tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/sikh-3549/articlesSikh – The Conversation2023-11-30T23:40:44Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2189072023-11-30T23:40:44Z2023-11-30T23:40:44ZAlleged assassination plots in the U.S. and Canada signal a more assertive Indian foreign policy<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/alleged-assassination-plots-in-the-us-and-canada-signal-a-more-assertive-indian-foreign-policy" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>A recent indictment from the United States Department of Justice <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/29/us/u-s-v-gupta.html">has alleged</a> an Indian security official was involved in attempting to assassinate a U.S. and Canadian citizen in New York. The alleged target, <a href="https://theconversation.com/alleged-assassination-plot-against-sikh-separatist-could-hamper-india-u-s-relations-218502">Gurpatwant Singh Pannun</a>, is a leader in the Sikh separatist movement and has been involved in organizing referendums for the establishment of Khalistan, a proposed independent Sikh state in northern India. </p>
<p>The indictment also states that there is a link between the foiled attempt to kill Pannun and the murder of Canadian Khalistani leader <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-fraught-history-of-india-and-the-khalistan-movement-213956">Hardeep Singh Nijjar</a> in Surrey, B.C. earlier this year. </p>
<p>The Indian government said it was investigating the allegations, and had established a committee to “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67570007">address the security concerns highlighted by the US government</a>.”</p>
<p>This announcement by the U.S. could have potential ramifications for Indian politics, both at home and abroad. However, it is unlikely to have any significant impact on next year’s general elections, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be seeking his third term in office.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-the-khalistan-movement-sparking-a-diplomatic-feud-between-india-and-canada-213860">Explainer: what is the Khalistan movement sparking a diplomatic feud between India and Canada?</a>
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<h2>Bolstering Modi’s strongman image</h2>
<p>Canadian allegations against India had handed Modi an excellent political platform for the next general elections. </p>
<p>It sent a clear message that India’s government would, under no circumstances, tolerate any threats to the country. </p>
<p>India’s foreign policy has become more muscular under Modi; and that’s a strategy that resonates with his supporters. </p>
<p>His landslide victory in 2019 had a lot to do with support for India’s “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37504308">surgical strikes</a>” in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir in 2016 in response to an attack that killed 19 Indian soldiers. </p>
<p>Following Canada’s allegations of Indian involvement in Nijjar’s killing, the Modi government was once again able to successfully generate a narrative against Canada in general and the Liberal party in particular. </p>
<p>India’s narrative consists of four parts: </p>
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<li><p><a href="https://theprint.in/opinion/security-code/khalistan-on-the-pacific-how-the-gangs-of-punjab-were-born-in-canada/980176/">Canada is a safe haven for terrorists, extremism and organized crime</a>, and there is a nexus between Indo-Canadian gangsters and Sikh separatists working with Pakistan’s intelligence agency.</p></li>
<li><p>The Canadian government has <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/9-separatist-outfits-supporting-terror-groups-have-bases-in-canada-indias-deportation-requests-ignored-officials-4404779">consistently ignored repeated requests from India</a> to take actions against Khalistani “terrorists” operating on Canadian soil.</p></li>
<li><p>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is pandering to the large Sikh diaspora in Canada.</p></li>
<li><p>The Liberal minority government is dependent on support from the New Democratic Party leader, Jagmeet Singh, a Sikh supposedly sympathetic to the Khalistani cause. </p></li>
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<p>Indian news media and politicians have repeated the official discourse constantly for weeks. </p>
<p>While India was quick to dismiss Canadian allegations, it has adopted a much more cautious approach to the U.S. indictment. India has much to lose by alienating the Biden administration as both countries have invested a great deal in enhancing Indo-U.S. relations and making India a central ally in America’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/U.S.-Indo-Pacific-Strategy.pdf">Indo-Pacific strategy</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Indo-Canadian relations have been chilly since 2015, largely due to Khalistan activity in Canada. Moreover, <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/country_news-pays_nouvelles/2023-05-10-india-inde.aspx?lang=eng">annual trade between India and Canada is worth about $12 billion</a> while trade with the U.S. is worth <a href="https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/south-central-asia/india#:%7E:text=U.S.%20goods%20and%20services%20trade,was%20%2445.7%20billion%20in%202022.">$192 billion</a>. In short, India has much more to lose by alienating the U.S than it does by taking a hard line with Canada. </p>
<h2>Furthering authoritarianism</h2>
<p>On the surface it might appear that news of the U.S. indictment could fracture India’s muscular foreign policy. However, this episode is unlikely to have much impact on India’s domestic politics. Modi remains popular with an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/18/opinion/modi-india.html">approval rating of 78 per cent</a>. </p>
<p>He is credited, among other things, with India’s emergence as a global power, with his effective handling of border issues with China, for taking on Pakistan and with the success of the country’s <a href="https://apnews.com/article/india-spacecraft-chandrayaan-moon-landing-b31109bb08197f33b829e7a6e4edfc6d">space program</a>. </p>
<p>The 26-party opposition coalition, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/26/india-what-you-need-to-know-about-indias-opposition-alliance">Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA)</a>, is unlikely to challenge Modi on this particular issue. The national defense narrative is a strong one, and India’s territorial integrity is a sacrosanct issue for all political parties.</p>
<p>However, among some minority communities, Muslims and Sikhs, both at home and abroad, revelations of assassination plots could raise serious concerns. The Modi government’s aggressive pursuit of a Hindu nationalist agenda, its repression of minorities and control over dissent have become more entrenched. </p>
<p>India’s parliament is in the process of amending its sedition laws. If the changes are passed, endangering the unity and integrity of the country could result in <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/sedition-to-go-but-endangering-unity-and-integrity-of-india-could-result-in-life-term/articleshow/102661307.cms?from=mdr">life-term imprisonment</a>. These proposed changes to the already harsh and draconian penal code will only further criminalize dissent. The Modi government is ensuring that dissenting voices, particularly those of minority communities, completely disappear from Indian democracy. </p>
<h2>Amplifying the Khalistan movement</h2>
<p>India’s campaign of global repression of Sikh separatists could have the effect of unifying the Sikh diaspora. It was in 2018 that Pannun came up with the idea of holding a non-binding referendums to mobilize the global Sikh community. </p>
<p>That year, Sikh activists announced their <a href="https://www.sikhpa.com/sikhs-for-justice-to-declare-punjab-independence-referendum-for-202/">campaign for holding referendums</a> starting in 2021 across multiple cities. The first referendum took place in London on Oct. 31, 2021, followed by eight more referendums during 2022 and 2023 in the cities of Leeds and Luton (United Kingdom), Geneva (Switzerland), Brampton, Mississauga and Surrey (Canada), Melbourne (Australia), and Brescia (Italy). </p>
<p>Pannun announced plans for referendums in <a href="https://time.com/6339942/india-gurpatwant-singh-pannun-sikh-separatist-qa/">Punjab</a> and <a href="https://yespunjab.com/sfj-declares-us-phase-of-khalistan-referendum-beginning-jan-28/">the U.S</a>, and for another round of voting in Canadian cities. In October, following Trudeau’s announcement of credible allegations against the Indian government, thousands of voters turned out to participate in a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/khalistan-vote-second-round-surrey-1.7012234">referendum in Surrey, B.C.</a>, some coming from as far as the cities of Edmonton and Calgary. </p>
<p>While only a small minority of the Sikh diaspora is thought to support creating a separate Sikh state, the majority were likely registering their disapproval of India and its repression of minorities. Memory of the 1984 <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/10/29/india-no-justice-1984-anti-sikh-bloodshed">anti-Sikh riots</a> in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination which left thousands dead remains very much alive within the entire Sikh community to this day. </p>
<p>But Khalistani referendum politics relies heavily on images depicting so-called “martyrs” (separatists killed by India) and Indian diplomats as the assassins of Sikh activists. <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/toronto-hindu-temple-defaced-b2167886.html">The desecration of Hindu temples</a> also has the potential to create division within the Indian Hindu and Sikh diasporas. Canadian Liberal MP Chandra Arya has <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/step-in-take-action-canadian-mp-chandra-arya-on-khalistani-supporters-threat-to-hindu-temple-in-surrey/articleshow/105369065.cms">accused Khalistan supporters of targetting Hindu temples</a>. </p>
<p>As more information comes out, the Canadian government will need to carefully manage its relations with India and the relationship between diasporic communities here.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218907/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Reeta Tremblay has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the Canadian International Council's Victoria branch. </span></em></p>This announcement by U.S. authorities could have potential ramifications for Indian politics, both at home and abroad, and could spur separatist activities in the Sikh diaspora.Reeta Tremblay, Adjunct and Professor Emerita, Politics, University of VictoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2185022023-11-23T22:45:55Z2023-11-23T22:45:55ZAlleged assassination plot against Sikh separatist could hamper India-U.S. relations<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/alleged-assassination-plot-against-sikh-separatist-could-hamper-india-us-relations" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The United States government recently stated it had thwarted a <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/56f7d6d6-6a93-4172-a49e-d8a91991e29d">plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist leader in the U.S.</a> and issued a warning to the Indian government. According to media reports, U.S. authorities say they successfully stopped a plot to assassinate Sikh separatist <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/who-is-gurpatwant-pannun-target-foiled-murder-plot-us-2023-11-23/">Gurpatwant Singh Pannun</a> on American soil. Pannun is a <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/washington-asks-india-about-alleged-assassination-plot-against-u-s-canadian-activist-1.6655973">U.S.-Canadian citizen</a> and a prominent figure in the pro-Khalistan movement, which calls for establishing an independent Sikh state in northern India. </p>
<p>White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson indicated that the administration is treating this issue with the utmost seriousness and noted it has been raised with India “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-thwarts-plot-kill-sikh-separatist-issues-warning-india-ft-2023-11-22/">at the senior-most levels.</a>” </p>
<p>Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he hoped India “<a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-washington-presses-india-on-alleged-plot-to-kill-canadian-american/">will take these real concerns seriously</a>.” This recent revelation comes two months after Trudeau said his government had “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-indian-government-nijjar-1.6970498">credible evidence</a>” of an Indian link to the killing of a pro-Khalistan leader in Canada. In June 2023, <a href="https://theconversation.com/justin-trudeaus-india-accusation-complicates-western-efforts-to-rein-in-china-213922">Hardeep Singh Nijjar</a> was assassinated outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C. </p>
<h2>U.S. protest</h2>
<p>The alleged killing in Canada and foiled plot in the U.S. give rise to concerns regarding India’s reliability as a trusted strategic partner for Western governments. The mounting authoritarianism of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and its belligerent foreign policy raises questions about India’s future trajectory which potentially conflicts with the interests of the U.S. and its allies.</p>
<p>The U.S. reportedly issued a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/22/us-thwarted-plot-to-kill-sikh-separatist-issued-warning-to-india-report">diplomatic protest</a> to India following Modi’s visit to Washington in June. Furthermore, U.S. federal prosecutors have <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-thwarts-plot-kill-sikh-separatist-issues-warning-india-ft-2023-11-22/">filed a sealed indictment</a> against one suspect in court. The debate now centres around whether to unseal and make this indictment public immediately, or await the completion of Canadian investigations before its disclosure.</p>
<p>Pannun <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/22/us-thwarts-plot-to-kill-sikh-separatist-and-issues-diplomatic-warning-to-india">has been organizing</a> a symbolic referendum on an independent Khalistan in San Francisco. India perceives the activities of pro-Khalistan leaders as a threat to its sovereignty.</p>
<h2>India’s differing responses</h2>
<p>The Indian Ministry of External Affairs has not commented on the White House statement. Nevertheless, the White House statement <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/4323600-us-concern-india-reports-sikh-separatist-killing-plot/">conveyed</a> that their Indian counterparts “expressed surprise and concern” upon the issue being raised with them. Indian officials reiterated that extrajudicial killing is not reflective of Indian government policy.</p>
<p>The contrast in the Indian government’s response to the Canadian and U.S. announcements is intriguing. India vehemently denied Canada’s allegations and dismissed the claims as “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2264814147529">absurd</a>.” Furthermore, New Delhi heightened diplomatic tensions by issuing a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/india-canada-travel-warning-1.6972377">travel warning</a> to its citizens in Canada, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/india-visa-service-suspension-canada-faq-1.6975990">halting visa services</a> and threatening to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/41-canadian-diplomats-left-india-1.7001515">revoke the immunity</a> of Canadian diplomats in India. </p>
<p>From the perspective of the Indian government, relations with Canada are not deemed strategically crucial. Consequently, India appears willing to weather a temporary strain in relations and can afford to allow them to be derailed for a few years.</p>
<p>However, India’s relations with the U.S. hold immense <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/06/22/joint-statement-from-the-united-states-and-india/">strategic significance</a>. Given the ongoing <a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/2023/05/why-we-should-all-worry-about-china-india-border-dispute">border disputes</a> with China and Beijing’s escalating assertiveness, there exists a tangible threat to India’s territorial sovereignty.</p>
<p>Recognizing the power asymmetry with China, India finds it imperative to cultivate a closer strategic partnership with the U.S. Conversely, the U.S. sees India as pivotal to its <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3531303/us-india-relationship-critical-to-free-open-indo-pacific/">Indo-Pacific strategy</a>, which is aimed at counterbalancing China’s growing influence. The U.S. has actively supported India’s economic and military growth to foster a power balance in the Asian region. </p>
<p>The great power rivalry between the U.S. and China aligns with India’s national interests. However, India seeks a stable rivalry, cautious of overly hostile relations that could potentially entangle it in the U.S.-China conflict. Simultaneously, if relations were to improve between the U.S. and China, India could risk losing its current strategic significance.</p>
<h2>Growing belligerence</h2>
<p>The Indian government has consistently asserted that extrajudicial killing is not part of its foreign policy. However, its alleged involvement in Nijjar’s assassination in June, <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/who-was-paramjit-singh-panjwar-the-wanted-terrorist-shot-dead-in-lahore-8595352/">the killing of another Sikh leader in Pakistan</a> in May, and this thwarted plot in the U.S. indicate a concerning pattern of behaviour. </p>
<p>The authoritarian tendencies of the Modi government and its seeming willingness to target people on foreign soil could strain India’s relationship with its allies and partners. </p>
<p>The India-U.S. relationship has been billed as grounded in <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/democracy-and-the-us-india-relationship/">shared democratic values</a>. This alliance has also been held up as a model contrasting with the authoritarian regime in China. The recent events, however, cast a shadow on this narrative, and could prompt the U.S. to reevaluate the partnership. </p>
<p>Under the authoritarian trajectory of the Modi government, U.S.-India relations appear to be shifting towards an alignment with mutual interests rather than shared values.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218502/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Saira Bano does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Reports of an alleged Indian plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist in the United States could undermine India-U.S. relations and both country’s efforts to counter China’s growing influence.Saira Bano, Assistant Professor in Political Science, Thompson Rivers UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2139562023-09-20T18:46:30Z2023-09-20T18:46:30ZThe fraught history of India and the Khalistan movement<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/the-fraught-history-of-india-and-the-khalistan-movement" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The Indian government has warned its citizens living in Canada to exercise “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/20/india-warning-citizens-canada-sikh-activist-trudeau">extreme caution</a>” due to a “deteriorating security environment” in the country. </p>
<p>The warning came after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canadian police were investigating “credible allegations” of the Indian government’s involvement in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.</p>
<p>On June 18, 2023, 46-year-old Nijjar, who migrated to Canada in 1997 and became a Canadian citizen in 2015, was shot dead by two masked gunmen in the parking lot of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, B.C.</p>
<p>The Indian government has denied any involvement, and as a result of the allegations, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/09/19/india-expels-canada-diplomat-sikh-assassination/">both countries have expelled diplomats from the other</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/justin-trudeaus-india-accusation-complicates-western-efforts-to-rein-in-china-213922">Justin Trudeau's India accusation complicates western efforts to rein in China</a>
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<p>In late 2022, the Canadian government <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2023/02/minister-joly-to-travel-to-india-to-deepen-indo-pacific-strategy-partnerships.html">spoke of building a stronger partnership</a> on the shared tradition of democracy between the two countries. But now, after a brief interlude of bonhomie, the Indo-Canadian relationship has reverted to a deep chill.</p>
<p>Canada correctly points out that the involvement of any foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is a violation of its sovereignty. India insists that Canada, particularly Trudeau’s Liberal government, has consistently ignored so-called terrorist activities against India by supporters of the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/khalistan-explained-canada-india-nijjar-1.6971803">Khalistan movement</a>.</p>
<h2>The Khalistan movement</h2>
<p>The Sikh population in India is estimated to be <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/09/20/canada-india-tensions-sikh-population/">about 22 million</a> (1.7 per cent of the population), the majority of whom reside in the northern state of Punjab. The demand for a separate independent homeland for Sikhs — Khalistan — can be traced back to the 1940s when the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-62467438">British partitioned India</a> and created Pakistan.</p>
<p>The movement was quiet until the 1970s, largely as a result of the <a href="https://powermin.gov.in/sites/default/files/uploads/Punjab_Re_organisation_Act_0.pdf">Indian government dividing Punjab</a> into a Punjabi speaking majority Sikh state (Punjab) and a Hindi-speaking state (Haryana) in 1966.</p>
<p>However, during the 1970s and 1980s, Punjab was engulfed in a violent political mass movement. Demand for a separate independent homeland was driven by the need to protect the Sikh religion and identity from the assimilationist policies of the Indian state, the need to address the rising unemployment in the agricultural community and Sikh youths.</p>
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<p>The violence came to a head in June 1984. Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered the army to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-23514583">storm the Golden Temple</a> in the city of Amritsar, the most sacred and central pilgrimage site for Sikhs, where the leaders of the Khalistan movement had taken refuge.</p>
<p>After a week of fighting, not only was the temple desecrated, but more than 400 people were killed — including the leaders of the movement — and hundreds more were injured.</p>
<p>The Sikh community was deeply shocked both within and outside India. Just four months later, in October 1984, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-rebukes-canada-over-parade-float-showing-assassination-indira-gandhi-2023-06-08/">Gandhi was assassinated</a> by two of her Sikh bodyguards. Her Congress party’s Hindu workers led <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/17/asia/sajjan-kumar-verdict-intl/index.html">anti-Sikh riots</a> that killed thousands of Sikhs.</p>
<p>For the Sikh diaspora, many of whom left India after the riots, the suffering of their community has remained etched in their memories. </p>
<p>The Indian state has taken little action to convict those behind the violence against the Sikh community or to enter into a truth and reconciliation process with the community.</p>
<h2>Khalistan activists killed</h2>
<p>Nijjar’s murder is the <a href="https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/explained-how-three-khalistani-terrorists-died-suddenly-in-past-two-months-12765982.html">third targeted killing</a> of Khalistan leaders outside India. </p>
<p>In May, Paramjit Singh Panjwar, head of the Khalistan Commando Force, was shot dead by two identified gunmen in Lahore, Pakistan. In June, Avtar Singh Khanda of the U.K.-based Khalistan Liberation force was suspected of death by poisoning.</p>
<p>Nijjar was head of the Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) as well as an active member of the United States-based group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ); both organizations are pursuing an independent Sikh homeland. Since 2022, SFJ has been <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/khalistan-referendum-surrey-bc-1.6960101">conducting referendums</a> in Canada and elsewhere in support of Khalistan. </p>
<p>In 2016, <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Khalistan-terror-camp-in-Canada-plotting-attacks-in-Punjab-India-to-Trudeau-govt/articleshow/52495693.cms"><em>The Times of India</em> reported</a> that, according to intelligence officials in Punjab, Nijjar had taken over as the “operational head” of the KTF and was forming groups to launch attacks. </p>
<p>It also claimed that Nijjar frequently visited Pakistan and was in contact with Pakistani intelligence. There have also been allegations that Nijjar was <a href="https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/surrey-man-accused-on-running-terror-camp-near-mission">running a camp near Mission, B.C.,</a> to carry out an attack in Punjab.</p>
<p><a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/2731101/canadian-officials-not-talking-about-b-c-terror-camp-claim/">Mission Mayor Randy Hawes says that report is not credible</a>. Ralph Goodale, then Canada’s public safety minister, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/extremist-allegations-bc-1.3608111">would not comment</a> at the time when asked if there was any basis to that allegation.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-sikh-extremism-really-active-in-canada-93566">Is Sikh extremism really active in Canada?</a>
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<p><a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/2736482/b-c-man-accused-of-being-terror-suspect-writes-letter-to-justin-trudeau/">In an open letter to Trudeau</a>, Nijjar pointed out that allegations against him were “factually baseless and fabricated.” He added: </p>
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<p>“Because of my campaign for Sikh rights, it’s my belief that I have become a target of an Indian government media campaign to label my human rights campaign as ‘terrorist activities.’”</p>
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<p>The Nijjar episode is the latest in the ongoing saga between India and Canada over the Khalistan movement. The Indian government claims that Canada’s failure to ban groups like KTF and SFJ compromises India’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and security.</p>
