History and Historiography of Punjabi Sikh Migration

From SikhNet

Punjabi Sikhs are an important ethnic and religious group from northwest India. Known for their hard work and distinctive religious ideas, Sikhs are found throughout the world. This paper aims to explore the history and historiography of Punjabi Sikh immigration within the British Empire and into the United Kingdom and the United States. While Sikhs reside in nations throughout the world, the boundaries of this short paper prevent a complete examination of the large scope of Punjabi migration. 

From Rotten Tomatoes

     In 2002, a small independent film featuring a Sikh Punjabi teen and her love for soccer caught the attention of the movie-going public. Bend It like Beckham was a film about a British Asian girl, Jesminder Bhamra, or “Jess,” who loves soccer and adores English soccer star, David Beckham. The film features the conflict the young protagonist feels between the traditions of her Sikh Punjabi family and the majority of British culture. Much of the movie reflects the experience of its director Gurinder Chadha and her life growing up in West London. As a Punjabi girl in England, Chadha felt torn between her identity as an Indian and her British nationality.[1] The film 11 million pounds in the UK while earning over 76 million dollars worldwide.[2]  The success of Bend It Like Beckham places a Punjabi Sikh family at the center of the film and introduces many to a religious and ethnic group unknown to many in the West. While the appeal of the movie lies in the struggle of its protagonist to balance her dedication to her family with her love for sport, the film has another significance as it demonstrates the impact of immigration from South Asia. This paper aims to explore the history and historiography of Punjabi Sikh immigration with its roots in the British Empire.

            The Punjab, ruled by the Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh, faced internal conflict and two wars with the British resulting in the British annexation of the Punjab. Migration became a central role in the life of Sikhs as demonstrated by the relocation of the young heir of Ranjit Singh, Duleep Singh, to Britain. Rozina Visram provides a complete survey of the Asian community in Britain and details how Duleep Singh was the first step in a century of Punjabi migration into Britain.[3] The young Maharaja lived like an English lord on his estate, Elveden but eventually grew disillusioned with his situation, rejected British authority, and died in exile in Paris.

Maharaja Duleep Singh (from Wikipedia)

            Punjabi migration began to become a pattern by the later decades of the Nineteenth Century as many Sikhs entered police or military service. Historian of Sikh History, W.H. McLeod also identifies a centuries-old commercial network of trading castes spreading to different parts of India. This network consists primarily of the Khatri caste, and their business enterprises extended the Sikh presence throughout the subcontinent. Larger migration patterns originated from rural Punjab as unskilled workers entered the military with the expectation of migrants returning home.[4] Malcolm Lyall Darling was a British civil servant concerned with the cycle of ever-increasing debt many Punjabi farmers found themselves. Darling believed that continual debt fueled poverty and contributed to migration.[5] Darling also proposed that the Jat custom of subdividing land inheritances left many Punjabis with little ability to earn a profit from their small landholdings, which put them further into debt. With limited choices, the Punjabi peasant sought an alternative in the military or migration overseas. Many Sikhs sought migration to the United States or Australia, but many traveled to Africa after those countries closed the door to Indians.[6] McLeod agrees with Darling regarding the problem of land division as a problem in the Punjab but believes that Darling’s answer is insufficient because the answer is more than poverty since the impoverished lacked the means to relocate. McLeod surmises that the decision to migrate was often a family decision made prior to dividing the land. Many of the men who relocated made their decisions with the goal of returning in the future. McLeod uses the experience of Sikhs in New Zealand as a comparison. Many Sikhs arrived in New Zealand soon after World War I with the plan to return but remained as they obtained farms and established roots.[7]

            

Punjab region in both India & Pakistan (from Wiki Media Commons)

    For many Punjabi Sikhs, the first experience of overseas travel was recruitment in the military. Sikhs were a desirable group for military recruitment as most British military leaders assumed the theory that certain ethnicities were naturally martial races. Colonial authorities believed that other Indians from the south lacked inherent martial abilities, while Gurkhas and Sikhs were natural warriors. While the idea of martial races fit within the racial ideas of the later Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, Thomas Metcalf argues that race played little role in recruitment in the Punjab after 1857.

