Casted masculinities in the Punjabi Diaspora in Spain

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses how young, unmarried Indian men of Punjabi origin from an ex-untouchable caste negotiate masculinity in a first-generation migration context in Barcelona, Spain. Based on fieldwork carried out over a two-year period, the paper explores how men assert their masculinity through economics, moral leadership, caste pride and the exaltation of Indian gender norms. It discusses how the majority of young Punjabi men in Spain adhere ideologically to a breadwinning, hegemonic form of masculinity. It finds that Dalit men, in response to the devaluation of their masculinity by upper caste and Spanish men, respond by valuing their masculinity as superior and investing in upward mobility.

KEYWORDS:

• Masculinities
• Indian diaspora
• caste
• gender values

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Kathryn Dominique Lum is a Research Fellow based at the Migration Policy Centre at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, where she is the Scientific Coordinator of an EU-funded research project on Indian migration to the EU. Her research interests include the study of gender and caste in India and the Indian diaspora, Dalit movements and the anthropology of migration. She teaches migration studies and cultural anthropology in Florence.

Notes

1. First generation refers to the first wave of migration to a country.

2. The term Dalit is considered a ‘bottom-up’ term originating from Dalit activists in contrast to Ghandi's ‘top-down’ term of ‘Harijan’.

3. This was a minority decision on the part of the global Ravidassia community. While around half of Italian Ravidassia temples decided to remove the Guru Granth Sahib, no temple within the British Ravidassia community chose to do so.

4. Sikhism is an independent religion that has been influenced by Hinduism and some scholars of religion also point to Sufi Islam. There are approximately 25 million Sikhs worldwide, the vast majority of whom live in the Punjab state of India.

5. 1.5 generation refers to first-generation children and adolescents who were born in India, but raised at least partially abroad.

6. In many gurudwaras in Canada, the USA and the UK, women play an active role in food preparation. However, in Barcelona, this was not common practice.

7. Although Connell speaks of an ‘emphasised femininity’ and does not employ the term hegemonic femininity, I maintain that women are equally subject to a hierarchy of femininities in which one particular mode of femininity is valued above all others.

8. The six countries in question are India, Brazil, Chile, Rwanda, Croatia and Mexico. The Indian sample consisted of 1534 men between the ages of 15 and 59 years interviewed in Delhi and Vijayawada in Tamil Nadu.

9. The global Ravidassia community refers to Ravidass as Guru rather than saint (for orthodox Sikhs, only the 10 officially recognised Gurus can hold that title). Ravidassias are accused of allowing visiting sants or spiritual leaders to sit at the same level of the Sikh holy book, which is forbidden by the Sikh code of practice. The ritual prayer that concludes collective worship, known as ardas, also differs in a Ravidassia temple.

10. In 2014, India's Supreme Court recognised India's hijra/transgender community as belonging to a third gender, and they were declared to be treated as a ‘socially and economically background’ community entitled to government quotas for such groups.

11. A process that according to an Indian-resident interviewee is also occurring in urban India due to the influence of Western media.