‘Don’t let individuals edit scholar’s work’

PATIALA: Sikh Vichar Manch (SVM), comprising Sikh intellectuals and academics, has written to the Punjabi University authorities not to allow individuals to edit and publish the works of late professor Gurbhagat Singh.
“Such an exercise would mar the authenticity of the great work done by the late Sikh scholar,” they said and appealed that the university itself get the translation work published, as promised earlier.
Prof Gurbhagat, a former dean (languages) of Punjabi University, Patiala, died in April 2014 at the age of 75. His work of the English translation of Guru Granth Sahib, comprising 1,430 pages, was left unfinished. He is said to have completed over 80% of the translation work. A few months after his death, the varsity had formed a committee comprising Sikh scholars and professors to get his unpublished works published.
Recently, two academics from Patiala, including a student of Prof Gurbhagat, had told TOI that they would of get the late scholar’s translation work published from a private firm soon.
The SVM members said Prof Gurbhagat was a Sikh scholar and thinker, who kept pace with the fast changes in philosophical, ideological and political firmaments and attempted to shape his original writings accordingly.