About
Built in the open.
Held to a standard.
Lede
SikhWiki is built by historians, students of Gurbani, and lifelong practitioners — scholars and seekers who hold this work to the standard the tradition itself demands. We believe in history and evidence over inherited certainty; in primary sources over second-hand authority; in the open record over a single voice.
No. 01
What we found.
Before we wrote a single article, we read everything else. The landscape of online Sikh scholarship was, with a few honorable exceptions, in three kinds of trouble.
Bias. The most prominent online repositories of Sikh history are stewarded by single organizations, sects, or political factions. Their framing is partial — sometimes openly so, often subtly. Articles are written in the voice of one school, with little acknowledgment of the others.
Decay. Many archives have not been seriously maintained in over a decade. Articles go stale. Corrections are not accepted. Citations rot, broken links sit untouched. The record becomes older than the people reading it.
Craft. Sites are slow. Search is broken. Mobile reading is an afterthought. Scholarship is buried in PDF dumps and plain-HTML pages from 2007. The medium is doing none of the work the message deserves.
We built SikhWiki to refuse all three.
No. 02
What we hold to.
Three commitments that govern every article on SikhWiki — and every editor who writes one.
- I
History, not hagiography.
The Gurus' lives are best honored by being told with care. We use primary manuscripts, named scholars, and documented dates. Where inherited folklore exists, we name it as folklore — and tell it alongside, not in place of, the historical record.
- II
Evidence, not inheritance.
Every factual claim on SikhWiki is cited. Scripture is referenced by ang and shabad. History is referenced by manuscript and scholar. When credible sources disagree, we present the disagreement on the page — we do not choose for the reader.
- III
The open record, not a single voice.
No editor, and no institution, owns an article. Every revision is signed and timestamped. Every draft is public. Disagreements are resolved by evidence on the article's talk page — never by authority.
No. 03
Editorial standards.
The discipline behind every published page. Six rules every editor agrees to before posting a single line.
- 01Sourcing
Every factual claim is cited.
We require a primary source — manuscript, scripture, or peer-reviewed scholarship — for every fact we publish. Unsourced statements are not published.
- 02Scripture
Quotations carry their reference.
Direct quotations from Guru Granth Sahib include ang and shabad reference, in Gurmukhi and English, with the translator credited.
- 03Language
Punjabi is treated as a primary language.
Punjabi terms appear in Gurmukhi with a transliteration and a brief gloss. We do not romanize meaning away for convenience.
- 04Identity
Editors sign their work.
Every contribution is attributed to a named editor with a public profile. Anonymous editing is not permitted on SikhWiki.
- 05Discussion
Disputes happen in the open.
Every article carries a public talk page. Disagreements over sources, framing, or claims are resolved there, in the record — not in private.
- 06Review
Two editors, then publication.
Before going live, every article is reviewed by at least two other contributors with independent expertise in the subject area.
No. 04
If this is your standard,
write with us.
We are not interested in credentials. We are interested in the quality of your evidence, the clarity of your prose, and your willingness to be edited in public. If that describes you, your seva begins here.