W. H. McLeod

William Hewat McLeod (1932–2009), also known as Hew McLeod, was a New Zealand scholar whose research and publications helped establish Sikhism studies as a distinctive field outside India.[1][2] He joined the Presbyterian church mission in late 1950s which sent him to Punjab, India. In the mid 1960s, he studied in the United Kingdom, where he earned a doctorate, and where his wife and he adopted a half-Punjabi girl.[1] Thereafter he oft-visited India, researched and wrote extensively about Sikh scriptures, literature and history. He produced many books and essays on Sikh identity and the theology of Sikhism.[2]

William Hewat McLeod
Born(1932-08-02)2 August 1932
Feilding, New Zealand
Died20 July 2009(2009-07-20) (aged 76)
Dunedin, New Zealand
NationalityNew Zealand
EducationSchool of Oriental and African Studies
Known forSikh theology and history
Spouse(s)Margaret Wylie (m. 1955)
Scientific career
FieldsHistorian
InstitutionsUniversity of Otago, University of Toronto
ThesisThe life and doctrine of Gurū Nānak (1965)

His scholarly work frequently provoked controversy in the Sikh community.[1][3][4] His work attracted hostility from Sikh scholars, who questioned his ties to Christianity and colonial British rule. Thus his analysis is seen by some Sikh Scholars as having a propensity for historical revisionism and colonial whitewashing.

Personal life

McLeod was born and raised in a farming family near Feilding, in New Zealand's North Island. He met Margaret Wylie in Dunedin during his university studies, and they were married in May 1955. They had four children.[1]

Academic career

McLeod, educated at Nelson College from 1946 to 1950,[5] attended the University of Otago in Dunedin, where he earned a BA and then an MA in history, graduating in 1954.[6] He then began theological studies and in 1958 joined the New Zealand Presbyterian Church's mission to Punjab, India. At Kharar, in Punjab, he learned the local languages (Hindi and Punjabi) and taught English at the Christian Boys secondary school.

Later, he completed a PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London in 1965.[1] He lectured in history at the University of Otago from 1971.[7]

In 1990 the University of London awarded him a DLit,[8] and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1999.[9]

Scholarship

McLeod applied historical methodology and critical textual approach to Sikh literature. While considering Guru Nanak to consider both Hindu and Muslim beliefs as wrong, and Sikhism to be distinct from both, as opposed to a synthesis, he categorized the faith as a "reworking of the sant synthesis," despite the explicit statements of Nanak delineating the start of a new panth with new traditions, and leaving this unaccounted.[2]

He analyzed the Sikh janamsakhis, or texts on the lives of the Sikh gurus, considering them only a broad outline of Guru Nanak's life, with little reliable information and facts,[2] counting 87 of 124 sakhis as variously discounted, improbable, or only possible, with 37 as probable or established.[10] His use, however, of both contemporary and secondary works has been described as "highly selective," with little use of the primary scripture of Sikhism, the Adi Granth, or treatises derived thereof, and generalizations, "theories, hypotheses, suppositions, and guesswork" at the expense of factual information, among other criticisms.[2][11] Similarly, he studied the interaction of various Sikh sects and the evolution of the Sikh scriptures, thereby showing the complexity of Sikh society, theology and history.[2][12][13]

McLeod has been accused of presenting distorted and biased accounts of Sikhism in a number of books, which were more on a journalistic level rather than serious academic works, described as disrespectful and unethical attacks against the Sikhs.[14] He has also received criticism for "defin[ing] his position as a historian in a manner that aligns him with the orientalists," with a "certain degree of inbuilt Eurocentricism," and that "contrary to the dictates of the Western historical outlook and tradition, he is extremely reluctant to change or even to modify his interpretation in the light of new evidence, or the old evidence seen from a new perspective," with his methodology and approach resulting in "premature hypotheses." His uncritical acceptance Harjot Oberoi's hypothesis of factions of "Sanatan Sikhism," a term coined by Oberoi himself, in his later works was considered to have further compromised his basic understanding of Sikh treatises.[2] His works nevertheless have also been credited with "expanding the scope of Sikh studies," bringing a significant quantity of Sikh literature to scholarly notice.[2]

Selected works
  • Sikhism (ISBN 0140252606)
  • Sikhs and Sikhism (ISBN 0195647459)
  • Sikhs of the Khalsa: A History of the Khalsa Rahit (ISBN 0195672216)
  • The Sikhs: History, Religion, and Society (ISBN 0231068158)
  • Who is a Sikh?: The Problem of Sikh Identity (ISBN 0198265484)
  • Historical Dictionary of Sikhism (ISBN 0810850885)
  • Essays in Sikh History, Tradition, and Society (ISBN 0195682742)
  • Exploring Sikhism: Aspects of Sikh Identity, Culture, and Thought (ISBN 0195649028)
  • Guru Nanak and the Sikh Religion (ISBN 0198265212)
  • Early Sikh Tradition a Study of the Janam Sakhis (ISBN 0198265328)
  • The Evolution of the Sikh Community: Five Essays (ISBN 0198265298)
  • The Sikhs of the Punjab (ISBN 0853621233)
  • Popular Sikh Art (ISBN 0195627911)

References
  1. Ballantyne, Tony (3 September 2009). "WH McLeod". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  2. J.S. Grewal (2010), W.H. McLeod and Sikh Studies, Journal of Punjab Studies, 17 (2010): 1-2, pages 115–142
  3. Trilochan Singh (1994). Ernest Trumpp and W.H. McLeod as scholars of Sikh history religion and culture. International Centre of Sikh Studies. pp. 343–348.
  4. Tony Ballantyne (2006). Between Colonialism and Diaspora: Sikh Cultural Formations in an Imperial World. Duke University Press. pp. 10–15. ISBN 0-8223-3824-6.
  5. Nelson College Old Boys' Register, 1856–2006, 6th edition
  6. "NZ university graduates 1870–1961: Mc". Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  7. Grewal, Jagtar Singh (2010). "W. H. McLeod and Sikh studies" (PDF). Journal of Punjab Studies. 17 (1 and 2): 116. Retrieved 5 November 2020. Professor McLeod had started teaching History at the University of Otago in 1971.
  8. Olssen, Erik (19 November 2010). "William Hewat McLeod". Royal Society of New Zealand. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  9. "The Academy: M–O". Royal Society of New Zealand. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  10. Tony Ballantyne (2006). Between Colonialism and Diaspora: Sikh Cultural Formations in an Imperial World. Duke University Press. pp. 7–12. ISBN 0-8223-3824-6.
  11. Shackle, C. (1983). "Early Sikh tradition: a study of the Janam-Sākhīs". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland. Cambridge University Press. 115 (2): 323–324. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00137888.
  12. W. H. McLeod (1999). Sikhs and Sikhism. Oxford University Press. pp. 148–161. ISBN 978-0-19-564745-7.
  13. W. H. Mcleod (1975), The Evolution of the Sikh Community, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-826529-0, Review: Pashaura Singh (2010), Revisiting the “Evolution of the Sikh Community”, JPS 17:1&2, pp. 45–69
  14. Dhillon, G. S. (Gurdarshan Singh) (1996). Perspectives on Sikh Religion and History. National Book Organisation. OCLC 41236325.
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