ABSTRACT
In violent times, the question of identity takes on new meaning. During British colonization of India, colonialism defined Indians and, of particular relevance to this chapter, Sikhs, as the Other. Sikhs were constructed in masculinist language as the “Lions of Punjab” during the Anglo-Sikh wars of 1845–1846 and 1848–1849. I examine the representation of gendered Sikh identity in cultural productions written and published by Sikhs during British colonialism, showing that the imposition of a “unique” Sikh identity during the colonial period points to a troubled past. Sikhs, remembering the Mughal period and the violence unleashed against them by the Muslims, react to the trauma in complex ways. For the Sikhs, the space of the homeland is a gendered space, and even though many women participated in the reimagining of the Sikh identity, the space continued to be popularly imagined in masculinist language. In this chapter, I argue that Bhai Vir Singh, in his 1898 novella Sundri , attempts to construct the colonized Sikhs, once again, as brave warriors and the Lions of Punjab, as colonialism and modernity are seen as threats to the “virility” of Sikhs, thereby weakening the power of Sikhism.