The initial recruitment of so-called martial races, however, had little to do with race theory of any sort. Rather it was a pragmatic response to the mutinous behavior of the Bengal Army. Those who rallied to the British cause, for whatever reasons of their own, such as Punjabi Sikhs and Nepali Gurkhas, won favorable commendation at the time and subsequently secured a preferential entry into the reorganized Indian Army.[8]

 

The critical role Sikhs played in the army furnished the British with a source of troops in their Empire and provided Sikhs with a familiarity with the world outside India. After their enlistment period, most Sikh soldiers returned home, but a minority decided to return home but a minority elected to remain in British Asian colonies such as Malaya. Still, others decided to journey to Australia, America, or Canada. As migrants arrived in each location, word reached the villages of Punjab, encouraging others to proceed to the new locations.[9] N. Gerald Barrier refers to this migration as the first wave of Sikh immigration as Sikh troops traveled to British possessions in Asia such as Burma, Malaya, and Hong Kong with the largest group residing in Malaya. Other Sikhs settled in East Africa around 1900, with Ramgarhias working on the railroad and Jats remaining after serving in the military.[10] The last segment of this first wave landed on the west coast of North America as mostly former soldiers became the first to migrate to Canada and the United States. Among the first Sikhs to enter Canada journeyed from Hong Kong, to Vancouver for celebrations around the Coronation of Edward VII in 1902. Others journeyed to the American states of California, Oregon, and Washington.[11]

Dutch historian Gijsbert Oonk also recognizes Indian migration in different waves or patterns. He identifies the first phase as the trade diaspora as traders set out for trade and business opportunities. Most of these travelers settled abroad temporarily and often moved as trade prospects changed. Oonk identifies the second current as indentured laborers who often replaced the enslaved workers as colonies transitioned to free labor. At the same time, many Indians went abroad to serve in British colonies as clerks and teachers serving colonial governments.[12] These waves of migration identified by Oonk correlate with the stationing and resettling of Punjabi Sikh troops in different sections of the British Empire.

The Metro. French woman places a flower on the uniform of an Indian soldier. 2nd Lancers Regiment. (from Medium.com)

Sikhs settling in Canada faced backlash as they encountered racism and xenophobia. From 1904 to 1908, about 5200 Indian immigrants arrived in British Columbia, of which 80-85% were Sikh, while the rest were Hindu or Muslim Punjabi.[13] The backlash against the presence of Sikhs and other Indians was fierce and developed into a ban on continued Indian migration into British Columbia in 1908. Britain hesitated to interfere in their white settler colonies against their Asian colonies. The government desired a closer relationship with the white settlers and sympathized, who feared of a takeover from Asian culture. As early as 1897, Joseph Chamberlain, Secretary of State for the Colonies, told colonial premiers,

 We quite sympathise with the determination of the white inhabitants of these colonies which are in comparatively close proximity to hundreds of millions of Asiatics that there should not be an influx of people alien in civilisation, alien in religion, alien in customs, whose influx moreover would most seriously interfere with the legitimate rights of the existing labour population . . . but we ask you also to bear in mind the traditions of the Empire, which make no distinction in favour of or against race or colour.[14]

 

 Rachel Bright maintains that for the white settlers at the center of their rights within a liberal society were the elements of Britishness and whiteness, “and the occasional conflict between these two identities, in part, depended on an Asian ‘other’ which captured settler imaginations.” According to Bird, the racial attitudes within the white settler colonies posed a threat to the unity within the British Empire.[15] The prohibition against Indian migration into Canada proved very effective as only six immigrants from arrived in 1908 when the legislation took effect. The 1907 immigration numbers only passed 1907 in 1967 when the relaxation of immigration laws allowed more Indians to migrate into Canada.[16]

