Those Who Have Loved Are Those that Have Found God: Queer Sikh Narratives in Sab Rab De Bande (We’re All God’s Creation) (2020)

Abstract

Religion and non-heterosexual and gender identifications have a complex relationship in most societies. The religious discourse in most communities condemns the LGBTIQ+ community and even deny them to access and practice their religious experiences/practices. In India, where religion and rituals are embedded in daily practices, religious identity can rarely be disassociated from other identities and added factor like caste and social class. India is if anything saturated with hundreds of religions which translates into multiple identities, sometimes overlapped and in confliction with each other. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the documentary Sab Rab De Bande (We’re all God’s Creation) (2020) produced and directed by Sukhdeep Singh to highlight the challenges that the queer Sikhs in India face when reconciling their religious identity with gender identities and sexual orientations. The corpus of this analysis sheds light on intersectionality, which allows us to see the collision of structures and the simultaneous interaction of identity avenues.