Introduction

The Introduction reenvisions the history of the South Asian diaspora by displacing the predominantly terracentric models of migration and the primacy of male migrant experiences. Rather, it places women's mobilities and creativity at the center of analysis within a dynamic relationship between water and land in the sonic cultural history of Sikhs who migrated between two river watershed regions—Punjab and California's Sacramento Valley—as well as their ongoing oceanic connections. It examines the transformations in self, agency, and sonic expression among the first generational cohort of Sikh women who settled in California after immigration from South Asia was restored in 1946.