But with the doors closed to further immigration into Canada from India, Sikhs began to organize their own institutions, such as the Khalsa Diwan Society in 1907 and the first gurdwara in Vancouver in 1908. Narinder Singh maintains that racial opposition and growing resentment pulled Punjabis of different religious traditions together as the gurdwara became a gathering place and center of collective action of all Punjabis.[17] Sikhs continued to face discrimination and possessed no voting force in British Columbia. Canadian Indians also faced the problem of an inability to visit their homeland since once they departed Canada, the government barred their reentry. In 1908, the Canadian government proposed removing all Indian settlers to British Honduras. Strong opposition from Sikhs and negotiations led by the Khalsa Diwan Society prevented deportation from Canada. In 1913, the Society later petitioned the government in London and the Indian government to remove the punitive immigration restrictions. After negotiations, most of the restrictions remained, but wives and children received permission for entry into Canada. [18]

The disruption and disunity within the Empire described by Bird due to the racial attitudes of white settlers bore fruit within Canada. In 1914, the ship Komagata Maru docked in the port of Vancouver. On board were 376 Indians who were all Sikhs but thirty. The Canadian government refused the Indians entry into the country. Negotiations led nowhere and the ship left Vancouver after two months in dock. James Chadney echoes the conclusion of Bird and points out that the conflict over the Komagata Maru reinforced Sikh and Indian conclusions that their status was second class.[19]

Sikhs migrated to the west coast of the United States in the early years of the Twentieth Century and faced similar opposition as their fellow Punjabis encountered in British Columbia. The majority of the Punjabi migrants into the west coast found livelihoods in the agricultural communities. The preponderance of these Punjabis was Sikhs, although there were also Muslims and Hindus. The majority settled within the Imperial Valley along the southern border of California and experienced the American government's problematic issue of not allowing the entry of wives and children. White Americans long expressed racial prejudice against Chinese and Japanese immigrants and Indians faced similar discrimination. Most of the emigrants were former soldiers from central Punjab and journeyed to California for economic opportunities. Karen Isaksen Leonard describes these new immigrants' choices when they chose to remain in California. Racial discrimination led many Indians to live within foreign and Hispanic neighborhoods. Because of their similar skin complexions, Punjabi settlers chose to marry Mexican American women. While the children of these nuptials shared the Roman Catholic faith of their mothers, marriages with Mexican Americans allowed the Punjabis to own land through their wives and children.[20]  This community remained important in the Imperial Valley, known as the Mexican-Hindus. Due to the lack of continued immigration from India because of strict immigration laws the culture lost its Asian distinctiveness. The descendants mostly identified themselves with their Hispanic heritage.[21] With the advent of American immigration reform in 1965, Punjabi Sikhs and other Indians began to immigrate to the United States in increasing numbers. Between 1965 and 1985, Indian residents of the U.S. grew from 15,000 to 500,000.[22]  California hosted the largest number of Sikhs, with most initially settling in largely agricultural Yuba City, California. [23] Since immigration reform, Sikhs spread throughout the U.S., with over 200 gurdwaras scattered in 40 states and the District of Columbia.[24]

"Group of Sikh immigrants, Angel Island, 1910 courtesy of California State Parks" (from: sikhfoundation.org)

Barrier describes the post-World War II period as the second wave of Sikh immigration, which saw many migrants settle in Britain.[25] Punjabi migrants arrived in Britain as the nation faced serious labor shortages. Many of the first Punjabi Sikhs migrated to west London when the R Woolf rubber factory manager in Hayes remembered the work ethic of the Sikh troops under his command. Responding to opportunities for work, mostly Sikh men settled in nearby Southall due to the affordable nature of the neighborhood.[26] Most of these migrants originated from central and northeastern Punjab, primarily from Jullundur and Hoshiarpur. According to Sandhya Shukla, the similarities in origins created a homogeneity that encouraged the arriving Punjabis to gather with other Punjabis. Family connections and religious affiliation brought comfort within the Southall neighborhood.[27] Many of these migrants previously served the Empire in the Indian Army, which served as a badge of honor. Most of the early migrants were men, as many planned to return to India after saving a large income. This goal led to much of the early Punjabi migrant experience centered around pubs and men’s boarding houses. The boarding houses were overcrowded, and many only used for eating and sleeping. Often men from different factory shifts shared the same bed.[28]  In 1962, the Commonwealth Immigrants Act greatly limited immigration from India, but the population of Southall continued to grow as new migrants hurried to arrive before implementation of the Act, and relatives, dependents, and new marriages continued to see the number of Punjabis increase in west London.[29]

