First Annual
Ahluwalia Memorial Lecture on Sikhism, April 2000
The first guest for this lecture series was Dr. Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia, Vice Chancellor, Punjabi University, Patiala, in April 2000. He presented two lectures, titled Sikhism and the Twenty-First Century: Society and Civilization, and Inter-Religious Dialogue and Inter-Community Understanding in the Context of Ethnic and Ethno-Religious Problems: A Sikh Perspective. Dr. Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia, Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala, is also the President of the Guru Gobind Singh Foundation. He has been the Chief Editor of the Guru Gobind Singh Journal of Religious Studies. A former IAS officer, Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia is recognized as a leading Sikh scholar and Punjabi writer, poet and critic. He has published more than two dozen books in English and Punjabi in the areas of philosophy, Sikhism, Punjabi prose, poetry and literary criticism. Ahluwalia's seminal work The Sikh Doctrine is considered an authoritative text on Sikh philosophy. The Times of India's editorial on The Sikh Doctrine hailed it as "an original contribution of the highest order to the development of modern Indian thought". Dr. Ahluwalia's latest book The Doctrine and Dynamism of Sikhism is a post-modernist look at Sikhism. Ahluwalia has lectured abroad extensively on Sikhism, Indian philosophy and Punjabi literature. He served Punjabi University where he is now Vice Chancellor as its first Director for Development and Planning. Dr. Ahluwalia also set up the Punjab State University Text Book Board and served as its first Director. In his role as a distinguished scholar of Sikhism, Ahluwalia is on the International Editorial Board of World Faiths Encounter, the journal of the World Congress of Faiths. Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia was appointed Member-Secretary of the high-level
Punjab Government committee in 1986 for preparing the draft of the All
India Sikh Gurdwaras Legislation. Ahluwalia was a member of the State-level
Khalsa Tercentenary Celebrations Committee of the Punjab Government as
well as a member of the Anandpur Sahib Urban Planning and Development Authority
and the Anandpur Sahib Foundation set up by the Punjab Government for the
Khalsa Tercentenary projects.
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