The book Sikhs of New Jersey: The Pioneers from Punjab travels throughmore than a century of time. It escorts the reader back to thestruggles of pioneer Sikhs who suffered torture and racial discrimination at the hands of Canadian and West Coast Americans whiletrying to establish themselves as a SikhAmerican immigrant community. Indian Sikhmigration to the East Coast of America wasmore favorable because of the relaxed immigration laws, and the migrants to that area were educated, thus allowing them to pursue higher education and better career opportunities. is book clearly describes how a handful of New Jersey Sikh families established a vibrantcommunity and a place of worship through their farsightedness, determination and valor in the early 1970s. The internal confl icts of the SikhGurdwara management, the writer points out, are in no way unique to the Sikhs; they inflict all religious places. Even though the author rarely suggests solutions, she is hoping that the younger, educated generation will takea proactive lead in the management of theirGurdwaras and find answers to the challenges which they will face in the future. It is no coincidence that the publication of this book is occurring in the year 2019, the year of the 550th birth celebration of Guru Nanak. It is intendedto bring home the universal message of Baba Nanak to all humanity that Ik On Kaar-the same light-spirit prevails in each of us and LOVE is the way to reach within!!!Surinder Kaur Puar is also the author of Lightof Santpura, Mother's Day Bliss and PunjabiLanguage Simplifi ed. She hopes to inspire all other Sikh Gurdwara Sangat and Interfaith Communities to write their own stories to preserve their past for future generations!

2012 Honorable Mention Award, Sociology of Religion Section, presented by the American Sociological Association 2011 Honorable Mention for the American Sociological Association International Migration Section's Thomas and Znaniecki Best Book Preserving Ethnicity through Religion in America explores the factors that may lead to greater success in ethnic preservation. Pyong Gap Min compares Indian Americans and Korean Americans, two of the most significant ethnic groups in New York, and examines the different ways in which they preserve their ethnicity through their faith. Does someone feel more “Indian” because they practice Hinduism? Does membership in a Korean Protestant church aid in maintaining ties to Korean culture? Pushing beyond sociological research on religion and ethnicity which has tended to focus on whites or on a single immigrant group or on a single generation, Min also takes actual religious practice and theology seriously, rather than gauging religiosity based primarily on belonging to a congregation. Fascinating and provocative voices of informants from two generations combine with telephone survey data to help readers understand overall patterns of religious practices for each group under consideration. Preserving Ethnicity through Religion in America is remarkable in its scope, its theoretical significance, and its methodological sophistication.

This book offers an overview of the Sikh diaspora, exploring the relationship between home and host states and between migrant and indigenous communities. The book considers the implications of history and politics of the Sikh diaspora for nationality, citizenship and sovereignity.; The text should serve as a supplementary text for undergraduates and postgraduates on courses in race, ethnicity and international migration within sociology, politics, international relations, Asian history, and human geography. In particular, it should serve as a core text for Sikh/Punjab courses within Asian studies.

It is commonly assumed that all Sikhs are the same, but the very existence of different groups who have varying beliefs and practices within the Sikh community shows that a corporate identity for the Sikh community is not possible and serves to alienate a substantial proportion of Sikhs from the overall fold of the Sikh faith. Introducing the beliefs and practices of a range of individual Sikh groups, this book addresses the issue of Sikh identity across the Sikh community as a whole but from the viewpoint of different types of Sikh. Examining the historical development of Sikhism from the period of Guru Nanak to the present day, the author takes an in-depth look at five groups in the Sikh community - the Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha; the Namdharis; the Ravidasis; the Valmikis; and the Sikh Dharma of the Western hemisphere (associated with the Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization - 3HO). Their history, beliefs and practices are explored, as well as their diverse and shared identities. Concluding that there is no authoritative yardstick with which to assess the issue of Sikh identity, the author highlights Sikhism's links to its Hindu past and suggests a federal Sikh identity with one or two fundamental beliefs at the core and individual groups left to express their own unique beliefs and practices.

Sikh Art and Literature traverses the 500-year history of a religion that dawned with the modern age in a land that was a thoroughfare of invading armies, ideas and religions and arts of the East and West. Essays by art curators, historians and collectors and religion and literary scholars are illustrated with some of the earliest and finest Sikh paintings. Sikh modernism and mysticism is explored in essays on the holy Guru Granth Sahib; the translations and writings of the British Raj convert, M.A. Macauliffe; the fathers of modern Punjabi literature, Bhai Vir Singh and Puran Singh; and the 20th century fiction writers Bhai Mohan Vaid Singh and Khushwant Singh. Excerpts from journals of visitors to the court of the diminutive and new translations of early twentieth century poetry add depth and originality to this beautiful and accessible introduction to the art, literature, beliefs and history of the Sikhs. Illustrated throughout with 42 colour and 92 black and white images, Sikh Art and Literature is a colourful, heartfelt, and informative introduction to the Sikh culture.

Tenth Anniversary Expanded Edition Ten years on, Jasbir K. Puar’s pathbreaking Terrorist Assemblages remains one of the most influential queer theory texts and continues to reverberate across multiple political landscapes, activist projects, and scholarly pursuits. Puar argues that configurations of sexuality, race, gender, nation, class, and ethnicity are realigning in relation to contemporary forces of securitization, counterterrorism, and nationalism. She examines how liberal politics incorporate certain queer subjects into the fold of the nation-state, shifting queers from their construction as figures of death to subjects tied to ideas of life and productivity. This tenuous inclusion of some queer subjects depends, however, on the production of populations of Orientalized terrorist bodies. Heteronormative ideologies that the U.S. nation-state has long relied on are now accompanied by what Puar calls homonationalism—a fusing of homosexuality to U.S. pro-war, pro-imperialist agendas. As a concept and tool of biopolitical management, homonationalism is here to stay. Puar’s incisive analyses of feminist and queer responses to the Abu Ghraib photographs, the decriminalization of sodomy in the wake of the Patriot Act, and the profiling of Sikh Americans and South Asian diasporic queers are not instances of a particular historical moment; rather, they are reflective of the dynamics saturating power, sexuality, race, and politics today. This Tenth Anniversary Expanded Edition features a new foreword by Tavia Nyong’o and a postscript by Puar entitled “Homonationalism in Trump Times.” Nyong’o and Puar recontextualize the book in light of the current political moment while reposing its original questions to illuminate how Puar’s interventions are even more vital and necessary than ever.

This title was first published in 2001. This text reviews terrorist activity carried out ceaselessly and systematically in one of the most otherwise alluring spots on our planet. The rise of militancy, not only in Kashmir, but also in Punjab and in India's North-East, is related also to analogous belligerency in and around the borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Following preliminary information on the land, people, the past and the constitutional history of Kashmir, this work focuses on the rise of political violence and its consequences, following the evolution of democracy from the period of the provisional government. While dwelling mostly on the example of Jammu and Kashmir, the study endeavours to underline once more the need for an anti-terrorist international regime.