London's Southall (from The Guardian)

In the 1960s, Punjabi Sikh communities also began to grow in the central English cities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton, with specialty shops, restaurants, and gurdwaras rising in what were once strictly English enclaves. Most of the Sikh migrants were of the Jat caste and gained a reputation for hard work and heavy drinkers.[30] The Sikh fame for hard work was earned on the farmlands of the Punjab as well as the Indian Army under British officers. Despite new the new law limiting immigration, Punjabi communities continued to grow as employers in the Midlands and Northern England still faced severe labor shortages and pushed for vouchers for new immigrants and their families.[31] Roger Ballard agrees with Shukla regarding the comfort achieved through a growing Sikh community. The earliest Punjabis in Britain looked forward to returning to the Punjab. Therefore families only prevented the men from saving money. But as the men felt more comfortable in Britain and wives joined their husbands, Sikhs became settlers in England and reproduced many of the practices and religious institutions of the Punjab. Ballard points out the changes Sikhs brought saying,

But just like so many other migrants elsewhere, most stayed on for much longer than they originally intended. On the one hand, they were attracted by the prospect of continuing to earn good money; and on the other hand, they gradually began to feel relaxed about the prospect of staying overseas permanently. But the Britain about which they began to feel more comfortable was not an English Britain. As local Sikh colonies grew in size, many of the social and cultural styles, institutions of the Punjab began to be reproduced. Perhaps most importantly of all, Britain became an arena for status competition. With this it ceased to be a cultural and social no-man’s-land, where all gratification was deferred against an eventual return. Instead it was transformed into an arena for social interaction that was every bit as lively as the villages left behind. As a result, and almost unbeknownst to themselves, sojourners were gradually being transformed into settlers.[32]

 

Oonk identifies a fourth wave of Indian migrants following the breakup of the British Empire. This group of Indians left their homes in the new nations of independent Africa and migrated to Britain since many possessed British passports. These migrants brought more ethnic diversity as many originated from different regions of India, including Punjabis. During the sixties and seventies, these emigrants arrived as many faced expulsion from east Africa. This diverse group contained traders, laborers, as well as professionals.[33] While most of the immigrant Sikhs during the fifties were Jats, the Sikh migrants during the fourth phase brought increased caste diversity into the Sikh community. Ramgarhias, Khatris, Chamars, Nais, and others settled in Britain. Large numbers of Ramgarhia Sikhs came from Africa. This artisan caste originally settled in Africa to work on the railway. They eventually served in an intermediate managerial position underneath British supervisors. As African nations achieved independence, many Sikhs felt that their only option was relocation to Britain.[34]

In the 1990s, another smaller wave of Sikh immigrants relocated from Afghanistan. Afghani Sikhs relocated to Southall, where they established their own gurdwara. Along with an assortment of visa over stays, illegals migrants, and asylum seekers as well as family unification, the Punjabi population continues to grow.[35] Both Eleanor Nesbitt and Roger Ballard agree that while the Sikh community appears uniform to the outsider, the different waves of migration and caste differences remain areas of division. While Ballard acknowledges the comfort of an ethnic community, he also points to the disunity within Sikhs. Ballard proposes that the most critical cause of Sikh disunity is caste differences. While Guru Nanak disavowed caste, division by caste remains a central concern for many Sikhs, although it becomes less important for younger British-born generations. Further, Ballard points out that while urban employment weakens caste, kinship ties and employment similar to caste designations divide the community.[36] Nesbitt maintains that Sikh migration was diverse from the beginning as each wave of Sikh migration involved different social and hereditary groupings, which increased the variety of the Sikh community.[37]