<p>Canada has so far refused to stop the referendums. Meanwhile, India’s current Hindu populist regime remains intolerant of any dissenting voices — especially from minority communities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213956/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Reeta Tremblay has received funding from SSHRC. </span></em></p>Hardeep Singh Nijjar is one of three high-profile Sikh political activists to be killed in recent months.Reeta Tremblay, Adjunct and Professor Emerita, University of VictoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2139222023-09-19T22:19:19Z2023-09-19T22:19:19ZJustin Trudeau’s India accusation complicates western efforts to rein in China<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/justin-trudeaus-india-accusation-complicates-western-efforts-to-rein-in-china" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegation that the Indian government <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-indian-government-nijjar-1.6970498">was involved</a> in the assassination on Canadian soil of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh independence advocate, will undoubtedly erode Canadian-Indian relations at a time when the West is trying to appeal to India. </p>
<p>Trudeau has made international headlines with his allegation in Parliament this week that India had a hand in the murder of Nijjar, who was <a href="https://bc.ctvnews.ca/police-tight-lipped-as-b-c-sikh-leader-s-slaying-flares-international-tensions-1.6568266#:%7E:text=Nijjar%20was%20the%20president%20of,the%20evening%20of%20June%2018.">gunned down last June in the parking lot of a gurdwara — a Sikh place of worship — in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey.</a></p>
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<p>Both government and opposition parties have unanimously condemned India, saying the allegations suggest an unacceptable violation of Canadian sovereignty. </p>
<p>Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9971043/canada-has-expelled-a-top-indian-diplomat-who-is-pavan-kumar-rai/">has announced</a> the expulsion of Indian diplomat Pavan Kumar Rai. The federal government says Rai led the Canadian branch of the Research and Analysis Wing, India’s foreign intelligence service. Joly says she’ll raise the issue with the G7 foreign ministers in New York. </p>
<p>India, meantime, has denied the allegation and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/19/india-expels-canada-diplomat-after-india-envoy-expelled-in-sikh-killing-row">expelled a Canadian diplomat</a> in retaliation.</p>
<h2>Tensions running high</h2>
<p>Tensions between Canada and India were apparent when Trudeau recently visited New Delhi for the G20 summit.</p>
<p>Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/aircraft-glitch-delays-canada-pm-trudeaus-departure-india-2023-09-10/">had raised concerns</a> to Trudeau about <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-khalistan-sikh-india-canada/">Sikh Khalistani protests in Canada</a>. The Sikh independence movement is considered a threat to Indian territorial sovereignty and integrity. </p>
<p>Canada has the largest Sikh diaspora outside Punjab, <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/who-was-hardeep-singh-nijjar-the-sikh-activist-whose-killing-has-divided-canada-and-india-1.6567734">and activists like Nijjar have been staging demonstrations</a> to demand an independent Khalistan state separate from India. Trudeau defended these demonstrations as freedom of expression, assembly and peaceful protest. </p>
<p>But Trudeau also made his allegations about India’s involvement in Nijjar’s death <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/canada-trudeau-khalistan-modi-g7-b2414088.html">to U.S. President Joe Biden, British Prime Minster Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron at the G20</a>.</p>
<p>This complicates efforts by Canada and its allies to improve relations with India in a strategic attempt to counter-balance what they view as an increasing threat posed by China. </p>
<p>In response to China’s growing might, Canada unveiled its <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2022/11/canada-launches-indo-pacific-strategy-to-support-long-term-growth-prosperity-and-security-for-canadians.html">Indo-Pacific strategy</a> in 2022 that characterized China as a “disruptive power” and underscored the Canadian commitment to strengthening ties with countries in the Indo-Pacific region. That strategy has a particular focus on India.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-indo-pacific-strategy-the-same-old-starry-eyed-thinking-about-asian-trade-195491">Canada's Indo-Pacific strategy: The same old starry-eyed thinking about Asian trade</a>
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<h2>Improving India-Canada trade</h2>
<p>Canada has also committed to improving trade relations with India by negotiating a free-trade agreement. </p>
<p>There have been nine rounds of negotiations, but those talks stopped amid allegations about India’s role in Nijjar’s death. Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9963069/mary-ng-canada-india/">cancelled her planned visit to India</a> in October. </p>
<p>Despite the importance countering China’s influence, the Indian government’s authoritative tendencies, human rights violations and interference in Canadian internal affairs have created obstacles to Ottawa’s efforts to improve the India-Canada relationship.</p>
<p>It’s <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/britain-to-continue-trade-talks-with-india-despite-murder-of-sikh-leader-in-canada/ar-AA1gX58a">highly improbable</a> that Canada’s allies, including the U.S., the U.K. and France, will cut ties with India due to Trudeau’s allegations. India is simply too important for strategic and economic reasons. </p>
<p>India holds significant importance when it comes to countering China’s geopolitical influence. <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/country-pays/india-inde/relations.aspx?lang=eng">Ottawa has previously indicated India was a “priority” market for Canada</a>; in 2022, India was Canada’s 10th largest trading partner.</p>
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<h2>‘Democracy’ partnership</h2>
<p>A strategic agreement between the U.S. and India is primarily aimed at tempering China’s growing influence and has been called <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/09/24/fact-sheet-the-united-states-and-india-global-leadership-in-action/#:%7E:text=President%20Biden%20hosted%20Prime%20Minister%20Narendra%20Modi%20today%2C,freedom%2C%20pluralism%2C%20openness%2C%20and%20respect%20for%20human%20rights.">a partnership</a> between “the world’s oldest democracy” and “the world’s largest democracy” to highlight shared democratic values. </p>
<p>But the Modi government has been harshly criticized for <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56393944">democratic backsliding and authoritarian tendencies</a>, including fostering Hindu extremism, violating minority and human rights and cracking down on the media, academia and civil society.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, Biden refrained from criticizing Modi publicly when he visited the White House in June <a href="https://www.oneindia.com/international/these-lawmakers-are-boycotting-pm-modis-us-congress-address-3575665.html">despite being pressured</a> to raise human rights issues with the Indian leader. </p>
<p>Seventy-five U.S. congressional representatives wrote a letter to Biden urging him to do so. Half a dozen Democrats also boycotted Modi’s speech to U.S. Congress. But the Biden administration <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/08/biden-india-modi-g20-autocrat">reportedly believes</a> expressing concerns about Modi’s autocratic policies would harm the relationship.</p>
<h2>Holding India accountable</h2>
<p>Indeed, Canada’s allies have often turned a blind eye to Modi’s misdeeds due to strategic considerations.</p>
<p>But it’s now time for Canada and its allies to assertively hold India accountable for its actions. </p>
<p>The strategic partnerships formed between western nations and India were originally founded on the premise of shared democratic values. As the world’s most populous country, with the fifth largest economy and second-largest military, India is still an invaluable partner to the West.</p>
<p>But if India is diverging from these apparent shared principles, it’s essential to maintain the integrity of these partnerships by ensuring that Indian officials remain committed to democratic ideals and human rights.</p>
<p>Even if Canada’s allies won’t publicly back Trudeau, the federal government should stay committed to its core values by ensuring India faces consequences for its authoritarian actions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213922/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Saira Bano does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations that India was involved in the murder of a Canadian citizen complicates efforts by Canada and its allies to woo India to counter-balance Chinese might.Saira Bano, Assistant Professor in Political Science, Thompson Rivers UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2110422023-08-10T04:20:47Z2023-08-10T04:20:47ZWhy a Queensland court overturned a ban on religious knives in schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542058/original/file-20230810-19-8vexkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4484%2C2980&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Sikh man wearing a small 'kirpan' blade, one of the five articles of faith Sikhs must carry.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.sclqld.org.au/caselaw/QCA/2023/156">Supreme Court of Queensland</a> last week overturned a law banning children from bringing “knives” to school for religious reasons. This will allow Sikh students, parents, and teachers to carry a ceremonial dagger known as a “kirpan” at schools in Queensland. </p>
<p>Initiated Sikhs must carry a kirpan as one of five articles of faith. Those preparing for initiation, including school aged children, may also carry the five markers of faith. Many kirpans are blunt and worn stitched inside a sheath under a person’s cloths.</p>
<p>This isn’t the first time the issue of kirpans in schools has been raised. In 2021 the New South Wales government <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-religious-symbol-not-a-knife-at-the-heart-of-the-nsw-kirpan-ban-is-a-battle-to-define-secularism-161413">temporarily banned</a> students from wearing kirpans at school following an incident where a 14-year-old boy used one to stab another student. The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-13/religious-knives-to-be-allowed-in-nsw-schools-again/100374484">ban was eventually lifted</a> after consultation with the Sikh community, leading to new guidelines. </p>
<p>In 2006 the <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/15/index.do">Canadian Supreme Court</a> found a ban on wearing kirpans in school was a breach of freedom of religion under the Canadian Charter of Rights.</p>
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<p>What made the Queensland law particularly egregious is that not only did it prohibit the freedom of religion of a small and vulnerable minority, it did so deliberately. The only religious or ethnic group in Australia that habitually wears a religious or cultural symbol that resembles a knife are Sikhs. The law was therefore directly targeted at Sikhs.</p>
<p>The Queensland case highlights the needs for Australia’s secular legal system to recognise the adverse impact of law on religious and cultural minorities. </p>
<h2>What did the court say?</h2>
<p>All states and territories have laws prohibiting people from carrying and using knives in public places and schools. However, knives can be used for a range of legitimate activities such as cutting food or whittling wood. Children can carry knives as part of a scout’s uniform, for example. As a result, all states and territories have exemptions that allow people, including children, to carry and use knives where it’s “reasonably necessary”.</p>
<p>In New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and the Australian Capital Territory there are also specific exemptions that allow Sikhs to wear a kirpan for religious purposes. In Western Australia and the Northern Territory, Sikhs rely on the general exemption when wearing a kirpan in public places or at schools. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-religion-is-australias-second-largest-religious-group-and-its-having-a-profound-effect-on-our-laws-185697">'No religion' is Australia's second-largest religious group – and it's having a profound effect on our laws</a>
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<p>But Queensland’s laws are a little different. Section 51(1) of Queensland’s <a href="https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/pdf/inforce/current/act-1990-071">Weapons Act 1990</a> prohibited carrying knives in a public place or school without a reasonable excuse. As in other states and territories, the act also provides a range of reasons, including religion, for carrying a knife in a public place.</p>
<p>However, section 51(5) specifically states that religion is not a reasonable excuse for carrying a knife at a <em>school</em>.</p>
<p>To be clear, children could still bring a knife to school in Queensland for a range of other reasons, such as to cut up food or as part of their studies. However, Sikh children were specifically banned from carrying a knife for religious reasons.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court found the ban on bringing a knife to school specifically for religious reasons was inconsistent with the Racial Discrimination Act. </p>
<p>As per <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Senate/Powers_practice_n_procedures/Constitution/chapter5#chapter-05_109">Australia’s constitution</a>, state laws that are inconsistent with Commonwealth laws are void to the extent of the inconsistency. So, the court found that section 51(5) of the Queensland’s Weapons Act 1990 was void. </p>
<h2>A religion or ethnicity?</h2>
<p>Sikhism originated in the Punjab region in South Asia in the 15th Century. There are around 25-30 million Sikhs worldwide, with about five million living outside the Punjab region.</p>
<p>At the <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/cultural-diversity-census/2021#data-downloads">2021 census</a> there were 210,400 Sikhs in Australia, roughly 0.8% of the population. </p>
<p>While Sikhism is commonly thought of as a religion, the <a href="http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKHL/1982/7.html">courts</a> have recognised Sikhs have a common ethnic origin. As one of the judges explained in the case:</p>
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<p>Nearly all Sikhs originate from the Punjab region. Nearly all Sikhs continue to have a link with family in Punjab, practice elements of Punjabi culture and speak the Punjabi language.</p>
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<p>As a result, Sikhs are considered to be an ethno-religious group for the purposes of the Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act. </p>
<h2>A knife or a religious symbol?</h2>
<p>The kirpan is one of the five articles of faith worn by initiated Sikhs and those preparing for initiation. The other four are: a kachera (a special undergarment), kanga (a wooden comb), kara (an iron band) and keshas (unshorn hair). If one of the five items is removed, they’re required to undergo a lengthy absolution (or forgiveness) process. </p>
<p>The Queensland Supreme Court found the kirpan was a knife for the purposes of the Weapons Act 1990. It found that a knife remains a knife no matter how blunt or sharp it is, how it’s worn or how easy it is to access.</p>
<p>To Sikhs, a kirpan is fundamentally <a href="https://www.worldsikh.org/what_is_the_kirpan">a religious symbol</a>. It’s a symbol of dignity and of their obligation to stand up for others. Referring to the kirpan as a knife downplays its important religious significance. But in a secular legal system, defining it in any other way would be unworkable. </p>
<h2>What happens now?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-03/qld-sikhs-allowed-to-carry-ceremonial-kirpan-at-school/102679354">Queensland education department</a> is carefully considering the Supreme Court’s decision.</p>
<p>The court did leave the door open for a complete ban on knives in schools, although this would impact other legitimate uses of knives such as preparing food.</p>
<p>Kirpans are currently worn in schools by students, parents and teachers in other states of Australia, often with strict guidelines. The Queensland education system will likely need to develop similar guidelines.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211042/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Renae Barker is provides advise to the Anglican Diocese of Bunbury and Anglican Diocese of Perth </span></em></p>Not only did the Queensland law prohibit the freedom of religion of a small vulnerable minority, it did so deliberately.Renae Barker, Senior Lecturer, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1978692023-06-14T12:35:08Z2023-06-14T12:35:08ZWhy this year’s summer solstice matters so much for a new religious movement mired in controversy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527130/original/file-20230518-27-mo3hkl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C1000%2C661&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman teaches a dance form, known as bhangra, during a 3HO gathering. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsikhnet/2624619371">Gurumustuk Singh/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Throngs of people, most wearing white clothing and many adorned in <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/426737">traditional Sikh attire</a>, gathered in the Jemez mountains of New Mexico in June 2019. The occasion was the summer solstice. Those who came to celebrate were part of a community started in the U.S. in 1969 by an Indian Sikh man named Harbhajan Singh Puri, who later became known as Yogi Bhajan or Siri Singh Sahib. Puri was a Punjabi Sikh who had worked as a customs agent in India before moving to Canada and then to the U.S. He <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2008.00068.x">gained a following</a> while teaching yoga in the U.S. </p>
<p>Puri’s followers formed a community that has spawned a number of organizations since its founding, and although it doesn’t have a single comprehensive moniker, the community is often referred to by two key organizations connected to it: <a href="https://www.3ho.org/">3HO</a>, which gets its name from the “three H’s” that stand for happy, healthy and holy, and <a href="https://www.sikhdharma.org/">Sikh Dharma International, or SDI</a>. Although the community has acquired <a href="https://www.3ho.org/events/level-1-bali-immersion-2023/">members across the world</a>, it remains largely U.S.-based. </p>
<p>Since 2019, the community has not gathered to mark the summer solstice. After a hiatus of three years, 3HO and SDI will once again hold a large-scale summer solstice event in June 2023. This gathering serves as an important opportunity for members scattered across the U.S. and across the globe to meet. As a <a href="https://www.memphis.edu/sociology/people/faculty_and_staff/simranjit-khalsa.php">sociologist of religion</a>, I have spent years researching this community, and I was also raised within it. This gives me a strong sense of the stakes of reopening the annual solstice celebration. </p>
<h2>3HO, SDI and the Sikh Panth</h2>
<p>Founded in 1969, 3HO is focused on the practice of kundalini yoga. Kundalini yoga uses various postures, chanting and breathing exercises to raise one’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17448727.2012.745303">kundalini, a form of sacred energy</a> that some schools of Hindu thought believe rests at the base of the spine.</p>
<p>SDI, formed in 1973, is focused on sharing the Sikh religion as taught by Puri. <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-are-the-sikhs-and-what-are-their-beliefs-97237">The Sikh religion is a tradition that originated in India</a> and is often closely tied to an ethnic identity. Within the 3HO and SDI communities as a whole, practitioners often see kundalini yoga and the Sikh religion as bound together, with one being a pathway to the other. Although each organization has a different focus, for members at the core of the community, the practices taught by each aren’t separable in their regular religious and spiritual practice. </p>
<p>The community is made up of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2008.00068.x">mostly converts to the Sikh faith</a>, and practitioners within it have <a href="https://india.oup.com/product/sikhs-at-large-9780195685985?">not always been accepted by Punjabi Sikhs</a>. Tensions between them and Punjabi Sikhs <a href="https://academic.oup.com/socrel/article-abstract/78/3/340/3940212">stem from a number of differences</a>, which include the practice of kundalini yoga, all-white attire and the reverence often shown for Puri. </p>
<p>In the wider Sikh community, yoga is not typically thought of as a Sikh practice, there is no religious imperative for wearing white clothing, and giving religious reverence to a living figure is largely frowned upon. The summer solstice celebration itself, which is not typically marked by Punjabi Sikhs, is another substantial difference. </p>
<h2>Summer solstice and current challenges</h2>
<p>The structure of the summer solstice event has varied over the decades, but <a href="https://www.3ho.org/summer-solstice/">major elements included</a> a daylong prayer for world peace, yoga classes, meditation and Sikh gurdwara, or temple, services.</p>
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<img alt="A group of people sitting together and clapping." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530641/original/file-20230607-30-nbkt16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530641/original/file-20230607-30-nbkt16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530641/original/file-20230607-30-nbkt16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530641/original/file-20230607-30-nbkt16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530641/original/file-20230607-30-nbkt16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530641/original/file-20230607-30-nbkt16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530641/original/file-20230607-30-nbkt16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Summer solstice has been a time for community members to gather and engage with one another.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/3HO_Summer_Solstice_1970.jpg">Kundalini Research Institute and Teachings of Yogi Bhajan, via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>However, until this year, the community had not gathered to mark the summer solstice since 2019. This was partly due to the pandemic but also likely because it has been mired in crises. Since the death of Puri in 2004, a <a href="https://www.sfreporter.com/news/coverstories/2010/07/07/khalsa-vs-khalsa/">struggle for control of power and community resources</a> followed, though the community largely held itself together. </p>
<p>In 2020, however, <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/869564/pdf">allegations of sexual assault and abuse</a> leveled against Puri led many within the community to share additional allegations against other community members and community organizations. In remote meetings open to people connected to the community, some of which I attended, the <a href="https://religionnews.com/2020/08/18/yogi-bhajan-yoga-guru-and-founder-of-3ho-more-likely-than-not-sexually-abused-followers-says-report/">children of community members also voiced concerns</a> about physical and sexual abuse and neglect they had experienced in schools and camps initially created for children of the community. One example is the school <a href="https://miripiriacademy.org/">Miri Piri Academy</a> in Amritsar, a city in northern India.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://kundaliniresearchinstitute.org/en/timeline/report-by-an-olive-branch-issued/">independent organization set up to investigate the allegations</a> concluded in the fall of 2020 that “<a href="https://epsweb.org/an-olive-branch-report/">it is more likely than not</a>” that Puri engaged in several types of sexual misconduct.</p>
<p>Now, four years since the last large-scale gathering on the summer solstice, the community will once again <a href="https://www.3ho.org/summer-solstice/">open Ram Das Puri</a>, a plot of land in the mountains of New Mexico owned by the <a href="https://ssscorp.org/">Siri Singh Sahib Corp.</a>, another arm of the community that manages its assets and resources, to mark the summer solstice.</p>
<p>As the community gathers, it will be a time of reckoning with the past. In light of recent crises, attendance at the event may well indicate whether the community still retains a wide enough base to support it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197869/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simranjit Steel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>3HO was founded in 1969, and SDI followed five years later. What are they, and what is the significance of the 2023 summer solstice for their followers?Simranjit Steel, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of MemphisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2027812023-04-14T11:03:00Z2023-04-14T11:03:00ZWe asked Sikh men in Britain what the turban means to them – here’s what they told us<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517915/original/file-20230328-962-ckpnai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5540%2C2421&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sikh men wearing the dastaar/turban in temple.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/panoramic-sikh-people-back-their-colory-1583135275">Enselme Arthur/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <em>dastaar</em> – most commonly referred to as a turban – is perhaps Sikhism’s most visible expression of identity.</p>
<p>As part of our ongoing research, we talked to 13 British Sikh men to learn about their identity, religious practice and their experiences of wearing the turban in the UK. They told us that they hoped the recent visibility of the turban in fashion collections, police uniform and advertising campaigns would help to dilute the stigma surrounding the turban.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BADpcHjCScg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Royal Navy’s campaign focusing on a Sikh recruit.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In recent years, several projects have sought to promote Sikhism positively in an effort to reclaim narratives around the turban. In the UK, the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRTNo39d32U">Sikh Project</a> art exhibition, fashion blogs such as <a href="https://singhstreetstyle.co.uk/">Singh Street Style</a> and YouTube creators tying the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDxYnEGEiiw">turban on camera</a> have contributed to this. </p>
