ABSTRACT
This chapter surveys the sociological and anthropological literature on the social and economic influences on the movement of migrant labourers and their families from the Indian subcontinent to Britain. It argues that religion is an aspect of group and individual identity that must be understood in the context of other aspects of the minority group's social organisation, including the honour system. The chapter also argues that religion and ethnicity cannot be treated as alternative means of understanding identity, since religion's role in regulating individual and group identities can best be viewed in the context of other value systems and meaning structures. Honour mediated through institutions of marriage and religion is relevant to a wide range of behaviour for British Asians. By surveying ethnographies of honour and shame in Mediterranean countries in parallel with work on subcontinent societies, the chapter suggests that these values continue to inform the context in which other familial and religious values need to be interpreted.
