Max Arthur Macauliffe

Max Arthur Macauliffe
Born	Michael McAuliffe 11 September 1838 Glenmore, Monagea, County Limerick, Ireland
Died	15 March 1913 (aged 74) West Kensington, London United Kingdom
Known for	English translator of the Sikh scriptures and historian of Sikhism Prominent scholar of Sikhism

Max Arthur Macauliffe (11 September 1838 − 15 March 1913), originally known as Michael McAuliffe, was a senior Irish administrator, prolific scholar and author in British India. Macauliffe is renowned for his partial translation of the Sikh scripture, Guru Granth Sahib, and Sikh history into English. His magnum opus was The Sikh Religion: Its Gurus, Sacred Writings and Authors, published in 1909 by the Clarendon Press. He was skilled at languages, being proficient in a number of them. He is regarded as one of the most influential Western scholars on Sikhism.

Name

His birth or baptismal name was Michael McAuliffe, which he changed to Michael Macauliffe in the 1870s and finally to Max Arthur Macauliffe later on after 1909. He may have changed his name to Max in honour of the famous scholar Friedrich Max Müller or to escape scandals he was involved in.

Early life and education

Birth record of the Irish scholar of Sikhism, Max Arthur Macauliffe (born Michael McAuliffe), Monagea, Ireland, September 1838

Macauliffe was born in Ireland at Glenmore, Monagea, Newcastle West, County Limerick on 11 September 1838 (although some sources incorrectly claim he was born in 1841) into a Roman Catholic family to parents John McAulliffe and Julia Browne. He was baptised as a Roman Catholic and was the eldest of a family of eleven or twelve children, with the family shifting from Monagea to Templeglantine as his father John was a principal at a local school. According to Tadhg Foley, the family consisted of five sons and seven daughters, with Michael being the oldest. He was educated at Newcastle School, Limerick, and Springfield College. He attended Queen's College Galway between 1857 and 1863, being awarded junior scholarships in the Literary Division of the Arts Faculty for 1857–58, 1858–59, and 1859–60. He was awarded a B.A. degree with first class honours in Modern Languages in 1860. He obtained a senior scholarship in Ancient Classics for 1860–1, and a senior scholarship in Modern Languages and History for 1861–62. He also served as Secretary of the college's Literary and Debating Society for the 1860–61 session. He studied ancient classics, modern languages, and modern history. After his education, he had some proficiency in Latin, Greek, French, and Italian.

Civil service

Macauliffe entered the Indian Civil Service in 1862 after passing an examination he wrote at London in June 1862, picking the career as it paid well and would provide a pension. He arrived in Calcutta on 9 February 1864, staying there probably for a year or two to likely complete tests in Urdu and Bengali at Fort William College. Macauliffe originally aimed to work in Bengal but decided instead to go to Punjab due to an exchange about climate and salary he had with a civil servant who served in Punjab. He arrived in Punjab in circa 1865 and had to write further tests in Urdu and Persian. He first worked as an Assistant Commissioner of succeeding classes and later as a Judicial Commissioner. From 1865 or 1866, he worked in Gurdaspur as an Assistant Commissioner (third class) until 1870, with his working until 1872 in Multan as an Assistant Commissioner (possibly second class). Between 1872 and 1874, he was in Britain. He returned to Punjab, with him working from 1875 to 1878 in Montgomery as an Assistant Commissioner (either second or first class), after which he was appointed as a Judicial Assistant (first grade). In 1878, he again returned to Britain. He was appointed Deputy Commissioner of the Punjab in 1882 and he became a Divisional Judge in 1884, with him continuing to work in this role until 1893. He was awarded the degree of M.A. (honoris causa) by his alma mater in 1882. He retired from the Indian Civil Service in 1893 after the Khalsa Diwan offered him money for his work on Sikhism, receiving a pension thereafter. While him leaving the civil service has been characterized as a resignation, it was more comparable to a retirement. Indeed, E. D. Maclagan writing in 1908 criticized Macauliffe for characterizing his leave of the civil service as a "resignation". He lived in Amritsar for around three years after his retirement. He residence in Amritsar was located on 2 Cantonment Road. He had lost around a lakh rupees around this time due to commercial failures.

