Making sense of Sikh nationalism

ABSTRACT Despite significant advances in Sikh studies, Sikh nationalism is still poorly understood. 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) – Sikh nationalism requires an integrated framework that recognises the rich symbolic heritage and how the nation and state-building projects of India and Pakistan have defined Sikh politics. Such a framework also needs to rethink the role of the diaspora as the agent of long-distance nationalism against the background of the rise of religious nationalisms.