How are young British Sikhs being brought up as Sikhs?

Jasjit Singh

Research Summary

Young British Sikhs are regularly accused of not attending gurdwara and not being interested in Sikhism. However, many young Sikhs are now learning about Sikhism outside traditional religious institutions. Using data gathered as part of a project studying the religious upbringing of 18- to 30-year-old British Sikhs, the research explores how young Sikhs are learning about Sikhism in their pre-adult life stage. It examines the influences of the family and the school environment and the various methods used in gurdwaras. It provides an understanding from the perspective of young Sikhs themselves about what it can mean to be a young British Sikh. There are important messages for RE teachers. British Sikh family life can vary according to different factors such as country from which migration into Britain took place. Particular individual, social or cultural experiences can deepen young Sikhs’ sense of commitment. So far RE in school appears to make very little contribution to young Sikhs’ development of religious identity.

Researcher

Jasjit Singh

Research Institution

University of Leeds

What is this about?

Young British Sikhs are regularly accused of not attending gurdwara and not being interested in Sikhism, but is this true?
How do young British Sikhs learn about Sikhism outside traditional religious institutions, and in what ways do they do so?
What influence do family life, school education and gurdwaras have on young British Sikhs’ religious development?

What was done?

A qualitative methodological approach was taken, using a variety of sources as part of the investigation. The main methods included: semi-structured interviews with 30 18- to 30-year-old British Sikhs who had attended and participated in events organised for young Sikhs; a
self-selecting online survey of young British Sikhs; focus groups with Sikh students; and participant observation at events organised for young Sikhs, including Sikh camps and university Sikh society events.

Main findings and outputs

Young British Sikhs are socialised into Sikhism in different ways – what is true of some may not be true of others.
It is important not to assume that there are discrete British and Asian cultures which necessarily clash. Although Sikh families may share some elements, many have their own way of practising Sikhism influenced by their migration experiences, caste, political affiliation, level of religious commitment, etc.
In general, the majority of East African Sikh migrants to Britain are more religiously inclined than those coming directly from India.
Sikhs not maintaining visible signs of commitment (e.g. uncut hair or the turban) may be very committed to prayer, storytelling to their children and other Sikh activities. In many families, emphases such as prayer, vegetarianism or display of images of gurus are passed down from parents or grandparents to children.
At school, experiences of not belonging to e.g. Islam or Catholicism – where these other traditions are prominent – sometimes provokes an emotional moment of identification with Sikhism, prompting more engagement with the faith.
Gurdwaras use different ways of engaging with young people, including Punjabi classes, music tuition, adapted services, youth camps or providing library facilities; but many young Sikhs themselves have started to organise events outside gurdwaras, which they are free to shape as they wish.
Many respondents reported that they had not learned about Sikhism in school.

Relevance to RE

At national levels of policy and curriculum, the absence of significant attention to teaching about Sikhism in school should be addressed.
When planning lessons about or teaching about Sikhism, teachers should bear in mind the diversity of British Sikhism and that Sikh pupils present may offer different explanations or relate differently to lesson content. Such pupils should be listened to with sensitivity.
The British context for Sikhism has evidently been rich and varied, and – again, with the sensitivity needed to avoid intrusion on privacy – teachers might usefully collect some of its stories as resources:
E.g. Sikh family experiences of coming to Britain from India or East Africa and how gurdwaras and other religious resources were developed. Contacts in local Sikh communities could be developed for this purpose.
‘Emotional moments of identification’ could offer vivid teaching stories. The following example is from p.376 of the article:

I was in the choir .. .and I thought to myself, ‘today I’ll get the Holy Communion’ … so I had my hands in the right place … and I knew from his eyes that the priest wasn’t going to give it to me … and he just said, ‘Bless you my child’. I was so angry – I thought, ‘I’ve done your kirtan [singing of religious compositions] for so many years and you don’t give me parshad [blessed food]? ’Then I thought, ‘if these gore [white people] go to a gurdwara , they’ll get parshad no matter what.’ So from then on, every time we used to say, ‘In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’, I used to mattha tek [bow to the Guru] … it was an internal rebellion – and I was like ‘I’m going to gurdwara, I’m going to show my friends, I ’m going to talk about Sikhism – I’m going to tell them why I don’t cut my hair.’

Generalisability and potential limitations

This research is based on contact with as wide a representation of young British Sikhs as possible. The researcher identifies an interesting possible limitation, in that those studied did not grow up with the internet in the same way as the current generation of British Sikh children, meaning that the role of the internet in Sikh identity formation is not covered.

Find out more

Keeping the faith: reflections on religious nurture among young British Sikhs, Journal of Beliefs & Values, 33:3, pages 369-383 (published online 13 December 2012)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13617672.2012.732817