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The Construction of a Sikh National Identity

Giorgio ShaniView all authors and affiliations
Volume 20, Issue 1
https://doi.org/10.1177/026272800002000101
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1 Paul R. Brass, Language, Religion and Politics in North India, Cambridge, 1974, p. 277.
2 Council of Sikh Affairs, Compendium of Statements and Resolutions, Chandigarh, 1983, p. 18.
3 See W. H. McLeod, Who is a Sikh ? The Problem of Sikh Identity, Oxford, 1989, p. 96.
4 A. D. Smith, 'Memory and Modernity: Reflections on Ernest Gellner's Theory of Nationalism', Nations and Nationalism, Vol. 2, No. 3, 1996, p. 383.
5 Rajiv A. Kapur, Sikh Separatism, Oxford, 1986; N. Gerald Barrier, 'Sikh Politics and Religion: The Bhasaur Singh Sabha' in Indu Banga, ed., Five Punjabi Centuries, New Delhi, 1997, pp. 140-56.
6 Richard G. Fox, Lions of the Punjab: Culture in the Making, Berkeley, 1985, p. 10.
7 Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism, Oxford, 1983, p. 55.
8 See Paul R. Brass, Ethnicity and Nationalism: Theory and Comparison, New Delhi, 1991.
9 See A.S. Narang, Storm over the Sutlej: The Akali Politics, Delhi, 1983.
10 See Harjot S. Oberoi, The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity and Diversity with the Sikh Tradition, Delhi, 1994; Roger Ballard, 'Panth, Kismet, Dharm, te Qaum: Four Dimensions in Panjabi Religion' in Pritam Singh and Shinder S. Thandi, eds, Globalisation and the Region: Explorations in Punjabi Identity, Coventry, 1996, pp. 7-38; Darshan Singh Tatla, The Sikh Diaspora: The Search for Statehood, London, 1999.
11 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London, 1983, chapter 3, pp. 37-46.
12 Brass, Ethnicity and Nationalism.
13 Pierre Bourdieu, The Logic of Practice, Cambridge, 1990, p. 56.
14 Louis Althusser, Lenin and Philosophy, London, 1971, p. 162.
15 See Ballard, 'Panth, Kismet, Dharm, te Quam', pp. 16-31; and idem, 'The Politicisation of Religion and the Rise of Essentialism: Sikhs, the Sikh Panth and the Construction of "Sikhism"', Paper delivered at the 'New Perspectives in Sikh Studies' workshop, 28-29 May 1998, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, pp. 5-9.
16 Ian Talbot, 'The British Punjab, 1875-1937' in Gurharpal Singh and Ian Talbot, eds, Punjabi Identity, New Delhi, 1996, pp. 7-35.
17 Ibid., pp. 26-27.
18 Oberoi, The Construction of Religious Boundaries, p. 17.
19Ibid ., p. 420.
20Ibid ., p. 305.
21 Barrier, 'Sikh Politics and Religion', p. 141.
22 Oberoi, The Construction of Religious Boundaries, p. 320.
23 Talbot, 'The British Punjab', p. 15.
24 Attar Singh, 'The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee and the Politicisation of the Sikhs' in J. T. O'Connell, M. Israel and W. G. Oxtoby, eds, Sikh History and Religion in the Twentieth Century, Toronto, 1988, p. 228.
25 Kapur, Sikh Separatism, p. 191.
26Ibid.
27 Walker Connor, Ethnonationalism, Princeton, 1993.
28 P. S. Verma, 'Akali Dal: History, Electoral Performance and Leadership Profile' in Gopal Singh, ed., Punjab Today, Chandigarh, 1987, p. 258.
29 S. S. Suri and N. Dogra, 'A Study of SGPC Elections, March 1979' in Paul Wallace and Surinder Chopra, eds, Political Dynamics of the Punjab, Amritsar, 1981.
30 Kapur, Sikh Separatism, p. 211.
31 A. D. Smith, 'Ethnic Identity and World Order', Millennium, Vol. 17, No. 1, 1983, p. 150.
32 B.R. Nayar, Minority Politics in the Punjab, Princeton, 1966, p. 84.
33 Kapur, Sikh Separatism, p. 207.
34 Harjot Oberoi, 'From Punjab to "Khalistan": Territoriality and Metacommentary', Pacific Affairs, Vol. 60, No. 1, 1987, pp. 39-40.
35 K.R. Bombwall, 'Sikh Identity and Federal Polity: A Critique of the Akali Position' in Gopal Singh, ed., Punjab Today, Chandigarh, 1987, p. 159.
36 Tan Tai Yong, 'Prelude to Partition: Sikh Responses to the Demand for Pakistan', International Journal of Punjab Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1994, p. 169.
37 Ishtiaq Ahmed, Sikh Separatism in India, Stockholm, 1988, pp. 39-40.
38Ibid., p. 42.
39 Smith, 'Memory and Modernity', p. 383.
40Ibid ., p. 383.
41 Mark Jurgensmeyer, 'The Logic of Religious Violence' in T. N. Madan, ed., Religion in India, Delhi, p. 383.
42 Pramod Kumar, Violence in the Punjab: Retrospect and Prognosis, Chandigarh, 1993.
43 W. H. McLeod, 'The Sikh Struggle in the Eighteenth Century and Its Relevance for Today', History of Religions, Vol. 31, No. 4,1992, pp. 344-62.
44 Bhindranwale quoted in Ahmed, Sikh Separatism in India, pp. 35-36.
45 Jurgensmeyer, 'The Logic of Religious Violence', p. 384.
46 Gurharpal Singh, 'The Punjab Elections of 1992', Asian Survey, November 1992, p. 991.
47 Ganga Singh Dhillon, 'Give us Khalistan and Leave us in Peace', The Illustrated Weekly of India, 21 July 1985, cited in Oberoi, 'From Punjab to "Khalistan"', p. 26.
48 See Harish Puri, The Ghadar Movement: Ideology, Organisation and Strategy, Amritsar, 1993.
49Ghadar di Goonj cited in Harish Puri, 'The Ghadar Movement: A New Consciousness' in Indu Banga, ed., Five Punjabi Centuries, New Delhi, 1997, p. 163.
50Ibid., p. 163.
51 Galtung cited in Kumar, Violence in the Punjab, pp. 12-13.
52 Benedict Anderson, Long-Distance Nationalism: World Capitalism and the Rise of Identity Politics, Amsterdam, 1992, p. 11.
53 Cited in Darshan Dingh Tatla, Narratives of Nation and Homeland among the Sikh Diaspora, London, 1998, p. 21.
54Ibid ., p. 30.
55 See Gurharpal Singh, 'The Punjab Legislative Assembly Elections of February 1997: the BJP's Regional Road to Power?', Contemporary South Asia, Vol. 6, No. 3, 1997, p. 278.
56The Guardian, 12 April 1999, p. 9.
57Frontline, Vol. 16, No. 5, 27 February-12 March 1999, pp. 39-41.

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