A sense of place: Sikh identity in Great Britain and Hong Kong
Although evidence points to Sikhs being present on the day that Hong Kong became a British territory, Sikhs in Hong Kong remain a relatively unexamined group. Based on data gathered as part of a wider study of processes of religious transmission among young British Sikhs and on fieldwork carried out among the Sikh community in Hong Kong, this article follows Dusenbery's (2008) studies of Sikhs around the world to focus on a) how Sikhs understand their place in their social world and b) how they respond to being a minority in every country in which they are resident. Examining the literature on Hong Kong Sikhs in relation to their status and position within wider Hong Kong society, I compare the contexts, issues and challenges faced by Sikhs in Hong Kong with those in Great Britain. The article demonstrates that although many Sikhs have links to the Punjab, local context and local imaginings impact on religious identity and citizenship.
'Who the hell do you think you are?' Promoting religious identity among young Hindus in Britain
This article explores how Hindu activism in Britain challenges our understanding of the relationship between ethnicity and religion. It argues against the prevalent model in which Hindu identity is understood as a natural ‘product’ of ethnic identity development. Instead, this article calls for thinking about current religious activism as a response to multicultural politics, national belonging and the experience of being an ethnic minority. Based on anthropological fieldwork, the article examines the development of an organization that has successfully established Hindu societies across the UK, one that changed from initially being pro-Hindu to one that espouses Hindutva. The analysis of the rhetoric of a pro-Hindu speech reveals the aims of this group to distinguish themselves from other Asians, particularly the Muslim minority. Such examples of religious activism among “diaspora” youth require us to rethink our understandings of the connections between religion and ethnicity.
When the Gods Drink Milk! Empiricism and Belief in Contemporary Hinduism
The permeability of the boundary between religion and politics in India has already been highlighted in many studies. In reality, ever since Independence, the separation established by the Indian constitution between these two central domains of social life has always been rather tenuous. But it is only during the last two decades that a large-scale movement openly questioning the principle has emerged. In effect, political parties appealing to Hinduism have been making a concerted attempt to turn it into the more or less explicit basis for a national state culture, which would replace the purely secular ideals prevailing until now. ~ I