Religious Texts

The University of Manchester Library is committed to reconnecting Sikhs in Manchester and beyond to their heritage.

The John Rylands Research Institute and Library looks after several important Sikh religious texts, including a Sri Guru Granth Sahib, considered by Sikhs as a living embodiment of the Guru. Belief in a living Guru, or Enlightener, is a fundamental concept in the Sikh religion. The first spiritual guide, Guru Nanak Dev Ji (1469-1539) appointed a human successor, a custom which persisted until 1708, when Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708), the tenth and final human Guru, declared the Sri Guru Granth Sahib to be the next living Guru, after inserting the final passages into the Adi Granth.

The Rylands, and the AIU RACE Centre have been engaging with the Sikh community for years to improve the standard of care, accessibility and understanding of collections of significant cultural value and heritage. 

The texts explored in this section are all manuscripts, meaning they are written by hand. Coveted by colonial collectors who removed them from their places of origin and the communities that created them, the manuscripts explored in this section were acquired by Enriqueta Rylands for the John Rylands Library in 1901.  

The presence of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib in the John Rylands Research Institute and Library prompts questions about the often violent acquisition of collections, and the wider legacies of colonialism. The future of culturally and religiously significant texts, and whether they should remain in institutions like ours, continues to be a subject of debate. The University of Manchester Library acknowledges its responsibility to preserve, digitise, and facilitate community access to these objects.