As new Punjabi generations develop in Britain, the question of national identity rises to the forefront. Do the children and grandchildren of the arriving generation primarily hold to their ethnic identity or their nationality as British citizens?   Kathleen Hall discusses this question noting that the colonial ties between imperial rulers and subjects changed into a question of racial justice between citizens. She maintains that any study of Sikh ethnography must account for the transformation of Britain into a multiracial and postcolonial nation.[38] In 2008, the British government required an understanding of basic English for future citizens and tests on history and culture in an attempt to put the importance of the "British way of life" at the center of the naturalization process.[39] As each new Punjabi generation emerges in Britain, new generations find themselves more comfortable with English than speaking Punjabi. British born Sikhs tend to lack the ability to read Gurmukhi even if they remain competent in speaking the language. Eleanor Nesbitt proposes that in addition to language, the decision of many Sikhs not to wear all or any Sikh religious items such as the turban lessens the barrier between the minority and majority populations. But with the passing of years, most white Britons adjusted to the appearance of turbans and uncut beards.[40] The variety of religious observance of the Sikh populace within both Britain and the U.S. also reinforces the disunity which both Nesbitt and Ballard acknowledge.

Through the successive waves of Punjabi Sikh migration lies the history of the British Empire. The prominent position of Sikh soldiers within the imperial Empire allowed village Sikhs to experience new surroundings and cultures. Soon after the annexation of Punjab into British India, Sikhs moved within India and all the corners of the Empire. The good standing of Sikhs within the military is a primary cause of their recruitment into British industry. Succeeding generations grew more comfortable of their status with Western society, yet discrimination based on race continued. Initially, many found that discrimination continued as many cast-off their turbans and uncut hair, but Britain and other countries have begun an adjustment to Indian citizens. Early generations fought battles for the right for observant Sikhs to express their religion and, its not uncommon to see younger Western Sikhs returning to their spiritual traditions.[41]

 

 

Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha Southall; largest Sikh Gurdwara in Britain (from The Independent)

 

 

 

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Bend It Like Beckham. IMDB. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286499/ .

Buchignani, Norman. "Contemporary Research on People of Indian Origin in Canada." Sociological Bulletin 38, no. 1 (March 1989): 71-93. https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/23619917.

Casey, Teresa, and Christman Dustmann. "Immigrants’ Identity, Economic Outcomes, and the Transmission of Identity Across Generations." The Economic Journal 120, no. 542 (February 2010): 31-51. https://doi.org/http://www.jstor.com/stable/27765751 .

Chaudhary, Vivek. "How London's Southall became 'Little Punjab'." The Guardian, April 4, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/apr/04/how-london-southall-became-little-punjab-.

Darling, Malcolm L. Rusticus Loquitur, or, The Old Light and The New in the Punjab Village. London: Oxford University Press, 1930. https://ia903206.us.archive.org/10/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.84175/2015.84175.Rusticus-Loquitur-Or-The-Old-Light-And-The-New-In-The-Punjab-Village.pdf .

Darling, Malcolm Lyall. The Punjab Peasant in Prosperity and Debt. London: Oxford University Press, 1925. https://indianculture.gov.in/rarebooks/punjab-peasant-prosperity-and-debt .

Gibson, Margaret A. "Punjabi Orchard Farmers: An Immigrant Enclave in Rural California." The International Migration Review 22, no. 1 (Spring 1988): 28-50. https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2546395.

Gonzales, Juan L. "Asian Indian Immigration Patterns: The Origins of the Sikh Community in California." The International Migration Review 20, no. 1 (Spring 1986): 40-54. https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2545683.

Hall, Kathleen D. "The Ethnography of Imagined Communities: The Cultural Production of Sikh Ethnicity in Britain." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 595 (September 2004): 108-21. https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4127613.