Research on Sikhism

Portrait of Max Arthur Macauliffe wearing a turban

His interest in the Sikhs began after he attended a Diwali celebration in Amritsar shortly after he arrived in Punjab. What interested him regarding the Sikhs were their egalitarianism in regards to women and caste, their martialness and modernism, and their lack of a clergy class. However, he considered Hinduism to be polluting Sikhism and wished to reform the Sikhs to rid them of Hindu influences, comparing Hinduism to a boa-constrictor hunting prey. Desiring to make Sikhism more known to the Western world, he would state:

I am not without hope that when enlightened nations become acquainted with the merits of the Sikh religion, they will not willingly let it perish in the great abyss in which so many creeds have been engulfed.

— Max Arthur Macauliffe

In his career as a civil servant, Macauliffe showed sympathy with the native Sikhs, which brought him into some conflict with his British peers, with the colonial government refusing to financially support Macauliffe's Sikh research. He may have been introduced to Sikh studies by Bhai Gurmukh Singh, a Sikh reformer and scholar he may have met between 1879 and 1884. Macauliffe was known to and worked with other contemporary Sikh scholars and writers, such as Attar Singh of Bhadaur, Kahn Singh of Nabha (who became one of his closest Sikh assistants, first meeting in 1885), Bhagat Lakhsman Singh, and Ernest Trumpp. Macauliffe also knew Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner since 1870, with both meeting in 1885, 1886, and 1899. Macauliffe's first four articles researching Sikhism were published in the Calcutta Review between 1875 and 1881. Eventually, he reconciled the fact that he could not fully delve into Sikh studies without leaving his job in the civil service. After he retired from the Indian civil service in 1893, he had more time afforded to himself to devote to Sikh translations and history. Macauliffe was concerned that the original essence of the Sikh religion was being lost with the onset of linguistic shift, elderly traditional Sikh teachers and interpreters not passing on their knowledge to the next generation and subsequently dying, religious syncretism, modernity, and technology, thus he rushed to record what remained. Traditionally, Sikh expositions were carried out by the Gianis, Udasis, and Nirmalas but there was a dearth of published works covering the subject, especially due to Sikhs feeling guarded about their scriptures and non-Sikhs writing about them, especially due to the offences caused by Ernest Trumpp's poorly received work that was biased by odium theologicum, an undue emphasis on Sanskrit, and him smoking tobacco in the presence of the Sikh scripture. Sikh knowledge was therefore passed down orally rather than through writing. The scripture was written in various linguistic sources, with no dictionary for the most part being available to assist with comprehending the language of the scripture. The Raja of Faridkot, Bikram Singh, started a project in 1877 to publish a commentary on the Sikh scripture.

Sample of Macauliffe's handwriting, from the Amarjit Singh Chandan Collection

He was proficient in a number of Asian languages, such as Sanskrit, Prakrit, Arabic, Persian, Turkic, Marathi, Gujarati, and Punjabi and its dialects. He would shift from Amritsar to various settlements, such as Nabha, Mussoorie, and Dehradun. His local patrons included Hira Singh of Nabha, Ripudaman Singh of Nabha, Rajinder Singh of Patiala, Ranbir Singh of Jind, Ranjit Singh of Chhachhrauli, and Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda. He consulted the earlier works of Henry Colebrooke, John Malcolm, Joseph Davey Cunningham, Horace Hayman Wilson, Monier Williams, Friedrich Max Muller, and Ernest Trumpp. Macauliffe criticized Trumpp's earlier translations as not taking into account traditional Sikh interpretations, instead relying on Sanskritic interpretations and being unsuitably rendered in English. He also relied on a number of native Sikh scholars, bhais and gianis. Some of these Sikh helpers were Kahn Singh of Nabha, Nihal Singh of Sialkot, Sant Singh of Sialkot, Ditt Singh, Gurmukh Singh, Rajindar Singh of Lahore, Nihal Singh of Lahore, Sardul Singh Giani, Prem Singh, Fateh Singh of Amritsar, Darbara Singh of Amritsar, Bhai Sant Singh of Kapurthala, Bhai Bhagwan Singh of Patiala, and Bhai Dasaundha Singh of Firozpur. These Sikhs did not always agree with one another, lacked English ability, and communicated in dialectal Punjabi, making Macauliffe's task more challenging. Macauliffe had difficulty locating Sikhs who were both conversant in English but also possessed advanced knowledge in the scripture, with him claiming there only being ten such men in the world and they all failed to interpret the Sikh scriptures in English without restoring to relying on native language. He was also distrustful regarding the accuracy of some of the information parted on him by learned Sikhs. Some Sikhs considered an English translation of the Sikh scripture to be blasphemous and asserted that they would lobby for a government ban if such a translation was published. Instead, Macauliffe claimed that the Sikh gurus and Bhagats, if they were alive, would be pleased to see their verses being translated into English and made more accessible to the world. By Christmas Day in 1899, he had been indebted to the amount of 35,000 rupees due to employing Sikh teachers.