<p>Other noteworthy cases include the 2022 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BADpcHjCScg">recruitment campaign</a> for the Royal Navy, which exposed the traumas and stigmas associated with keeping hair and wearing a turban for a young Sikh man in Britain.</p>
<p>The Sikh code of discipline – the <em>Rehat Maryada</em> – states that Sikh men must cover their heads. While most Sikhs in the UK and around the world <a href="https://britishsikhreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/BSR_2013_FINAL.pdf">do not wear the turban</a>, it remains the most recognisable article of faith for adult Sikh men and women.</p>
<p>There has been a Sikh presence in Britain for <a href="https://britishsikhreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/BSR_2013_FINAL.pdf">almost 160 years</a>, but Sikh migration to the UK mostly started in the 1950s. </p>
<p>People (mostly men) from the Punjab region of India – and later from east Africa – responded to Britain’s call to the Commonwealth to participate in its postwar reconstruction efforts. Sikh migrants <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/sikhism/history/britishsikhism.shtml">mostly found</a> work in industries like foundries and textiles.</p>
<p>According to the 2021 census, there are about <a href="https://britishsikhreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Sikhs-in-Census-2021-Summary.pdf">524,000 Sikhs</a> (0.9% of the population) in England and Wales and around <a href="https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/census-results/at-a-glance/religion/">10,000 in Scotland</a> (0.2% of the Scottish population). This population has <a href="https://britishsikhreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/BSR-Report-2022.pdf">higher than average</a> levels of education and employment in professional and managerial occupations.</p>
<p>The first Sikh migrants to Britain faced significant discrimination in securing employment and many had to forgo their identities, resulting in the removal of all outward religious symbols including turban, hair and beard. Having to abandon the <em>dastaar</em> and cutting their hair were not benign acts:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It hurts. It really hurts. Why should you lose your identity to gain economic advantage? There was a pressure to change my appearance. Punjabis came to this country, they were misled in a way and told: ‘come on, let’s get your hair cut’ […] When you are born as something, and you cut your hair, deep down it hits you. It hits you all the time. – Gurtej, 68</p>
</blockquote>
<p>More recently, British society has positively responded to inclusion of Sikh ways of life, with the <a href="https://assets.college.police.uk/s3fs-public/2021-02/sikh-articles-of-faith-in-the-workplace.pdf">acceptance of the turban</a> in police and military uniforms. But there have also been real <a href="https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-0-387-29904-4_111">challenges and struggles</a> along the way. </p>
<p>Most notably, stigmas and discrimination around the turban were exacerbated following the 9/11 <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/September-11-attacks">World Trade Center</a> terrorist attacks in 2001. </p>
<p>Alongside Muslims, turban-wearing Sikhs have <a href="https://www.sikhcoalition.org/documents/pdf/go-home-terrorist.pdf">borne the brunt</a> of the <a href="https://www.hatecrimescotland.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Islamaphobia-Anti-Muslim-Hate-Crime-a-London-Case-Study-EMRC-2010.pdf">subsequent rise</a> in hate crimes, anti-Islamic sentiment, discrimination and racial profiling worldwide.</p>
<p>The Sikh men we spoke to for our as yet unpublished research, explained how wearing the turban signalled their observance to Sikhism and the life choices this entails, such as the protection of and service to others:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For me, what the turban signifies is a unique identity. To stand out in a crowd of millions is an act of real courage. […] if you need me, I am here for help. If you need food and shelter, this turbaned Sikh will give you food and shelter. It’s about courage, human rights, equality, it’s about commitment, discipline, it’s about compassion. Jagpal, 47</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The <em>dastaar</em> holds both practical and spiritual significance:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Apart from the practical use of covering my long hair … the other reason for the turban is to protect the spiritual centre on top of the head so that it doesn’t get damaged in any way. When I meditate with my turban on my head, I feel happy and very good, the turban concentrates those happy feelings. Jagpal</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Big brands have recently begun featuring turban-wearing models including Louis Vuitton, H&M, The Gap, Burberry and more controversially, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/gucci-s-indy-turban-criticized-cultural-appropriation-n1005971">Gucci</a> at the 2019 Milan Fashion Week. </p>
<p>Some of our interviewees hoped that this visibility would help dilute the stigma surrounding the turban:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Whatever medium takes [the turban] away from terrorism, is a great thing. I don’t really care if it’s a catwalk, or young dapper Sikhs wearing designer clothing … I think anything that separates the turban from Bin Laden and those images all over the media after 9/11 and takes the turban into the realm of a Sikh perspective [is] great. Jagpal</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Kuldeep, 27, who runs a successful fashion blog, spoke of his desire to feature his difference and break stereotypes. However, other interviewees expressed discomfort regarding the new found popularity of the <em>dastaar</em> in marketing campaigns and its commodification as a fashion item.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1128876558108614658"}"></div></p>
<p>The striking visual of a fully observant Sikh keeping hair (<em>kesh</em>) and wearing the <em>dastaar</em> is part of its appeal for marketeers who seek to signal their inclusive values. Interviewees generally implied, however, that simply prioritising the visual aspects of the turban would come at the expense of its symbolic and spiritual dimension.</p>
<p>There is a genuine concern that those representations created for mainstream marketplace consumption may strip the <em>dastaar</em> of its metaphysical and symbolic value and turn it into a commercial commodity, the next cool must-have “cultural” accessory to be consumed by the masses.</p>
<p>As many interviewees explained, to them, the <em>dastaar</em> is so much more. It is not only a symbol of faith and a life of service, but also an embodiment of its long heritage and sacrifice borne by the Sikh community.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202781/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Sikh men we spoke to explained how wearing the turban signalled their observance to Sikhism and the life choices this entails, such as the protection of and service to others.Mona Moufahim, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, University of StirlingAnoop Bhogal-Nair, Senior Lecturer in Marketing and Consumption, De Montfort UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1899112022-09-26T11:11:13Z2022-09-26T11:11:13ZDomestic abuse and mental health remain taboo subjects for many Sikhs – with deadly consequences<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485621/original/file-20220920-18-h5o4s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/italy-rome-april-2018indian-sikh-girl-1344242780">Nicola Palmieri</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The suicide of Mandeep Kaur caught the attention of people around the world. Kaur, a woman of Sikh heritage from Utter Pradesh in northern India and living in the US, <a href="https://news.abplive.com/news/india/mandeep-kaur-suicide-case-brother-appeals-help-us-bring-back-her-body-or-give-us-visa-1547583">posted a video</a> on social media that later went viral, in which she claimed to have been abused by her husband for years (he denies the allegations).</p>
<p>However the outpouring of online sympathy for this woman belies how the issues of domestic violence and abuse and mental health are perceived in Sikh communities, notably in the diaspora. As our literature review in the UK <a href="https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/28481/1/ejmh_2019_1_Kaur-Aujla_et_al_179_189.pdf">has highlighted</a>, there is a great deal of shame attached to women of Sikh heritage experiencing domestic abuse and subsequent <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31171045/">mental health problems</a>.</p>
<p>As a result, these issues are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/figure/10.1080/19438192.2013.722383?scroll=top&needAccess=true">rarely properly acknowledged</a> as even being a Sikh healthcare issue and the women affected very often don’t get the help they need. This was particularly the case during <a href="https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2021/01/26/domestic-violence-in-lockdown-the-needs-of-black-and-minoritised-communities-during-the-pandemic/">the pandemic</a>. You can even see this is in the way such incidents of domestic abuse that do receive publicity are <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/perspective/sikh-census.aspx">often categorised</a> informally as relating to broader groups such as Punjabis or even South Asians in general rather than <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Self-silencing-among-Punjabi-women%3A-the-interplay-Bhadra/8a99c8ad52b96338406a36b37490e334d900d1ab">Sikhs specifically</a>.</p>
<p>Research has <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/_/1dFBDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA172&dq=pande+suicides+in+southall">long identified</a> that suicide among women of Sikh heritage in the UK is connected to the particular problem of <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4939-2266-6_25">domestic abuse and violence</a>. There are also other cultural factors that <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/_/1dFBDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA172&dq=pande+suicides+in+southall">have been linked</a> to this deeply entrenched issue. </p>
<p>These include the financial demands placed on newlywed women through the practice of paying a dowry and persistent patriarchal attitudes that lead to tolerance of abuse and violence by parents of men. Unfulfilling expectations from marriage and lack of understanding and support from the household and community can also be problems.</p>
<h2>Cultural barriers</h2>
<p>At the same time, Sikhs often face cultural barriers to accessing mental health services. <a href="https://repository.uel.ac.uk/download/f1bf93df46de3136cb3e0d8209739fffa543636bdacb319b5370a6a39ff38930/5379827/u1331813%2520thesis.pdf">Research has shown</a> some Sikhs may perceive themselves as warriors who should be able to overcome and psychological distress by themselves, not as sufferers of mental ill health. </p>
<p>Sikhs living in western countries may also feel medical services don’t <a href="https://www.womensaid.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/FINAL-Reframing-the-links.pdf">understand their culture</a>. And they can fear that reporting domestic abuse could be followed by breaches in confidentiality that would expose their issues to the rest of the community.</p>
<p>Discussing mental health issues publicly is <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02759527.2008.11932581">often considered</a> to bring <em>behzti</em> (dishonour) to the family. <a href="https://library-archives.canada.ca/eng/services/services-libraries/theses/Pages/item.aspx?idNumber=1032907520">Research shows</a> that first generation immigrants and older generations demonstrate a particular lack of understanding of their children’s mental health needs in this respect.</p>
<figure class="align-Temples should be a place of support for women of Sikh heritage ">
<img alt="Women wearing white head covering plays keyboard and sings inside temple" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485623/original/file-20220920-11487-2euzzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485623/original/file-20220920-11487-2euzzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485623/original/file-20220920-11487-2euzzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485623/original/file-20220920-11487-2euzzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485623/original/file-20220920-11487-2euzzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485623/original/file-20220920-11487-2euzzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485623/original/file-20220920-11487-2euzzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">shutterstock.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dubaiuaemarch112019-panjabi-indian-lady-singing-songs-1350279728">Abie Davies/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One solution to this problem might be for mental health services to recruit more Sikh staff who have the cultural knowledge to deal with the community-specific issues, particularly those <a href="http://repository.cityu.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.11803/1626/SavneetSinghCapstone.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y">created by stigma</a>. Medical providers can also work with local temples to <a href="https://shabd.co.uk/">reach out</a> and offer such services.</p>
<p>But we <a href="https://www.sikhsanjog.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Sikh-Women-Speak-Report-PDF3375.pdf">shouldn’t assume</a> that every Sikh woman wants a Sikh therapist, or even a South Asian therapist. In fact, fear of exposure might actually mean Sikh women would rather speak to someone outside of their tight-knit community. What is essential is that women are given the choice, can speak to therapists in their own language and are reassured that services are confidential.</p>
<p>Such solutions can only go so far, however. Only by recognising that there is an issue with domestic abuse and subsequent mental health issues that needs to be addressed can the Sikh community work closer with healthcare providers to prevent women <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0886109920916038">becoming victims again</a></p>
<p><a href="https://shadesofnoir.org.uk/journals/content/when-a-panjabi-sister-set-fire-to-her-husband">Religious places</a> should be a key point of support for Sikh women, and there are now <a href="https://sikhguarding.co.uk">religious Sikh organisations</a> working to ensure women stay safe in these spaces. If temples and accredited psychological providers working together in an environment free of shame and denial can become the norm, then women of Sikh heritage are more likely to receive the support they need earlier. And perhaps cases like that of Mandeep Kaur will become less common.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189911/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Harjinder Kaur-Aujla is affiliated with UCU Union as Branch President. Co-founder of Shabd, UK. She would like to express gratitude to: Dr Christopher Wagstaff and Dr Tarsem Cooner (University of Birmingham) for overall academic mentorship.
Members from Sikh Academic and Researcher Network, (SARN) for empowering and self-less service; Sikh Scientists for religious insights and external mentorship; Professor Farzana Shain and Dr Kate Lillie initial formulation and PhD advice;
Stephen Harris (The Conversation) for his patience and editing advice.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Wagstaff and Kate Lillie do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The recent suicide of Mandeep Kaur highlights how women of Sikh heritage can face shame and stigma.Harjinder Kaur-Aujla, Lecturer in Mental Health, University of BirminghamChristopher Wagstaff, Senior Lecturer, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of BirminghamKate Lillie, Lecturer in Adult Nursing, Keele UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1614132021-05-26T05:05:27Z2021-05-26T05:05:27ZA religious symbol, not a knife: at the heart of the NSW kirpan ban is a battle to define secularism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402775/original/file-20210526-15-1ok9mcg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hari_singh/3137107044/in/photolist-5MduCu-5MdvXo-5M9gyF-FqB2H-5Mdv83-JmHFS-pjNtUv-5MdsSu-5M9dtB-86XE2a-4nhNcB-cowFeq-9VNGkA-Kguwc-Kguwg-5MdgQu-5M92wK-24pF4uS-hTnXuY-5M91Wt-jvgZLj-5M91wD-3F6Vpe-3BCsvA-WANX2C-9VNGm5-HvwfL-Xmi6aa-Hvwgf-Hvwg3-HvwfE-eaCEDV-SQtvdU-86XDFr-86XE9Z-86XDyp-HvwfG-HvwfJ-86XEiv-Ho3ayV-25dCPTX-22gH2oj-WgyNP5-CFkbMt-4n12Rq-pa1C3-ZYqYUg-s1J4WG-pvuGb3-871QfU">Hari Singh/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The New South Wales government has put a <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/ignorance-and-xenophobia-nsw-school-dagger-ban-sparks-international-furore-20210521-p57txy.html">temporary ban</a> on Sikh students carrying a kirpan in public schools. The kirpan is a <a href="https://www.worldsikh.org/what_is_the_kirpan">ceremonial dagger</a> baptised Sikhs carry to symbolise their duty to stand up against injustice.</p>
<p>The ban was put in place after a 14-year-old boy used a kirpan to stab a 16-year-old at a high school in Sydney.</p>
<p>NSW Premier <a href="https://7news.com.au/news/religion-and-belief/its-dangerous-sikh-community-divided-after-government-bans-religious-knives-in-schools-following-sydney-stabbing-c-2871116">Gladys Berejiklian said</a> “students shouldn’t be allowed to take knives to school under any circumstances”. </p>
<p>But framing the controversy as whether or not students should be allowed to take knives to school oversimplifies a complex issue.</p>
<p>This issue is not just about knives in schools. It is also about what it means to be a secular school in a multicultural and multi-faith Australia. </p>
<h2>Denied the ability to practise their faith</h2>
<p>There is a long history of controversy over wearing religious symbols in Australian schools, both religious and secular.</p>
<p>In 2017 the family of a Sikh boy <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-24/sikh-family-challenge-christian-schools-turban-ban/8737716">launched legal action</a> against his school after the Christian college banned the boy from wearing a patka (a turban worn by children). The Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal later <a href="https://singhstation.net/2017/09/sidhak-singh-wins-school-patka-ban-case-against-christian-school/">ruled the school breached</a> the Equal Opportunity Act.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/school-uniform-policies-need-to-accommodate-students-cultural-practices-81548">School uniform policies need to accommodate students' cultural practices</a>
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<p>In 2018 the Secular Party of Australia brought a <a href="https://lawandreligionaustralia.blog/2018/09/04/does-the-secular-society-know-better-than-a-childs-parents/">case against the Victorian education department</a> alleging the department had discriminated against a child by permitting her to wear “religious style clothing that covered her body, leaving only her face and hands exposed”. The case failed.</p>
<p>And in 2019 a Western Australian Catholic high school <a href="https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/aranmore-catholic-college-drama-hindu-student-kicked-out-of-school-for-a-nose-piercing-ng-b881097548z">banned a Hindu girl from attending</a> class after she had her nose pierced for cultural and religious reasons. After <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/hindu-girl-with-nose-stud-returns-to-her-catholic-school-after-being-barred-for-six-weeks">six weeks and many meetings</a>, the school appeared to back down and allow the student back to class.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402751/original/file-20210526-19-140l56q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A boy wearing a patka." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402751/original/file-20210526-19-140l56q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402751/original/file-20210526-19-140l56q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402751/original/file-20210526-19-140l56q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402751/original/file-20210526-19-140l56q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402751/original/file-20210526-19-140l56q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402751/original/file-20210526-19-140l56q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402751/original/file-20210526-19-140l56q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A patka is like a turban, worn by Sikh children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Sikh_Boy_wearing_Patka.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While some of these cases occurred in private and specifically religious schools, they all raise the same issue — to what extent do we accommodate the religious beliefs and practices of minority groups in our community?</p>
<p>In NSW, section <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/soa1988189/s11c.html">11C of the Summary Offences Act 1988</a> makes it an offence to carry a knife in a public place or school. The act provides a number of exceptions such as for the preparation of food, or for recreation or sport. Carrying a knife for “genuine religious purposes” is also an exception. </p>
<p>This exception is <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/religious-knives-banned-from-government-schools-while-urgent-review-under-way-20210518-p57ssr.html">currently under review</a> by the NSW government. In the meantime, a temporary ban has been put in place. As a result Sikh school children are being denied the ability to fully practise their faith. </p>
<h2>What is a secular country?</h2>
<p>Controversies like the kirpan ban often occur due to a <a href="https://www.law.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/3443372/7.-Children-in-Schools.pdf">fundamental disagreement</a> about what a secular education looks like. Western secular democracies have taken two different approaches.</p>
<p>Australia’s government school system is secular. This does not mean it is, nor should be, religion free. Instead <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-australia-a-secular-country-it-depends-what-you-mean-38222">Australian secular education</a> means a space where religion is one of many options. Countries that conform to this version of secularism are religiously plural.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-australia-a-secular-country-it-depends-what-you-mean-38222">Is Australia a secular country? It depends what you mean</a>
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<p>In France, secular education means it is religion free. Since 2004 all religious symbols have been <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_law_on_secularity_and_conspicuous_religious_symbols_in_schools#:%7E:text=The%20French%20law%20on%20secularity,operated)%20primary%20and%20secondary%20schools.">banned from state schools</a>. The aim is to create a religiously neutral environment that supports state secularism. </p>
<p>Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom <a href="https://www.routledge.com/State-and-Religion-The-Australian-Story/Barker/p/book/9780367586812">have adopted a similar approach</a> as Australia. In these countries, secularism means to permit, or even encourage, the expression of multiple faiths in schools to various degrees. The aim is to create a multicultural environment.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402750/original/file-20210526-23-kxdrsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man wearing a kirpan." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402750/original/file-20210526-23-kxdrsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402750/original/file-20210526-23-kxdrsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402750/original/file-20210526-23-kxdrsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402750/original/file-20210526-23-kxdrsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402750/original/file-20210526-23-kxdrsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402750/original/file-20210526-23-kxdrsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402750/original/file-20210526-23-kxdrsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The kirpan is fundamentally a religious symbol.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_tea/17073483936/in/photolist-JmHFS-pjNtUv-5MdsSu-86XE2a-5M9dtB-4nhNcB-9VNGkA-Kguwc-Kguwg-5MdgQu-5M92wK-24pF4uS-hTnXuY-5M91Wt-jvgZLj-5M91wD-3F6Vpe-3BCsvA-WANX2C-9VNGm5-HvwfL-Xmi6aa-Hvwgf-Hvwg3-86XDFr-86XE9Z-HvwfE-eaCEDV-SQtvdU-cowFeq-871QfU-86XDyp-HvwfG-5z27Tq-HvwfJ-871QEC-86XDTV-bBH2RU-86XEiv-Ho3ayV-86XDK8-25dCPTX-22gH2oj-WgyNP5-CFkbMt-4n12Rq-pa1C3-ZYqYUg-s1J4WG-pvuGb3">Tony Tarry/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The kirpan is fundamentally a <a href="https://www.worldsikh.org/what_is_the_kirpan">religious symbol</a>. It is one of five markers of faith worn by baptised Sikhs, including kesh (unshorn hair symbolising respect for God’s will). Wearing the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17448727.2013.774709#:%7E:text=Notes,exception%3A%20it%20is%20not%20optional%20%E2%80%A6">kirpan is not optional</a> for baptised Sikhs.</p>
<p>The kirpan is similar to the hijab worn by some Muslim women, the kippah worn by Jewish men or the cross or crucifix worn by some Christians. </p>
<p>As the <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/15/index.do">Supreme Court of Canada</a> put it, describing the kirpan as a knife is “indicative of a simplistic view of freedom of religion”.</p>
<p>Banning the kirpan because it resembles a knife heads Australia down a path of religion-free schools. This would be inconsistent with <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us/our-portfolios/multicultural-affairs/about-multicultural-affairs/our-policy-history">Australia’s commitment</a> to multiculturalism.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/should-school-uniforms-be-compulsory-we-asked-five-experts-121935">Should school uniforms be compulsory? We asked five experts</a>
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<h2>There are other options besides a ban</h2>
<p>Instead of an outright ban, the NSW government and Australian schools more generally need to find ways to safely accommodate this important religious symbol. This does not mean there should be no restrictions. </p>
