MUSIC OF THE SIKH DIASPORA: DEVOTIONAL SOUNDS, MUSICAL MEMORY AND CULTURAL IDENTITY

Abstract

This paper explores the role of devotional music in the construction of Sikh identity in diasporic contexts. In particular, it examines a heterodox Sikh community in the UK and an orthodox Sikh community in Hong Kong from a comparative perspective, showing how music helps to clarify continuities and discontinuities in Sikhism worldwide. I provide ethnographic accounts of musical performances in different locales within gurdwara-s. Following a summary of current conventions in Sikh music performance and pedagogy, two ethnographic accounts are provided. The first is a musical ethnography of the Namdhari Gurdwara in Leicester where Hindustani classical music is performed alongside traditional ritual genres. The second site is a similar ethnographic study of the Khalsa Diwan Gurdwara in Hong Kong where the issues of diasporic identity and musical memory are foregrounded.

Notes

Sach, meaning ‘truth’, refers here to the absolute word of the guru as written in the Sikh holy scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib.

A term used to refer to various sections of the Sikh Holy Text. The word consists of two roots, Guru and Bani – ‘Guru’ meaning teacher and ‘Bani’ referring to their writings.

The Punjabi term for a devotional hymn derived from text from the Guru Granth Sahib.

Translating simply as ‘Teacher–Disciple’.

A term referring to a senior musician within Hindustani classical music. It is generally used for musicians from Sikh or Muslim backgrounds, while the term Pandit is used for musicians from a Hindu background.

A term referring to different schools of learning in Hindustani music, generally divided by which part of India they originate form.

An equivalent system to Western solfege.

A focused period of extended practice on one's instrument.

The concept of ‘finding one's Sa’ is important within Hindustani and Sikh music. It refers to a physical state in which the musician is comfortable producing musical sound and often the process of ‘finding Sa’ can form amount of work at the beginning of a guru–shishya relationship.

Rhythmic cycle.

For more on the politicisation of the turban, see Kalra (2005, 75–92).

A theocracy voted in through democratic means that manages the affairs of the Khalsa.

A cross-legged pose often taken during meditation and worship.

A term referring to a specific form of duet within Hindustani music involving two soloists, where the musicians trade musical fragments, mirror one another and are both considered to be on an equal footing. Neither can definitively be called a soloist or accompanist with roles alternating as the performance develops, and different instruments can be used – although on this occasion, both musicians were playing sitars.

A traditional Sikh music ensemble.

The underlying rhythmic cycle in the performance.

A term meaning the first beat in a rhythmic cycle.

A rhythmic cadence involving a tripartite repetition of a rhythmic idea, of which the final beat lands upon the first beat in the rhythm cycle (sam).

An instrument used to produce the drone characteristic of many Indian music traditions including Hindustani, Carnatic and Sikh sacred music.

An introductory section comprising unmetered improvisation on the ascent and descent of the Rāga scale.

An unaccompanied section which introduces a pulse, accentuated by the use of the sitar's drone strings (chikaari).

A thematic melody introduced and returned to throughout the improvisation. It is at this stage that the tabla accompaniment is introduced.

A prominent London-based college providing learning opportunities for those interested in Indian music, dance and art.

In some cases, the Sikh tradition of wearing the turban and its associations with the Middle East and the Arabic community.