Between Colonialism and Diaspora: Sikh Cultural Formations in an Imperial World, by Tony Ballantyne. Duke University Press: Durham, 2006. 229 pages. Summarised by Douglas Tennant.

RS 398 – Directed Reading Course - book summary. 

Douglas Tennant B.Sc., B.A., CMMIII,

Instructor:  Dr. Doris Jakobsh

April 4, 2018

Between Colonialism and Diaspora: Sikh Cultural Formations in an Imperial World, by Tony Ballantyne. Duke University Press: Durham, 2006. 229 pages. Summarised by Douglas Tennant.

A book summary of Between Colonialism and Diaspora: Sikh Cultural Formations in an Imperial World, by Tony Ballantyne.

Introduction

Tony Ballantyne, is a professor and senior lecturer in the History and Art History Department at University of Otago Asian Studies in New Zealand. His book is based upon research he conducted for his Ph.D. and which was completed under the auspices of a grant from the University of Otago.

Ballantyne intends the book to be less of a traditional academic history book about the Sikh religion and more of the essence that it “be read as an attempt to reframe the Sikh past through close attention to the cultural traffic within, and especially across, the boundaries of the community as Punjabis have confronted both colonialism and diaspora…” (Ballantyne, xiv). Indeed, the author examines in poignant detail, specific constituent aspects of Sikh historiography, art and culture, and the impacts of colonialism and post-modernity that have moulded and continue to influence the identity of Sikh communities both in the historic Punjabi homeland and throughout particular geographical locations associated with diasporic Sikh populations. He assembles and explores aspects of Sikh memory and identity within the book through lenses consisting of “South Asian historiography, British imperial history, and recent scholarship on gender, diaspora, transnationalism, and postcolonialism” (Ballantyne, xv). Moreover, Ballantyne intentionally takes the reader on a journey beyond the traditional Sikh historiography and religious studies or ‘internalist’ (Ballantyne, 4) boundaries using information and source material from film, sculpture, art, fiction, and the Internet. He weaves together his research findings to showcase Sikhism’s evolving presence as a diasporic global religion, all the while affirming its religious and cultural roots in the Punjab.

Chapter One               Framing/Reframing Sikh Histories

Ballantyne commences his framing and reframing of Sikhism in this chapter by outlining contrasting perspectives or stereotypes of the Sikh community against the larger encompassing hegemonic Indian nation. After identifying that Sikhism is ‘different’, from Hinduism and other Indian stereotypes as examples, he goes on to outline how scholars have tended to ‘frame’ Sikhism within a structure of historical studies and have focused upon establishing a narrative of the development of Sikh history and “the supposedly fundamental rifts between Western critical scholarship and understandings of the [divergent] Sikh past produced from within Sikh communities” (Ballantyne, 3).

The author presents five foundational analytical ‘framings’ utilised to characterise Sikhism over the past century and which illuminate the divergent approaches related to Sikh historicity. They include: (i) the internalist; (ii) the Khalsacentric; (iii) the regional; (iv) the externalist; and (v) the diasporic methodological and epistemological frames.

The internalist is the dominant analytical approach of framing the past of Sikhism as outlined by the author. The internalist approach includes four distinct versions: normative; textualist; political; and cultural scholarship. As its label implies, internalist scholars “prioritize the internal development of Sikh ‘tradition’, the authority of its sacred texts, the social composition of the Panth, and political struggles within Sikh communities rather than broader [external forces] … that shape the community from the outside” (Ballantyne, 5).  The normative tradition focuses upon, as Oberoi identifies and writes extensively about it, the ‘Tat Khalsa’ tradition (Ballantyne, 5). The author expands in detail about this approach in chapter two.

Ballantyne focuses mainly upon the works of W. H. McLeod with regard to the textualist approach and how his work essentially challenged the normative tradition. Indeed, Ballantyne writes that “McLeod’s [critical] textualist approach transformed understandings of Sikh history and established a new analytical framework that has been extended [recently] … by a younger generation of scholars” (9).

Ballantyne writes that the political component of the internalist approach comes mainly from the work of N.G. Barrier. This scholar’s efforts centre around political power accessed through community efforts and provides insights into the political nature of “institutions, power structures, and internal struggles that have shaped Sikh politics in the last 150 years, both in Punjab and beyond” (Ballantyne, 10).

