Group Maintenance and Ethnic Commitment

In the twentieth century, as the boundaries between Hindus and Sikhs have sharpened, religion and secular politics have become inseparable for a majority of Sikhs. Their struggle for political recognition as a community has spanned the pre- and post-independence periods in India, with notable successes in 1925, in securing gurdwara reform legislation, and in 1965, in obtaining a Sikh majority state. When they have gone abroad, Sikhs have been equally active in fighting for recognition, readily translating past experience into action in their new context.

Because a majority of Canadian Sikhs originate in the same small region of Punjab, they possess a community of personal and blood relationships as well as common associations that would exist without the added bond of religion. Moreover, because most come from rural landowning families, they possess a community without class distinctions (although conscious of caste). As a consequence, aspiring leaders emerge from all sides – with ambition, ability, and force of personality the primary prerequisites – and their rivalries have contributed to the schisms and fractiousness that so far have made it impossible for Canadian Sikhs to create a lasting national organization.

Viewed at an organizational level, the Sikhs in Canada appear localized and divided, although when threatened from the outside they show cohesion. Among them, family and family networks are probably more instrumental and reach further than religious or political organizations. Individuals enter the Sikh faith through their families and when they identify themselves as Sikhs they are also making a statement about family background. The importance of family loyalties can be seen in gurdwara elections, which are typically contested by the representatives of family alliances. Immigration contributes to this situation, particularly when it is an immigration of family members who enter Canada as the beneficiaries of sponsoring relatives. The resulting obligations and dependencies form an essential understructure for the Sikhs community in Canada today.

Aside from the family, the gurdwara remains the main institution of the Sikhs – the usual destination of financial donations and the principal focus of political activity. As long as gurdwaras are managed by an immigrant generation, they will have difficulty in reaching young people raised and educated in Canada, some of whom feel like outsiders among their own people. Sikhs in Canada lack an adequate range of programs for youth, seniors, and women, but younger Sikhs are currently stepping forward to organize activities and provide facilities. In the process they are developing an alternate set of institutions. Family ties continue to bind the community and renewal is coming through immigration. Recent immigration of Sikhs from Britain is having an impact – even though their numbers are small – because British Sikhs possess a vibrant and confident sense of their culture. In the future, this sense will develop more noticeably in Canada as the Canadian-born assume a larger role in Sikh community life.