The making of Sikh student: Ethnographic study of a minority school in Delhi

ABSTRACT

Religious minority schools are seen to take on the task of transmitting the normative image of a community, its ideology and culture. Through pedagogy and daily routine practices, schools seek to shape students’ ideas of a religion and ways in which it is to be performed. This paper, based on ethnography of a Sikh school in Delhi, explores such schooling spaces and practices that attempt to establish and promote a homogenous religious identity among students. The school rules make it mandatory for Sikh students to adhere to the Sikh identity that it supports. However, interviews reveal that they interpret the religion differently from what is being projected to them through the school’s pedagogy. The meaning-making process in the school is complex because while this is a religious institution, it caters to students from other faiths as well. The article argues that religious schools often overlook the diversity of beliefs among students and educational ethnographies can be helpful to explore such institutionalised practices and students’ agency in identity formation.

KEYWORDS:

• Education in India
• minority schools
• sikhs
• ethnography
• school rituals
• identity

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the reviewers for detailed critical comments which significantly helped in improving the paper. My sincere gratitude to Prof. (retd.) Geetha B. Nambissan, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi for suggestions on an earlier draft of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Baptism or amrit chakya is an important practice of conservative Khalsa identity.

2. The five articles of Sikh faith are Kesh (hair), Kada (iron bangle), Kanga (wooden comb), Kirpan (dagger) and Kachhera (cotton underpants).

3. The Khalsa identity for the Sikh men and women was created by the 10^th and final Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh. He baptised his followers and called them the community of the pure, the Khalsa. The men and women hence baptised were to keep the five articles of the Sikh faith and adopt the name Singh (for men) and Kaur (for women) and maintain this distinct outward identity.

4. Turban holds deep significance in Sikhism and is a mandatory part of their outward identity. The turban is said to represent the social status of the Sikhs but also principles of equality and self-respect. Sikh women are encouraged to wear a turban but it is not mandatory for them. Instead, they can cover their heads with a scarf.

5. Dupatta is a long scarf worn by women in South Asia to cover the chest. It is usually carried along with salwar kameez, the former referring to pleated, loose trousers that fit around the ankles with kameez which is a long tunic that usually goes below the knees.

6. A yearly test was conducted to check students’ knowledge of Sikhism in order to select them for the fee waiver. They were to also provide a certificate of baptism from the gurdwara where they were baptised.

7. Guru Granth Sahib or Adi Granth is the holy book of the Sikhs originally written in Gurmukhi. For more on Sikhism, see Mcleod (1999).

8. Guru means master or leader. There are 10 Sikh gurus or spiritual masters in Sikhism, with Sikhism’s founder being Guru Nanak Dev, followed by Guru Angad Dev, Guru Amar Das, Guru Ram Das, Guru Arjan Dev, Guru Hargobind, Guru Har Rai, Guru Har Krishan, Guru Tegh Bahadur and finally, Guru Gobind Singh. The Guru Granth Sahib is now considered as the last and the final living guru by the Sikhs.

9. Both Lohri and Baisakhi are celebrated by Sikhs and Hindus. Lohri marks the end of the winter season and, for the Sikhs, Baisakhi historically marks the beginning of the Khalsa order.

10. Panj Pyare literally means the Five Beloved. These were five men initiated into the Khalsa by the 10^th Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh. Char Sahibzade (four warriors) refers to the four sons of Guru Gobind Singh martyred by the Mughal forces. Takht means seat of authority. At present, Akal Takht (Amritsar), Takht Keshgarh Sahib (Anandpur Sahib), Takht Damdama Sahib (Talwandi Sabo), Takht Patna Sahib (Bihar) and Takht Hazur Sahib (Maharashtra) are recognised as five takhts of the Sikhs. A gurdwara is a Sikh place of worship. The ardas is a request or a prayer to the Sikh guru.

11. At the time of the fieldwork, a movie on the four sons of Guru Gobind Singh had been released. Students from the school were being taken to theatres for the movie. Students recounted feeling inspired by the lives of the protagonists, especially towards their sacrifices for the Sikh religion.

12. The Khalsa identity is used synonymously with amritdhari identity, i.e. the Sikh identity instituted by Guru Gobind Singh.

13. Sikh gurus were said to be warriors who stood up for righteousness irrespective of caste or religion. The ninth Sikh guru Guru Tegh Bahadur laid down his life to protest against the conversion of Hindus to Islam during the rule (1658–1707) of Emperor Aurangzeb in India. This is the story that the teacher was narrating to the students in the classroom.

14. A pair of twin hand drums.

15. Performance of hymns with sacred music is central to Sikhism. For more on Sikh music, see Singh (2014) and Beck (2006).

16. The experiences of Muslim students with regards to prayers and going to gurdwara in the school as part of mandatory practice in Divinity curriculum is interesting but beyond the scope of critical analysis of this paper. However, Muslim students grappled between their own religious practices and those of their school. They consulted their parents and even Islamic priests on what they could or could not accept, like bowing in gurdwara.

17. Sikhs have often come under attack in the diaspora, specifically after 9/11 Twin Towers attacks in the US. For more, see https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/young-sikh-americans-still-struggling-with-post-9/11-discrimination/articleshow/86048019.cms?from=mdr

18. The concept of langar or community kitchen is central to Sikhism like its many other philosophies. It was introduced by Guru Gobind Singh who emphasised upon the Sikhs to eat with everyone without discrimination on basis of caste or religion. This was mainly to counter discriminative practices in Hinduism where food and eating practices were one of stratification methods and people from different castes were not allowed to eat together.

19. Migration among the Sikhs is often said to be as old a tradition as Sikhism itself. Sikhs settled around the world initially as army and police officers but also merchants, traders and peasants. They are also now in the highest political offices in countries such as Canada. It is believed that nearly 10% of total number of Sikhs are settled outside of India and to understand the community, a critical study of the Sikh diaspora is necessary. For more, see Mann et al. (1993) and Jacobsen et al. (2015).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yamini Agarwal

Yamini Agarwal is Research Fellow at Max Weber Forum for South Asian Studies, New Delhi. She was awarded PhD in Sociology of Education from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, in the year 2020. Her research interests are education of religious minorities, gender and urban marginality. Yamini’s research profile can be accessed at https://mwfdelhi.hypotheses.org/yamini-agarwal.