Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Sikhisme'

Suivant un terrain ethnographique mené à l’été 2012 ainsi qu'une phase exploratoire pendant le baccalauréat en anthropologie, ce mémoire a pour tâche d'investiguer la diaspora sikhe montréalaise de l'intérieur. Des entretiens semi-dirigés avec différents acteurs sikhs et des observations dans les gurdwaras m'ont permis de constater les disjonctions intra-communautaires. À cet effet, je questionne l’utilisation des notions de diaspora et d’ethnicité à des fins essentiellement inclusives. J'ai noté chez les Sikhs des divergences d'opinions notables sur la relation à la « mère-partie », le Punjab, et sur le mouvement nationaliste Khalistani. Par ailleurs, l'autorité religieuse portée par les Sikhs amritdharis les mésententes politico-religieuses divisant les temples seront soulignées. En contrepartie, j'ai constaté qu'en diaspora, le poids du nid familial, des institutions, des symboles et de l'histoire mythifiée propre au sikhisme engendrent une cohésion ethnique particulière.
Following an exploratory phase during my undergraduate studies in anthropology, and an ethnographic fieldwork conducted in summer of 2012, this dissertation investigates the Montréal Sikh diaspora from the inside. Semi-structured interviews and observations in different gurdwaras (temples) led me to see internal disjunctures in the community. To explain these, I investigate the use of diaspora and ethnicity as inclusive notions. I find among the Sikhs subjects several interpretations of the Punjab "homeland", and opposing views concerning the Khalistani nationalist movement. Moreover, religious authority carried by amritdhari Sikhs and politico-religious divisions between multiple gurdwaras are being paid special attention. Concurrently, I suggest that in the Montréal Sikh diaspora, the weight of family, institutions, symbols and mythical history related to the religion produce a particularly solid ethnic cohesion.

This thesis contributes to international research on the identities of a significant diasporic religious minority, the Sikhs. My study investigates the transmission of Sikhism among an under-researched age group, young adults between the ages of 18 and 30, and develops a framework for analysing the production and reproduction of religion in a British diasporic community. It examines the reasons and processes behind the growth of religious transmission events organized by and for young Sikhs such as youth camps and university Sikh societies and considers these in the context of both traditional and contemporary transmission methods, looking particularly at the role of families, religious institutions and the internet. The age group being studied is that of 'emerging adulthood', a phase of life which has emerged in modern industrial societies in the years between adolescence and marriage, during which many young Sikhs now have the time and space to examine their tradition on their own terms. As most studies of religious transmission have focused on members of western majority communities, the central question of this study is how transmission processes impact on young British-born members of a diasporic community, particularly one with such an often distinct external identity. To what extent are they influenced by migration, ethnicity and minority status? And, situated as they are in western modernity, how far do British Sikh emerging adults experience a 'turn to the self and manage individual authority whilst also sustaining membership of a religious community?

This thesis examines Sikh groups in Britain and the implications these have for criteria related to the issue of Sikh identity. Five groups have been selected. They are: the Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jama; the Namdharis; the Ravidasls; the Valmikis; and the Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere, which is also frequently associated with the Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization (3HO). The thesis begins with a historical analysis of Sikhism, to discover what it meant to be a Sikh in the days of the founder of the faith, Guru Nanak, and during the time of the successive Gurus. Political and social issues related to the development of Sikhism and emerging Sikh identity are examined also at the outset. Each group has its own unique contribution to make towards highlighting certain indicators and inhibitors of a Sikh identity. Thus, an important part of the present thesis is to examine the beliefs and practices of each group in order to assess its contribution towards a Sikh identity. Each group has unique leaders and founders; it is interesting, therefore, to see what implications the leaders' backgrounds and teachings have on the ethos of the group studied. The present thesis has aimed to highlight the implications of five groups ~ who have in the present and/or in the past have Sikh connections ~ on issues related to Sikh identity. This has been undertaken by continuous reference to four fundamental questions. A thematic approach was adopted for concluding the thesis. Each of the themes arose as significant factors developed throughout the research. The themes illustrate areas that are responsible for the promotion, as well as the hindering, of a uniform Sikh identity among the groups. The five themes that emerged were: (1) The concept of Guru in Sikhism; (2) Leaders and founders; (3) The role of the Rehat Maryada in relation to Sikh identity; (4) Caste and the Panth; (5) The issue of Sikh identity in relation to Punjabi ethnicity. The present research has shown that there are no overall dominant criteria with which to assess the Sikh identity of the Sikh community as a whole. Thus, contrary, to prevalent views about the Sikhs, there are many different "types" of Sikhs present today. I have suggested a federal identity of the Sikh community as a whole. This implies a unity of Sikhs worldwide but independence in the interpretation of Sikhism for the different groups. A federal identity might mean one or two core beliefs such as the acceptance of the Sikh Gurus' teachings and belief in the Sikh Absolute -- but, further than that, it is up to the individual group to express its unique beliefs and practices.

