Jasjit Singh gets his PhD studying Sikhs

This PhD research project follows on from research on young British Sikhs, hair and the turban which I carried out as part of an MA in Religion and Public Life. This research discovered that a variety of events are now being organised which aim to transmit Sikhism to 18-30 year old young British Sikhs. What is surprising however is that many of these events are being organised by young British Sikhs themselves. Given that modernity and globalisation supposedly lead to the corrosion of tradition and authority through the process of ‘detraditionalization’ (Heelas 1996: 2) the main intellectual problem of this study is to understand how young British Sikhs are engaging with their tradition and how they negotiate ideas of identity, authority and belonging.

Supervised by Prof. Kim Knott and Dr. Sean McLoughlin and funded by the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society programme and the Bradford Educational and Cultural Association of Sikhs (BECAS), this research project seeks to investigate the transmission of religion among young British Sikhs with the intention of providing a theoretical framework to help understand the (re)production of religion in modernity in a minority diasporic community.

This project will focus on questions such as: What understanding do British Sikhs in the age range 18-30 have of Sikhism? What drives young British Sikhs to organise and attend Sikhism related events? What sources of authority do young British Sikhs draw on, and how have their acquired their knowledge of Sikh tradition, belief and practice? The research will seek to understand how young British Sikhs (18-30) are learning about Sikhism and will focus on the role of Gurdwaras, Camps/Youth Events and the Internet. Examining the recent emergence of these events, and of the impact of the Internet will allow us to understand how members of minority ethnic groups are impacted by detraditionalization whilst still wishing to maintain membership of a minority diasporic community.

ONLINE SURVEY NOW CLOSED: http://www.survey.leeds.ac.uk/sikhs

MANY THANKS TO THE 645 RESPONDENTS

Figure 9.1 - SURVEY RESULTS - Word cloud answers to the survey question ‘Which websites / forums do you visit most to explore and learn about Sikhism?' .....Source

Transmission of Sikhism in Britain

now takes place in a variety of traditional and non-traditional ways

18 February 13: One of the main ways in which religion used to be transmitted was by being passed down the generations. It is often assumed that if this chain breaks, religion will die out. Investigating this issue in relation to Sikhism in Britain, Jasjit Singh, in doctoral research funded by Religion and Society, found that transmission can and does now take place in a much wider variety of ways.

Having attended a Sikh camp in the UK organised for 18-30 year old Sikhs as part of his MA research on ‘Young Sikhs, Hair and the Turban’ (Singh 2010), Singh noted that the majority of the camp organisers and attendees were 18-30 year old British-born Sikhs, who listened to lectures and discussions presented in English. As well as camps, Singh had also observed increasing numbers of other events being organised for young Sikhs, including the formation of a number of university Sikh societies. He also noted the growing importance of the Internet in allowing young Sikhs to discuss issues related to Sikhism, to network and to find out about these events. This provoked him to look more deeply at how young British Sikhs learn about Sikhism, and which methods actually work, and to ask why young Sikhs are organising events outside gurdwaras when a number of large gurdwaras have recently been built all over the UK, and to examine how the Internet changes ideas about religious authority...........more