The Sikh Diaspora, Migration and Secularisation

Overview

Recall questions on Sikh migration, pressures on the code of conduct and assimilation, the law and the panj kakke, mixed and same-sex marriage, caste, Punjabi and English, secular values, science, and G Singh and Tatla.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Where did Sikhs migrate to, and why?

   Model answer

   Punjabi Sikhs served in the imperial army and police and worked on the railways, which took them to East Africa and South East Asia; later movements went to Britain for post-war industrial labour and to Canada, the United States and Australia. Partition displaced enormous numbers within India, and East African Sikhs migrated a second time when newly independent African states restricted Asian residents.

2. 2

   What pressures does migration put on the Sikh code of conduct?

   Model answer

   The code was drawn up for Punjab, and questions it never faced now arise constantly: dress at work and school, marriage across religious lines, running a gurdwara under foreign charity law, and worship for people who do not speak Punjabi. Sikhs disagree over whether the code should be applied strictly, interpreted generously, or revised.

3. 3

   What does assimilation look like as a problem for Sikhs?

   Model answer

   The visible signs are usually the first thing given up under pressure at school or work, Punjabi is often lost within two or three generations, and gurdwara attendance can become social rather than devotional. Others argue that adaptation is not the same as loss, and that diaspora Sikhs have produced confident forms of practice their grandparents would not recognise but would accept.

4. 4

   How has the law treated the panj kakke?

   Model answer

   Britain has exempted turbaned Sikhs from motorcycle helmet and construction hard-hat requirements and permits the kirpan where it is carried for religious reasons, and a leading case established Sikhs as a protected ethnic group so that a school's ban on the turban was unlawful discrimination. Canada's highest court allowed a pupil to wear a kirpan at school, while some jurisdictions have restricted religious dress for public employees, which bears directly on turbaned Sikhs.

5. 5

   Why are mixed marriages contentious?

   Model answer

   The Anand Karaj is conducted before the Guru Granth Sahib, and many Sikhs hold that both parties should be Sikhs for the rite to mean what it says; guidance issued in Britain in 2014 took that line and suggested a civil ceremony followed by prayers instead. Others reply that turning couples away contradicts the openness Sikhs claim for their tradition, and disputes at particular weddings have become confrontations.

6. 6

   What positions do Sikhs take on same-sex marriage?

   Model answer

   The authorities at Amritsar have not accepted the Anand Karaj for same-sex couples, and many Sikhs hold that the rite presupposes a husband and a wife. Other Sikhs, particularly in the diaspora, argue that the hymn sung at the ceremony describes the soul's union with Waheguru rather than a gendered contract, and that Sikh teaching on equality tells against exclusion; some gurdwaras and Sikh organisations have said so publicly.

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