This thesis recognizes the value of using a variety of perspectives to study the history of an ethnic minority group. The history of some groups is lacking in insider perspectives. I have attempted to add balance to the existing accounts by using an oral history approach to describe the experiences of the Sikhs living in British Columbia from 1920-1947. I am an insider, a Sikh whose grandfather was one of the original pioneers who came in the first wave of immigration in the 1904-1908 time period. These people are no longer with us, but some of their wives and children are still available to share their history with future generations. I interviewed and recorded 24 individual histories. From these I have formed a composite picture of the Sikh community in British Columbia from 1920-1947. Beginning with descriptions of social, political and cultural conditions in India and Canada at the time of arrival, we follow them through the important stages of their lives in their adopted land. They describe the journey over, settling in, adaptations, work, social life, the fight for rights, and the role of their temple and religion. We see the events and circumstances that eventually led to the Sikhs being able to call Canada their home. The many photographs, letters and documents give further insights into the lives of this distinctive group of Canadians.
Education, Faculty of
Educational Studies (EDST), Department of
Graduate

Après une enquête menée auprès des groupes d'artisans de la ville de Jalālābād et desrecherches historiques sur les changements sociaux des régions de l'est de l'Afghanistan, je décris comment ces professionnels qui étaient autrefois jugés marginaux parce qu'ilsmanipulent la matière, parviennent depuis peu, par ce même moyen, à acquérir de l'influence. Ceux qui transforment les matières et produisent des objets à partir des métaux, du bois, des tissus, de la terre, des peaux d'animaux, descendent de spécialistes de villages et de nomades qui étaient tenus par l'endettement au service de marchands ou de chefs fonciers. Avec la transmission aux enfants des dettes et des savoir-faire, les spécialisations étaient conservées entre proches limitant la mobilité sociale. Une succession de crises au cours de la deuxième moitié du XXème siècle obligea la population du Nangarhār à fuir et parfois émigrer. Plus tard, les artisans sont revenus se concentrer à Jalālābād pour constituer, au sein des métiers qui ont survécu, des cartels familiaux. L'évolution des rapports d'échange, la diffusion de la monnaie, l'accès à une clientèle plus large, ont permis à quelques-uns de devenir plus indépendants et à introduire de nouvelles façons de travailler. Selon les filières, certains ont monté de petites usines et repris la maîtrise sur des étapes clés de la transformation des matières, d'autres privilégient les fabrications à fortes plus-values, acquièrent des monopoles dans la distribution ou encore, délèguent les tâches les plus pénibles à un personnel extérieur.En dépit d'une absence chronique d'électricité, les artisans de cette ville, dont l'essentiel de la main d'oeuvre est composée de proches parents, réussissent à proposer des objets de très bonne qualité à faible coût, une situation qui leur permet de gagner en influence. Peu auparavant, ces artisans connaissaient une situation très différente. L'absence de références généalogiques empêchait qu'ils soient acceptés comme musulmans et, si leur économie dépendait, comme d'autres acteurs du Nangarhār, d'institutions non-musulmanes, leurs activités (extraction, échange, manipulation, transformation ou, destruction des matières) étaient jugées avec méfiance par les représentants religieux. L'implication, au siècle dernier, d'un homme d'affaire et chef religieux auprès des professionnels entraîna un changement des rapports économiques mais aussi aux rites de l'Islam. Tous les artisans prétendent aujourd'hui suivre les préceptes de cette religion
After conducting a survey among artisans' groups in the city of Jalālābād, and historicalresearch about social changes in the eastern regions of Afghanistan, I describe how theseprofessionals which used to be deconsidered because of their involvement in material process, are succeeding today, through the same mean, to gain some influence. The people who are transforming metal, wood, textiles, earth, hides and skins, and produce objects from these materials, are descendants of village specialists and nomads. Usually working at the service of merchants and landowners, they were compelled to pay back or transmit their debts, as well as their competences, to their children. This contributed to maintain specialisations among kins and did limit social mobility. A succession of crisis in the second half of the XXth century forced the population of Nangarhār to emigrate before coming back and gather in Jalālābād and constitute family trusts among the profession that survived. The evolution of market relations, the diffusion of material money and access to many more costumers, offer them some independance and help them in introducing new working methods. According to their field, some are investing in bigger workshops in order to take back the control of several stages in the transformation process, others choose to specialize in capital gain production, monopolize the distribution markets or, hire personal from new comers to delegate the difficult tasks. Despite a regular absence of electrical energy, the employment of a very skilled workforce composed of kins, allow them today to get some influence and compete with networks of industrial producers from neighbouring countries. Few years ago, the artisans did had a very different experience. They were lacking genealogical references or credences to become accepted as Muslims and, as others economic actors, they depended on non-muslim institutions for their activities (extraction, trade, manipulation, transformation, or destruction of materials) were considered mistrust by the religious representants. During the previous century, the implication of a religious chief involved in business beside the professionnals contributed to the evolution of economic relations but also to the rites attached the islamic faith. All the artisans now claim to follow the precept of the muslim creed