Ballantyne notes, that Oberoi “has produced the most sophisticated cultural analysis of social change in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The author details the epithetical annotation of the ‘McLeodian School’ by Khalsacentrics against Oberoi in association to his work in modern Sikh scholarship. Ballantyne goes on to describe Oberoi’s work as being an entirely original journey down the road of a social constructivist approach, away from the more travelled path of strict empiricism. Indeed, Oberoi utilises Foucaultian epistemological boundaries (Oberoi, 26) as pointed out by Ballantyne, and establishes a well delineated Sikh episteme under colonialism. The author notes “that for Oberoi this crucial [epistemological] shift was not the direct result of British rule; rather, it was the social, economic, and cultural reconfigurations of colonialism …” (Ballantyne, 11). The author also points out that Jakobsh’s work “compliments nicely the general thrust of Oberoi’s argument as it examines the gendering of Sikhism under colonialism” (Ballantyne, 12).

Regarding the framing of Sikhism within a Khalsacentric perspective, the author outlines how Khalsacentric research, (a North American, transnational Sikh centred effort in itself), thoroughly negates Western critical scholarship and analytical social science methods and locates it against “a belief that is in essence holistic and introspective” (Ballantyne, 13). Ballantyne writes of how the works of the scholars Oberoi and Jakobsh ‘challenge’ the Khalsacentric effort. Indeed, Ballantyne writes that through the Khalsa centred scholarship, with insistence upon affirming “its values and programs, this approach to the Sikh past calls into question the faith and identity of those Sikhs who do not accept all of the practices and identity markers of the Khalsa” (Ballantyne, 16). He also identifies the deleterious effects that Khalsacentricism can have on Sikh scholarship.

Ballantyne writes under the ‘regionalist’ frame that it is important to recognise the effects regionalism had on shaping Sikhism. He references (Ballantyne, 16,17) several scholars who also work within this perspective and their collective ‘regional’ research features including geography, institutional and political structures, economic attributes, ‘cultural ethos’ and the intra-community struggles between the powerful urban elites and the mature ‘orthodox worlds’ of rural inhabitants. (For more on the latter see Oberoi).

Ballantyne writes that a limited number of ‘externalist’ scholars essentially frame the development of Sikhism within a British based colonialism wherein “the British were thus instrumental in the constitution of a new [Sikh] ‘orthodoxy’, a religious identity that fulfilled the needs of the British, not the Punjabis themselves” (Ballantyne, 18).

The last of Ballantyne’s framing exercise focuses on aspects of the Sikh diaspora, its application in Sikh research and what and how that term really means in terms of Sikhism. He notes the ‘genuinely transnational approach’ of Sikh studies against the scholarly diasporic research of a Sikh community in a particular country, such as found in K. Nayar’s book The Sikh Diaspora in Vancouver: Three Generations Amid Tradition, Modernity, and Multiculturalism. The author continues to reflect upon Sikh diasporic studies and aspects of it related to the creation of the Khalistani movement, how it is less actually about the public identity display of Sikhism and more about maintaining particular ‘ancestral genera’ such as language, marriage patterns, occupational traditions and village connections (Ballantyne 23).

Sikh tradition and its location within colonialism versus pre-colonialism periods is another topic that the author uses to frame his overall research. How tradition should be interpreted, and in conjunction with aspects of ‘translation’ and ‘recognition’ of Sikhism are central to this portion of his book (Ballantyne, 23-27).

Ballantyne reviews the impact of polylogical construction of knowledge and identity within the Sikh community (Ballantyne, 28) by various entities including, of course, the colonizers, and also local elites, Christian missionaries and indigenous reformers. Ballantyne writes that these players, who were constantly interacting with one another within a sphere of colonialism, requires their impact “as a complex and polylogic negotiation of [Sikh] identity to be explored.

