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The Sikh Diaspora (Global Diasporas)

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For Darshan Singh Tatla, Operation Bluestar--the Indian Army's 1984 storming of the Golden Temple in order to flush out the militant leader Bhindranwale and his followers--was the 'crucial' (p 210) event that transformed Sikhs' understanding of their identity: 'From a self-confident religious community, the Sikhs rapidly acquired many characteristics of a persecuted minority' (p 1). In particular, argues Tatla, the threat of an overly centralised and overtly Hindu India practising 'ethnocracy' (p 36) rather than democracy led the one million-strong Sikh diaspora to take up the role of popularisers-and chief fund-raisers-for Khalistan. Their reaction to Operation Bluestar also 'enabled them to redraw a strict definition of Sikh identity, highlighting the religious tradition and collective symbols of the community instead of the geography, language and cultural traits' (p 210). Tatla adds that support for Khalistan fed on the alienation which many Sikhs living abroad had long felt but rarely articulated.

Tatla's excellent work underscores the 'situational' (p 210) nature of ethnic consciousness. Why then does he only grudgingly admit that, for the Sikh diaspora, 'a broader loyalty towards India probably still exists' (p210)? With the return of peace to Punjab and the entrance of the Akali Dal (the main Sikh political party) into the recent national coalition government of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, support for Khalistan has become a slogan rather than a belief.

The Sikh DIASPORA, is a very thourgh and excellent written book, not only for academics alike but for our future generations, Tatla explains fully within context to the reader, a past, present and future look of Sikh movements, an excellent book and well contributed to the series of Diasporas around the world.