Sikhs in their infinite variety

The Sikh Next Door: An Identity in Transition

Author: Manpreet J Singh

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Price: Rs 699   
Pages: 244

Manpreet J Singh’s book is a must-read for anyone who is keen to understand the history and contemporary realities of Sikhs in India. While the book is rooted in scholarly research, it is clear that the author wants to be in conversation with an audience that goes beyond other scholars writing on Sikh identity. She writes in a poised, reflective manner, allowing readers to take in information at a gentle pace.

Singh has a PhD in English Literature from the University of Mumbai, and has taught most recently at the Department of English, Mata Sundri College for Women, University of Delhi. This volume builds on her academic training but it is also inter-disciplinary in nature. Though she admits that making a leap from literature, which is her “core field”, was daunting, the book has benefited from her ability to draw on other bodies of knowledge – history, sociology, psychology, and popular culture – to enrich the reader’s understanding.
 

She succeeds in dismantling the myth of a timeless Sikh identity by showing how it has evolved across time and space, not only under the 10 Sikh gurus but also in relation to developments such as the Komagata Maru incident of 1914, the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, the Green Revolution in Punjab in the 1960s, Operation Blue Star and the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984, attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York City in 2001, and the attack on the Oak Creek Gurdwara in Wisconsin in 2012.
 

Singh celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit of Sikhs who rebuilt their lives after becoming refugees in 1947 and, at the same time, points out how their struggle for survival shaped other people’s ideas about them. She writes, “In a race to grab scarce resources, resorting to heckling and shouldering their way through a crowd composed of equally desperate people, Sikhs as a community began to be seen as aggressive.” According to her, the loss of a safety net created an attitudinal shift in the community — a growing tendency to acquire and hoard.
 

What makes this book particularly impressive is the author’s honest engagement with her own positionality. She writes, for instance, “Would I lose objectivity while working on areas that have had a bearing on my own life? Or would my training as a researcher help me maintain a distance and allow an overview?” She is a Sikh woman but her objective is not to provide a glowing portrait of her own community. She is able to address stereotypes that others have about Sikhs, as also controversial issues such as the Khalistan movement as well as the skewed sex ratio among Sikhs in India due to female foeticide and dowry. This is possible because of the self-awareness that she maintains and lays bare before readers.
 

Singh corrects the misperception that caste does not play a role in the social life of Sikhs. She notes, “Despite Sikh religion prohibiting caste discrimination, gurdwaras have been the site of caste-based persecution.” According to her, Dalit Sikhs are denied positions in gurdwara managements, which are dominated by Jats. “Many among them are increasingly identifying themselves with Sant Ravidas, one of the many lower-caste saints whose writings are included in the Guru Granth Sahib,” she adds. They chose to call themselves Ravidassias and have constructed separate Ravidasia gurdwaras, refusing to be on the margins any longer.
 

This book examines in passing the work of singers like Ginni Mahi, Pamma Sunar, Jaswinder Rayya and Rajni Thakkarwal, who emphasise the deeply embedded caste-based structures in Sikh society. Singh writes, “There are a plethora of Punjabi songs, celebrating the Chamar identity, clearly reminiscent of Jats celebrating the Jat identity.” Their lyrics speak of a “readiness to fight back discrimination” and the music videos feature “a blatant display of new prosperity through expensive cars, houses and weapons”. The author says, “Mazhabi Sikh women too are constructed as warriors ready to strike back at the Jat fiefdom.”
 

She also writes extensively about the divide between Jats engaged in agriculture and Khatris involved in business and trade. According to her, when the Green Revolution brought prosperity to sections of Jat society, Sikh culture began to be identified with Jat culture – “concepts of pind, khet, makki di roti, sarson da saag, bhangra, giddha, phulkaris and Patiala turbans” – as a result of which the mercantile community began to be viewed as outsiders.
 

This book shows how silly it is to assume that a minority community is homogenous. Sikhs in Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana have histories and practices that are somewhat different from Sikhs in Punjab and Delhi. They follow the same faith but they do not necessarily speak the same language.
 

 “The Assamese Sikhs have often been belittled because they cannot speak or read Punjabi and are hence also referred to as spurious Sikhs or kachche Sikh,” says Singh. To counter this offensive claim, the Assamese Sikhs argue that “they follow Sikhi more sincerely than the Punjabi Sikhs, who are more concerned with ostentation than spiritual understanding”.
 

Any book about Sikhs cannot afford to miss out on the significant and visible Sikh diaspora. Singh touches briefly on the histories of Sikhs living in Myanmar, East Africa, Fiji, West Indies, Canada, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and Singapore. Oddly, she does not write about Sikhs living in Pakistan and Afghanistan. One hopes that future editions of the book will fill this particular gap and also expand the excellent analysis of changing gender norms to address concerns raised by LGBTQ+ Sikhs. Seeing Sukhdeep Singh’s documentary film Sab Rab De Bande (2018) might be a good start. It features practising LGBTQ+ Sikhs from Delhi, Kanpur, Punjab, Kolkata and Haryana.