<p>In 2006 the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multani_v_Commission_scolaire_Marguerite%E2%80%91Bourgeoys#:%7E:text=256%2C%202006%20SCC%206%20is,Charter%20of%20Rights%20and%20Freedoms.">Supreme Court of Canada</a> found that a school had discriminated against a Sikh boy when it banned him from wearing his kirpan. A fundamental part of the court’s decision was there were alternatives available to the school.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402752/original/file-20210526-23-9yjdrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A cross around the neck." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402752/original/file-20210526-23-9yjdrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402752/original/file-20210526-23-9yjdrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402752/original/file-20210526-23-9yjdrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402752/original/file-20210526-23-9yjdrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402752/original/file-20210526-23-9yjdrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1031&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402752/original/file-20210526-23-9yjdrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1031&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402752/original/file-20210526-23-9yjdrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1031&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The kirpan is like the cross worn by some Christians.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cross-christ-savior-chain-around-his-141968644">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The student was prepared to accept restrictions on how he wore his kirpan to ensure it could not be used as a weapon. The restrictions included wearing it enclosed in a wooden sheath sewn inside a cloth envelope, which must itself be attached to a shoulder strap worn under the student’s clothing. </p>
<p>Similar restrictions could be implemented in Australia. </p>
<p>The current debate about the kirpan in schools is an opportunity to educate both school children and the wider public about Australia’s secular multicultural society. As the <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2007/21.html">Constitutional Court of South Africa</a> noted in a case about wearing nose studs for religious and cultural reasons:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Granting exemptions will also have the added benefit of inducting the learners into a multi-cultural South Africa where vastly different cultures exist side-by-side.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Allowing kirpans, and other symbols of faith, to be worn in Australian schools is an important part of a multicultural secular education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161413/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Renae Barker is a Trustee for the Anglican Diocese of Bunbury </span></em></p>Banning the kirpan because it resembles a knife heads Australia down a path of religion free schools.Renae Barker, Senior Lecturer, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1519812021-01-06T20:16:25Z2021-01-06T20:16:25ZWomen take lead roles in India’s farmers’ protest<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377420/original/file-20210106-13-1dmky08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C7%2C4769%2C3184&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A protest march in Kolkata in support of farmers. Women have been central to the recent protests.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Bikas Das)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As temperatures plummet, hundreds of thousands of men, <a href="https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/homemaker-farmworker-and-now-protester-hundreds-of-women-join-farmers-agitation-183765">women</a> and children continue to spend bone-chilling days and nights in makeshift shelters across multiple protest sites encircling New Delhi. </p>
<p>These widespread farmers’ protests have entered their second month to rage against new contentious <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/specials/sunday-spotlight/farm-bills-liberation-or-death-knell-893584.html">farm laws</a> passed by the Indian government in September. </p>
<p>Farmers are demanding the Indian government retract the laws, introduced during COVID-19 lockdowns <a href="https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/opinion/with-farm-laws-being-enacted-without-consulting-stakeholders-many-looking-up-to-sc-to-examine-their-validity">without consulting stakeholders</a>. According to experts the laws, aimed at “liberalizing” Indian agriculture, will gradually drive out <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/farms-laws-3-experts-2-opinions/articleshow/79790878.cms">small and marginal farmers</a> by creating private monopolies in the market. </p>
<p>Given that <a href="http://agricoop.nic.in/publication/agriculture-census">86 per cent of farmers</a> in India are small landholders (owning less than two hectares), strong opposition to the laws is hardly surprising at all. </p>
<p>The protest has garnered huge community support from India <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7551184/bc-convoy-support-indian-farmer-protest/">and abroad</a>. It has also managed to include and mobilize women. In this way, the farmers’ protests show how modern protest sites can be spaces of resistance and power but also of gender equity and empowerment. </p>
<h2>Democratic alienation</h2>
<p>Democratic alienation and an increasing distance between citizens and decision makers seems to be the hallmark of the Modi-led Indian government. An example of this was seen during the <a href="https://globalvoices.org/2020/02/21/despite-calls-to-move-a-women-led-protest-in-india-challenges-the-citizenship-amendment-act/">Shaheen Bagh protest to the Citizenship Amendment Act</a>.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/modi-ushers-in-a-new-intolerant-india-and-revokes-multicultural-democracy-121688">Modi ushers in a new intolerant India and revokes multicultural democracy</a>
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<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdPNRArAqU0">Shaheen Bagh</a> and the ongoing farmers’ protest are among the biggest protests to rock India in recent times. A noteworthy feature of both these protests is that they have challenged the stereotypes of Indian women that have been dominated by their supposed <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/12/14/violence-against-women-and-collective-guilt-in-india">passivity in the face of victimhood</a>.</p>
<p>The farmers’ protest, however, is distinct from the Shaheen Bagh protest in the sense that it has garnered unprecedented community support. Mostly led by Sikh farmers from Punjab, the protest space reflects the Sikh ethos of <em>langar</em> (free meals), <em>sewa</em> (service), and <em>charhdi kala</em> (high spirits). </p>
<p>The seismic waves of the protest are not only being felt in India but in different countries across the world where <a href="https://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/en/NewsDetail/index/9/19683/Farmers-Protest-Creates-A-Global-Buzz">the Indian, and particularly Punjabi, diaspora</a> are holding massive rallies against the farm laws. </p>
<h2><strong>Women lead protests</strong></h2>
<p>Punjab and Haryana, the two states leading the farmers’ protest, are characterized by deeply entrenched feudal, patriarchal structures that place significant, deliberate and inadvertent constraints on women. Furthermore, both Punjab and Haryana continue to be counted among the country’s <a href="https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/sex-ratio-more-skewed-in-northern-states-ncw/article23121034.ece">worst-performing states</a> in terms of female-to-male sex ratios. </p>
<p>Usually, in typical agrarian patriarchal societies, women and men do not have equal access to household resources. This inequality is <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/135457097338799">worsened during times of economic hardships</a> as intra-household bargaining for meagre resources intensifies. In other words, decisions are more likely to be skewed in favour of men’s interests when household resources are inadequate to meet the needs of all members. </p>
<p>A decrease in farming incomes is likely to have a disproportionately adverse impact on the lives of women. Furthermore, a decrease in farm incomes is likely to lead to more people going into debt — one of the primary causes of <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/high-rate-of-farmer-suicides-in-malwa-experts-blame-steep-lease-land-rentals-lack-of-alternative-income-6040490/">farmer suicides</a> in India. Women belonging to suicide-affected families are particularly vulnerable to poverty. They are left to fend for themselves due to deep-rooted ideas of patrilineal inheritance, which preclude women from owning land.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Various posters cover a wall" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376325/original/file-20201222-21-bjq3gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376325/original/file-20201222-21-bjq3gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376325/original/file-20201222-21-bjq3gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376325/original/file-20201222-21-bjq3gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376325/original/file-20201222-21-bjq3gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376325/original/file-20201222-21-bjq3gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376325/original/file-20201222-21-bjq3gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Posters at one of the protest sites.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Navjotpal Kaur)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Against this backdrop, it is remarkable that thousands of women are exercising their agency, braving the biting cold and not only participating in but <a href="https://caravanmagazine.in/commentary/farmers-protests-women-punjab-singhu-tikri-delhi-farm-bills">leading the protests</a>.</p>
<p>When asked about their motivation to participate in the protests, women told journalists about their active <a href="https://thewire.in/agriculture/women-farmers-protest-dilli-challo">involvement in the farming process</a>. Indeed, women of rural India contribute directly towards agricultural production in the form of labour on family-owned farms, as well as indirectly through cooking, cleaning and caring for children and the elderly within the household. </p>
<p>The long working hours and <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/time-poverty-indian-women-spend-a-huge-portion-of-their-day-on-unpaid-work-119032500121_1.html">gruelling daily lives</a> of women in rural India are well documented. Monumental contributions to farming notwithstanding, women are yet to be acknowledged as farmers by society. The women at the protest sites, however, are comfortable with their farmer identity. Perhaps the protest is an opportunity for them to publicly claim this identity.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Four women are seen seated on the ground sorting through vegetables." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376326/original/file-20201222-17-k9k69y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376326/original/file-20201222-17-k9k69y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376326/original/file-20201222-17-k9k69y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376326/original/file-20201222-17-k9k69y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376326/original/file-20201222-17-k9k69y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376326/original/file-20201222-17-k9k69y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376326/original/file-20201222-17-k9k69y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Women preparing vegetables for <em>langar</em> (free meals) at a protest site in Singhu, at the northern edge of New Delhi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Navjotpal Kaur)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition to protesting, women have taken on the entire responsibility of managing their farms and households <a href="https://en.gaonconnection.com/kaur-competency-as-tens-of-thousands-of-farmers-leave-for-delhi-for-the-protest-women-in-rural-punjab-are-safeguarding-their-home-and-hearth/">back in Punjab</a>. These women are also ensuring there is a continuous supply of rations, blankets and other essentials needed at the protest sites. Without this logistical support from the women in their families, and the knowledge that their farms are being tended to, the men could not have camped on the borders of Delhi for more than a month. </p>
<p>Moreover, in the absence of men, <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/ludhiana/men-holding-fort-in-delhi-women-take-charge-of-protest-morchas-back-in-punjab-7105055/">women are managing about 100 protest sites in Punjab</a> to keep up the momentum in the home state.</p>
<p>The dedicated participation of women in these protests shows that women’s activism and protest has become an empowering space in and of itself.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151981/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The active participation of women in India’s farmers’ protests shows that the demonstrations are not only spaces of resistance and power but also of gender equity and empowerment.Navjotpal Kaur, Ph.D. Candidate, Sociology, Memorial University of NewfoundlandSumeet Sekhon, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Development and Gender Studies, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1254882019-10-21T05:40:02Z2019-10-21T05:40:02ZFully Sikh review: a charismatic, generous performance about growing up Sikh in Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297617/original/file-20191018-98670-1bunq90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=260%2C619%2C2546%2C1208&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fully Sikh is a significant cultural and artistic achievement that feeds our hunger for sharing stories.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel J Grant/BSSTC</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Fully Sikh, directed by Matt Edgerton, Perth’s Studio Underground</em></p>
<p>The foyer is adorned with colourful fabric and bunting. We’re welcomed by the sounds of Indian music while members of the Sikh community offer to tie turbans (Dastaar) around our heads. </p>
<p>We remove our shoes and enter the Studio Underground to find other audience members in the onstage, fully functioning kitchen, cooking a Punjabi meal with Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa. </p>
<p>By the time we reach our seats, we’re transformed from passive consumers into active participants in her story. </p>
<p>Khalsa introduces herself as a spoken word performance poet, a storyteller who will bend her real-life story “to get closer to the truth.”</p>
<p>She plays herself from ages 10 to 25, beginning in 2004: a Sikh-Australian growing up in suburban Perth. She also plays her parents, sister, brother (known as the “Turbanator” for his fierce turban-tying skills) and her best friend, Sophie. </p>
<p>Khalsa is a natural storyteller, able to capture an audience with her easy, open style and the sheer, undeniable authenticity of her story.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297618/original/file-20191018-98648-1c5fzu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297618/original/file-20191018-98648-1c5fzu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297618/original/file-20191018-98648-1c5fzu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297618/original/file-20191018-98648-1c5fzu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297618/original/file-20191018-98648-1c5fzu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297618/original/file-20191018-98648-1c5fzu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297618/original/file-20191018-98648-1c5fzu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa is a natural storyteller.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel J Grant/BSSTC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fully Sikh hits on the usual suspects of a young woman’s life: first period, first pool party, first body hair culminating in her first bout of body shame. But Fully Sikh also has something to add to that narrative: the tension between a young girl’s pride in her culture and an awkward teenager’s embarrassment at being unable to fulfill the narrow-minded expectations of her classmates. </p>
<p>This tension is compounded by the gender constrictions imposed by her father and her faith and a teenager’s natural inclination to bristle against conformity (“I’m Suki, not Sukhjit”, she names her new identity). </p>
<p>Fully Sikh culminates in Khalsa’s ANZAC Day school speech, which she spontaneously converts into a declaration of independence from all the forces that try to shape her in their image. Khalsa can finally and exuberantly declare her love for herself, her kin and her culture. </p>
<p>It is a feel-good, charismatic and generous performance.</p>
<h2>A simple story, loudly told</h2>
<p>Musician Pavan Kumar Hari’s instruments range from the traditional (the Harmonium and Tabla) to the domestic (kitchen pots and pans). Hari adds not only music, but also punctuation to significant moments and characters. He dances, he does a memorable turn as a high school mean girl, but mostly he is a worthy partner to Khalsa, elevating the storytelling and expanding the rhythms of her family life.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297619/original/file-20191018-98648-1lqmfo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297619/original/file-20191018-98648-1lqmfo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297619/original/file-20191018-98648-1lqmfo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297619/original/file-20191018-98648-1lqmfo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297619/original/file-20191018-98648-1lqmfo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297619/original/file-20191018-98648-1lqmfo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297619/original/file-20191018-98648-1lqmfo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pavan Kumar Hari elevates the story through his music and performance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel J Grant/BSSTC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The set reveals itself to be more than just a kitchen. Positioned against an extraordinary rainbow backdrop of Sikh fabrics that descend into an ordinary clothesline, the design suggests a single backyard while evoking a thousand, unseen others beyond. </p>
<p>Designer Isla Shaw has created a set full of surprises: a kitchen draw that becomes a teenager’s bed; a cabinet that transforms into multi-locational-backdrops. Her costumes are also multifunctional, allowing Khalsa’s characters to move quickly through time and space. </p>
<p>It is seamless visual storytelling befitting a simple story wrought large by director Matt Edgerton’s flair and precision. </p>
<h2>Potency of ritual</h2>
<p>A world premiere and the first co-production between Perth’s Barking Gecko Theatre and Black Swan State Theatre Company, Fully Sikh is also Australia’s first professional theatrical work about growing up Sikh in Australia. </p>
<p>It makes sense Fully Sikh has emerged from Barking Gecko, a company with a focus on making work for families and children. It is perfectly pitched for a young audience, but also with a broader audience appeal. It is both a simple coming of age story and a significant cultural and artistic achievement that feeds our hunger for sharing stories.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297620/original/file-20191018-156314-3zm4er.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297620/original/file-20191018-156314-3zm4er.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297620/original/file-20191018-156314-3zm4er.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297620/original/file-20191018-156314-3zm4er.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297620/original/file-20191018-156314-3zm4er.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297620/original/file-20191018-156314-3zm4er.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297620/original/file-20191018-156314-3zm4er.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fully Sikh is a coming of age story, a significant artistic achievement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel J Grant/BSSTC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Edgerton describes Fully Sikh as “an evolving ritual” and you can feel the truth of that in the moment an audience member volunteers to have Khalsa tie his turban onstage. Underscored by Hari’s musical accompaniment, Khalsa’s intricate choreography, interspersed with her explanation of the significance of each of the turban’s layers, has all the qualities of a shared, solemn ritual.</p>
<p>The audience interactions aren’t always as seamless. The Punjabi Bhangra dance-break suffers from an initially awkward contrivance to get us to our feet, but becomes an undeniably joyful experience. The return of the audience/cooks as the story approaches its conclusion is similarly awkward: the moment is not given enough space to truly explore the potential of the shared ritual of hosting guests, sharing food and coming together in the play’s final celebration of community. </p>
<p>Over the season, perhaps, the potency and potential of these rituals will fully emerge. </p>
<p>In the show’s final moments, Khalsa invites those of us without turbans to cover our heads with the scarves provided as she sings one of the Sikh Shabads, a prayer wishing us all peace and tranquillity. The theatre as temple: it is a beautiful moment of community and ritual. </p>
<p>The impact of these shared, silent moments cannot be overestimated. </p>
<p><em>Fully Sikh plays until November 3</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125488/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leah Mercer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From Perth’s Barking Gecko Theatre and the Black Swan State Theatre Company, Fully Sikh is Australia’s first professional theatrical work about growing up Sikh in Australia.Leah Mercer, Associate Professor of Theatre Arts, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1230762019-09-19T22:14:00Z2019-09-19T22:14:00ZDid Indigenous paddlers smuggle food to the Komagata Maru?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291196/original/file-20190905-175663-qxf5j7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new mural depicts Indigenous paddlers taking food to passengers on the legendary ship Komagata Maru that was denied entry to Vancouver in 1914. Federal official Harry Stevens, with white hat, led the campaign to keep the ship from docking.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Library and Archives Canada)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This summer, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/harry-stevens-building-name-removed-1.5241870">a Canadian un-naming ceremony</a> stripped former politician Harry Stevens’s (1878-1973) name from a federal building in Vancouver and instead, put up a 4,000-square-foot-mural by two talented emerging artists: Keerat Kaur and Alicia Point (Musqueam, Stó:lō, Kwantlen). The mural <a href="https://www.vanmuralfest.ca/highlightingindigenousartistsroot/komagatamaru">“Taike-Sye’yə,”</a>“ curated by Naveen Girn, depicts <a href="https://salishseasentinel.ca/2019/08/taike-syey%C9%99-mural-depicts-musqueams-aid-to-komagata-maru-passengers-amidst-historic-tragedy/">Musqueam paddlers ferrying food</a> and provisions to the passengers aboard the Komagata Maru by canoe. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293258/original/file-20190919-22441-ka02wi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293258/original/file-20190919-22441-ka02wi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=2286&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293258/original/file-20190919-22441-ka02wi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=2286&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293258/original/file-20190919-22441-ka02wi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=2286&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293258/original/file-20190919-22441-ka02wi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=2873&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293258/original/file-20190919-22441-ka02wi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=2873&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293258/original/file-20190919-22441-ka02wi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=2873&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A portion of the mural ‘Taike-Sye’yə.’</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But <a href="https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-mural-festival-komagata-maru">the story</a> is an artistic interpretation and contains unverified facts.</p>
<p>The Komagata Maru was a ship carrying 376 immigrants from British India in May 1914. When it arrived in Vancouver Harbour, it was denied permission to dock. The passengers on board, including some veterans of the British Indian Army, believed that as British subjects it was their right to settle anywhere in the empire. Canadian officials disagreed and immigration boats surrounded the ship a half-mile offshore, making the passengers virtual prisoners. </p>
<p>The unverified part of the story is that Indigenous Peoples supported passengers during their detention in the Vancouver harbour. </p>
<p>According to several media reports, the City of Vancouver, the federal government and Vancouver International Airport, who sponsored the mural, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/harry-stevens-building-name-removed-1.5241870">have accepted this new story as fact</a>. </p>
<p>The story sounds amazing: a tale of cross-cultural solidarity and resistance (and maybe the reason <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-services-procurement/news/2019/08/government-of-canada-removes-harry-stevens-name-from-building-in-vancouver-bc.html">politicians rushed to embrace it just before a federal election).</a></p>
<p>For over two decades, while making a documentary and then writing about this history, I have closely examined the primary archival materials of the events surrounding the arrival and turning away of the Komagata Maru. My award-winning feature documentary <a href="http://socialdoc.net/ali-kazimi/304/"><em>Continuous Journey</em> (2004)</a> and critically acclaimed book <a href="https://www.mtls.ca/issue13/writings/reviews/george-elliott-clarke/7/"><em>Undesirables: White Canada and the Komagata Maru</em> (2011)</a> were meticulously fact checked.</p>
<h2>Who verifies history?</h2>
