'Home' in Sikh polity: understandings of m朝r朝 p朝r朝 in contemporary Britain - PhDData

Access database of worldwide thesis




‘Home’ in Sikh polity: understandings of m朝r朝 p朝r朝 in contemporary Britain

The thesis was published by Bhogal, Jaskiran Kaur, in January 2022, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Abstract:

Although past anthropological research on Britains religious minority communities, such as Sikhs and also Sikh Studies research has principally focused on exploring issues of identity and assimilation within (public) religious practice, since 9/11 and the 7/7 bombings, practising Sikh朝 (the vernacular for the Sikh faith) in public has become increasingly problematic, not just for Sikhs, but also for Britains wider society. Indeed, these increasingly problematic public practises of Sikh朝 compound problems with past researchs focus on Sikhs public identity and assimilation. To provide a richer, more nuanced understanding of this increasingly problematic practice, my research takes an anthropology at home approach and focusses on both public and private forms of Sikh expression deployed in contemporary Britain. From this dual focus of working from the inside outwards as well as taking seriously a longer history of the making of the complex relationship between Sikhs and Britain I argue that because the British public sphere has a religious and racialised hierarchy, public expressions of minority religions, such as Sikh朝, are frequently problematic for those who practise it. Sikh ideas of home are multi layered and for my interlocutors, Sikh朝 is the thread that runs through each of these layers of what home means. My thesis explores how one becomes a Sikh and the different ways of becoming a Sikh in various sites from the most private setting of the home to the most public arena in the form of sev (selfless service). Importantly, as a result of the development of Sikh history a multiplicity of identities (Werbner, 2013) has developed leading to a spectrum of Sikhs that still maintain a significant link to Sikh朝 through the practice of the interrelation of kinship and religion (Cannell, 2013; Cannell, 2015; Cannell, 2019; McKinnon et al., 2013; Orsi, 2010). Christian and post-Christian legacies in anthropology create default categories such as spirituality, politics, and religion. The perceived tension of religion and politics frames our 4 understandings of those that we study and impacts our interpretation of their beliefs and praxis. My thesis is primarily about understanding how Sikhs in Britain comprehend the relationship between the religious and political through the lens of m朝r朝 p朝r朝 (the vernacular understanding of the relationship between spirituality and politics). Ultimately, my thesis argues that whilst Sikh朝 was a faith that emerged as one to dismantle structures of oppression and hierarchy (Kaur, 2020, p. 8) it has been appropriated in the British context to allow for acceptance into a non-compatible nation and is not without compromise and sacrifice.



Read the last PhD tips