‘Webs of Empire’ close out chapter one by Ballantyne. The author uses this term to describe the concept of an ‘imperial social formation’ that is based upon an X and Y axis of connections respectively between linked colonies and their vertical intersections with the metropole. Ballantyne describes the relationship between Sikhism and colonialism through the lens of these webs which “underscores that the empire was a structure, a complex fabrication fashioned out of a great number of disparate parts that were brought together into a variety of new relationships” (Ballantyne, 30). The author describes the inter-relational aspect of these disparate components from both the imperial structural apparatus (metropolitan and in India) and the indigenous components (in Punjab and in global diasporic communities) and discusses how they came together to impact on Sikhism not just in a traditional binary fashion but through one consisting of a vibrant and evolving ‘mesh of networks’ shaping Sikh identity (30).

The author concludes that there is more to Sikh studies than just the focused attention on the religiosity of the Panth. He outlines that Sikhs “occupy diverse cultural locations and articulate a multiplicity of identities” which bodes well for the construction of “new historiographical visions and forms of practice” (33).

Chapter Two               Entangled Pasts: Colonialism, Mobility and the Systemization of Sikhism

            The author starts chapter two with an overview of the colonial stage, the utility of Oberoi’s internalist approach on Sikhism, and implementation of a different ‘reading’ of Sikh cultural change in relation to Punjabi historiography. Ballantyne goes on to establish his unique transformative period of Sikh identity over a broader temporal and spatial frame than is traditionally enacted by scholars. He ‘recontextualizes’ the scenario from the pre-colonial era of influence by the East India Company within a more complex entwinement of colonialism and the mobile Sikh diaspora.

            The author outlines how he will consider the “British side of the colonial encounter with the same sensitivity to differentiation and conflict that characterizes the rich historiography [associated with] … the interaction between Arya Samajis, Sanatanis, and, Tat Khalsa reformers and [Punjabi Muslims]…” (Ballantyne 37). Ballantyne highlights the centrality of religion as a teaching tool within colonialism and how religion was both functionalised and defined within and for a Punjabi/Sikh community.

            The author writes about the earliest accounts of British encounters with Sikhs in the late 1700s published under the auspices of the East India Company. The British accumulated a ‘dense’ archive of information about the Punjab and Sikhs which they used to formulate “a vision of Sikhism as a self-contained, independent, and coherent religious system” (Ballantyne, 39). Ballantyne describes the British affinity for Sikhism with its monotheism, negation of idols and priests, and rejection of caste. He writes of the alignment of Protestant terminology and Eurocentric set points to help the colonizers appreciate Sikhism within the ‘new’, post-enlightenment European/British ideal and understanding of what contextualized religion.

            The author outlines a discourse about the British comparative conception of Hinduism against Sikhism which was applied similarly to their comparison of Protestantism versus Roman Catholicism in north India. Ballantyne affirms the affinity and privileged stature that the British held for the ‘reformed’ attributes of Sikhism which culminated in the formulation of state “practices in relationship to [the Sikh] religion” and the protection of same to maintain their rule (Ballantyne 49). In this chapter Ballantyne presents an historiographical outline of the overall systemization of Sikhism including the impact on Sikhism by Ernest Trumpp and M. Macauliffe, efforts of the British to stem the perceived decay of Sikhism and the reform efforts of the Singh Sabha/Tat Khalsa and Arya Samaj amid the persistence of Sikh diversity. The remainder of the chapter focuses on the continued rise of the global Panth after the 1849 annexation of Punjab. Indeed, the author discusses various aspects of the interconnectedness of Sikh mobility and the predilection of the British to facilitate the movement of Sikhs throughout the empire in the roles of soldiers, police officers, and economic migrants to New Zealand, Australia, and North America. The author describes the continuity of Sikh global mobility before and during colonialism and the associated “… stories of [Sikh] cultural variation, adaptation, and hybridization…” (Ballantyne, 83).

Chapter Three             Maharaja Dalip Singh, Memory, and the Negotiation of Sikh Identity

            In this chapter the author focuses upon the long history of Sikhism in Britain in general and the village of Elveden in particular through a discourse on the political and cultural life of deposed and exiled (to Britain) Maharaja Dalip Singh (1838 – 1893). Ballantyne does this by centring his efforts through a variety of art and cultural forms to bring forth the unique attributes of the maharaja’s life both as a very young deposed ruler living in England as of 1854, and through his failed attempts to return to power in the Punjab and an ignominious death in Paris.