<p>I conferred with historian <a href="https://www.sfu.ca/continuing-studies/instructors/i-l/hugh-johnston.html">Hugh Johnston</a> at Simon Fraser University. Johnston has scoured the archives for <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/the-voyage-of-the-ikomagata-marui">his seminal book</a> about the Komagata Maru. He has also written about the surveillance of the Vancouver South Asian community by British intelligence during that era. Johnston hasn’t seen or heard any mention of Indigenous Peoples supporting the passengers in any of his research.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293049/original/file-20190918-187940-1qwbx4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293049/original/file-20190918-187940-1qwbx4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293049/original/file-20190918-187940-1qwbx4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293049/original/file-20190918-187940-1qwbx4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293049/original/file-20190918-187940-1qwbx4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293049/original/file-20190918-187940-1qwbx4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293049/original/file-20190918-187940-1qwbx4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of Vancouver’s South Asian community boarding the Komagata Maru on July 22, 1914.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Library and Archives Canada</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When I asked Federal Minister Carla Qualtrough of Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility, who substantiated the story of Indigenous support of the ship’s passengers, her office said the artists who created the mural: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>"consulted historians who verified through their research, which included oral history, that Indigenous people helped the passengers who were on board the Komagata Maru ship in 1914. These historians stated the Indigenous people delivered food and water to the passengers on the ship.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Vancouver Mural Festival said they verified the mural through <a href="http://passagestocanada.com/story-profile/?story=252">Naveen Girn</a>, a <a href="https://www.indiansummerfest.ca/profile/naveen-girn/">local curator</a>. And Girn in an email wrote that he relied on second- and third-hand oral, Punjabi sources, namely a local poet and a writer.</p>
<p>In his online “Nameless Collective” <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-politics-of-un-naming/id1239544061?i=1000446603752">podcast</a> about the mural project, Girn says he
heard the story from Musqueam elders who told him this welcoming story. It made him wonder: “Who are the real title holders of the land and who should be doing the welcoming?” He says he wanted to move “away from the textual record, to the oral history …to decentre the colonial idea of authority.”</p>
<p>For me, this new reframing depicts the passengers not as victims but as liars because archived documents record them as stating that, at times, they had zero food and water. </p>
<h2>Whites-only immigration policy</h2>
<p>The un-naming ceremony represents the sole villain of this episode as early 20th-century Vancouver politician Harry Stevens. Stevens was the architect of the tactic of not allowing the ship to dock. On his advice officers blocked supplies so that the passengers would be starved into submission. The passengers remained defiant. But the turning back of the ship was ultimately decided by a court ruling and enforced by the federal government. </p>
<p>Therefore, identifying a singular villain risks setting aside a much-needed acknowledgement of the uncomfortable truth that from 1867 until 1967, Canada had a racist, whites-only immigration policy which had unanimous support across the political spectrum.</p>
<p>Harry Stevens stands out because his white supremacist views were at a markedly higher pitch than the rest of the political establishment. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293013/original/file-20190918-187991-1v6h2op.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293013/original/file-20190918-187991-1v6h2op.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293013/original/file-20190918-187991-1v6h2op.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=865&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293013/original/file-20190918-187991-1v6h2op.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=865&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293013/original/file-20190918-187991-1v6h2op.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=865&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293013/original/file-20190918-187991-1v6h2op.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1087&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293013/original/file-20190918-187991-1v6h2op.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1087&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293013/original/file-20190918-187991-1v6h2op.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1087&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A letter from the Komagata Maru passengers available in the archives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Library and Archives Canada)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After the Komagata Maru was denied entry to Vancouver, it was allowed to dock but was forced to anchor more than one kilometre from shore. Armed immigration officers circled the anchored ship and patrolled day and night. All attempts to send supplies by the South Asian community on shore were thwarted. Finally, the federal government stepped in and the matter went before the court. </p>
<p>The passengers argued that as equal British subjects they should be allowed to enter Canada. The B.C. Court of Appeal disagreed and ruled that Canada could determine who was let in, thus <a href="https://pier21.ca/research/immigration-history/canadian-immigration-acts-and-legislation">upholding widely accepted notion that Canada was a white man’s country.</a></p>
<h2>The colonial archive</h2>
<p>Indigenous oral histories are vital for truth and reconciliation. There are ongoing movements to <a href="https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1834&context=scholarly_works">legalize and legitamize oral histories</a>.</p>
<p>The colonial archive is not the same as colonial history. The documents it contains are largely from the government’s perspective, but that does not mean they should be discounted or rejected outright. The re-reading and reframing of the colonial archive continues to be essential in the process of decolonization. </p>
<p>Within oral history practices there are methods to ensure the accuracy of the message. </p>
<p>In a recent email, Anne Murphy, the chair of Punjabi Studies at the University of British Columbia who teaches a course in oral history, writes: “Oral histories cannot be substituted for fact, nor can they be accepted without scrutiny and disciplined study. Nor can they be given primacy over multiple sources of documentary evidence.”</p>
<p>The documentary evidence from the Komagata Maru includes desperate letters from the passengers aboard the ship who were forced to survive for days without adequate food and water. If Indigenous paddlers managed to take supplies to the ship in spite of an armed blockade, as claimed on the Vancouver Mural Festival website, the meaning of the archival record is radically altered. </p>
<p>If the passengers were being fed by Indigenous people, then did the South Asian community on shore know about this? The shore committee raised thousands of dollars to supply the ship for its return journey.</p>
<p>History is a dynamic process. Histories are revised and rewritten either when new facts come to light, or in the case of authoritarian regimes, changed by decree. </p>
<p>My work has sought to truly honour South Asians on shore and those aboard the Komagata Maru by presenting verified and uncomfortable facts to all Canadians. </p>
<p>I believe honouring the truth requires evidence to substantiate it, so I urge all involved with the mural including both the federal and municipal governments to recognize that the recently circulated story that “…the Indigenous people delivered food and water to the passengers on the ship” is not verified. </p>
<p>Re-framing history is not the same as speculative history. Let’s seek to arrive at fact-based truth as a path to redress and reconciliation.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ali Kazimi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In 1914, a ship carrying more than 300 immigrants from India wasn’t allowed to dock in Vancouver. A new mural tells an unverified story about Indigenous paddlers bringing food to the stranded ship.Ali Kazimi, Professor of Cinema & Media Arts, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1185902019-06-25T23:13:55Z2019-06-25T23:13:55ZNep Sidhu’s art stirs controversy about the history of Sikh separatism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281221/original/file-20190625-81741-1cxuww9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C2%2C976%2C648&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">"Medicine For a Nightmare," (From the Series "When My Drums Come Knocking, They Watch), 2019</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Mercer Union</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On a clear, crisp, beautiful day this June in Vancouver, a group of Sikh men stood behind a series of folding tables in Pigeon Park and fed the homeless and poor of the Downtown East Side (DTES) with samosas and bottled water. The intention behind serving the needy is <em>seva</em> — selfless community service — that is integral not just to Sikhism but many other faiths. </p>
<p>One of the <em>seva</em> servers explained their event occurs annually in early June to commemorate <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/fighting-for-the-truth/article4275957/">the anniversary of the Indian government’s attacks on armed Sikh separatists in the Golden Temple</a>. The juxtapositions of the event were jarring — a vertical banner with a portrait of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sant-Jarnail-Singh-Bhindranwale">Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale</a>, the slain militant leader of the Sikh separatist movement, was positioned alongside a three-story tall totem pole. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281224/original/file-20190625-81758-3zp5tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281224/original/file-20190625-81758-3zp5tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281224/original/file-20190625-81758-3zp5tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281224/original/file-20190625-81758-3zp5tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281224/original/file-20190625-81758-3zp5tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281224/original/file-20190625-81758-3zp5tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281224/original/file-20190625-81758-3zp5tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281224/original/file-20190625-81758-3zp5tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">An annual Vancouver event remembers the Indian government’s attacks on Sikh separatists.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>The site may have been chosen because of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/survivors-totem-pole-vancouver-downtown-eastside-1.3838801">the Survivors’ Pole</a> which was carved by Haida and Coast Salish artist Skundaal (Bernie Williams) and created by a collaboration between DTES First Nations residents, LGBTQ activists, Japanese, Chinese and South Asian survivors of racism and injustice. These are survivors in the Canadian context. Yet the <em>seva</em> in the park references the Indian context. </p>
<p>An even stronger version of this troubling juxtaposition between South Asian Sikh and Indigenous struggles is visible in Canadian artist Nep Sidhu’s first solo exhibition, <a href="http://www.mercerunion.org/exhibitions/nep-sidhu-medicine-for-a-nightmare-they-called-we-responded/">“Medicine for a Nightmare (They called, we responded).”</a> His show, curated by cheyanne turions, was first on view in early 2019 at the <a href="http://www.mercerunion.org/exhibitions/nep-sidhu-medicine-for-a-nightmare-they-called-we-responded/">Mercer Union Gallery</a> in Toronto; it was subsequently shown in Vancouver at Simon Fraser University’s <a href="https://www.sfu.ca/galleries/audain-gallery/Nep-Sidhu.html">Audain Gallery</a>. Sidhu has also spoken about the show as <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/arts/nep-sidhu-s-latest-exhibition-revisits-a-painful-chapter-of-sikh-history-1.5156313">“expressing the experience of” <em>seva</em>.</a> Yet, while the intent of the Pigeon Park <em>seva</em> is clear, Sidhu’s <em>seva</em> as expressed in this show is not. </p>
<p>In Sidhu’s exhibit, two tapestries <em>Axes in Polyrhythm</em> (2018) and <em>Medicine for a Nightmare</em> (2019) are displayed side by side, suggesting equal and parallel histories of Sikhs and Indigenous peoples of Canada. Sidhu draws a false equivalency between very different struggles: the fight for an ethno-religious, theocratic state in South Asia and the ongoing struggle of the Indigenous peoples in Canada who are grappling with the legacies and ongoing processes of colonialism. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281270/original/file-20190625-81762-40n96z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281270/original/file-20190625-81762-40n96z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281270/original/file-20190625-81762-40n96z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281270/original/file-20190625-81762-40n96z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281270/original/file-20190625-81762-40n96z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281270/original/file-20190625-81762-40n96z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281270/original/file-20190625-81762-40n96z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Installation view of Nep Sidhu’s tapestries in ‘Medicine for a Nightmare (they called, we responded)’ at Mercer Union, Toronto, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Toni Hafkenscheid; courtesy the artist</span></span>
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<p>These histories are disjunctive and unrelated. </p>
<p>The Canadian art world, <a href="https://bordercrossingsmag.com/article/nep-sidhu1">unaware of the context</a>, has <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/arts/nep-sidhu-s-latest-exhibition-revisits-a-painful-chapter-of-sikh-history-1.5156313">largely embraced Sidhu uncritically.</a> Yet, I have met a number of artists in my community who have questions about the politics of the show’s ideas. They felt they could not openly critique it. They had some fear of backlash.</p>
<h2>Indian history – the Khalistan movement</h2>
<p>On Oct. 31, 1984, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/31/world/indira-gandhi-assassinated-by-gunmen-police-seal-off-2-areas-as-crowds-gather.html">Indira Gandhi, the prime minister of India, was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards</a>. The attack was in retaliation for the Indian army’s attack on the Golden Temple in June that same year. At that time, militants fighting for a Sikh homeland called Khalistan had barricaded themselves in the Golden Temple, in Amritsar, Punjab. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/fyi/story/1984-operation-blue-star-amritsar-1251681-2018-06-06">Operation Blue Star</a> led by the Indian military broke the barricade and killed fundamentalist preacher and militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his supporters. Innocent pilgrims were also killed in the attack. Most egregiously for many Sikhs, the inner sanctum, the Akal Takht was severely damaged, and the irreplaceable reference library was burned.</p>
<p>The assassination of Gandhi led to a <a href="https://www.straight.com/news/915861/gurpreet-singh-when-punjab-became-indias-laboratory-hindutva">state-abetted pogrom against Sikhs in the Indian capital </a>of Delhi as well as other Indian cities. And brutal counter insurgency operations against Sikh separatists by Indian security forces occurred between 1984 and 1995.</p>
<p>All through the 1980s, <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-sikh-extremism-really-active-in-canada-93566">Sikh supporters in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada had been sending financial support for the Khalistan movement</a>. However, by the early 1990s, the movement had lost support because of the brutal tactics used by the Indian police to target young Sikh men as well as the violence of fundamentalist separatists who massacred innocent Hindus and Sikhs. Many with ties to the movement, or even just with teenage sons who might be targeted, left India. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-sikh-extremism-really-active-in-canada-93566">Is Sikh extremism really active in Canada?</a>
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<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2645407">The conflict took an estimated 20,000 lives</a>. There are deep grievances held by Sikhs and their allies about the injustices suffered with the encouragement of or at the very least, the complicit agreement of the state. Justice has not been served to the Sikh survivors. </p>
<p>In North America, sympathizers with the Khalistan movement <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/referendum-2020-khalistan-divides-unites-sikhs-abroad/story-QBIfntRdW0zF7kVpw9XgmN.html">have recently been presenting this historical conflict as a non-violent call for Sikh sovereignty</a>.</p>
<p>But history can be rewritten only to a point. A distinction must be made between the victimhood of the survivors of the <a href="https://time.com/3545867/india-1984-sikh-genocide-anniversary/">1984 pogroms</a> and the manufactured victimhood of Sikhs as a whole as claimed by Khalistanis.</p>
<h2>History rewritten in a curatorial statement</h2>
<p>Queer, Sikh, Canadian writer Rachna Raj Kaur wrote an <a href="https://nowtoronto.com/culture/art-and-design/nep-sidhu-mercer-union-sikh-extremism/">insightful critique of Sidhu’s exhibit</a> in <em>NOW Magazine</em>, in which she posed a series of questions about peace and violence. She asks: “Is Sidhu subverting the Khalistan movement or revering it?” Kaur notes “there is no support for the Khalistan movement in Punjab” but “it is prevalent in Canada and so we must pay attention when it shows itself.”</p>
<p>In the Mercer Union Gallery brochure for “Medicine for a Nightmare (They called, we responded),” there are obvious cringe-worthy factual errors, but most disturbing are the ways in which history was rewritten. The fundamentalists who shot and bombed innocents and openly assassinated fellow Sikhs are now being reconstructed as peaceful activists. </p>
<p>Words like militants, extremists, separatists and Khalistan are absent. Instead language used includes: “activist movement,” “Sikh self-determination” and “resistance fighters.” Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale is described as a “community leader,” as well as “activist and religious leader.” </p>
<p>In Pigeon Park, the four young Sikh men with fashionable haircuts who hand out soft drinks wear slogan T-shirts. One reads “The Future is Sovereign.” Another shirt reads: “The Republic of Khalistan.” The text wraps around a graphic image of an AK-47, the weapon of choice for Khalistani militants during the insurgency. </p>
<h2>The controversy: Retraction/non-retraction, silence</h2>
<p>Nep Sidhu <a href="https://canadianart.ca/interviews/medicine-for-a-nightmare-they-called-we-responded/">has made overtly political art</a>, and yet it seems that he chooses not to claim his political position. Unlike India, where there is suppression of a Khalistani narrative, there is none in Canada. </p>
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<p>After much criticism, <a href="http://www.mercerunion.org/exhibitions/nep-sidhu-medicine-for-a-nightmare-they-called-we-responded/">the show’s brochure</a> on the Mercer Union website has been replaced with a bibliography of resources about 1984. An accompanying note by the curator acknowledges that her framing of the show in the brochure simplifies the breadth of violence that unfolded in India in 1984. She writes: “My language needs to be reconsidered… and resist summarizing relationships to these histories in ways that rendered invisible those with differing lived (and inherited) experiences.” However, turions does not acknowledge the factual errors she made in her essay. </p>
<p>Subsequently, in the Vancouver iteration of the show, a truncated curatorial statement is on the wall. A handout is distributed which consists of the <a href="http://www.mercerunion.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/MercerUnion_NepSidhu_Exhibition_Bibliography-1.pdf">original bibliography</a> which has has been expanded to include books, mainly on Sikhism. The curator’s preamble and annotations are missing. A small library to the side has all the texts readily available. But what is the audience supposed to do with this? Are we expected to read it all and write our own contextual essay? </p>
<p>To deal with the controversy that had emerged in Toronto, Sidhu and turions hosted a closed-door event in Vancouver. In this way, the curator and artist can perhaps claim the community has been “engaged.” </p>
<p>But the conversation has been controlled, and the silence has grown.</p>
<p>My questions for Nep Sidhu are: How do you respond to those Khalistani activists who do not want a critical response within the Sikh community? How do you allay the fears of your fellow artists of South Asian descent who feel silenced or those like Kaur who pray the conversation started by your show “omits violence and ends in peace”? Do you criticize the violence perpetrated in the name of Khalistan?</p>
<p>Have Nep Sidhu’s creative collaborators, Tlingit/Aleut artist Nicholas Galanin and African American artist Maikoiyo Alley Barnes been given an overview of the political terrain they have been led into? The next time I am in Vancouver, I will go back to The Survivors Pole in Pigeon Park to marvel at what truly collaborative, deeply political, grassroots public art can achieve without the scaffolding of art-speak to hide its intent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118590/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ali Kazimi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Canadian art world has largely embraced the highly political work of Nep Sidhu; but historical context and political meanings must be discussed openly and without fear.Ali Kazimi, Professor of Cinema & Media Arts, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1080922018-12-05T12:30:17Z2018-12-05T12:30:17ZSikh shrines in India and Pakistan – why construction of visa-free Kartarpur corridor is so historic<p>Three kilometres from the Indian border, in the tranquil green plains of the Narowal district of Punjab in Pakistan is an unassuming sacred shrine: Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib. It’s the final resting place of Guru Nanak (1469-1539), founder of the Sikh faith. </p>
<p>On the other side of the river Ravi, about a kilometre inside the border in the Gurdaspur district of Punjab in India, is the bustling holy town of Dera Baba Nanak. Here stands Gurdwara Shri Darbar Sahib, associated with the life and family of the same first Sikh guru. </p>
<p>On a clear day, both are visible to each other. But the Radcliffe Line, drawn in August 1947 between Pakistan and India, ensures that travel for the average Indian or Pakistani is impossible across this international border. India’s Sikh community is roughly around 20m people – under 2% of India’s population of over a billion. More than half of them live in the Punjab, India and are cut off from the most significant shrines associated with the founder of their faith, all located in Punjab, Pakistan.</p>
<p>On November 28, the governments of India and Pakistan took a momentous step towards making a corridor between these two gurdwaras to enable visa-free travel for pilgrims. A <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-46382657">foundation stone-laying ceremony</a> marked the beginning of its construction on the Pakistani side and it’s hoped that this Kartarpur corridor will be ready in 2019, when Sikhs mark the 550th anniversary of Guru Nanak’s birth. </p>
<h2>Cut off to most Sikh pilgrims</h2>
<p>Sikhs lost the most from the partition of British India in 1947, as their spiritual and material homeland got divided between India, a majority Hindu country, and Pakistan, majority Muslim. The Kartarpur corridor, with a bridge over the river, had been mooted for almost a quarter of a century before it emerged formally in 1999. However, at the hands of two insecure and hostile states, it never materialised.</p>
<p>As a Punjabi and as an academic of the Punjab, I’ve spent the last 18 years working on the fragmented history of this divided region and the ramifications of the fraught relationship between India and Pakistan. I have crossed the Radcliffe Line at the Wagha-Attari checkpoint – made infamous by its daily flag-lowering ritual accompanied by the sounds and sights of a masculine, jingoistic spectacle – numerous times. Ironically, as a British citizen, I’m privileged enough to cross this checkpoint – the only open border crossing – regardless of the political climate between the two countries. </p>
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<p>It pains me to see this divided legacy and narrow-minded nationalistic tentacles spread over the social, cultural and economic milieu of this historic region. As a Sikh, I’m resigned to the fact that most Sikhs will never be able to visit the birthplace of Guru Nanak and the place where he settled, preached and passed away. He spent the last 18 years of his life living in Kartarpur, setting up the first Gurdwara and establishing the first Sikh community. It was here that <em>langar</em> (communal cooking and dining, without price or prejudice), an integral, iconic part of the Sikh faith, began.</p>
<p>In April 2017, I visited Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan for the first time. What’s striking once you get past the security is a sense of calm that pervades the place. The original, 16th-century shrine was on the banks of the river Ravi and was ravaged by floods. Today’s structure was built from 1920 to 1929 with a princely donation from the Maharaja of Patiala. </p>
<p>Since August 1947, the site has remained mostly closed to the public. During the 1980s, it was <a href="https://scroll.in/article/810432/how-did-sikh-heritage-become-hostage-to-hostilities-between-india-and-pakistan">linked</a> to the Sikh separatist Khalistan movement (a Sikh nationalist movement wanting a separate state). Despite further repairs and restoration in the 1990s and early 2000s, it has remained largely off the usual Sikh pilgrim circuit of Lahore-Nankana Sahib-Hasan Abdul, which are the places Sikhs are normally permitted to visit in Pakistan. </p>
<p>A fascinating, and befitting, aspect of Kartarpur is its evident appeal to non-Sikh communities. Guru Nanak is revered by Hindus and Muslims as well as Sikhs. During my visit, I saw only a small trickle of local, mostly Muslim pilgrims who’d come to pay homage to Baba Nanak. It is these <a href="https://scroll.in/article/857302/how-nanaks-muslim-followers-in-pakistan-never-abandoned-kartarpur-sahib-his-final-resting-place">devotees</a> who ensured that the shrine was never abandoned. </p>
