Legacies of a martial race: Sikh investment and implication in the US police state

Abstract

British colonization in India had devastating social, psychological, and political consequences for Sikhs in nineteenth-century Punjab. Still, much of the diasporic community remains nostalgic for this era of the Sikh “martial race”—a British-crafted racial category through which Sikhs were constructed as biologically and culturally suited for imperial service and consequently received privileged status within the colonial hierarchy. Today, this nostalgia emerges as a commemorative mechanism in US Sikh advocacy projects to incorporate the Sikh turban and unshorn hair into US military and police uniform. Through an analysis of community narratives around publicized Sikh deaths, this article explores the impact of martial race commemoration on Sikh subjectivity formation. Delineating when and how private grief is transformed into public remembrance, I argue such commemorative frameworks in US Sikh advocacy projects inform which Sikh bodies are worthy of collective mourning by suturing Sikh bodies’ value to their service to US imperialism.

Keywords

agency belonging implicated subject innocence martyrdom memory activism

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anderson

(1983) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.

AP (1981) Religious exceptions in army uniform end. The New York Times, 22 August. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/22/us/religious-exceptions-in-army-uniform-end.html (accessed 4 December 2021).

@arshallow (2021) 1984 was not just an event but a structural form of violence. Available at: https://mobile.twitter.com/arshallow/status/1390054094761570314 (accessed 17 June 2021).

@beynaam (2021) Sikhs in north America [are] pro police. Available at: https://mobile.twitter.com/beynaaam/status/1389752470801317892 (accessed 16 June 2021).

Brown

(1993) Wounded attachments. Political Theory 21: 390–410.

Chopra

(2010) Commemorating hurt: memorializing operation Bluestar. Sikh Formations 6: 119–152.

@comrade_marcus (2021) KPS Gill and Derek Chauvin are the same. Available at: https://mobile.twitter.com/comrade_marcus/status/1389973844425801728 (accessed 17 June 2021).

Cruz

(2020) Honoring Deputy Sandeep Singh Dhaliwal nearly one year after his death, Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher’s Bill to rename Houston Post Office in his memory passes House of Representatives. Available at: https://fletcher.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2788 (accessed 29 October 2020).

Das

(2018) India, Empire, and First World War Culture: Writings, Images, and Songs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

10.

De León

(2015) The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

11.

Devgan

(2013) From the ‘crevices in dominant memories’: virtual commemoration and the 1984 anti-Sikh violence. Identities 20: 207–233.

12.

Dickstein

(2017) More bearded, turbaned Sikhs join Army as Pentagon reviews religious articles ban. Stars and Stripes, 24 February. Available at: https://www.stripes.com/news/more-bearded-turbaned-sikhs-join-army-as-pentagon-reviews-religious-articles-ban-1.455730 (accessed 11 December 2020).

13.

@_dkaur (2019) What are we mourning & what are we also normalizing?

14.

Du Bois

WEB

(1940) Dusk of Dawn: An Essay toward an Autobiography of a Race Concept. San Diego, CA: Harcourt, Brace and Howe.

15.

Ensaaf (n.d.) Publications. Available at: https://ensaaf.org/publications/ (accessed 17 June 2021).

16.

Epstein

(2019) A Sikh airman petitioned the Air Force to let him wear a turban and beard. He just won. Washington Post, 7 June. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2019/06/07/air-force-will-allow-sikh-airman-wear-his-turban-beard-unshorn-hair-historic-decision-aclu-says/ (accessed 11 December 2020).

17.

Frayer

(2020) The long, perilous route thousands of Indians have risked for a shot at life in U.S. NPR.org, 9 July. Available at: https://www.npr.org/2020/07/09/814957398/the-long-perilous-route-thousands-of-indians-have-risked-for-a-shot-at-life-in-u (accessed 11 December 2020).

18.

Gill

(2022) Transnational hair (and turban): Sikh masculinity, embodied practices, and politics of representation in an era of global travel. Ethnography 23: 226–248.

19.

Gonzales

(2014) Shooting of Sikh Army Veteran divides community. NPR.org, 29 May. Available at: https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/05/29/315941286/shooting-of-sikh-army-veteran-divides-community (accessed 11 December 2020).

20.

@GurvirShinda (2021) I don’t commit crimes. Available at: https://twitter.com/GurvirShinda/status/1390579227897090051 (accessed 17 June 2021).

21.

Haripriya

(2018) Married to martyrdom: the remarried widow of a Sikh martyr (Punjab, post-1984). Contributions to Indian Sociology 52(3): 263–282.

22.

Hundle

(2012) After Wisconsin: registers of Sikh precarity in the alien-nation. Sikh Formations 8(3): 287–291.

23.

Imy

(2019) Faithful Fighters: Identity and Power in the British Indian Army. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

24.

@inkquisitive (2019) To protect and serve. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/B3CtW_YAyBs/ (accessed 15 November 2022).

25.

James

(1996) Resisting State Violence: Radicalicism, Gender, and Race in U.S. Culture. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

26.