La tradition religieuse sikhe prend naissance sur le sol indien au XVe siècle avec son fondateur Gurũ Nãnak (1469-1539). Nés à l'époque médiévale en réaction au système hiérarchique de classes hindou basé sur l'inégalité sociale et religieuse de naissance, les enseignements de Gurũ Nãnak insistaient principalement pour lutter contre toute forme de discrimination entre les humains devant Dieu. Abolition de toute forme de ritualité, insistance sur le principe d'égalité, renforcement du statut des femmes comptent parmi les principales valeurs véhiculées par le premier gurũ. Alors qu'en Inde ces valeurs n'ont pas toujours été mises au premier plan par l'institution, on remarque au sein des communautés sikhes immigrantes de l'Europe et de l'Amérique du Nord une forte volonté de réappropriation. Et le Québec ne fait pas exception. En effet, à Montréal, on remarque à la lecture du mémoire déposé par des représentants de la communauté sikhe montréalaise à la Commission Bouchard-Taylor que la question de l'égalité entre les sexes fait figure d'argument central visant à légitimer les croyances et valeurs sikhes auprès de la société québécoise. Partant du constat que le discours sur l'égalité entre les sexes tenu par la tradition et prescrit par l'orthodoxie aujourd'hui ne s'actualise pas dans l'organisation communautaire de la vie religieuse à Montréal, nous avons cherché à comprendre comment les femmes se situaient par rapport aux orientations traditionnelles sur la question des femmes et des rapports homme-femme. L'objectif de cette recherche de type exploratoire se résume donc à mieux comprendre les représentations des femmes et des rapports homme-femme que se forment les femmes sikhes fréquentant la gurdwãrã Nãnak Darbãr de ville Lasalle. La démarche méthodologique privilégiée est l'étude de cas et fait appel à deux techniques de collectes de données: l'observation participante et l'entrevue semi-dirigée. Huit femmes issues des première et deuxième générations ont été interrogées à l'aide d'un guide d'entretien d'une vingtaine de points visant à cerner les représentations qu'elles se forment d'elles-mêmes et des rapports homme-femme dans les sphères familiale et religieuse. Enfin, les résultats obtenus ont été analysés sous la perspective des théories des représentations sociales et des concepts de division sexuelle du travail et rapports sociaux de sexe. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Sikhisme, Femmes, Représentations sociales, Rapports homme-femme.