Frontispiece of 'The Sikh Religion' (1909), depicting Macauliffe with some of his Sikh assistants (Kahn Singh in bottom-left and Ditt Singh in bottom-right), by Lal Singh Mussawir

In 1897, he performed a lecture in Paris, which led to an 1898 book on Sikhism. At a lecture at the annual session of the Lahore Singh Sabha, Macauliffe proclaimed that the Guru Granth Sahib was matchless as a book of holy teachings. He literally stated: "the sublimity of their [Sikh gurus] style and the high standard of ethics which they inculcated were unmatched". However, Macauliffe claimed that only around fifty learnt Sikhs remained in Punjab who could properly interpret the scriptures. While Macauliffe is connected to the Tat Khalsa, in reality he worked with and maintained ties with both the Sanatan Sikhs and Tat Khalsa. However, Macauliffe had a partial falling out with the Sikhs for not being paid for his English translation by the reformers and maharajas despite being promised this by Gurmukh Singh. Furthermore, Macauliffe wanted to maintain friendly relations with the Amritsar Singh Sabha, which was opposed by the Lahore Singh Sabha. By 1897, Macauliffe was writing to the government warning them of Gurmukh Singh, who was his competitor as both vied for the patronage of the Patiala ruler. In 1902, the work that Macauliffe had done regarding Sikhs was praised by Max Müller in Auld Lang Syne, Second Series.

Translation work

Macauliffe is held in high esteem by the Sikh community, for his translation into English of major parts of the Sikh scripture under the review of native Sikh scholars, published under the title The Sikh Religion: Its Gurus, Sacred Writings and Authors (six volumes, Clarendon Press, 1909), running nearly 2,500 pages in length. Macauliffe is purported to have used two lakh rupees of his own funds to support the 1909 work. He was assisted in his works by Pratap Singh Giani, a Sikh scholar. The 1909 work is a translation of select portions of the scripture, combined with traditional narratives and stories involving the Sikh gurus and bhagats. All together, he dedicated sixteen years to his Sikh translations with little resources to support him. A major portion of the Guru Granth Sahib was therefore translated by him. He would later state:

Had I known earlier the difficulties I should have to encounter, I should certainly never have undertaken a translation of this description.

— Max Arthur Macauliffe, Asiatic Quarterly Review, 1898, p.365

Newspaper article covering Max Arthur Macauliffe's work translating Sikh scripture, published in the Homeward Mail from India, China and the East, Monday 2 October 1899

In 1885, he requested the Maharaja of Nabha to let Kahn Singh of Nabha (who knew English) to assist him with his research on Sikh scriptures, with the Nabha ruler permitting this. Kahn Singh and Macauliffe would work together for the following decades, first at Rawalpindi. Kahn Singh was influential in his view that Sikhs were distinct from Hindus. On 3 May 1893, the Ferozepur Singh Sabha and Lahore Khalsa Diwan jointly requested Macauliffe to translate the Guru Granth Sahib to English. The Amritsar Singh Sabha sent a letter to Macauliffe stated the following:

We desire, now that you have become thoroughly acquainted with our customs, our sacred books, and the tenets of our religion, that you fulfil the promise made in your Circular letter to the Sikhs, in which you stated that you would write nothing prejudicial to their religion. In the lives of the Gurus which you are going to write, we desire you to consult the Gur Bilas, the Suraj Prakash, and such other works as have been compiled from ancient writings, not corrupted by the Handalis, the followers of Kabir, and the poets who infused foreign elements into our religion.