            The author writes of how various perspectives and ‘selected memories’ of the maharaja were/are claimed, both negatively and positively, by those in the Punjabi homeland and in Elveden, which has become a British pilgrimage site for Sikhs. “[M]emory plays a central role in the ‘invention of tradition’, the fashioning of narratives that enable the definition of community and the construction of beliefs and practices that tie individuals together into larger collectives defined by ethnicity, faith, or nationality” (Ballantyne, 96). Indeed, throughout this chapter the author emphasises the maharaja’s role in the “re-negotiation of Britishness as well as on charting the different positions that Dalip Singh occupies in texts produced by Sikh authors in India and Britain” (97).

            Ballantyne includes discussion on Dalip Singh as a ‘freedom fighter’ of India; how his diasporic and homeland memory has been captured and worked across time and space from the Punjab to Britain and then back to the Khalsa of Punjab; his iconic gendered ‘masculine’ stature within diasporic Sikhism and his Britishness through colonial and post-colonial politics; heritage; and arts and cultural accoutrements including photography, portraiture, commentaries, novels, and statuary. In particular, the author contrasts how the statue of the maharaja in Elveden proclaims him as an important Sikh cultural presence in Britain going back over 150 years, all the while he “was a contentious figure among Sikh reformers during the 1880s” (Ballantyne 99).

The author ends the chapter with a discussion on the evolving nature of Sikh identity, gender, and religion, not only recently, but over the past tens of decades due to the transformative power of colonialism and a call for future work and inquiry into this area.

Chapter Four               Displacement, Diaspora, and Difference in the Making of Bhangra

            As committed, the author takes the reader on a journey down the less trod path within the study of Sikh markers and identity in a postcolonial and diasporic world through a review of various ‘styles’ of bhangra and its “shifting performative traditions, social contexts, and cultural politics attachments” (Ballantyne, 123). Indeed, bhangra has played a strong role in the delineation of Punjabi and Sikh identities over the past forty years, notes the author. Bhangra has played a leading role in the creation of a Punjabi regional identity after partition, been in the cultural forefront of diasporic South Asians in England and connected them to other Punjabi communities in India and elsewhere (Ballantyne, 123).

            The author explores the origin of bhangra in Punjab and the importance of music by itself and within cinema (filmi) for the South Asian community in general and Sikhism in particular. He also reviews the role of gender in bhangra and how bhangra has evolved not only in Punjab but also elsewhere due to the mobility of South Asian populations including Sikhs and via the Internet. The author writes extensively about bhangra in Britain and how it further evolved due to the exposure of diasporic Sikhs to Afro-Caribbean communities wherein “radically new visions of bhangra emerged [such as black bhangra and bhangramuffin]” (Ballantyne, 133, 134). The author goes on to explore the incorporation of bhangra in literary fiction and the significance of bhangra lyrics in diasporic Britain. Ballantyne also writes of the exportation of various styles of bhangra back to Punjab and its commercialized influence on filmi music and even fitness videos.

Considerable details are provided by the author regarding gendering and comparisons to sacred traditional music and dance within Punjab and Britain in association with bhangra. Ballantyne ties bhangra into Sikh religiosity and notes how it is viewed by Sikhs in association with Hindus and reviews bhangra from a secular/religious/generation gap perspective. In this chapter the author also comments that further work and research needs to be completed in this rich cultural field.

Epilogue                     

            Ballantyne reviews how he has “set this book against both the dominant ‘internalist’ … [and] externalist arguments that have suggested that Sikh identities were … fabricated by the colonial state” (Ballantyne, 160). He summarises his work on a distinctive Sikh identity within articulations on geography (different types of Punjabs and the diaspora), the spiritual and cultural aspects of Sikhism, and finally the significance of genealogy and intergenerational spread of identity and culture. Overall, the author has examined an extensive range of non-traditional Sikhism research including pre-colonial economic, religious, and political forces, a broad spectrum of art and cultural lenses and the influencers surrounding the ever evolving global diasporic Sikh community against the traditional Sikh homeland, which the author notes extensively that they are not to be viewed as discrete silos.   

Works Cited

Jakobsh, Doris. Relocating Gender in Sikh History: Transformation, Meaning and Identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Nayar, Kamala. The Sikh Diaspora in Vancouver: Three Generations Amid Tradition, Modernity, and Multiculturalism. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.

Oberoi, Harjot. The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity, and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1994.