Table Of Contents 'Sikhs At Large - Religion Culture and Politics in Global Prespective' Book by Verne A Dusenbury

Introduction Of Book 'Sikhs At Large - Religion Culture and Politics in Global Prespective' Book by Verne A Dusenbury

The essays collected in this volume constitute a selection of articles and book chapters addressing two related topics that have engaged my interest as a socio-cultural anthropologist during more than three decades of research with Sikhs in the United States, Canada, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, and India. The first is what, following the work of Mckim Marriott, I have termed Sikh 'ethnosociology'---that is, Sikh understandings of their social world and their place in it, as reflected in what Sikhs say and what Sikhs do as they live their lives, interacting with other Sikhs and with non Sikhs. The second is how Sikhs have responded to the fact that in every country of residence they constitute a minority, living under political conditions not of their own making. Of course, the two topics are not unconnected. How Sikhs understand their world affects how they respond to the political settings in which they live their lives---and vice versa. Thus, the book is really about emerging cultural understandings and political stratagems of a paradigmatic transnational religious group---the Sikhs----as I have observed them and engaged with them in multiple global sites over a span of more than three decades.

The past forty years have included many historically important events affecting Sikhs: the Green Revolution in India's Punjab state and its social, economic, and environmental consequences; the accelerated transnational migration of Sikhs taking place in the context of global political concerns over multiculturalism; an unprecedented conversion of non-Punjabis in Western countries to Sikhism; the rise and fall of the Khalistan movement for Sikh sovereignty and of the accompanying state-versus-militant political violence that engulfed Punjab; the liberalization of the Indian economy and an attempted Government of India rapprochement with the Indian diaspora. Given these developments, one must read these essays aware of their placement within this evolving historical context.  To that end, I have made every attempt to indicate the original date of publication of each essay and the time period in which the fieldwork on which it is based was conducted.