— Singh Sabha of Amritsar, (Macauliffe 1909, Vol. 1, xiii-xiv.)

Raja Bikram Singh of Faridkot, who promised Macauliffe money for his services in producing a translation

Raja Bikram Singh of Faridkot promised him the pay of six months salary he received as a divisional judge and other assistance. He would translate select portions line by line and invited a committee of Sikh scholars to review each translation. Some of the Sikhs who reviewed his work as part of the committee were Colonel Jawala Singh (superintendent of the Golden Temple and organizer of the committee), Bhagat Lakhsman Singh, Kahn Singh of Nabha, Bhai Basant Singh, Bhai Sardul Singh Giani (son of Giani Gian Singh), Bhai Sant Singh of Kapurthala, and Bhai Prem Singh of Amritsar. His Japji Sahib translation was proofread by Bhagat Lakhsman Singh and Bhagat Balmukand, with the translation later being praised by Divan Leila Ram of Hyderabad. After the translation was completed, Macauliffe was invited by the custodians of the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar to address the congregation at the Akal Takht regarding his work. Three akhand paths were arranged for the success of the translation. Between 1901 and 1903, the work was proofread by Kahn Singh of Nabha, Diwan Lila Ram, Bhai Shankar Dayal, Bhai Hazara Singh, Bhai Sardul Singh, Bhai Ditt Singh, Bhai Bhagwan Singh among others. The Sikh committee would later issue the following certificate verifying Macauliffe's translation as faithful and accurate:

We, through the agency of learned Sikhs acquainted with English, have carefully perused the translation of the hymns of the Granth Sahib by Mr. Macauliffe. The perusal cost us a month and a half of continuous labour. Wherever any of us found what seemed to be an error we all met, discussed the passages, and either corrected it or allowed Mr. Macauliffe's translation to stand. Wherefore we now state that Mr. Macauliffe's translation has been fully revised by us, and is thoroughly correct. The greatest care has been taken in making the translation conformable to the religious tenets of the Sikhs. The translation is quite literal and done according to all grammatical and rhetorical rules.

— Committee of Sikhs reviewing Macauliffe's translation

A historical manuscript of the Guru Granth Sahib from the Bhai Rupa Collection

However, there were concerns regarding the publication of the scripture's translation by elderly and orthodox Sikhs that people handling the work would not afford it the same respect traditionally given to the Guru Granth Sahib by Sikhs. Also, the traditional format and structure of the Guru Granth Sahib would not be suitable for readers not familiar with its historical context. To solve these issues, Macauliffe decided to divide the work into historical sections covering the Sikh gurus and community that were interspersed with translations of select verses, with it being divided into six volumes in chronological historical order (except for the last volume, covering the bhagats). Specific verses are revealed in relation to particular stories or events, with short narratives being paired with translated scriptural excerpts, sometimes writing in a modern but fanciful story-telling tone, rarely breached by an alternative, authoritative voice of an omniscient narrator, sometimes claiming to speak on behalf of the Sikh gurus (as in the case of Guru Gobind Singh on the topic of idolatry). Some of the historical sources he utilized were the Vaaran, Bachittar Natak, Suraj Prakash and the Gurbilases. He also utilized the Janamsakhis (especially the Hafizabad manuscript of the Puratan tradition), but claimed to make alternations to render their accounts more authentic and scientific. His work also touches upon folk religion, such as the veneration of Sakhi Sarwar and Gugga. In January 1900, his translation of the Japji Sahib was published, followed by a translation of the Asa Di Vaar in December 1901. By 1908, the work to translate the scripture was completed. Before its publication, he and Kahn Singh went to England for the press and the final proofreading.

