Keywords
Socioeconomic status
Immigration and diaspora
Cosmopolitans vs. transnationals
How to Cite
Abstract
This paper analyzes academic accounts of major aspects of the Sikh experience in California. In addition to providing an overview of various studies of the Sikh community, this paper points out implicit assumptions in these studies, as well as gaps in the literature. Issues discussed include Sikh religious identity, cultural practices and socioeconomic status, as well as the evolving national and global context in which the California Sikh community has grown. A specific academic framing of the community that is analyzed and critiqued is the classification of Sikh immigrants into “cosmopolitans” versus “transnationals,” the former term being imbued with normative desirability as more cultural flexible or adaptive. The critique offered here challenges historical representations of the early twentieth century Sikh community in India that underlie this framing, as well as highlighting insufficient consideration of societal contexts and constraints facing the community in twentieth century California.References
Ahmad, Asam (2016), The Latest in a 10-Year Battle Over How California Teaches South Asian History, ColorLines, April 1, available at http://www.colorlines.com/articles/latest-10-yearbattle-over-how-california-teaches-south-asian-history
Axel, Brian K. (2001), The Nation's Tortured Body: Violence, Representation, and the Formation of a Sikh “Diaspora,” Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Axel, B. K. (2004), The Context of Diaspora, Cultural Anthropology, 19 (1), 26-60.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1977), Outline of a Theory of Practice, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Chakravorty, Sanjoy, Devesh Kapur and Nirvikar Singh (2016), The Other One Percent: Indians in America, New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming.
Clifford, James (1988), The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Clifford, James (1994), Diasporas, Cultural Anthropology, 9 (3), 302-338.
Dusenbery, Verne A. (1995), A Sikh Diaspora? Contested Identities and Constructed Realities, in Nation and Migration: The Politics of Space in the South Asian Diaspora, Peter van der Veer (ed.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 17-42.
Eck, Diana L. (2001), A New Religious America, San Francisco: Harper.
Fenech, Louis E. (2014), The Khalsa and the Rahit, in Pashaura Singh and Louis E. Fenech (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies, New York: Oxford University Press, 240-249.
Gibson, Margaret (1988), Accommodation without Assimilation: Sikh Immigrants in an American High School, Cornell: Cornell University Press.
Gill, Rahuldeep Singh (2016), Drinking from Love’s Cup: Surrender and Sacrifice in the Vars of Bhai Gurdas Bhalla, New York, Oxford University Press, forthcoming.
Gill, Rajan (2015), Revolution or Assimilation: Understanding the Evolving Identity of the Punjabi Sikh Diaspora in California during the Early Twentieth Century, unpublished Master’s Thesis, University of California, Department of History, April.
Grewal, Jagtar Singh (1990), The Sikhs of the Punjab, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Grewal, Jagtar Singh (1997), Historical Perspectives on Sikh Identity, Patiala, Punjab: Punjabi University Publication Bureau.
Hall Stuart (1996), Politics of Identity, in eds., Terence Ranger, Yunus Samad, and Ossie Stuart, Culture, Identity, Politics: Ethnic Minorities in Britain, Brookfield, VT: Avebury, pp.131–32
Jacoby, Harold S. (2007), History of East Indians in America, Amritsar: Bhai Chattar Singh Jiwan Singh.
La Brack, Bruce (1988a), The Sikhs of Northern California 1904-1975: A Socio-historical Study, New York: AMS Press.
La Brack, Bruce (1988b), Evolution of Sikh Family Form and Values in Rural California: Continuity and Change 1904- 1980, Journal of Comparative Family Studies, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 287-309.
La Brack, Bruce (2012), Social and Political Lives of Early Sikh Settlers in California: 1897-1946, paper presented at “Sikh Journey in America” Conference, September 22, Stockton Gurdwara Centennial Committee.
La Brack, Bruce and Karen Leonard (1984), Conflict and Compatibility in Punjabi-Mexican Immigrant Families in Rural California, 1915-1965, Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol. 46, No. 3, pp. 527-537.
