ABSTRACT
Later in life, when asked to reminisce, young Punjabi Sikhs in the West Midlands talked about school as the first time when they came into extensive contact with other children who were not Punjabi. Up until starting school, they said they had spent their lives mostly in the company of close family and their parents’ circles of extended family and friends. Primary school was where they came into extensive contact with the “outside culture” and started “mixing up” with other people. Inderjit’s interview offers a representative example of how young people talked about the cultural changes that schooling brought in their lives. I met Inderjit, aged 21, at a talk organized by one of the university Sikh Societies. She was curious about what I was doing at the talk and why I was taking notes. When I explained that I was researching identity and how British Punjabis felt about India she agreed to talk to me again. She was born in Cardiff to professional parents from East Africa but her family moved to Birmingham when she was 10 in order to be closer to the aunts, uncles and grandparents. She talked movingly about how she appreciated spending time with her grandmother, as she’d had the chance to learn a lot about her history, culture, cooking and language. Picking up on that, I asked her how she had learnt about Punjabi culture, growing up in Cardiff and Birmingham.
Inderjit: It’s quite funny because when I was little I couldn’t speak English, I’d just be speaking Punjabi, because at home that’s all anybody would talk to me in y’know, that’s all I kinda understood. I know a lot of kids that are like that, from when they were born … from when they were born to when they hit nursery could just, they just knew their own language and their own culture [my emphasis], they didn’t know anything else. It’s when they start getting into school and they start mixing with everybody from every culture, from every religion, all sorts, that they start to pick up other languages, English being the main one. But when they hit high school they’ve gotta learn French, German, whatever. So you kind-of, as you grow up, I think school’s probably the main influence for y’know, the outside culture. But I think … I dunno … it depends on your parents as well and who they are, it depends who you choose to hang around with when you’re out there.
K: So were your parents particularly clear about wanting you to understand your heritage and your Punjabi culture and things like that?
Inderjit: That’s just my parents, though. I know a lot of parents that aren’t … they kind-of just … they haven’t taught their kids anything like that. They’ve just kind-of lived their life as their parents have told them whereas my parents would teach me about it. I’ve never actually been to India yet. My dad’s side of the family moved to Africa from India, a lot of the family is there so I’ve been to Africa quite a few times but I’ve never been over to India, not yet anyway. But yeah, so we’ve got like a bit of Swahili and stuff in our family as well and things like that so we’re kind-of mixed up. But it’s good to be like that though ’cos you kind-of become a more rounded person, you get a bit of everything but … what was the question sorry?
K: You were talking about how you learnt Punjabi culture and you said that your parents were quite different from the parents of other people your age because they were more …?
Inderjit: They did … they did teach. They encouraged it if you like, encouraged me watching Punjabi films and things like that rather than … well they kind-of mixed it up, they didn’t mind y’know watching English TV and stuff like that but they … Like at home they preferred to speak Punjabi, they preferred to do that sort of thing, so you just grow up and it’s like a … just a second side of you. I think it is important, especially if you’ve been born here, whereas if you were born over in India it would be automatic, it would just be normal to you, whereas here you kinda have to embrace it because you’re always out there y’know, with complete different society than if you were over in India so yeah, but this is what you have to teach your kids … y’know … history.