Heir, Rajpreet. "Bend It Like Beckham and the Art of Balancing Cultures." Culture. The Atlantic, April 2017. https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/04/bend-it-like-beckham-and-the-art-of-balancing-cultures/522477/.

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Jacobsen, Knut A., and Kristina Myrvold, eds., Sikhs in Europe: Migration, Identities and Representations. London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2016.

Leonard, Karen I. Making Ethnic Choices: California's Punjabi Mexican Americans. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992.

Metcalf, Thomas R. Imperial Connections: India in the Indian Ocean Arena, 1860-1920. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pnz08?turn_away=true.

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Singh, Gurharpal. "British Multiculturalism and Sikhs." Sikh Formations 1, no. 2 (December 2005): 157-73.

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[1] Rajpreet Heir, “Bend It Like Beckham and the Art of Balancing Cultures,” The Atlantic, April 12, 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/04/bend-it-like-beckham-and-the-art-of-balancing-cultures/522477/

[2] “Bend It Like Beckham,” IMDB, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286499/

[3] Rozina Visram, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History, (London: Pluto Press, 2002), 99-100.

[4] W.H. McLeod, “First 40 Years of Sikh Migration,” in The Sikh Diaspora: Migration and the Experience Beyond Punjab, eds. N. Gerald Barrier and Verne A. Dusenbery (Delhi: Chanakya Publications, 1989), 34-35.

[5] Malcolm Lyall Darling, The Punjab Peasant in Prosperity and Debt, (London: Oxford University Press, 1925), 26, https://indianculture.gov.in/rarebooks/punjab-peasant-prosperity-and-debt

[6] Malcolm Lyall Darling, Rusticus Loquitur, or, The Old Light and The New in the Punjab Village, (London: Oxford University Press, 1930), 28-29, https://ia903206.us.archive.org/10/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.84175/2015.84175.Rusticus-Loquitur-Or-The-Old-Light-And-The-New-In-The-Punjab-Village.pdf

[7] McLeod, “First 40 Years of Sikh Migration,” in The Sikh Diaspora: Migration and the Experience Beyond Punjab, 36-37.

[8]  Thomas R. Metcalf, Imperial Connections: India in the Indian Ocean Arena, 1860-1920, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), 72, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pnz08?turn_away=true

[9] McLeod, “First 40 Years of Sikh Migration,” in The Sikh Diaspora: Migration and the Experience Beyond Punjab, 44.

[10] N. Gerald Barrier, “Sikh Emigrants and Their Homeland,” in The Sikh Diaspora: Migration and the Experience Beyond Punjab, eds. N. Gerald Barrier and Verne A. Dusenbery (Delhi: Chanakya Publications, 1989), 65-67.

[11] N. Gerald Barrier, “Sikh Emigrants and Their Homeland,” in The Sikh Diaspora: Migration and the Experience Beyond Punjab, 69.

[12]Gijsbert Oonk, Global Indian Diasporas: Exploring Trajectories of Migration and Theory, (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007), 11. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n1bq.4

[13] Norman Buchignani, “Contemporary Research on People of Indian Origin in Canada,” Sociological Bulletin 38, no.1 (March 1989): 71, https://www.jstor.org/stable/23619917 .

[14] Rachel Bird, “Asian migration and the British World, c. 1850–c. 1914,” in Empire, migration and identity in the British World, eds. Kent Fedorowich and Andrew S. Thompson, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015), 137, URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18mvn04.12

[15] Bird, “Asian migration and the British World, c. 1850–c. 1914,” in Empire, migration and identity in the British World, 128.

[16] James G. Chadney, “The Formation of Ethnic Communities: Lessons from the Vancouver Sikhs,” in The Sikh Diaspora: Migration and the Experience Beyond Punjab, eds. N. Gerald Barrier and Verne A. Dusenbery (Delhi: Chanakya Publications, 1989), 187.

[17] Gurinder Singh,” Canadian Sikh Identity,” in Punjabi Identity in a Global Context, eds. Pritam Singh and Shinder Singh Thandi, (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999), 390.

