Sikh Narratives: An Analysis of Virtual Diaspora Networks (original) (raw)

Reconstructing the Sikh Diaspora

International Migration, 2012

The Sikh diaspora, along with the Jewish Diaspora, is perhaps one of the only religious diasporas in the world. The Sikhs are scattered across the globe today. This article is an attempt to outline the reasons for Sikh migration out of Punjab and the role played by the colonial rulers in that migration. It traces the process of migration of Sikhs and their emergence as a diaspora.

The Precarious Diasporas of Sikh and Ahmadiyya Generations

This book examines the long-term effects of violence on the everyday cultural and religious practices of a younger generation of Ahmadis and Sikhs in Frankfurt, Germany and Toronto, Canada. Comparative in scope and the first to discuss contemporary articulations of Sikh and Ahmadiyya identities within a single frame of reference, the book assembles a significant range of empirical data gathered over ten years of ethnographic fieldwork. In its focus on precarious sites of identity formation, the volume engages with cutting-edge theories in the fields of critical diaspora studies, migration and refugee studies, religion, secularism, and politics. It presents a novel approach to the reading of Ahmadi and Sikh subjectivities in the current climate of anti-immigrant movements and suspicion against religious others. Michael Nijhawan also offers new insights into what animates emerging movements of the youth and their attempts to reclaim forms of the spiritual and political.

Narratives in Action: Modelling the Types and Drivers of Sikh Activism in Diaspora

Religions

Using data gathered for an investigation of “Sikh radicalisation in Britain”, in this article I develop a typology of different types of activism among Sikhs in diaspora based on an analysis of historic and contemporary media sources (newspapers, radio, television, online), academic literature, ethnographic fieldwork and a series of semi-structured interviews with self-identifying Sikh activists. I assess the reasons behind a variety of different incidents involving Sikh activists, how Sikh activists view the drivers of their activism and to what extent this activism can be regarded as being “religiously motivated”. I critique existing typologies of “religious activism” by developing a typology of Sikh activism which challenges the distinction often made between “religious” and “political” action. I argue that “religiously motivated actions” must be understood in conjunction with narratives, incidents and issues...

e-Diaspora, the Great War and Sikh military migration to Canada: Commemorating Buckam Singh

Sikh Formations, 2019

Sikh migration to Canada has been theoretically framed and structured largely through colonial, imperial and diasporic historicized trajectories, articulating tremendous engagement in the Canadian economy. The Great War foregrounds Sikh engagement in the military history of Canada and this article examines the ‘martial race’ ideological construction of Sikhs, the fortuitous sighting of the victory medal of Buckam Singh in a pawn shop in London; and how this unintended discovery warrants engendering of critical academic dialogues. Information on Buckam Singh is predominantly inscribed within the cyberspace, invigorating discussions of relationalities, identity-construction, military and digital diaspora modalities and spatio-temporality through e-diaspora.

On the Politics of the Sikh Diaspora

Diaspora: Journal of Transnational Studies

A review article of Brian Axel's The Nation's Tortured Body and Tony Ballantyne's Between Colonialism and Diaspora: Sikh Cultural Formations in an Imperial World.

The Ethnography of Imagined Communities: The Cultural Production of Sikh Ethnicity in Britain

A shift in ethnographic vantage point from an exclusive focus on everyday worlds to the broader historical and cultural processes in which these worlds are embedded brings to light forms of politics that challenge traditional ways of understanding immigrant incorporation in modern nation-states. The author argues that the cultural politics of immigration and citizenship in the global era require this shift in ethnographic perspective. Multisited ethnography enables researchers to illuminate the more complex cultural processes of nation formation and the contradictory and, at times, incommensurate forms of cultural politics within which immigrants are made and make themselves as citizens. Viewing immigration from the perspective of nation formation, moreover, brings into question the explanatory power and political implications of traditional assimilation models of immigrant incorporation.

The disporia of borders: Hindu-Sikh transnationals in the diaspora

This paper offers a set of nuanced narratives and a theoretically-informed report on what is the driving force and motivation behind the movement of Hindus and Sikhs from one continent to another (apart from their earlier movement out of the subcontinent to distant shores). What leads them to leave one diasporic location for another location? In this sense they are also 'twice-migrants'. Here I investigate the extent and nature of the transnational movement of diasporic Hindus and Sikhs crossing borders into the U.S. and Australia – the new dharmic sites – and how they have tackled the question of the transmission of their respective dharmas within their own communities, particularly to the younger generation. Two case studies will be presented: one from Hindus and Sikhs in Australia; the other from California (temples and gurdwaras in Silicon Valley and Bay Area).

One People Two Nations: Diasporic Sikh Community in Canada and ties with India

History has recorded the migration and settlement of people from one part to another part of Globe.The present article traces the process that led to free migration of Sikhs from colonial Punjab to Canada. Over the period of time these Sikhs encountering racial discrimination made Canada their homeland. At the same time ties with motherland were also retained. The relationship between two nations as experienced and forged by the Sikhs has been a focal point of analysis. This aspect has been illustrated within the emergent historiography of Canadian history and specific instances in the realms of community and Institutions. The lived experiences of Sikhs show how they are at home in both nation States.

Diaspora as a Spectrum: Punjabi-Sikh Subjects and the Gendered Context of Diaspora Membership

The shift away from population group (i.e. South Asian) and toward subjects (i.e. the model immigrant) is one possible pathway to the careful study of the context of diaspora. In this chapter, I argue that the context of the Punjabi-Sikh diaspora in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is a spectrum of variegated memberships and self-perceptions of belonging that are inherently gendered. In my ethnographic research on transnational marriages and their breakdown, I discern three discrete yet overlapping subjectivities: the model immigrant and the multicultural citizen; the transnational competitive migrant; and, finally, the trans-local and sovereign subject. Through this spectrum of diaspora membership, I conduct a close analysis of gendered subjectivities in relation to their corresponding configurations of power in marriage and its breakdown. First, I provide overviews of the fieldwork, data, and subject groups the chapter is based on, and then I proceed to discuss local and transnational understandings of marriage and marriage breakdown. Then I discuss the spectrum of diaspora membership, addressing marriage and its breakdown in relation to the three above-mentioned groupings respectively.