UKPHA VIRTUAL BOOK CLUB

Haroon Khalid, anthropologist and author of four books, will join the UKPHA Bookclub to talk about his book ‘In search of Shiva: A Study of Folk Religious Practices in Pakistan.’ He will take the audience on a journey through the traditions that have their roots in the antiquity of the Indus Valley Civilisation and will explore their increasingly fragile place in the modern Islamic Republic.

A virtual book launch event of the exciting new book ' Amritsar: A City in Remembrance' - a love letter to Punjab's spiritual and cultural capital, a city that captivates and confounds. Joining us are books authors; Architectural historian and friend of the Bookclub Gurmeet Rai and arguably India's finest and most well-respected photographer Raghu Rai. Join us as they take us on a guided tour of Amritsar, historic and modern, through the lenses of photography and historical research.

Susan Stronge is a Senior Curator in the Asian Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum. She is the award-winning curator of The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms exhibition, but her main focus is Mughal court culture, about which she has written several books and many articles. Her interests merge in this talk about the rich diversity of artistic production in the Mughal and Sikh capital, Lahore.

The further adventures of Bhagat Singh Thind - the first turbaned soldier in the US army, campaigner against racist US immigration laws and erstwhile spiritual and philosophical teacher. Philip Deslippe returns to the UKPHA book club to discuss his latest research findings which shed even more light on the already colourful life of Thind.

Among the drummers (dholis) of Punjab, there is a tradition of committing oneself to a master, ustad, to ensure the standards. In recent years, Punjabi drummers have been pursuing new means of economic insurance, which contradict the authority of ustads. Gibb Schreffler will discuss how modern pressures challenge the formal relationship between ustad and student and asks whether the dholi community and its identity will survive.