Macauliffe advocated for years to receive official government patronage and funding for his endeavor, without success as the colonial government distanced itself from his work. Some in the Punjab colonial government thought his 1909 work deserved official patronage, although some sections opposed the offer due to grounds of religious neutrality. Eventually, the government offered 5,000 rupees to Macauliffe (reduced from the originally planned 15,000 rupees), who rejected the money for being insignificant in amount. Affluent Sikhs were hesitant to initially support Macauliffe's work due to fears of upsetting the colonial government. The Sikh Educational Conference held in Rawalpindi in 1911 rejected a proposal to praise the 1909 work. His translations were praised by natives and foreigners alike, such as by Khem Singh Bedi, Sumer Singh Bhalla, Bhai Hazara Singh Giani of Amritsar, Sunder Singh of Penang, J. A. Grierson, William Hunter, Edwin Arnold, and Max Müller. However, Macauliffe was disappointed that the work was not completed in time to be published in 1899 during the 200th anniversary celebration of the Khalsa's establishment. In 1911, he arrived at Rawalpindi to visit the Sikh Educational Conference but nobody was there to receive him at the train station, so he went to the residence of Bhagat Lakshman Singh, with him stating the following there:

I've declined to take government funds ... I won't ask the Sikhs for money either. I just want the Conference to pass a resolution appreciating my work and recommending that Sikhs should buy the book.

— Max Arthur Macauliffe

Macauliffe was disappointed that the Sikh Educational Conference refused to pass the resolution supporting him. He felt rejected by both the Sikhs and British, choosing to eat alone in his hotel at Rawalpindi Cantonment. However, a majority of Sikhs continued to support his efforts.

Other works

His other works consist of articles and pamphlets. Macaullife also contributed Sikh-related articles for the eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He held scholarly discourses in India, Italy, France, and England. He may have had later plans to translate the Sikh scripture into modern/ordinary Punjabi, as hinted by Lord Kitchener of Khartoum.

Later life and death

Sinclair Gardens, London where Macauliffe spent his final years

In 1904, Macauliffe moved to London and was rich, despite McLeod identifying him as a poor man later in his life, with his estate being worth 19,000 pounds and him owning two houses at Sinclair Gardens (one he offered to Kahn Singh, who declined). Near the end of his life, Macauliffe had a Punjabi servant named Muhammad. Macauliffe died of cancer in the United Kingdom at his home at 10 Sinclair Gardens, West Kensington, London on 15 March 1913 as an affluent man. His personal assistant Muhammad remarked in his memoirs that on his death bed, Macauliffe could be heard reciting the Sikh morning prayer, Japji Sahib, ten minutes before he died. After his death, his burial was refused by Christians who claimed he had apostasized while the local Sikhs in England refused to cremate him because he was not a keshdhari. A compromise that was done was that his corpse was lowered into a grave for five minutes and then cremated after. He left behind a £19,000 estate for his family while the copyright to his 1909 work The Sikh Religion was transferred to Kahn Singh of Nabha. After his death, his will was disputed by his relatives.

Personal life and religion

There has been confusion regarding the nationality of Macauliffe, with some writers mistakenly referring to him as an Englishman instead of an Irishman. Macauliffe never married but he may have fathered three children (two daughters and one son) with the daughter of one of his Indian servants named Mussummat Rahiman ("Bhuri"). He was taken to court in Lahore on 17 February 1888 at the Court of the District Magistrate for maintenance payments by her. Thus, he may have direct descendants today.

Macauliffe was raised as a Catholic, although Harbans Lal mistakenly identified him as being from a Protestant background. It is claimed that Macauliffe converted to Sikhism, and was even derided by his employers for having "turned a Sikh". However, his supposed conversion to Sikhism is not agreed upon in academia, with the fact being contested and not being able to be confirmed reliably. Harbans Lal claimed Macauliffe was a sehajdhari Sikh and Bhagat Lakshman Singh claimed Macauliffe died a Sikh. As per Kahn Singh, after Macauliffe's death there was controversy regarding on if he should be given a Christian burial or Sikh cremation, with a compromise being made. Tadhg Foley cautions that more conclusive evidence needs to be discovered before making assumptions on Macauliffe's religious identity. Macauliffe did criticize the Kapurthala ruler for abolishing Sikhism as a state religion and abandoning a Sikh appearance.

Views

Macauliffe was of the opinion that Sikhism was a distinct religion from Hinduism and that its independence was threatened by a lapse back into Hinduism. Thus, he is identified with the Tat Khalsa interpretation of Sikhism. For this view, Gandhi criticized his book in 1924:

[the book] is a life-story of the Gurus giving copious extracts from their compositions. It is a sumptuously printed publication. It loses its value because of its fulsome praise of the English rule and the author’s emphasis on Sikhism as a separate religion having nothing in common with Hinduism.