<h2>A leap of faith</h2>
<p>The visa-free corridor presents real opportunities for the Sikh community and for India-Pakistan relations. Yet the immediate response has been Janus-faced: alternatively euphoric and wary. While Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/pm-imran-khan-lays-foundation-stone-for-kartarpur-corridor/articleshow/66846440.cms">attended the recent ceremony</a> and laid the foundation stone, India’s prime minister, foreign minister, and the chief minister of Indian Punjab, stayed away, citing Pakistan’s alleged involvement in <a href="https://www.cfr.org/interactives/global-conflict-tracker#!/conflict/conflict-between-india-and-pakistan">recent incidents of terrorism</a> in India. </p>
<p>It is easy to be cynical about the significance of the new corridor, because both India and Pakistan have failed to find a peaceful way of living together for the past 71 years. Many opportunities for peace have been squandered in the past. This latest initiative, while welcome, remains a local affair and is unlikely to impact on the tense politics of the relationship between the two countries. </p>
<p>It might well prove to only be a vanity project for Khan, but still it presents Pakistan with an opportunity to offer a peaceful fig leaf to India. Perhaps India is happy to play along for now as part of a strategy to improve its standing in Punjab ahead of elections due in 2019. But, for the Sikh community this might still be a portentous moment, promising some regular, if limited, connection to the soil of Guru Nanak.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108092/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pippa Virdee does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In late November, the foundation stone was laid for a new visa-free corridor between two Sikh gurdwaras on either side of the India-Pakistan border.Pippa Virdee, Senior Lecturer in Modern South Asian History, De Montfort UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/935662018-03-26T23:01:50Z2018-03-26T23:01:50ZIs Sikh extremism really active in Canada?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212037/original/file-20180326-188622-ckjd4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in orange headgear, greets members of Sikh community during his visit to Golden Temple, in Amritsar, India, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Prabhjot Gill)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Both the Liberals and New Democrats have recently been forced to deal with an issue that usually isn’t part of the political agenda in Canada – Sikh extremism.</p>
<p>Justin Trudeau went on the defensive when it was discovered that Jaspal Atwal, convicted of the attempted murder of an Indian politician in 1986, was <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/trudeau-says-sikh-extremist-should-not-have-been-invitation-to-reception/article38062142/">invited to a reception</a> at the Canadian High Commission during the prime minister’s recent visit to India. The prime minister subsequently stated his government <a href="http://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/trudeau-reiterates-denial-of-sikh-separatists-in-cabinet-condemns-extremism">supports a united India</a> and condemned those who used violence in their campaign for an independent Sikh state, Khalistan.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Jagmeet Singh, the first Sikh to be chosen to head a major Canadian political party, has also faced questions about his <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4083047/jagmeet-singh-sikh-separatist-rally/">position on Khalistan</a>. The new NDP leader said he condemns “<a href="http://www.ndp.ca/news/statement-jagmeet-singh-leader-federal-ndp">all acts of terrorism in every part of the world, regardless of who the perpetrators are or who the victims are</a>.”</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212060/original/file-20180326-188616-ytnv3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212060/original/file-20180326-188616-ytnv3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212060/original/file-20180326-188616-ytnv3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212060/original/file-20180326-188616-ytnv3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212060/original/file-20180326-188616-ytnv3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212060/original/file-20180326-188616-ytnv3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212060/original/file-20180326-188616-ytnv3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he condemns all acts of terrorism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Canada is not the first western democracy to be accused of harbouring Sikh extremists. In the buildup to Trudeau’s visit, reports in Indian media proclaimed that such “radicals” had “<a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/panth-and-a-foreign-hand/299751">taken over most gurudwaras in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., and organize events where the themes of Khalistan and persecution of Sikhs in 1984 are a running refrain</a>.”</p>
<h2>A parallel history? Sikhs in Britain</h2>
<p>Indeed, similar reports about <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-3316067/Modi-UK-visit-Intelligence-says-UK-gurdwaras-breeding-ultras-India-shares-dossier-Cameron-s-government-Modi-s-visit-states-Sikh-organisations-funding-Khalistani-terror-groups.html">“Sikh radicalisation” in Britain</a> in 2015 led me <a href="https://crestresearch.ac.uk/resources/sikh-radicalisation-full-report/">to conduct research on the issue</a>. I analyzed media reports about Sikhs, <a href="https://crestresearch.ac.uk/news/sikh-activism-britain/">interviewed Sikh activists</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SikhPA/posts/1744333868938643">held a series of community consultations</a> to ascertain the main issues and narratives.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211799/original/file-20180324-54875-in5yd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211799/original/file-20180324-54875-in5yd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211799/original/file-20180324-54875-in5yd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211799/original/file-20180324-54875-in5yd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211799/original/file-20180324-54875-in5yd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211799/original/file-20180324-54875-in5yd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211799/original/file-20180324-54875-in5yd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211799/original/file-20180324-54875-in5yd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The idea, context, framing and realities of ‘Sikh radicalisation’ in Britain.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By mapping historical events, I found that Sikh activities in Britain fundamentally changed in 1984 following two events: The storming of Harmandir Sahib (also known as the Golden Temple) during the Indian government’s <a href="http://www.sikhmuseum.com/bluestar/newsreports/840618_2.html">Operation Bluestar in June 1984</a> and <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/The-original-sin-of-November-1984/article12490905.ece">the violence that took place against Sikhs across India in November 1984</a> following the assassination of the Indian prime minister by her Sikh bodyguards. In April 2017, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/sajjan-india-massacre-1.4076467">this anti-Sikh violence was recognized as genocide by the Ontario legislature</a>.</p>
<p>Before ‘84, Sikhs in Britain had focused <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/9/newsid_2523000/2523691.stm">on campaigning for the right to wear turbans in the workplace and on motorbikes and in schools</a>. Some even raised funds to support India in the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war. However, the immediate aftermath of Operation Bluestar saw Sikhs in Britain lashing out at the Indian state for the “dishonour” caused to the community with the storming of Harmandir Sahib, regarded by Sikhs as their most significant and precious institution.</p>
<p>In Britain, the immediate response to Bluestar saw Sikhs protesting in huge numbers <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-13660218">at Hyde Park London in June 1984</a>, a protest held annually ever since. This period also saw plots against Indian state officials, including an <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1985-10-16/news/mn-15218_1_prime-minister-indira-gandhi">assassination attempt on Rajiv Gandhi, the then prime minister of India</a>.</p>
<p>The reaction to Bluestar also saw increased support for the idea of Khalistan. In Britain, individuals seen to be speaking out against Khalistan or to be aligning themselves closely with India became fatal victims of violence at this time, including <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/international/story/19860228-indian-community-in-uk-besieged-by-mounting-anger-at-spate-of-shootings-800610-1986-02-28">Tarsem Singh Toor in 1986</a> and <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/international/story/19871215-religious-twist-to-sikh-violence-in-britain-799608-1987-12-15">Darshan Das in 1987</a>.</p>
<h2>Sikhs in Canada</h2>
<p>I found a similar chronology of events in Canada where, according to national census data, approximately <a href="http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/130508/dq130508b-eng.htm">460,000 people identify as Sikh</a>. </p>
<p>Canadian authorities were clearly unprepared for the emotional impact of the storming of Harmandir Sahib on Sikhs in Canada. Bob Burgoyne, who worked for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) at the time, noted how <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/2007/05/22/sikh_anger_surprised_csis.html">“it was our lack of understanding of Sikhs and how very emotional (they were) and how this single issue is what propelled us into what was a very tumultuous year.”</a></p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212034/original/file-20180326-188610-i0c0hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212034/original/file-20180326-188610-i0c0hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212034/original/file-20180326-188610-i0c0hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212034/original/file-20180326-188610-i0c0hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212034/original/file-20180326-188610-i0c0hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212034/original/file-20180326-188610-i0c0hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212034/original/file-20180326-188610-i0c0hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">About 15,000 Sikhs demonstrated against the Indian government in Vancouver on June 10, 1984. (CP PHOTO/Chuck Stoody.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As in Britain, the immediate aftermath of Operation Bluestar saw <a href="http://www.sikhmuseum.com/bluestar/newsreports/index.html">a number of peaceful protests across Canada against the Indian state</a>.</p>
<p>Some violent attacks also occurred that were related to Khalistan issues, including <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/ujjal-dosanjh-talks-about-being-attacked-in-1985-1.3594336">the 1985 attack on former B.C. premier Ujjal Dosanjh</a> and <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/unsolved-killing-of-celebrated-air-india-journalist-stains-canadas-reputation-for-press-freedom/article4104879/">the murder of Canadian journalist Tara Singh Hayer</a>. There were also plots and protests against Indian state officials including the <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/trudeau-says-sikh-extremist-should-not-have-been-invitation-to-reception/article38062142/">1986 assassination attempt on Malkiat Singh Sidhu</a>. </p>
<p>In 1985, the Air India bombing took place, <a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-troubling-indifference-to-the-air-india-bombing-91879">Canada’s worst mass murder to date</a>. This deplorable act, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1985/06/27/sikhs-deplore-air-india-crash/5f77405a-df97-46a4-8e8b-64e5ba3c0244/?utm_term=.c89a86888458">widely condemned by Sikhs at the time</a>, remains the only act of terrorism outside India to have led to the conviction of a Sikh. </p>
<p>Although a number of violent incidents occurred involving Sikhs throughout the 1990s, the majority of these appear to be internal Sikh issues relating to gurdwara governance, the contested nature of religious authority and local factional politics.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211926/original/file-20180326-148739-jxv3l3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211926/original/file-20180326-148739-jxv3l3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211926/original/file-20180326-148739-jxv3l3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211926/original/file-20180326-148739-jxv3l3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211926/original/file-20180326-148739-jxv3l3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211926/original/file-20180326-148739-jxv3l3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211926/original/file-20180326-148739-jxv3l3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211926/original/file-20180326-148739-jxv3l3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Timeline of Sikh incidents / protests in Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">source</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>#AskCanadianSikhs: The impact of Sikh activism</h2>
<p>My research in Britain found five different types of Sikh activity beyond the simplistic labels of “fundamentalist,” “extremist” or “radical.” These include: Social justice and humanitarian relief; diasporic nationalism around Khalistan; “enforcing” Sikh practices; “defending” the Sikh community against a variety of perceived “external threats;” and personal/factional disputes.</p>
<p>Of these, Sikh activism around social justice and humanitarian relief is the most publicly prominent category in Canada. This includes the <a href="http://www.sevafoodbank.com/">Seva Food Bank in Toronto</a>, Calgary Sikh Youth’s <a href="http://www.calgaryfoodbank.com/events/sikh-youth-calgary-walks-away-hunger/">Walk Away Hunger</a> programme, the <a href="https://citymuseumedmonton.ca/2016/03/01/seva-truck/">Seva food truck in Edmonton</a> and <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-sikhs-drive-2262-km-to-deliver-1-million-in-donations-1.3585187">B.C. Sikhs who delivered $1 million worth of donations for Fort McMurray evacuees</a>. Those participating in this activism use the Sikh concepts of <em>sewa</em> (selfless service) and <em>langar</em> (community kitchen) in a contemporary context.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-the-temple-to-the-street-how-sikh-kitchens-are-becoming-the-new-food-banks-44611">From the temple to the street: how Sikh kitchens are becoming the new food banks</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Sikhs have responded to the recent public discourse and allegations of extremism and terrorism through the hashtag #AskCanadianSikhs, which emerged in response to <a href="https://twitter.com/istaysearching/status/975024999311532033">the lack of Sikhs invited to participate in media discussions about Sikh issues</a>. A key point being made is that <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4089515/canadian-sikhs-twitter-campaign-extremism/">many of the events being referenced happened over 30 years ago</a>. </p>
<p>In my research, I made use of Sophia Moskalenko and Clark McCauley’s distinction <a href="http://www.start.umd.edu/publication/measuring-political-mobilization-distinction-between-activism-and-radicalism">between radicalism and activism</a> where “radicalism” is a “readiness to engage in illegal and violent political action” while activism is a “readiness to engage in legal and non-violent political action.” </p>
<p>Given these definitions, it’s clear that although the events in India in 1984 saw an immediate “radical” reaction from Sikhs around the world, much of the contemporary political activity being labelled “Sikh extremism” or “radicalism” is in fact activism focused on social justice.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212043/original/file-20180326-188619-fnn8a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212043/original/file-20180326-188619-fnn8a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212043/original/file-20180326-188619-fnn8a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212043/original/file-20180326-188619-fnn8a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212043/original/file-20180326-188619-fnn8a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212043/original/file-20180326-188619-fnn8a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212043/original/file-20180326-188619-fnn8a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, second left, gestures as Punjab state Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, right, looks on in front of the Golden Temple, Sikhs’ holiest site, in Amritsar, India, in November 2009.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In my research, I found no threat to the West or to the wider public from Sikh activism as highlighted in the <a href="https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/pblc-rprt-trrrst-thrt-cnd-2017/index-en.aspx">2017 public report on the terrorist threat to Canada</a> which makes no mention of any terrorist threats by Sikhs in Canada.</p>
<p>In terms of the threat to India, the roles of the <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/india/list-of-canadian-operatives-handed-by-punjab-cm-amarinder-singh-to-justin-trudeau-5076443/">nine alleged Canada-based Khalistani operatives</a> who were included in a list presented by the Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to Prime Minister Trudeau in February 2018 remain to be seen. </p>
<p>Given the parallels between the U.K. and Canada, it’s worth noting that a key driver in contemporary Sikh activism are the events of 1984. Whether this is protesting against the “dishonour” caused to the community with the storming of Harmandir Sahib, <a href="https://www.ensaaf.org/publications/reports/20years/20years-2nd.pdf">seeking justice for human rights abuses around the events of June and November 1984</a>, publicly articulating the need for Khalistan as an act of resistance against the Indian state or simply raising awareness of what occurred, the feeling that the events of 1984 remain <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23514583">unresolved remains an important issue for many Sikhs</a>.</p>
<p>It will take open and honest discussions about crimes committed across the board in the leadup, during and following the events of 1984 for the communities affected to feel they can finally move on.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93566/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasjit Singh receives funding from the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) and CREST (Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats).</span></em></p>Recent reports of the presence of Sikh extremists in Canada have put both the prime minister and the federal leader of the NDP party on the defensive about their positions.Jasjit Singh, Research fellow, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/879582017-11-24T09:12:36Z2017-11-24T09:12:36ZAlarm spreads in Sikh diaspora at arrest of British man Jagtar Singh Johal in India<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195929/original/file-20171122-6072-1xfxxlp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sikhs in the diaspora. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikh#/media/File:Sikhs_on_the_move!.jpg">Kensplanet via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Jagtar Singh Johal, a Sikh born and raised in Scotland visiting India for his wedding, was <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/chandigarh-news/punjab-police-arrests-4-claim-most-cases-of-targeted-killing-solved-1772535">taken into custody</a> by the Punjab police along with three other men on November 4. The case has raised alarm among <a href="https://www.newslaundry.com/2017/11/20/jagtar-singh-punjab-khalistan-amarinder">Sikhs in India</a> and <a href="http://www.thenational.scot/news/15669239.Fresh_concerns_at_condition_of____tortured_Scot____arrested_in_India/">across the Sikh diaspora</a> with concerns being raised about the due process around Johal’s arrest and subsequent <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/fears-for-welfare-of-jagtar-singh-johal-tortured-by-indian-police-b7d70csq8">allegations of torture</a>.</p>
<p>With no charges yet made against Johal, on November 7, the Punjab police stated that these four arrests <a href="http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/punjab-police-claim-to-solve-high-profile-targeted-killings/493932.html">had solved eight murder cases</a> relating to the targeted killings of several high-profile figures in the Indian state. Subsequent reports <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/india-british-tourist-youth-social-media-arrest-jagtar-singh-johal-jalandhar-punjab-dumbarton-a8048211.html">stated</a> that Johal was arrested for “influencing the youth through social media”.</p>
<p>Johal was not seen in person again until a court appearance on November 14, after which his lawyer <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-41984339">claimed his client</a> had been given electric shocks and subjected to “body separation techniques”. On November 16, Sikhs from across the UK gathered outside the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London to protest about the treatment of <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5089481/Protesters-demand-release-British-born-Sikh-India.html">Johal since his arrest in Punjab</a> resulting in a <a href="http://www.sikhpa.com/freejagginow/">meeting between campaigners and FCO representatives</a>. Johal is <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/jagtar-singh-johal-british-man-tortured-police-india-released-salandhar-punjab-a8060586.html">due to reappear in court</a> on November 30.</p>
<h2>Sikhs mobilised</h2>
<p>The reports about Johal’s torture have been <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/british-national-johal-was-not-tortured-punjab-police/story-hgJfRHsFtiegQdnTSG3QEK.html">denied by the Punjab police</a>. The British prime minister, Theresa May, stated on November 20 that FCO representatives had met with Johal and were “<a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/aware-of-torture-allegations-by-johal-uk-pm/articleshow/61746095.cms">watching what is happening with concern</a>”. FCO minister Rory Stewart <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2017-11-21/debates/8037A193-9D01-46A9-A11F-10ED1754097A/TopicalQuestions#contribution-4803C53C-01A8-4E63-9FF9-465879E76487">told parliament</a> that the British government would “take extreme action if a British citizen is being tortured.”</p>
<p>The <a href="https://twitter.com/1984Tribute/status/929364377920266240">#FreeJaggiNow</a> campaign which emerged on Twitter in response to the treatment of Johal in custody is currently providing updates of his situation. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"931234870508040192"}"></div></p>
<p>Reports that Johal could be accused of <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/targeted-killings-in-punjab-uk-resident-johal-was-on-police-radar-for-a-year/story-2hxtp6Knu5SSZ2sguuNTPM.html">radicalising individuals</a> through what is claimed to be an <a href="http://www.thenational.scot/news/15661068.Scottish_activist____tortured_with_electric_shocks____in_Indian_prison/">involvement in running</a> the <a href="http://www.neverforget84.com/">neverforget84.com</a> website about the lead up and aftermath of the events of Operation Bluestar in 1984, have left many Sikhs across the diaspora wondering if they could also face charges when visiting India. </p>
<h2>Memories of 1984</h2>
<p>The storming of Harmandir Sahib, often referred to as the Golden Temple, during <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/19/world/punjab-raid-unanswered-questions.html">Operation Bluestar in June 1984</a> and the violence that took place <a href="https://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/investigation-of-1984-sikh-massacre-continues-in-india/">against Sikhs across India in November that year</a> following the assassination of the Indian prime minister, Indira Gandhi, by her Sikh bodyguards, remain traumatic events for many Sikhs. They fundamentally changed the nature of Sikh activism across the diaspora. In recently published research examining reports of <a href="https://www.leeds.ac.uk/news/article/4136/understanding_sikh_activism_in_britain">Sikh radicalisation in Britain</a>, I found that the events of 1984 remain the main political narrative which drives Sikhs to political activism.</p>
<p>Before 1984, Sikhs in Britain generally supported India and were mainly focused on campaigning for the right <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/9/newsid_2523000/2523691.stm">to maintain Sikh symbols in Britain</a>. The events of 1984 led many Sikhs across the diaspora to protest against what many of those I interviewed regarded as <a href="http://www.ensaaf.org/publications/reports/20years/20years-2nd.pdf">state-sanctioned violence against the Sikhs</a> in the months and years that followed. A number of <a href="https://naujawani.com/june-1984">Sikh individuals and organisations</a> are now engaged in <a href="http://www.nsyf.org.uk/10-days-of-terror/">raising awareness</a> and <a href="http://www.ensaaf.org/">working to achieve justice for those affected</a> both during and <a href="https://naujawani.com/blog/why-i-wont-celebrate-kps-gills-death">after these events</a>. Recent years have seen Sikhs across the diaspora focusing on the plight of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-17537873">Sikh political prisoners</a>. For these Sikh activists, Johal is regarded as an individual who was involved in raising these issues.</p>
<p>The claims of Johal’s torture have also shocked many, bringing back memories of allegations of human rights abuses committed by the Punjab Police during the 1990s, that were <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa20/008/1995/en/">reported by Amnesty International</a>. One of the most disturbing pieces of literature I came across during my research was <a href="https://www.freedomfromtorture.org/sites/default/files/documents/Lives_under_threat__a.pdf">a 1996 report by the Medical Foundation</a> containing images of Sikhs being tortured in police custody. In its study of 95 Sikh refugees seeking asylum in the UK, 82 of the Sikh refugees interviewed by the Medical Foundation claimed that they had been beaten unconscious on one or more occasion, with 57 reporting that they had been suspended by the wrists, ankles or hair and then beaten.</p>
