In the death of Dr Darshan Singh Tatla on 4th July in Birmingham, the academic field of Punjab and Sikh studies has lost an internationally reputed scholar of unique talent, commitment and achievements. If I had to name one person whose thoughts, feelings, dreams, excitements and disappointments were all linked to Punjab Studies, it was Darshan, as he was known to his circle of friends. Professor Emeritus at Oxford Brookes Business School -Dr Pritam Singh pays a tribute to the scholar par excellence.

There is no field of Punjab Studies – politics, history, development, literature, religion, diaspora etc., etc. – to which he did not make a contribution. He was a walking encyclopaedia on the subject. No one studying the Punjab in any corner of the world escaped his attention. He was a multi-talented scholar and a saintly man with a smile on his face even in adversity. His health had not been good for over two decades, but it deteriorated sharply in the last few months.

He was born in the village of Bharowal, Ludhiana and completed his undergraduate studies in science at Lajpat Rai Memorial College, Jagraon and a Masters in Economics with distinction from Punjabi University, Patiala. He moved to the UK in the 1970s where he completed another combined BA and Masters in Economics and Sociology at Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge, where he had the opportunity to interact with Dr Ajit Singh, the rising star of the Cambridge Economics Faculty. He followed this with another Masters in Economics at the University of Birmingham in 1977.

The multi-dimensional nature of his academic interests in the study of Punjab led him later to complete his PhD in 1994 at Warwick University in the field of Punjab and Sikh studies. His book The Sikh Diaspora: The Search for Statehood (1998) based on his doctoral thesis has acquired the status of a classic in the field of diaspora studies.

Darshan Tatla’s vision was the prime mover behind the founding of the Punjab Research Group (PRG) in April 1984. From its beginnings as a small group of like-minded PhD students in April 1984, the PRG has expanded and become the most well-respected regional study group from South Asia, where established scholars, as well as young researchers, come together to share their research in a mutually supportive research environment.

The PRG’s work contributed to the organisation of the First International Conference on Punjabi Identity in 1994 at Coventry University, at which the first issue of the International Journal of Punjab Studies was also launched. The journal has continued since (as the Journal of Punjab Studies and more recently as the Journal of Sikh and Punjab Studies).

The papers presented at the conference were brought together in a book; Punjabi Identity in a Global Context edited by Pritam Singh and Shinder Thandi and published by Oxford University Press in 1999. In 2016, the PRG launched the Best Doctoral Student Presentation Award, consisting of a cash award as well as a certificate, which is given to a doctoral student whose paper is judged to be the best presented at the PRG conference. To date, seven such awards have been given. The PRG will forever remain as a memorial to Dr Tatla’s contribution to its founding and subsequent multi-dimensional development in the early years.

In recent years Dr Tatla was a Research Fellow at Punjabi University, Patiala where he produced and published original research on the independence movement, including some vital work on the Gadar Party Lehar. He guided the university in setting up the discipline of World Punjabi Studies. Though he did manage to carry out work in his areas of interest for which he moved back to Punjab, he was also disappointed with the lack of interest showed by Punjab’s political and academic leadership in developing research institutions and capacities in Punjab.

The members of the Punjab Research Group had decided before the outbreak of Covid19 to honour him with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his distinguished contributions. The PRG had hoped to present this award to him in person at one of its conferences once the pandemic was over and he had recovered from his recent ill health. This award will now, unfortunately, have to be awarded posthumously.

Dr Tatla was involved in many practical charitable tasks in the community in Punjab and England. He established the Dr Darshan Singh Tatla Trust to take care of his remaining work and to place his rich collections appropriately in England and Punjab. Dr Tatla’s research publications and collections will continue to serve as an invaluable source of knowledge, expertise and guidance for Punjab Studies researchers across the world. He joins those great scholars of Punjab and Sikh Studies whose contributions remain enlightening and inspiring long after they have gone.

Photos courtesy: Family of Darshan Singh Tatla
Note: An earlier version of this obituary appeared in asiasamachar.com.

Dr Pritam Singh has a DPhil from the University of Oxford and is Professor Emeritus at Oxford Brookes Business School. He is the author of ‘Federalism, Nationalism and Development: India and the Punjab Economy.’  In June 2015, he was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award in Political Economy For The Twenty-First Century by the World Association of Political Economy at its Tenth Forum held at Johannesburg, South Africa, and in May 2021, the University of California (Riverside) honoured him with a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award for his distinguished contribution to the Punjab Research Group in the UK to promote Sikh and Punjab Studies.’