— (Gandhi 1967, 155)

Macauliffe was not an anti-imperialist and some of this writings attempt to persuade why Sikhs are useful to the colonial project. Thus, Macauliffe advocated for ruling India through Indian ideas. According to him, the Sikhs should be subject to the state and that the state itself had the responsibility of supporting the religion. He was critical of the colonial government's policy of religious neutrality in civil spheres, with him praising the colonial military for pushing Sikhs in its ranks in Sikh regiments to become baptized into the Khalsa. Macauliffe went as far as to claim that Guru Gobind Singh prophesized that the Sikhs would be militarily united with the British. The Sikhs were imagined as an Indian version of the English, with Sikhism being compared to Protestantism as opposed to Catholicism (related to Hinduism in this conceptualization), a long-standing trend in Western historiographical writings on Sikhs since the late 18th century. Thus, Macauliffe's work bears anti-Catholic sentiments, using Sikhism as a way to celebrate Protestantism. Macauliffe stated:

In Europe and Asia all learning was in the hands of the priesthood, and this admittedly led to serious abuses in both continents. But when things are at their worst they often mend. During the very period that Wycliffe and Luther and Calvin in Europe were warning men of the errors that had crept into Christianity, men like Kabir and Guru Nanak were denouncing priestcraft and idolatry in India, and with very considerable success. Most of the medieval saints who led the crusade against superstition founded sects which still survive, but the most numerous [and] powerful of all is the great Sikh sect founded by Baba Nanak.

— (Macauliffe 1898, p. 287 and repeated, in substance, in Macauliffe 1903, p. 331)

The Sikh opposition to Muslim rulers is emphasized and Brahmins are portrayed in a negative manner usually in his work. Macauliffe was somewhat disparaging toward his Sikh helpers for not commanding a level of English that he desired, claiming few, if any, Sikhs of such ability to meet the task required of interpretation and translation could be found. In Macauliffe's view, Punjabi speakers could only assist English speakers who led, a leadership role he reserved specifically for himself.

Legacy

After Macauliffe's death, the Sikh Educational Conference issued a resolution of condolence. Local Rawalpindi Sikhs founded the Macauliffe Memorial Society attempted to raise funds for a library but only managed to collect 3,245 rupees, so they decided to use the money for a hypothesized Macauliffe Medal to be awarded by the University of the Punjab, Lahore on Sikhs, but the university declined the proposal. However, Khalsa College utilized the funds and began to issue an annual medal for the best historical essay. Some of his articles were later republished in Darshan Singh's work Western Image of the Sikh Religion: A Source Book.

His works are held in high-regard by both Sikh and non-Sikh scholars. His translations of Sikh works have been described as simple and direct. His translation has been criticized as lacking creativity due to its inhibited nature. Macauliffe and his works were foundational in the establishment of Sikhism as a world religion, as it was mostly unknown before. He also played a prominent role in the Sikh reform movement by defining and cementing Sikhism as a distinct religion from other religious traditions. His writings remain the basis for modern Sikh scholarship. Scholars Christopher Shackle and Arvind-Pal Mandair note that his 1909 work has never been superseded in importance since its publication and it has remained in print since its original publication, being universally known in academia. It remains regarded as an accurate translation of the Sikh scripture. Mandair considers his work to be a reversal of earlier works by Trumpp. While Trumpp had been a Christian missionary to the east, Macauliffe had instead been a missionary to the west, oftentimes going at lengths to explain Sikhism under Western terminology and metaphysics to draw parallels. William Hewat McLeod critiques Macauliffe's attempt to work a biography out of the Janamsakhis (despite him following the same general approach in his 1968 book on Guru Nanak), with McLeod believing this to be a misunderstanding of the Janamsakhis' content and purpose. Macauliffe's history of the Sikhs was written explicitly to match what was found in Sikh scripture and he rejected historical content that was not in agreement with scripture. Anne Murphy sees a lot of similarities between Macauliffe's work and traditional Sikh histories. Murphy concludes that while the work plays a significant role in the understanding of Sikh historiography, it is "enframed within a logic not derived from them and reflective of the political foundations of empire", with Macauliffe self-appointing himself as a guardian of the Sikh religion. As per Murphy, Macauliffe claimed to be the only one suitable for creating such a work, as no present Sikh possessed the ability to produce one like it and future Sikhs would not be able to due to the loss of knowledge over time, with Macauliffe ultimately instilling a reflection of Europe in the Sikhs by imposing Western understandings of religious boundaries and conflict upon the Sikhs. Thus, Macauliffe's admiration for Sikhism was limited by his own biases in favour of Protestantism. Tony Ballantyne states that he was the "most important western interpreter of Sikhism before W. H. McLeod". A. C. Banerjee traces the modern phase of Sikh studies to Macauliffe. Recent research by Tadhg Foley has revealed a number of false facts and myths regarding Macauliffe that have been published over the last century.

