Part 3 – Sikh Book Club – Sikhs in Britain: Khalistan and Multiculturalism

Posted by Jodha in Book Club, UK on 11 17th, 2008 | 49 responses

Coblogged by: Jodha and Mewa Singh

Well it doesn’t seem by the number of comments (0) that this first attempt at a book club garnered much interest, although by the number of hits, it has been extremely popular. Regardless, for us it has been a great excuse to read a great book….So we’ll continue. PS: the side picture is related to a soon-to-be-available coffee table photography book.

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The two chapters read this week probably deserve separate blog posts, but still in the interest of time and space, we are going to keep them together.

Chapter 5 deals with “Homeland Politics: Class, Identity, and Party” and Chapter 6 is about “British Multiculturalism and Sikhs.”

The authors begin chapter 5 by noting that:

Associations of immigrants in Britain have generally served two functions: to facilitate the integration of the new arrivals and as conduits of homeland politics, and these functions have further strengthened with the onset of globalization, which has underpinned the rise of nationalism and diaspora movements. (94)

1984 is seen as the ‘critical’ event that intensified Sikh religio-ethnic self-identification with large numbers of Sikhs. The mammoth protest at Hyde Park on June 10, 1984 may still be vividly inscripted upon the memories of many Sikh-Britishers.

Still the associations and groups that were created to manifest this new religio-ethnic self-identification and homeland politics were along the lines of traditional associations. While there was something new in what came out of the community after 1984, there are continuities as well.

Tracing the evolution of various causes within the Sikh community, the authors note moves from the politics of class (IWAs [Indian Workers Association] up to the early 1980s), to the politics of identity (Khalistan 1984-1997), to emphasis on political organization (Sikh Political Party, UK) (94).

Still, it is important to note that such distinctions should not be overly emphasized as both ethnicity and class remained conjoined. The IWA was an ethnic organization and Sikh identity politics has distributionist aims.

Some interesting observations on the post-1984 organizations that have continuities with previous attempts:

No parties are horizontal in structure, but essentially vertical with a ‘leader’ that has linkages to various patronage networks.
All parties are based on factionalism, but factionalism assures these organizations have a short lifespan, despite multiple incarnations and grandiose titles (95)
As institutions have failed to evolve, Sikhs and Sikh organizations can only rally behind single-issue causes.

One fascinating contrast that the authors highlight was the diversity within the category of Khalistanis, including their approaches. One such contrast was between the Council of Khalistan (COK), and the Babbar Khalsa (BK) and International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF). While the COK represented the movement’s first phase, they established a separate office as a headquarters;the ISYF and BK largely operated within the Gurdwara.

So our first question is: leaving aside these Khalistani organizations, what is the relationship between Sikh organizations and the Gurdwaras that we are seeing manifest today? Are they as intricately linked? What are the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches?

The authors later discuss the various outcomes in Britain of the post-1984 mobilization. While Sikh nationalists had some successes, they had many failures as well. The Indian State was more than adept at seeing that its interests were preserved. The Extradition Treaty signed in September 1992 between the UK and India was criticized by many human rights activists as the selling out of human rights by the UK government in order to secure future arms deals and trades with India.

With the failure of Sikhs to achieve their homeland for now, the resources and people politicized and mobilized have transformed their aims. One particular success was the expanded definition of racism by Sikh Human Rights’ Dr. Jasdev Singh Rai and other Sikh groups that lobbied at the United Nations’ World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance (WARC) in Durban, South Africa, where article 67 of the final conference declaration recognized:

that members of certain groups with a distinct cultural identity [like the Sikhs] face barriers from the complex interplay of ethnic, religious, and other factors as well as their traditions and customs and call upon states to ensure that measures, policies and programmes aimed at eradicating racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia and related intolerance address the barriers to these factors (qtd. on 118)

[For those of you that may still remember the conference, it had to overcome much politicking by various states – some of the issues I remember most were that related to whether Zionism and casteism should be considered racism. The US had purposely sent low-level officials to the conference and later they walked out of the conference, to the disgust of most countries in the world. Four days later 9/11 occurred. There is discussion today whether the US should attend Durban II in 2009]

One of the last paragraph’s of the chapter is particularly worth extensive rumination

While greater engagement in public life has professionalized Sikh political activity, it has singularly failed to produce an effective and legitimate articulation of the Sikh political interest in British politics. Even today such an articulation remains grounded in the mode of single-issue mobilization because the structures of British elections necessitate plural coalition building and, given that Sikhs nowhere command more than 10 per cent of the total population in any local authority, the current emphasis by organizations like the Sikh Federation (UK) on community seems destined to repeat the historic failures of the IWAs to build organizations of class. (124).

So another question: For many of the most prominent political activists in our community, the state of a permanent mobilization on homeland politics is still the forefront of their vision. How does this coincide and conflict with newer generations of Sikh born in the diaspora?

Chapter 6 delves into the politics of multiculturalism. [Jodha has expressed some of his own views on this previously].

The authors open with the note that Sikhs seem to occupy a distinct position on the discussion of multiculturalism in the UK [probably in Canada as well]. In fact some critics of multiculturalism target the Sikh case in particular as they have become the paradigmatic case of a special-interest group that can always successfully negotiate an opt-out from the general rule.

Tracing certain common evolution of Sikh communities, the authors note, early immigrants tend to avoid overt differences from the general society and will choose to abandon their pagris. Some will wear them for ceremonial reasons or on Sunday visits to the Gurdwaras. However as the community grows, the self-confidence of keshadhari Sikhs will assert itself and this leads to the Sikh migrants’ conflict with the host society or government on the right to wear a turban. GSS Sagar and Tarsem Singh Sandhu were the path-breakers in 1960s Britain, while the historic Mandla v. Dowell Lee (1983) has had a major role in defining Sikhs’ relationship as a community with the British state.

While Sikhs have had much success in Britain in having their religious duties accommodated, Sikhs often exaggerate their successes and forget their many legal defeats as well. The authors end the chapter discussing the problematics of multiculturalism, specifically looking at the case of the play Behzti and its eventual cancellation. In an amusing ending, the authors reflect how much the Sikhs have learned the politics of Britain – drawing on the Anglo-Sikh heritage, engaging national and transnational lobbying (although in this article in the French case, they can work against one another as well), and most recently in the case of the Behzti affair, Sikhs can “resort to that most ancient of British traditions – the riot.”

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For Previous Discussions, see

Part 2
Part 1
Introduction