The Sikh Diaspora: The Search for Statehood

Abstract

This book offers an overview of the Sikh diaspora, exploring the relationship between home and host states and between migrant and indigenous communities. in the search for statehood Tatla 1999, Axel 2001. According to Sikh diaspora, through its location and involvement in Punjabi affairs, has helped in providing. The Sikh Diaspora: The Search for Statehood: Darshan Singh Tatla. This thoughtful work is part of a series on global diasporas associated with. on overseas Sikh diaspora communities in Britain 475

The resurgence of Bhindranwale's image in contemporary Punjab

“…The Sikh diaspora, as Axel argues, presents a global canvas for this consciousness of critique of the Indian army's actions in 1984 while also encouraging a fetishisation of a great Sikh historical past. Tatla (1999) presents the global Sikh diaspora's position as one of response and activism around deep-felt grievances and marginalisation after the events of 1984, which situated Sikh identity not only in opposition to the Indian state who had desecrated their holiest shrine but also led some to mobilise these sentiments into a 'search for a homeland'.…”

Mobilizing in transnational space: a social movement approach to the formation of diaspora

“…For the Kashmiris in Britain, the local branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, the party that started the insurgency in Indian Kashmir, played a central role (Ellis and Khan 1998), but different associations like the British Kashmiri Association, or the Kashmiri National Identity Campaign, have also been established and produce the imagination of a Kashmiri community (Ali 2003). In the Sikh diaspora, transnationally organized associations like the World Sikh Organization, the Sikh Youth Federation and local gurudwaras (Sikh temples) with their 'community leaders' produce and reproduce the discourse of the (transnational) Sikh nation (Tatla 1999). For the Tamil diaspora the central organization is the LTTE 7 (Fuglerud 1999).…”

“…Like the commemoration of the Sivas victims among Alevis, personal loss was turned into an issue for the whole community and many protest rallies and conventions were organized. Such practices offer opportunities to participate in communal activities and to identify publicly as members of the community (Tatla 1999). The writings on the Kashmiri diaspora unfortunately give no hint of what mobilizing practices brought about the reorientation of people from seeing themselves as Pakistanis or Punjabis to identifying as Kashmiris.…”

“…In the Sikh diaspora, conflicting factions and organizations emerged at the level of local associations as well as at the translocal level. The World Sikh Organization and the Sikh Youth Federation were bound to each other in serious dispute, also for control of local gurudwaras, and there was considerable conflict and factionalism within the associations (Tatla 1999). In the Tamil diaspora (as among Tamils in Sri Lanka) the main rift is between 'the people of the movement', namely the LTTE and its supporters, on the one hand and those who do not support the stance of the LTTE on the other.…”

Canadian-born Sikh daughters: Experiencing life through a mixture of cultural influences.

“…A common cause of parent-child struggles is the difference in rates of acculturation (Tatla, 1998 Relations between parents and youth tend to be conceptualized in over-simplified, dichotomous terms positing the parallel and conflicting pairs of objectifications of parents/children, Indian/Western, and traditional/modern, positions which are separated by an unbridgeable generation gap.…”