Amongst SIkhs

His memory is remembered and celebrated by Sikhs, with Tadhg Foley going as far to state: "The name of Max Arthur Macauliffe is known not only to scholars of Sikh studies but to virtually all Sikhs who are well informed about their religion". According to Harbans Singh, Macauliffe "laid the foundation of Sikh literature in English" accomplished via "sustained and monumental labour of love". In 2013, a group of British and American Sikhs visited his final residence at 10 Sinclair Road, London to pay respects and pray.

In Ireland

However, his legacy is mostly unknown in his native Ireland, with his contributions to Sikhism being unknown in Ireland until recently. This may be due to how Ireland after independence downplayed the role of Irish people in the British Empire, seeing it as an embarrassment rather than something to celebrate. The centennial of his death was celebrated in the United States, Canada, and Ireland in 2013, with a reissue of his work The Sikh Religion being published by Cambridge University. On 15 March 2013, a centennial conference was held in his memory at University College Cork, Ireland. A symposium in his honour was planned for 13 March 2020 at Mary Immaculate College. In September 2019, a commemorative plaque dedicated to him was unveiled in Templeglantine, Ireland.

Bibliography

• The Diwali at Amritsar (1880). First published in Calcutta Review. 70(1880), no. 140, pp. 619–36 and 71(1880), no. 142, pp. 257–72
• The Sikh Religion under Banda and Its Present Condition (1881). First published in Calcutta Review. 73(1881), pp. 155–68.
• The Rise of Amritsar and the Alterations of Sikh Religion (1881)
• The Holy Writings of the Sikhs (1898). First published in The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review and Oriental and Colonial Record, 3rd series, 5(9–10), January–April, 1898, pp. 371–7; 3rd series, 6(11–12), July–October, 1898, pp. 98–109; 3rd series, 6(11–12), July–October, 1898, pp. 357–67. Also published (1900), Allahabad, Christian Association Press.
• Life and Teachings of Guru Gobind Singh (Rome: Orientalists Congress, 1899)
• Translation of the Japji (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, January 1900)
• Macauliffe, Max Arthur (December 1901). Temple, Richard Carnac (ed.). "The Asa Di War, A Morning Prayer of the Sikhs". Indian Antiquary. XXX. Bombay: Education Society’s Press Bombay: 537–547, 557–564
• The Sikh Religion (1903). First published Simla, United Service Institution of India, Government Central Printing Office.
• A Lecture on the Sikh Religion and its Advantages to the State (1903)
• How the Sikhs Became a Militant People (1905). First published Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1905
• The Sikh Religion: Its Gurus, Sacred Writings and Authors (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1909)
  • The Sikh Religion Vol I (1909)
  • The Sikh Religion Vol II (1909)
  • The Sikh Religion Vol III (1909)
  • The Sikh Religion Vol IV (1909)
  • The Sikh Religion Vol V (1909)
  • The Sikh Religion Vol VI (1909)
• The Holy Scriptures of the Sikhs (1910). First published Asiatic Quarterly Review, 3rd series, 29–30, October 1910.

External links

• Works by or about Max Arthur Macauliffe at Wikisource
• The Sikh Religion, Volume 1
• Max Arthur Macauliffe : First Western Gateway To Study of Sikhism Archived 2 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine
• Max Arthur Macauliffe – He Introduced Sikhi to the English-Speaking West
• Works by or about Max Arthur Macauliffe at the Internet Archive
• Works by Max Arthur Macauliffe at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)