, should have been included as well.
Rating:
Summary: Well Written.
Review: This book gives a fairly accurate depiction of the history of Sikhs, and the current strained relationship between the Indian government and people of Punjab. Although not the subject of discussion, I wish the author had spent a bit of time discussing the specific divide and conquer policies that the Indian government borrowed from the British and later, the Soviets, to maintain control of Punjab (and other parts of India) since post-Partition. Specifically the decision to divide Punjab into two parts - Haryana and "new" Punjab based on a language bias, and then re-routing the waters of the Punjab into other neighboring states is a tragedy that has further estranged common brothers. The consequences of the nationalism movement in India that exists today, created to overthrow the British and presently advocated by leaders to construct an "Indian" identity and common enemy in Pakistan, should have been included as well.
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