Unsettling Sikh and Muslim Conflict

Katy P. Sian is a lecturer in sociology at The University of Manchester. Previously she was a postdoctoral research fellow at The University of Leeds where she also completed her PhD. She takes a key interest in debates surrounding racism and ethnicity studies, sociology, Sikh studies, Islamophobia, postcolonialism, Diaspora and South Asian identity.

This book may be located within diaspora studies and the study of intercultural and interethnic relations, and more broadly, within the discourse on narrative performance where identity is viewed as intrinsically linked to storytelling. Using postcolonial theorists such as Said, Foucault, and Barthes, Sian attempts to interrogate existing narrative/s of ‘Sikhness’ that are rooted in tales of ‘Sikhs and their battle against the Muslim enemy.’ It is a battle centered on the notion of ‘brave, courageous and heroic Sikhs’ who emerge victorious in the face of ‘oppression…and tyranny [by] the Muslim antagonist’ (2). Stories, she rightly argues, shape identity. . . .Sian’s narrative questions the present discourse and masterfully weaves her own story. . . .[S]killfully expressed.

• Introduction: ‘Shoot the ‘Pakis!’’ The Art of StorytellingChapter 1: Deconstructing SikhsChapter 2: The Development of the Sikh DiasporaChapter 3: A History of ConflictChapter 4: Explaining ConflictChapter 5: Sweet Seduction: ‘Forced’ Conversion NarrativesChapter 6: Accounting for Sikh and Muslim ConflictChapter 7: Sikhs and the British EthnoscapesChapter 8: Sikh NOT Muslim- Questioning Sikh IslamophobiaChapter 9: ‘Who is a Sikh?'Conclusion