Leonard, Karen (1989), Pioneer Voices from California: Reflections on Race, Religion and Ethnicity, in N. Gerald Barrier and Verne Dusenbery, eds., The Sikh Diaspora: Migration and the Experience Beyond Punjab, Columbia, MO: South Asia Publications, pp. 120-140.
Leonard, Karen (1992), Making Ethnic Choices: California's Punjabi Mexican Americans, Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Leonard, Karen (1993), Historical Constructions of Ethnicity: Research on Punjabi Immigrants in California, Journal of American Ethnic History, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 3-26.
Leonard, Karen (2006), South Asian Religions in the United States: New Contexts and Configurations, in Gita Rajan and Shailja Sharma (eds.), New Cosmopolitanisms: South Asians in the US, Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 91-114.
Leonard, Karen (2007), Transnationalism, Diaspora, Translation: Comparing Punjabis and Hyderabadis Abroad, Sikh Formations, 3(1), pp. 51-66.
Mann, Gurinder Singh, Paul David Numrich and Raymond B. Williams (2001), Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs in America, New York: Oxford University Press.
Mann, Gurinder Singh (2010), Guru Nanak’s Life and Legacy: An Appraisal, Journal of Punjab Studies, 17(1-2), pp. 3-45.
McLeod, W. H. (1989), Who is a Sikh?: The Problem of Sikh Identity, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
McLeod, W. H. (1989a), The First Forty Years of Sikh Migration: Problems and Possible Solutions, in N. Gerald Barrier and Verne Dusenbery, eds., The Sikh Diaspora: Migration and the Experience Beyond Punjab, Columbia, MO: South Asia Publications, pp. 29-48.
Mitra, Diditi (2012), Punjabi Immigrant Mobility in the United States: Adaptation through Race and Class, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mooney, Nicola (2015), The Impossible Hybridity of Hair: Kesh, Gender and the Third Space, in Young Sikhs in a Global World: Negotiating Traditions, Identities and Authorities, Knut A. Jacobsen and Kristina Myrvold, eds., London: Routledge, pp. 97-124.
Nayar, Kamala (2004), The Sikh Diaspora in Vancouver: Three Generations Amid Tradition, Modernity, and Multiculturalism, Toronto: University of Toronto Press
Oberoi, Harjot (1988), From Ritual to Counter-ritual: Rethinking the Hindu-Sikh Question, 1884-1915, in Joseph T. O’Connell et al. (eds), Sikh History and Religion in the Twentieth Century, Toronto: University of Toronto Centre for Asian Studies.
Oberoi, Harjot (1994), The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Ogden, Johanna (2012), Ghadar, Historical Silences, and Notions of Belonging: Early 1900s Punjabis of the Columbia River, Oregon Historical Quarterly, 113 (2), pp. 164-197.
Ramnath, Maia (2011), Haj to Utopia: How the Ghadar Movement Charted Global Radicalism and Attempted to Overthrow the British Empire, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Singh, Jasjit (2015), The Impact of Family Background on the Religious Lives of Young British Sikhs, in Young Sikhs in a Global World: Negotiating Traditions, Identities and Authorities, Knut A. Jacobsen and Kristina Myrvold, eds., London: Routledge, pp. 15-34.
Singh, Nirvikar (2001), Guru Nanak and the Sants: A Reappraisal, International Journal of Punjab Studies, 8 (1), 1-34.
Singh, Pashaura (2013), Re-imagining Sikhi (‘Sikhness’) in the Twenty-First Century: Toward a Paradigm Shift in Sikh Studies, in Pashaura Singh and Michael Hawley (eds.), Re-imagining South Asian Religions: Essays in Honour of Professors Harold G. Coward and Ronald W. Neufeldt, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 27-48.
Werbner, Pnina (1999), Global Pathways, Working Class Cosmopolitans and the Creation of Transnational Ethnic Worlds, Social Anthropology,7 (1), 17-35
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2025 Nirvikar Singh