<p>Sikhs <a href="https://www.facebook.com/surreygurdwara/photos/a.194609480561797.44645.166652813357464/1619737928048938/">across the diaspora are mobilising</a> through the #FreeJaggiNow campaign to raise awareness of Johal’s case. For now, the focus is on the fact that due process has not been followed. The handling of Johal’s case is already having an impact on the relationship between Sikhs in the diaspora and the Indian state. It led to a recent protest against Indian diplomats <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/punjabi/en/article/2017/11/21/indian-high-commissioner-australia-stopped-entering-melbourne-gurudwara">in Melbourne</a>. Whatever the outcome, Johal’s case threatens to permanently affect the relationship between Sikhs in the diaspora and the land of their gurus.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87958/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasjit Singh receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and CREST (The UK Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats)</span></em></p>The case of Jagtar Singh Johal has mobilised the Sikh diaspora.Jasjit Singh, Research fellow, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/849632017-10-02T01:58:13Z2017-10-02T01:58:13ZWhat Jagmeet Singh’s historic NDP leadership win means for Canada<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188615/original/file-20171003-12146-nntfvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=91%2C80%2C2387%2C2311&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jagmeet Singh won 53.6 per cent of the first-ballot votes on Sunday to become the new leader of Canada's New Democratic Party.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(The Canadian Press/Chris Young)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a landslide victory, Jagmeet Singh has become the new leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party. </p>
<p>Despite predictions that voting could go into multiple rounds and ostensibly drag on until mid-October, Singh won 53.6 per cent of the first-ballot votes on Sunday. He easily beat out his closest rival, Charlie Angus, who garnered only 19.3 per cent.</p>
<p>Singh’s victory is historic. </p>
<p>He is the first person of colour to be elected leader of a major Canadian political party. He is a proud Sikh; he wears a turban, and carries a kirpan — a ceremonial knife. He openly talks about his experiences with racism, and has fought for policies that would combat racism. </p>
<p>As a member of provincial parliament in Ontario, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/06/15/mpp-jagmeet-singh-wants-province-to-end-carding-entirely.html">he worked to pass legislation that banned so-called carding</a> — a practice whereby police officers stop individuals “randomly” and ask for their identification and used to disproportionately target people of colour. </p>
<p>One of the best known moments of Singh’s campaign was when a heckler accused him of being <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAdb6uGTSfQ">“in bed with the Muslim Brotherhood.”</a> He responded to her by leading the audience in a chant of “love and courage.” The video of the encounter went viral — and he was praised for his response by commentators all over the world.</p>
<h2>‘Love and courage’</h2>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-ndp-leader-jagmeet-singh-battles-racism-in-canadian-politics-with-love-83857">“love and courage” seem to have won the day</a>. Singh’s message clearly resonated with NDP members. Even more than that, his campaign has claimed to have signed up 47,000 new members for the party, although <a href="http://nationalpost.com/news/politics/jagmeet-singh-accused-of-inflating-party-membership-signups">this claim has been disputed</a>.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, Singh has his work cut out for him before Canada’s 2019 federal election. It remains to be seen if Singh will be embraced by the rest of Canada in the same way he has been embraced by the NDP. In particular, it’s unclear whether Singh can win over Quebec, and if he can expand the NDP’s base to Canadians who traditionally vote Liberal or Conservative.</p>
<p>The Quebec question looms over the new NDP leader. Quebec has been seen as essential to the party’s success. The 2011 “orange wave” that swept the NDP to their biggest victory was strongest in Quebec.</p>
<p>In reflecting on his legacy, former NDP leader Tom Mulcair noted that he was <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tom-mulcair-ndp-leadership-exit-1.4307981">most proud of his efforts in Quebec</a>. He added that the party’s future in Quebec was the thing he worried most about <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tom-mulcair-ndp-leadership-exit-1.4307981">going forward</a>. </p>
<p>Conventional wisdom suggests that Singh will face significant hurdles in the province. Religious headgear and symbols are frequently at the centre of heated debate in Quebec. </p>
<p>In 2013, the Quebec Charter of Values was proposed. If passed, the bill would have banned the wearing of “conspicuous” religious symbols for government personnel and mandated that, in order to receive government services, one’s face must be uncovered. </p>
<p>The Charter had the support of <a href="http://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/dan-delmar-its-wrong-to-link-mosque-shooting-quebec-charter-of-values">roughly 50 per cent of the province.</a> Currently, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bill-62-identity-politics-muslim-burqa-1.4250417">Bill-62</a> is being debated in Quebec. The bill would not allow women wearing burkas or niqabs to provide or receive public services. </p>
<h2>Quebecers ‘open-minded’</h2>
<p>Martine Ouellet, the leader of the Bloc Québécois, has condemned Singh for not respecting the separation of church and state. She stated that Singh’s <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/09/18/bloc-leader-martine-ouellet-suggests-jagmeet-singh-is-too-religious-for-quebec_a_23214013/">“primary values are related to his religion”</a> and has argued that’s a problem for those in public office.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188286/original/file-20171002-28521-1wssw0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188286/original/file-20171002-28521-1wssw0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188286/original/file-20171002-28521-1wssw0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188286/original/file-20171002-28521-1wssw0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188286/original/file-20171002-28521-1wssw0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188286/original/file-20171002-28521-1wssw0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188286/original/file-20171002-28521-1wssw0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bloc Quebecois leader Martine Ouellet has been critical of Jagmeet Singh.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Singh has addressed such concerns frequently during his campaign. Quebecers are more <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/09/16/jagmeet-singh-defends-open-minded-quebec-after-mp-s-turban-comment_a_23212022/">“open-minded and open-hearted”</a> than his critics were giving them credit for, he insisted.</p>
<p>During his victory speech, Singh addressed Quebecers directly. He stated that he knew what it is like to have your culture and language marginalized. He said he learned French “in solidarity” and promised to “be an ally in the defence and promotion of” their language and culture. </p>
<p>Perhaps this promise of kinship will be enough to make gains in Quebec, or at least maintain the current NDP base. But it will definitely continue to be a challenge for Singh as 2019 approaches.</p>
<h2>Winning over the rest of Canada</h2>
<p>Another major question is whether Singh can expand the NDP’s base, and win over voters who cast their ballots for either Liberals or Conservatives in the last election. </p>
<p>In 2015, <a href="http://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/jagmeet-singh-and-the-newest-new-ndp/">Trudeau won over many voters who traditionally voted NDP</a>. And he appealed to and attracted young and new Canadians. Trudeau ran the 2015 campaign as the young, fresh, optimistic candidate, in contrast to former prime minister Stephen Harper and Mulcair. </p>
<p>He was 43 years old and taking on much older and more experienced politicians. He utilized social media and connected with young people better than either of his opponents. He championed diversity better, and more fully too. “A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian” and “Canada is strong, not in spite of our differences, but because of them” were campaign slogans that resonated. </p>
<p>But much of what Trudeau used to differentiate himself is no longer in play with Singh in the picture. At 45, Trudeau is now the oldest candidate of a competitive Canadian party — both Singh and Andrew Scheer, the new Conservative leader, are 38.</p>
<p>Singh is the new outsider to federal politics, as he’s never held federal office. And given Singh’s history of working on issues related to racial justice on the provincial level, and his personal identity and the challenges he’s faced, he seems much better-suited to be the champion of people of colour and new Canadians. </p>
<h2>‘Sunny ways’</h2>
<p>In 2015, Trudeau’s “sunny ways” won over more traditionally NDP supporters than Conservative supporters. Can Singh’s “love and courage” win them back? </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188271/original/file-20171001-10771-10rmnp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188271/original/file-20171001-10771-10rmnp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188271/original/file-20171001-10771-10rmnp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188271/original/file-20171001-10771-10rmnp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188271/original/file-20171001-10771-10rmnp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188271/original/file-20171001-10771-10rmnp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188271/original/file-20171001-10771-10rmnp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Can Jagmeet Singh’s love and courage trump Justin Trudeau’s sunny ways?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And if Singh does win them back, will that simply serve to split the left, and allow the Conservatives to regain government? </p>
<p>Singh could actually win over voters that the Conservatives will be counting on. The Conservatives’ biggest gains under Harper were in the suburbs, and with new Canadians. The Conservatives lost much of those voters in 2015, but Scheer will try to win them back. </p>
<p>The Conservatives could benefit from Singh if he simply splits the left and steals votes from the Liberals. But he could also make the NDP more <a href="https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/jagmeet-singh-could-transform-ndp-from-party-of-labour-to-party-of-the-suburbs/article36339853/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&">competitive in the suburbs, and with new Canadians</a>. </p>
<p>Singh has strong ties to the suburbs of Toronto, and to new Canadians and people of colour. If the Conservatives were planning on courting these voters, Singh’s presence could throw a wrench in their plans. And Singh might be able to expand the NDP’s base beyond its traditional demographics of labour groups, and people in urban areas. </p>
<p>The NDP and all Canadians have much to celebrate today. A country that prides itself on multiculturalism finally has a major political party that is led by a person of colour, and one who has spent his career working to address issues of racial injustice and inequality. This is historic, and is a major step for equality and representation in Canada.</p>
<p>But many questions remain between now and the 2019 election. It’s clear that Singh offers a new direction for his party — and perhaps the country. How Canadians will respond to it remains uncertain.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84963/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Megan Dias does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Jagmeet Singh has become the first ethnic minority to become leader of a federal political party. Will his message of “love and courage” best Justin Trudeau’s “sunny ways” in the next federal election?Megan Dias, Research Assistant, Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/838572017-09-26T23:42:36Z2017-09-26T23:42:36ZNew NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh battles racism in Canadian politics with love<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188268/original/file-20171001-22066-1rlf50k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh celebrates with supporters after winning on the first ballot at the party's leadership convention Oct. 1. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It will go down as the defining moment of Jagmeet Singh’s successful campaign for the leadership of the federal New Democratic Party.</p>
<p>Moments into a campaign event on Sept. 6, an angry white woman interrupted Singh and shouted Islamophobic and vitriolic statements at him, and physically gesticulated, demonstrating her feeling of entitlement — to space, voice and position — in relation to others at the event. A video of the incident went viral and has been viewed millions of times in Canada and around the world. </p>
<p>Singh seemed undeterred by the outburst. His response to her rant was <a href="https://youtu.be/j2onmR-oBIY">to rally his audience to help him relay his campaign message</a>. He asked his guests to chant: “Love and courage.”</p>
<p>He returned to those themes in his acceptance speech on Sunday.</p>
<p>“It takes an act of love to realize we are all in this together and an act of courage to demand better, to dream bigger and to fight for a more inclusive and just world,” Singh told his cheering supporters shortly after the results were announced.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/j2onmR-oBIY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In the face of a racist rant, Singh remained calm.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What is the nature of Singh’s call for love? His political slogan is based on a message of universal love and courage. Singh’s message — and chant that evening — was uniquely situated among the slogans of the <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2017/09/16/the-four-candidates-who-would-lead-the-ndp.html">three other candidates</a>: <a href="http://www.charlieangusndp.ca/">Charlie Angus</a> “Got your back,” <a href="http://www.nikiashton2017.ca/">Niki Ashton</a> “Building a movement, together,” and <a href="http://en.guycaron.ca/">Guy Caron,</a> “Let’s build a progressive and sustainable economy.” </p>
<p>The dramatic events at the Sept. 6 meeting demonstrates something about Singh, as a person and as a candidate. It also points to new undercurrents of religion and spirituality and its role in Canadian politics.</p>
<p>Singh’s emergence as the new NDP leader comes in a <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-trump-emboldening-right-wing-extremism-in-canada-82635">climate of increasing hatred</a>, fear and division. His call for universal love is coherent with Sikhism, which challenges the division between daily life and a devotional love that guides all thought and action. How does the language of love and courage relate to a New Democratic Party trying to find its way in a shifting political landscape?</p>
<p>Singh’s outward appearance solicits questions from some Canadians — as in the case of the heckler — regarding his secular position: To what degree does Singh’s religion relate to his policy ideas or conduct? </p>
<h2>Canada: Judeo-Christian values?</h2>
<p>Canadian political institutions and traditions are imbued with Judeo-Christian values and symbols. Yet the separation of church and state maintains religion does not dictate the making of policy and law. However, in the game of politics, courting ethno-racial, national and religious identified voters has become a central art of party campaign strategists. </p>
<p>Political parties of all persuasions have had to navigate this division in a variety of ways. In Canada, the left social democratic tradition, represented now by the NDP, has had less experience with faith-based movements and the religious identity of its leaders than their right-wing counterparts and left-leaning parties elsewhere in the world. Singh’s successful leadership challenge will likely change that. </p>
<p>While Singh is positioned as a secular politician, his ethos, sense of justice and formation of his identity is connected to a Sikh practice. The very essence of the message of universal love and courage is embedded in a Sikh devotion, rather than a secular idea of loving all humankind. Practising Sikhism defines a way of life — one that is contemplative, meditative and committed to spiritualism and positive actions. </p>
<h2>The Clash of Civilizations</h2>
<p>To understand the contemporary role of religion in politics, we need to look at one of our turning points: 9/11. The attacks on New York City and the Pentagon served as a marker of the time foreign and domestic policy in <a href="https://theconversation.com/9-11-anniversary-understanding-extremist-motives-could-stop-further-violence-83773">North America was called upon to name Islamic terrorism as a universal enemy</a>. </p>
<p>Once North America and other western governments embraced <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/1993-06-01/clash-civilizations">the rhetoric of a civilization divide</a>, the psyche of liberal democratic nations split apart. The already tenuous divide between the religious and secular began to rupture further.</p>
<p>This reinforced a binary division and <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/clash-ignorance/">emboldened a powerful discourse of racism and Islamophobia</a>. The basic premise is that Islam represents something universally distinct from Christian belief systems. </p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/books/review/14yoshino.html">discourse of racism and difference</a> has gained strength and societal control through the election of conservative governments with moral platforms that build on fears and anxieties of susceptible citizens. </p>
<p>Sixteen years of corrosive discourses since 9/11 has led to: Us vs. Them, the Clash of Civilizations and racism. We are now at the point of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/quiet-canadian-ugly-american-does-racism-differ-north-of-the-border-81388">normalization of white supremacy</a>. It is no longer an oddity or a left-wing conspiracy theory to discuss the presence of fascism and neo-Nazis — these are events widely circulated in our social media feeds and featured during the evening news. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187148/original/file-20170922-30334-1wszxyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187148/original/file-20170922-30334-1wszxyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187148/original/file-20170922-30334-1wszxyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187148/original/file-20170922-30334-1wszxyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187148/original/file-20170922-30334-1wszxyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187148/original/file-20170922-30334-1wszxyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187148/original/file-20170922-30334-1wszxyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Racism and Islamophobia have been on the rise in the West, which conservative and far-right politicians have capitalized on. Here, President Donald Trump on Aug. 15 defends those who marched with neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., days earlier.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Religious discrimination in Canada</h2>
<p>Islamophobia and racism are often understood to be twinned structures of oppression. In many ways they are, but there are complex differences between them. They disseminate and exist in different political, cultural and social taxonomies. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.mediaed.org/transcripts/Edward-Said-The-Myth-of-Clash-Civilizations-Transcript.pdf">Islamophobia operates through systems of stereotypes</a>, often misunderstanding or misrepresenting the traditions, religious practices and customs of highly diverse ethno-national and racial communities. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/10/is-islamophobia-real-maher-harris-aslan/381411/">Islamophobia</a> has been manufactured in multiple ways in society through popular culture, media, policy and criminalizing targeting Islam and Muslims. </p>
<p>Racism is a larger systemic operation of power denigrating one race while validating or elevating another. </p>
<p>When the Harper Conservatives were in government, they attempted to map onto Canadian national values a form of social conservatism. This was articulated through a distinction between Canada and the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/media-portrays-indigenous-and-muslim-youth-as-savages-and-barbarians-79153">barbaric cultural practices” of others</a>. </p>
<p>The clear lines that were being drawn between what <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2675751009/">Harper referred to as “old stock Canadians”</a> during a 2015 federal leaders’ debate brought into discourse front and center the relationship between white supremacy and Islamophobia. It connected the dots between a normative white Christian Canadian identity that could stand against the racialized others. </p>
<p>Now the Conservative Party has a leader who proudly accepts the label: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AndrewScheerMP/videos/1532870230080057/">“Harper with a Smile.”</a>“ Andrew Scheer has the support of social conservatives in the Conservative Party. He has steadfastly <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/scheer-five-things-policies-1.4137120">supported free speech over the condemnation of Islamophobia</a> and was absent during the House of Commons vote for the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/03/23/m-103-anti-islamophobia-motion-house-passes_n_15567120.html">Anti-Islamophobia Motion M-103</a>, overwhelmingly passed in the House of Commons. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187143/original/file-20170922-20978-3ycnby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187143/original/file-20170922-20978-3ycnby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187143/original/file-20170922-20978-3ycnby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187143/original/file-20170922-20978-3ycnby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187143/original/file-20170922-20978-3ycnby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187143/original/file-20170922-20978-3ycnby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187143/original/file-20170922-20978-3ycnby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Conservative Party of Canada leader Andrew Scheer has been labeled the smiling Harper. Here, he speaks at his shadow cabinet meeting in Winnipeg.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>When losing your cool is not an option</h2>
<p>Singh said his ability to remain cool under pressure was largely owed to his experience of being a brown, Sikh and turbaned man, growing up in the 1980s in Brampton, Ont., just northwest of Toronto. </p>
<p>His past experiences of religious and racist intolerance helped to fortify him against racist language and assault. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187150/original/file-20170922-20978-1w84nbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187150/original/file-20170922-20978-1w84nbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187150/original/file-20170922-20978-1w84nbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187150/original/file-20170922-20978-1w84nbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187150/original/file-20170922-20978-1w84nbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187150/original/file-20170922-20978-1w84nbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187150/original/file-20170922-20978-1w84nbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leadership contender Jagmeet Singh greets supporters before the NDP’s Leadership Showcase in Hamilton, Ont., on Sept. 17.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the moment in which the racist woman yelled at him, she assumed he was a Muslim. Many wondered why Singh did not attempt to correct her misconceived perception; he is not a Muslim, but rather, a Sikh. </p>
<p>Suggesting such a distinction in the moment, he said, would only further the misunderstanding that somehow being Muslim means such treatment is considered justifiable. His reaction, he said, should not be to proclaim his religion. By not correcting this misconception, Singh was acting in solidarity against Islamophobia. </p>
<p>Sikhs have been affected throughout the post-9/11 discourses of Islamophobia, mainly because of this misunderstood identity. In the U.S., and elsewhere, there has been a <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/columnists/sikhs-have-been-living-in-fear-of-hate-crimes-since-911/article4468643/?arc404=true">rise in hate bias attacks against Sikhs</a>, with the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/06/us/shooting-reported-at-temple-in-wisconsin.html">2012 Oak Creek, Wis., shooting</a> as a visible example.</p>
<p>While there are those who, in the similar vein as Singh, have sought to challenge Islamophobia by standing in solidarity, there have also been many instances where Sikhs in America, the U.K. and Canada painstakingly distinguish themselves from Muslims. </p>
<p>However, in countless examples, when Islamophobia is experienced in the public sphere against properly identified Muslims, there has been a lack of outcry. </p>
<p>In Canada, the <a href="https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/quebec-city-mosque-shooting-what-we-know-so-far/article33826078/">shooting deaths in Quebec’s Sainte-Foy’s Mosque</a>, in which Azzedine Soufiane, Khaled Belkacemi, Aboubakar Thabthi, Abdelkrim Hassane, Mamadou Tanou Barry, and Ibrahim Barry were killed, was unmistakably an act of terrorism. Canadians across the country mourned this tragedy. And yet was it recognized as an act of terrorism against the citizens of this state?</p>
<p>The day-to-day effects of Islamophobia have led to many <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/hate-crimes-muslims-statscan-1.4158042">Muslims living with heightened experiences of fear</a> and not knowing what they might encounter on a walk to school, a day at work or even waiting for a bus. </p>
<p>The left social-democrats of the NDP hold steadfastly to their conception of justice, fairness and equality in a secular world. The ways in which people are encountering the public today, however, is seemingly much murkier than these stark divisions. </p>