[18] Gurinder Singh,” Canadian Sikh Identity,” in Punjabi Identity in a Global Context, 391-392.

[19] James G. Chadney, “The Formation of Ethnic Communities: Lessons from the Vancouver Sikhs,” in The Sikh Diaspora: Migration and the Experience Beyond Punjab, 187-188.

[20] Karen Isaksen Leonard, Making Ethnic Choices: California’s Punjabi Mexican Americans, (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992), 62-63.

[21] Leonard, Making Ethnic Choices: California’s Punjabi Mexican Americans, 201.

[22] Margaret A. Gibson, “Punjabi Orchard Farmers: An Immigrant Enclave in Rural California,” The International Migration Review 22, no. 1 (Spring 1988): 28. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2546395

[23] Juan L. Gonzales Jr., “Asian Indian Immigration Patterns: The Origins of the Sikh Community in California,” The International Migration Review 20, no. 1 (Spring 1986): 42. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2545683

[24] The Pluralism Project, Harvard University. https://pluralism.org/the-gurdwara

[25] N. Gerald Barrier, “Sikh Emigrants and Their Homeland,” in The Sikh Diaspora: Migration and the Experience Beyond Punjab, 68.

[26] Vivek Chaudhary, “How London's Southall became 'Little Punjab,'” The Guardian, April 4, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/apr/04/how-london-southall-became-little-punjab-

[27] Sandhya Shukla, India Abroad: Diasporic Cultures of Postwar America and England, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003), 92.

[28] Arthur W Helweg, “Punjab Farmers: Twenty Years in England,” India International Centre Quarterly 5, no. 1 (January 1978): 16. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23001628

[29]   Shukla, India Abroad: Diasporic  Cultures of Postwar America and England, 93.

[30] Helweg, “Punjab Farmers: Twenty Years in England,” India International Centre Quarterly, 16.

[31] Roger Ballard, “Differentiation and Disjunction Amongst Sikhs in Britain,” in The Sikh Diaspora: Migration and the Experience Beyond Punjab, eds. N. Gerald Barrier and Verne A. Dusenbery (Delhi: Chanakya Publications, 1989), 209.

[32] Ballard, “Differentiation and Disjunction Amongst Sikhs in Britain,” in The Sikh Diaspora: Migration and the Experience Beyond Punjab, 209.

[33] Oonk, Global Indian Diasporas: Exploring Trajectories of Migration and Theory, 12.

[34] Ballard, “Differentiation and Disjunction Amongst Sikhs in Britain,” in The Sikh Diaspora: Migration and the Experience Beyond Punjab, 208- 210.

[35] Eleanor Nesbitt, “Sikh Diversity in the UK: Contexts and Evolution,” in Sikhs in Europe: Migration, Identities and Representations, eds. Knut A. Jacobsen and Kristina Myrvold, (London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2016), 226.

[36] Ballard, “Differentiation and Disjunction Amongst Sikhs in Britain,” in The Sikh Diaspora: Migration and the Experience Beyond Punjab, 203.

[37] Nesbitt, “Sikh Diversity in the UK: Contexts and Evolution,” in Sikhs in Europe: Migration, Identities and Representations, 225.

[38] Kathleen D. Hall, The Ethnography of Imagined Communities: The Cultural Production of Sikh Ethnicity in Britain,“ The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 595, (September 2004): 113. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4127613

[39] Teresa Casey and Christian Dustmann, “Immigrants’ Identity, Economic Outcomes, and the Transmission of Identity Across Generations,” The Economic Journal 120, no. 542 (February 2010): 31.  URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/27765751

[40]Nesbitt, “Sikh Diversity in the UK: Contexts and Evolution,” in Sikhs in Europe: Migration, Identities and Representations, 243-244.

[41] Terence Thomas, “Old Allies, New Neighbors: Sikhs in Britain,” in The Growth of Religious Diversity: Volume I Traditions, ed. Gerald Parsons, (London: The Open University, 1993), 229.