Journal of Religion in Europe Journal of Religion in Europe 6 (2013) 483–493 brill.com/jre
Book Reviews
Knut Jacobsen and Kristina Myrvold (eds.) Sikhs in Europe: Migration, Identities and Representations (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011), 360 pp., Hardback, 74,99 €, ISBN: 978-1-4094-2434-5.
Sikhs in Europe brings together in a single volume an impressive selection of insightful and ground-breaking essays which offer nuanced and context-sensitive interpretations of Sikh experiences in various geopolitical settings across Europe. Each of the essays is based on fieldwork and presents new empirical data on vari- ous aspects of Sikh diasporic experiences in eleven distinct European contexts. The volume is divided into three parts. “Part I: Sikhs in Northern and Eastern Europe” opens with Knut A. Jacobsen’s “Institutionalization of Sikhism in Norway.” Jacobsen argues the success of the Norwegian panth can be traced to both internal and external factors: the impulse for seva among panthis and the support of the Norwegian state. In “The Sikh Community in Denmark,” Helene Ilkjaer locates a cyclical rupture – one tethered to Sikh political mobilization on the question of Khalistan – between those Sikhs who emphasize praxis and those who see the ten- ets of modern Sikh orthodoxy as normative. Noting a ‘drop in’ pattern of migration in “The Swedish Sikhs,” Kristina Myrvold suggests that while ‘religion’ dominates public discourse, representations, and recognition of Sikhs in Sweden, second gen- eration Sikhs are more inclined to distinguish between ‘religion’ and ‘culture’ than are first generation migrants. Laura Hirvi breaks new ground in her exploration of Finland’s nascent Sikh community of merely 600. Hirvi’s analysis points to the pragmatics of migration to account for why Finland’s Sikhs have sought employ- ment in the food and liquor service sectors. Zbigniew Igielski documents the Sikh diaspora in post-cold war Poland. Igielski interprets Poland largely as a ‘transit country’ through which Sikh migrants can make their way to other European destinations. The geopolitical focus of the essays shifts to “Sikhs in Southern Europe” in Part II. “Mirror Games” by Barbara Bertolani, Federica Ferraris, and Fabio Perocco explores the possibility of an enduring Orientalism to account for Indian migrant experiences in Italy. Unlike their South Asian counterparts who are understood in Italy as naturally connected to the land and therefore are best suited to agrarian life, Sikhs have projected their religious identity in order to capitalize on local Italian ‘expectations of exotic spirituality.’ Christine Moliner’s “‘Did You Get Papers?’ Sikh Migrant in France” explores the underbelly of Sikh illegal migration.
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2013 DOI 10.1163/18748929-00604003
In her analysis, Moliner ventures down an underexplored avenue in diaspora stud- ies. In the Sikh case, Moliner’s early findings suggest caste and family networks, among other things, allow these Sikhs to negotiate the clandestine and alienating life of illegal migrants. Kathryn Lum’s essay focuses on identity politics of the Ravidasia community in Catalonia, Spain. Importantly, “Caste, Religion, and Community Assertion” highlights the transnational, or perhaps more accurately the trans-state, dimension of Ravidasia identity politics when Lum considers the 2009 ‘Vienna incident’ and its effects on the Catalonian panth. Finally, Niki Papgeorgiou documents the recent and seemingly peripheral settlement of Sikh migrants to Greece. Papgeorgiou locates the gurdwara and religious identity as sites of resistance to cultural assimilation. “Part III: Sikhs in the United Kingdom and Ireland” opens with “Sikh Diversity in the UK: Contexts and Evolution.” Eleanor Nesbitt offers a nuanced and erudite analysis of Sikh identity politics in the UK. Nesbitt attributes what she calls ‘situa- tional and plural identities’ to successive waves of Sikh migrants differing vastly in their backgrounds (locality, language, caste, politics, etc.) who attempt, each in their own ways, to triangulate between ‘tradition,’ ‘scripture,’ and ‘globalization.’ Globalization and plural identities have contributed to the appeal and growth of Sikh Youth Camps in the UK. Jasjit Singh argues in “Sikh-izing Beliefs: British Sikh Camps in the UK” that these camps are sites in which British Sikh youth may resist ‘traditional’ channels of religious transmission while at the same time create space in which to affirm revitalized interpretations of Sikhism. The question of plural identities is problematized in Opinderjit Kaur Takhar’s “The Valmiki, Ravidasi, and Namdhari Communities in Britain: Self-representations and Transmission of Traditions.” As distinctive communities within the broader panth, these groups in the UK are encouraging the rejection of hybrid identities as a means of preserving their distinctive identities. One can readily draw parallels between the Takhar and Papgeorgiou’s essays. By contrast, Glenn Jordan and Satwinder Singh document the attempt to ‘return’ and to prioritize religious and cultural identity by Sikhs liv- ing Ireland who, over several generations, have become disconnected with what they understand to be their Sikh heritage. Jacobsen and Myrvold have taken on a ground-breaking and Herculean task with this volume: the breadth of possible content is wide and the theoretical and methodological possibilities are deep. Those who work in the field of diaspora studies or transnationalism may find the essays in this volume conservative in their theoretical scope. For example, much more could be said about the economic links between Sikh communities in Europe and the ‘homeland’ (e.g., in the form of remittances), as well as between Europe’s Sikh communities themselves. Similarly, the de-territorialization of Sikh space through social media deserves greater atten- tion. In addition, there are geopolitical sites that are notable by their absence, par- ticularly the Sikh communities in the Netherlands, in Germany, and in Russia. These ‘gaps,’ however, should in no way be taken as a criticism of the volume as a