McLeod has dismissed the criticism
of his writings by Trilochan Singh, Sangat Singh, H.S. Dilgeer, S.S. Sodhi, and
S.S. Kohli as absurd and well off the mark.121 On the other hand, he has devoted three pages to a friendly
review of his work by Fauja Singh.122 However, he has totally
avoided the discussion of Jagjit Singh’s Works,107,108,123 which
completely demolished his thesis, TheEvolution of the Sikh Community built on
wild interpretations and speculations, and flimsy evidence.He has quoted a paragraph from J.S. Grewal’s Contesting Interpretations of Sikh
Traditions that points out the names of Sikh scholars and organizations
that were created to project a correct image of Sikhism and the Sikh community
in India and abroad, and to watch, report and rebut any distortions or
misinterpretations of Sikh religion and Sikh history.124 And he has
recommended it for studying the controversies
in the Sikh Panth, particularly the modern dispute involving him.
However, he makes no mention of the issues raised by
Grewal about his (McLeod's) approach to the understanding of Sikhism. Moreover,
he makes no mention of Grewal’s article, The
Role of Ideas in SikhHistory that
refutes his interpretation of the institutionalization and militarization of
the Sikh movement and development of the Khalsa identity.125
He has no compunction in casting aspersions on the
integrity of those who disagree with him. The foreword by Khushwant Singh to Perspectives on the Sikh Tradition and
the introduction by Choor Singh to Sikhism:
Its Philosophy and History were too much for him to swallow. He got even
with them in his own way.
The foreword by Khushwant Singh came as
an unpleasant surprise. Khushwant Singh, as we all know, is a free spirit, who
has riled his fellow Sikhs with opinions that contradict some of their
cherished beliefs. There was, however, nothing in his foreword that was likely
to upset traditional believers who regard my works as a menace to the Panth.126
“In fairness it should be added that at the
end of 2001 Justice Choor Singh, in conversation with a friend of mine in
Singapore, strongly supported my work.”127