The term 'gender' has been defined as an evolutionary, fluid construct; gendered realities are thus open to the vicissitudes of circumstance and time, emerging and developing with the shifting needs of the community within which they unfold. An analysis of gender construction is thus a useful mechanism to interpret the historical process on the whole. This theoretical position forms the framework for a reinterpretation of the Sikh community in the colonial context. The Sikh tradition itself has been part of an evolutionary process. From a primary focus on interior religiosity upon its inception, Sikhism developed into an increasingly militaristic order with highly prescribed exterior symbols and rituals. Accompanying this shift was a 'theology of difference', giving religious, symbolic and ritual sanctioning to a specific gender hierarchy. With a primary focus on male Sikh identity, female religious identity was relegated to a secondary position. Under-girding the annexation of Punjab into the British Empire were Victorian notions of the 'manly Christian', Christianized imperialism and chivalry, alongside rigid female ideals such as the 'helpmate'. The Sikhs came to be highly favoured by their imperial masters for their monotheistic ideals and what was perceived as their 'manly' and militaristic character. This hyper-masculine, militaristic construct, already enshrined within Sikh history through the creation of the Khalsa in 1699 received renewed emphasis by the British administration. The Singh Sabha reform movement initiated in the late-nineteenth century ingeniously accommodated selected aspects of the Victorian worldview into their reform agenda, particularly with regard to gender constructs. Leaders of the Singh Sabha began to actively safeguard Sikh interests in a political milieu increasingly defined by communal rivalry. A Sikh renaissance was born, bringing about a successful focus on linguistic concerns of the Sikhs, education, literature and a highly selective interpretive process of Sikh history and religion. Gender politics were pivotal to virtually all aspects of this endeavour. Novel interpretations and in certain instances 'inventions' of distinct female ritual traditions and symbolism alongside female educational initiatives fostering the 'ideal' Sikh woman were central to the objectives of the Singh Sabha reform movement.

This dissertation sheds new light on the Purātan Janamsākhī, the earliest available account on the founder and most important figure of the Sikh tradition – Gurū Nānak (d. 1539 CE). Scholarship on Gurū Nānak has largely dismissed the significance of this text and has overlooked the fact that, after its composition in 1588 CE, the Purātan Janamsākhī remained the most widely circulated account of Gurū Nānak’s life for two centuries. This thesis engages with the manuscripts and studies of the text to provide a life-history of the Purātan Janamsākhī, and, in arguing for a reclamation of this account, takes on a close reading of the Purātan Janamsākhī to identify how, within decades of his death, followers of Gurū Nānak remembered his life and message. This thesis situates the Purātan Janamsākhī within its historical context and compares it with some of its closest North Indian contemporaries, including other janamsākhīs composed on the life of Gurū Nānak and hagiographical writings written about religious figures from different North Indian communities. Our comparative approach allows us to identify some basic commonalities in hagiographical writing and glean aspects that distinguish the Purātan Janamsākhī from its counterparts, including Gurū Nānak’s unique interest in political critique and building a new community. This thesis, therefore, contributes significantly to our understandings of identity and community formation, to studies on hagiographical writing, and to our foundational understandings of Sikh history.

This thesis argues that Sikh women in Australia experience the burden of protecting the cultural traditions of their religious group. Here an analysis is made of their attempt to construct a new boundary or a new space for themselves. Sikh immigrant women in Australia are what Spivak termed, and other post-colonial writers have also noted, the "third-world displaced woman", caught between tradition and modernisation. Sikhs, a religious cultural group from Punjab, India, have for centuries proclaimed the equality of the sexes in their faith. Yet, Sikh women are tied to their cultural religious boundaries even when they have left the homeland of Punjab and sought to renegotiate their boundaries and body identity elsewhere. I argue that the religious culture of the Sikhs carries the same meaning and weight to them as any ethnic identification so that whatever geographical area they emigrated to, they usually set up enclaves to distinguish themselves from the wider population. My theoretical and analytical framework for studying how Sikh women in Australia renegotiate their cultural boundaries and body identity in order to find a space for themselves in the new culture, draws on concepts of culture and cultural boundaries, post-colonialism and body identity. The study incorporates a qualitative phenomenological methodology that seeks to understand the lived experience of Sikh women who have either migrated to Australia from Punjab or who have been born to parents who emigrated from Punjab. The study's findings will help to determine how Sikh women renegotiate boundaries and identities in order to live successfully in two cultures. The elements included in this study are a theory-based discussion of the issues, field work, researcher's notes and observations, and analysis of the data.