ABSTRACT
Langar is a central feature of Sikh practice, a highlight of visits to the gurdwara, a lived and embodied expression of Sikhi. Given that langar integrates extensive ritual, ethical, and social meanings, and codifies important ideas about religiosity, community, ethnicity, and modernity, it is somewhat surprising that scholarly writings dedicated to this evolving tradition are scarce. This chapter examines langar using a multi-sited ethnographic approach, drawing from fieldnotes, religious codifications, media and online discussions, etc, to demonstrate its centrality in Sikh ritual, religiosity, community, and identity. Langar is situated amid Sikhism’s anti-caste worldview, the principles and practices of Sikh ethics, and the food traditions and dietary contexts of Indian and diaspora Panjabis. I argue that while langar’s symbolic and social meanings might seem incontrovertible, its contemporary praxis is changing with modernization and migration, as evidenced in disputes regarding the appropriate embodiment and consumption of langar (the ‘chairs and tables’ debate) and unease over its advancing commodification (the serving of catered food). As a lived and embodied ethics, a radical egalitarianism, a refusal of the separation of religiosity and politics, and an expectation of body politic among those participants in its commensal praxis, the meanings of contemporary langar are amplified and contested.