<p>The issues of racism, religious intolerance and social justice are not central issues for any federal political party. These issues, however, should no longer be viewed as separate from major policy platforms including health, welfare reform, employment, national defense, national security, aboriginal relations and education. Perhaps a political leader such as Jagmeet Singh will be able to navigate these debates with an alacrity and style we have yet to witness in the Canadian political world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83857/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Davina Bhandar does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Jagmeet Singh is the new leader of the federal New Democratic Party. Singh brings an unprecedented diversity to the role of being the leader of a major Canadian political party.Davina Bhandar, Adjunct Professor in School of Communication and Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/723022017-03-02T13:22:31Z2017-03-02T13:22:31ZYoung non-Muslims face Islamophobia too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158955/original/image-20170301-5529-uyjk95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Muslims?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Islamophobia simply cannot be overlooked anymore. It is a wide-ranging issue, impacting public and private lives in ways that are causing concern the world over. US president Donald Trump’s recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-might-a-trump-presidency-mean-for-muslims-and-the-muslim-world-68662">immigration ban</a> and the UK’s <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/post-brexit-racism-heres-how-you-can-report-hate-crimes_uk_5773a28de4b0220ef54fc1f5?al3anhfr">Brexit vote</a> are just two examples in a series of political acts that are shaping public attitudes about Muslims, with many experiencing stigmatisation and marginalisation as a result. </p>
<p>The rise in Islamophobia experienced by Muslims is <a href="https://theconversation.com/eight-ways-that-islamophobia-operates-in-everyday-life-64444">not just conjecture</a>: in 2015, reported Islamophobic incidents increased <a href="https://www.tellmamauk.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf/tell_mama_2015_annual_report.pdf">200% in the UK</a> and <a href="http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Anti-Muslim-attacks-up-78-9229661.php?cmpid=twitter-desktop">78% in the US</a>. And it is predicted that they will continue <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-chris-allen/trump-wins-islamophobia-r_b_13168648.html">to rise</a> unless we do something about it. </p>
<p>But Islamophobia does not just affect Muslims. A wide variety of people of different faiths, ages and countries of origin are being attacked for being “Muslim”. Despite the fact that they may not follow the Islamic faith, they are labelled as such because of their skin colour, facial features, or hair texture and style.</p>
<h2>Misrecognition and Islamophobia</h2>
<p>Though Islamophobia is being experienced by diverse people of all ages, it is the lives of young people that are shaped, and their perception of society formed, by it. </p>
<p>Speaking to 382 teenagers and young adults from diverse ethnic and religious minority groups in Scotland, we found that most have experienced some form of this racism after <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/24694452.2016.1270192">being mistaken for Muslim</a>. </p>
<p>Nearly all of the 33 young Sikhs who participated in our study recalled being misrecognised as Muslim. This was the same for young Hindus and other South Asian young people, as well as black African and Caribbean youths. In some cases, south Asian Christians attending a Catholic school in central Scotland were assumed to be Muslim simply due to their ethnicity. Likewise, some Central and Eastern European migrants, originally from Slovakia, Romania and the Czech Republic, were also mistaken for being Muslim. According to one young man, some of his Slovakian friends had been assumed to be Muslim because they “look Pakistani”. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PBAWZd6yn5s?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>For the young people in our research, misrecognition is not limited to unfamiliar or open public places. Though schools are a vital place for teaching young people about diversity, we found that misrecognition was prevalent. Though the racism might not be overt, some young participants reported there was simply a lack of knowledge among teachers and support staff. Meanwhile, teachers told us that there were not enough staff development opportunities to discuss contemporary forms of racism and Islamophobia.</p>
<p>In public places, yet still in terms of personal interactions, young adults in their early twenties also recalled awkward conversations with taxi drivers where they were mistaken for being Muslim. Some students – particularly international students – were anxious about having to negotiate <a href="http://www.sipr.ac.uk/downloads/SIPR-GMU_2014/lum.pdf">airport security</a> where they felt they were unjustifiably placed under surveillance. For others, their mere presence in certain spaces provoked some to glare, making it clear they were not welcome. </p>
<h2>Fighting back</h2>
<p>Though they are certainly being victimised by misrecognition and racism, some participants said that they do not passively accept it. Many choose to engage with the perpetrator openly and positively, or respond with one of a suite of prepared witty remarks. Some also use misidentification as an opportunity to educate others about their religious faith. The most concerning response, however, was that a minority avoid social contact where possible out of fear that they will experience racism. </p>
<p>For those who participated in our study, it is the way that political events are represented by politicians and in the media that has largely encouraged misrecognition. Participants said that events such as 9/11, 7/7, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22630304">the Woolwich attack</a> and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azp031">“war on terror”</a> all contributed to the idea that ‘brown-skinned’ people are a threat to national security. A young Sikh from Glasgow told us, “They just link the turban and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/aug/08/sikhs-targeted-anti-muslim-extremists">terrorist</a>. ”</p>
<p>These young people were eager to see “Asian” communities represented as being diverse rather than as only “Pakistani” and Muslim. At present, they feel the media only reinforces stereotypes about black and minority ethnic communities. </p>
<p>The key to stopping this kind of racism is education – but this is no easy task. Addressing misrecognition requires social institutions such as schools, colleges, universities and government departments to change. Increasing awareness about ethnic and religious diversity as well the <a href="http://www.makinghistories.org.uk/">history of migration and race</a>, will give people the vocabulary to discuss such issues fairly and equitably. </p>
<p>Being misrecognised impacts on young people’s sense of self-worth and well-being and it denies people a sense of identity. As society stands now, Islamophobic acts – whether against Muslims or others – are at best limiting individuals, and at worse eroding civil liberties. </p>
<p>We all need to understand that Islamophobia affects more than Muslims: it is a community-wide issue that everyone has a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/13/how-do-i-respond-racial-abuse-public-transport-onlookers-silent">responsibility to challenge</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72302/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/K/000594/1) to conduct research on the experiences of Islamophobia of young ethnic and religious minority people living in Scotland. The findings from this study inform this article. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gurchathen Sanghera receives funding from Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/K/000594/1) to conduct research on the experiences of Islamophobia of young ethnic and religious minority people living in Scotland. The findings from this study inform this article</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine Botterill receives funding from Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/K/000594/1) to conduct research on the experiences of Islamophobia of young ethnic and religious minority people living in Scotland. The findings from this study inform this article</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rowena Arshad erill receives funding from Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/K/000594/1) to conduct research on the experiences of Islamophobia of young ethnic and religious minority people living in Scotland. The findings from this study inform this article.
I am a member of the Labour Party.</span></em></p>The lives of young non-Muslims are being shaped by Islamophobia in public and private spaces.Peter Hopkins, Professor of Social Geography, Newcastle UniversityGurchathen Sanghera, Lecturer, University of St AndrewsKatherine Botterill, Lecturer in Human Geography, Edinburgh Napier UniversityRowena Arshad, Head of Moray House School of Education, The University of EdinburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/221902014-01-21T06:42:57Z2014-01-21T06:42:57ZUK role in 1984 temple raid will affect British Sikh identity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39440/original/dzwtv678-1390238554.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Golden Temple is one of Sikhism's most important sites.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Claude Renault</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This year, the commemorations of the centenary of World War I will recognise the contribution of the approximately 130,000 Sikh soldiers <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/sikh-soldiers-great-war-effort-told-at-last-8896757.html">who fought for the British Army</a> in the Great War. These martial links, alongside the historical connections between the Sikhs and the British monarchy (dating back to the close bond between <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/duleep-singh">Maharajah Duleep Singh</a> and Queen Victoria), have meant that among minority groups in the UK, the British have often regarded Sikhs as a “favoured community”.</p>
<p>This favouritism has served British Sikhs well over the years, for instance allowing for the successful negotiation of opt-out clauses relating to wearing the turban instead of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/rules-motorcyclists-83-to-88">motorcycle helmets</a>, as many policy makers in the 1970s and 80s retained a collective memory of turbaned Sikh soldiers fighting for the British army. </p>
<p>Indeed, following the events of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23514583">Operation Blue Star</a> in 1984, in which the Golden Temple and surrounding historical Sikh Gurdwaras were stormed and severely damaged, many in the Sikh diaspora began to disassociate themselves from the Indian state, being unable to understand why their homeland’s government had felt that there had been no other option but to storm their holiest shrine.</p>
<p>But thirty years on from Operation Blue Star, letters disclosed under the 30 year rule and detailed by the <a href="http://stopdeportations.wordpress.com/2014/01/13/revealed-sas-advised-1984-amritsar-raid/">Stop Deportations website</a> on 13 January 2014 have sent shockwaves through Sikh circles. A key paragraph in one of the letters indicates that a British SAS officer had assisted in the planning of the raid with the agreement of the then British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Indian authorities recently sought British advice over a plan to remove Sikh extremists from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The Foreign Secretary decided to respond favourably to the Indian request and, with the Prime Minister’s agreement, an SAD [sic] officer has visited India and drawn up a plan which has been approved by Mrs Gandhi.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Although it is not yet known if the plan drawn up by the SAS officer was implemented, or if multiple visits were made, the tone of the letter also highlights that the British authorities were well aware of the sensitivities of becoming involved in the operation:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>An operation by the Indian authorities at the Golden Temple … [might also] increase tension in the Indian community here, particularly if knowledge of the SAS involvement were to become public. We have impressed upon the Indians the need for security; and knowledge of the SAS officer’s visit and of his plan has been tightly held both in India and in London.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Finally, the decision to instigate Operation Blue Star has often been described as a last resort, with the general who led the assault on the temple, Lieutenant General KS Brar <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/14/david-cameron-inquiry-british-role-amritsar-attack-sas">stating</a>: “It was a last-minute operation because the prime minister was negotiating with the Sikh leaders to arrive at an amicable solution. As a last resort, she ordered the operation.” The fact that the letters disclosed are dated February 1984 indicates that the operation may in fact have been planned well in advance, a notion which has been presented for some time in various <a href="http://www.naujawani.com/blog/a-british-role-in-1984">Sikh circles</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39441/original/9j84tf9w-1390238725.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39441/original/9j84tf9w-1390238725.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39441/original/9j84tf9w-1390238725.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39441/original/9j84tf9w-1390238725.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39441/original/9j84tf9w-1390238725.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39441/original/9j84tf9w-1390238725.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39441/original/9j84tf9w-1390238725.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sikh soldiers served in the British army in both world wars.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Why would the British government become involved in an operation which they knew would impact directly on the British Sikh community? In the days following last week’s disclosures, the alleged assistance provided to the Indian government has been linked by some to Indo-British arms deals which were taking place at the time, in particular the <a href="http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Westland-deal-SAS-link/story-20449001-detail/story.html">Westlands helicopter deal</a>. If these allegations are true, it would suggest that in the case of Operation Blue Star, economic concerns outweighed those of the British (Sikh) people.</p>
<h2>Domestic effects</h2>
<p>Recent surveys of British Sikhs have found a large majority are proud of being British and of living in Britain. <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1vqdZby8dDwC&lpg=PP1&dq=sikhs%20in%20europe&pg=PA253#v=onepage&q=sikh-ing&f=false">My own survey</a> of religious transmission practices among 18-30 year old British Sikhs found that more than 75% of respondents identified as British. Similarly, the <a href="http://www.britishsikhreport.org/british-sikh-report-download-2013/">British Sikh Report 2013</a> found that 95% of their respondents were proud of being born or living in Britain. It will be interesting to monitor how these feelings are affected by these revelations.</p>
<p>Immediate reactions to the disclosures on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SikhsForJusticePage">social media</a> from British Sikhs highlighted feelings of betrayal, with young British-born Sikhs in particular stating that they were now reassessing their British-ness. Many mentioned the contribution their grandfathers and great grandfathers had made to World War I and World War II, and expressed shock that these contributions could mean so little. Having rejected their Indian identity as a consequence of the events of 1984, many stated that they now did not feel totally British either.</p>
<p>This highlights that an individual’s identification with a nation state depends primarily on how that state protects their interests. British Sikhs identify as British because their relationship with the UK has so far been mutually beneficial, with Sikhs contributing fully to British society and Britain providing Sikhs with opportunities to do so. If the disclosures from the 1980s are true, it means that in 1984 the British state did not protect the interests of its Sikh citizens; as a result, these citizens may now turn to identities which appear more secure and stable, in particular religious identities.</p>
<p>If the disclosures about Britain’s role in operation Blue Star are true, it may drive a new emotional distance between British-born Sikhs and the country with which they have so far identified – and it will take an immense effort on the part of the British government to rebuild their long-standing trust.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22190/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasjit Singh receives funding from the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council)</span></em></p>This year, the commemorations of the centenary of World War I will recognise the contribution of the approximately 130,000 Sikh soldiers who fought for the British Army in the Great War. These martial…Jasjit Singh, Postdoctoral Research and Impact Fellow, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/86912012-08-08T04:27:30Z2012-08-08T04:27:30ZGuns, Sikhs and Obama’s political inertia on domestic terror<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/13984/original/z5gp9h4q-1344389668.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sheriff John Edwards addresses the Sikh community in Oak Creek in the wake of the shooting.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Kamil Krzaczynski</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Immediately after the Oak Creek massacre, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/07/us/sikhs-mourn-victims-and-lament-post-9-11-targeting.html">many</a> <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/cnn-sikhs-unfairly-mistaken-for-muslims">suspected</a> the killings were a continuation of the post-9/11 wave of attacks on Sikhs who were mistaken for Muslims because of their turbans and beards. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.rediff.com/us/2003/sep/03sodhi.htm">most notorious</a> of these attacks came just four days after 9/11, when Frank Roque murdered gas station owner Balbir Singh Sodhi in Mesa, Arizona after publicly declaring his intention to “go out and shoot some towel-heads”. According to the FBI there were 295 attacks on Sikhs in the weeks following 9/11, and the Sikh Coalition says there have been more than <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/06/us/sikhs-bias-crimes/index.html">700 attacks</a> in the years since. <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2011/summer/two-sikhs-murdered-in-california-were">Just last year</a> two elderly Sikh men were shot dead in Sacramento, which the Southern Poverty Law Centre identified as part of a “year-long rash of anti-Muslim hate.”</p>
<p>There was always something misleading about this narrative of innocent Sikhs being “mistaken” for Muslims. Someone who is prepared to kill people based on their appearance is probably indifferent to the distinctions between different eastern religions. Retaliation against the misdeeds of Islam is an excuse rather than a reason for racist violence. </p>
<p>The Oak Creek shooter has been identified as Wade Michael Page, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/06/wade-michael-page-band-end-apathy_n_1748836.html">front-man of a skinhead band called End Apathy</a> who had <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-investigators-kept-tabs-alleged-sikh-temple-shooter-20120806,0,2390104.story">previously been on the radar of Federal investigators</a> because of his ties to white supremacist groups. As he was shot dead by police we may never know his exact motive, but it seems unlikely he would have cared that he shot up a Temple rather than a Mosque.</p>
<p>Despite the FBI’s designation of this mass shooting as <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-06/wisconsin-sikh-shooting-probed-by-fbi-as-domestic-terror.html">“domestic terrorism”</a>, President Obama has taken the same extremely cautious approach that he took to the Colorado movie theatre massacre less than a month previously. He <a href="http://thehill.com/video/administration/242423-obama-nation-soul-searching-in-wake-of-wisconsin-colorado-shooting">told reporters</a> on Monday: </p>
<p><em>If it turns out, as early reports indicate, that it may have been motivated in some way by the ethnicity of those who were attending the temple, I think the American people immediately recoil against those kinds of attitudes.</em></p>
<p>He called for “soul searching” to examine “additional ways to reduce violence”. Obama does not want to be accused of jumping to conclusions about the politics of the shooter, and he wants to avoid any suggestion that he will use this massacre to push for stricter gun control.</p>
<p>For some it doesn’t matter what Obama actually says or does; in the minds of right-wing fantasists he is always plotting the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74ac3symMGk">seizure of guns</a> and the <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2009/08/11/conservatives-push-conspiracy-theory-that-obama/153197">persecution of conservatives</a>. The National Rifle Association has <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2012/jun/15/nra-right-obama-coming-our-guns/">repeatedly accused</a> Obama of being a “crusader” for gun control, despite his record of near-silence on the issue that has disappointed every gun control advocate from <a href="http://www.ketknbc.com/news/bloomberg-blasts-deafening-silence-on-guns-from-obama-and-romney">Michael Bloomberg</a> to <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/brothers-in-arms-yes-but-the-us-needs-to-get-rid-of-its-guns-20120731-23ct7.html">John Howard</a>. </p>
<p>Mitt Romney tried to exploit these fears when he <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/13/mitt-romney-nra-beware_n_1424081.html">warned the NRA national convention</a> that if Obama were re-elected, “our freedoms would be in the hands of an Obama court, not just for the next four years, but for the next 40”. Romney is also considered suspect by the gun lobby but he does not inspire the same kind of paranoia as the President, whom even mainstream Republicans <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/04/obama-socialist-claim-history_n_1568470.html">routinely call a “socialist”</a> and is <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/Politics-and-Elections/2012-romney-mormonism-obamas-religion.aspx">still thought to be a Muslim</a> by 34% of conservative Republicans.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/13993/original/2zzqzyjb-1344391409.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/13993/original/2zzqzyjb-1344391409.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/13993/original/2zzqzyjb-1344391409.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/13993/original/2zzqzyjb-1344391409.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/13993/original/2zzqzyjb-1344391409.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/13993/original/2zzqzyjb-1344391409.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/13993/original/2zzqzyjb-1344391409.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As President, Bill Clinton enacted major gun control legislation. Obama has shied away from similar moves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Laura Friezer</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Progressives often <a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/07/23/barack_obama_bill_clinton_and_guns/">compare Obama unfavourably with Bill Clinton</a> on the issue of gun control. Following a shooting rampage on a New York train in 1993, Clinton almost immediately demanded legislation restricting assault weapons with high-capacity magazines, <a href="http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/07/usa-wisconsin-sikh-shooting-weapon-idINDEE87603L20120807">of the same kind that have featured in nearly every recent mass shooting</a>. The subsequent assault weapons ban passed by the Democratic Congress was not popular. </p>
<p>Democrats blamed it for their massive losses in the 1994 Congressional election, where they lost control of the House for the first time in 40 years. In the extremely close 2000 election, Al Gore’s tie-breaking vote in the senate to renew the ban was almost certainly a factor in his defeat. So, while Obama has previously expressed <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-calls-for-consensus-on-violence-problem-romney-says-guns-in-attack-obtained-illegally/2012/07/25/gJQAqt2AAX_story.html">tepid support</a> for reinstating the now expired ban, it is easy to see why he has tried to dodge the issue by saying that <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/barack-obama-assault-weapons-ban.php">Congress would never pass it</a>.</p>
<p>For now Americans seem prepared to live with the fact that the Second Amendment, <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/23/120423fa_fact_lepore?currentPage=all">as it is currently interpreted</a>, will protect the rights of citizens to amass arsenals of semi-automatic weapons. </p>
<p>Some of these arsenals will be in the hands of members of fringe political and religious groups. After the violent catastrophes of <a href="http://articles.cnn.com/2011-04-14/us/waco.koresh.believers_1_waco-sheila-martin-david-koresh?_s=PM:US">Waco</a> and <a href="http://reason.com/archives/1993/10/01/ambush-at-ruby-ridge">Ruby Ridge</a> inspired the <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2001/09/mcveigh200109">most lethal act of domestic terrorism in American history</a>, Americans have been wary of government attempts to crack down on heavily armed political and religious subcultures, even unpopular ones.</p>
<p>Americans are unwilling to give away any rights over acts of domestic terrorism. The same cannot be said for terrorism without the “domestic” label. This is why the distinction between the two continues to be politically important. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/8691/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Immediately after the Oak Creek massacre, many suspected the killings were a continuation of the post-9/11 wave of attacks on Sikhs who were mistaken for Muslims because of their turbans and beards. The…David Smith, Lecturer in American Politics and Foreign Policy, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.