ABSTRACT
Despite significant advances in the study of ethnicity and nationalism and Sikh studies, Sikh nationalism is still poorly understood. This chapter will outline why this is the case by critically evaluating existing approaches and their shortcomings. For the Sikhs as a complex community with competing narratives of self-identity – as a religion, as an ethnicity, and as a global and national minority (in India and in the diaspora) – the study of the subject requires an integrated framework that recognizes the rich symbolic heritage and how the nation and state-building projects of India and Pakistan have defined Sikh politics. Such a framework also suggests the need to rethink the role of the diaspora as the agent of long-distance nationalism in a world where secular nationalism is being overshadowed by the rise of religious nationalisms.