Judge

Brar

(2021) Critique of archived life: toward a hesitation of Sikh immigrant accumulation. Positions: Asia Critique 29(2): 319–346.

27.

Kalsi

(2017) The right to wear beards and turbans is a victory for more than Sikhs. Task & Purpose. Available at: https://taskandpurpose.com/community/right-wear-beards-turbans-victory-sikhs/ (accessed 11 December 2020).

28.

Karimi

(2019) Body of a 6-year-old girl from India is found in the Arizona desert. Available at: https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/14/us/arizona-indian-girl-body-found-in-the-desert/index.html (accessed 11 December 2020).

29.

Karni

(2020) Latest crop of west point graduates includes first observant Sikh Cadet. The New York Times, 12 June. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/us/politics/west-point-sikh-anmol-narang.html (accessed 9 December 2020).

30.

Kaur

kehal

(2020) Sikhs as implicated subjects in the United States: a reflective essay (

) on Gurmat-based interventions in the movement for black lives. Sikh Research Journal 5(2): 68–86.

31.

Kaur

(2019) Faith, Gender, and Activism in the Punjab Conflict: The Wheat Fields Still Whisper. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

32.

Kaur

(2021) Ji Aya Nu: Gurdwaras as refuge and target in the Islamophobic world order. In: Harvey

Takhar

(eds) Religion and Senses of Place. Jakarta, Indonesia: Equinox Publishing, pp. 60–78.

33.

Kumar

(2020) Terrorcraft: empire and the making of the racialised terrorist threat. Race & Class 62: 34–60.

34.

La Brack

(2005) Sikhs in the United States. In: Ember

Ember

Skoggard

(eds) Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World. Boston, MA: Springer, pp. 1094–1104.

35.

Maan

(2005) Post-Colonial practices and narrative nomads: thinking Sikhism beyond metaphysics. Sikh Formations 1(2): 217–227.

36.

Mahmood

Brady

(2000) The Guru’s Gift: An Ethnography Exploring Gender Equality with North American Sikh Women. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company.

37.

Murphy

(2005) Materializing Sikh pasts. Sikh Formations 1(2): 175–200.

38.

National Sikh Campaign (n.d.-a) Mission. Available at: http://www.sikhcampaign.org/mission (accessed 11 December 2020).

39.

National Sikh Campaign (n.d.-b) Our lifestyle. Available at: https://www.wearesikhs.org/lifestyle (accessed 26 February 2021).

40.

National Sikh Campaign (n.d.-c) Our values. Available at: http://www.wearesikhs.org/values (accessed 11 December 2020).

41.

NBC Asian America (2015) Sikhs who serve: Texas County Sheriff’s Office makes history. NBC Asian America, 11 February. Available at: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/sikhs-who-serve-texas-county-sheriffs-office-makes-history-n302916 (accessed 29 October 2020).

42.

News India (2022) Texas man sentenced to death for murder of US’ first turbaned Sikh police officer. News India, 28 October. Available at: https://www.newsindiatimes.com/texas-man-sentenced-to-death-for-murder-of-us-first-turbaned-sikh-police-officer/ (accessed 28 October 2022).

43.

@nun2mee (2021) What people fail to realize is that the police actively cooperated with the state. Available at: https://mobile.twitter.com/nun2mee/status/1390394700964761608 (accessed 17 June 2021).

44.

O’Connor

(2019) The unanchored past: three modes of collective memory. Memory Studies 15: 634–649.

45.

@preetypants123 (2021) Well I’m not being harmed here. Available at: https://mobile.twitter.com/preetypants123/status/1390362719509827584 (accessed 17 June 2021).

46.

Puar

(2007) Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

47.

Rand

Wagner

(2012) Recruiting the ‘martial races’: identities and military service in colonial India. Patterns of Prejudice 46(3–4): 232–254.

48.

@rasans_ (2019) He gave a bigger sacrifice than any of the ones who are opposing Dhaliwal.

49.

Rothberg

(2019) The Implicated Subject: Beyond Victims and Perpetrators. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

50.

Roy

(2013) Race and recruitment in the Indian Army: 1880–1918. Modern Asian Studies 47(4): 1310–1347.

51.

@Sabi_Singh93 (2021) It would have been harder for the government to carry out what they did. Available at: https://twitter.com/Sabi_Singh93/status/1390018854357807109 (accessed 30 June 2021).

52.

Sikh American Veterans Alliance (n.d.) SAVA—about. Available at: https://www.sikhvets.org/about (accessed 4 December 2021).

53.

Sikh Coalition (2017) #LetSikhsServe adds 5 new accommodations. Sikh Coalition. Available at: https://www.sikhcoalition.org/blog/2017/letsikhsserve-adds-5-new-accommodations/ (accessed 11 December 2020).

54.

Sikh Coalition (2019) In memory of Deputy Dhaliwal. Sikh Coalition. Available at: https://www.sikhcoalition.org/blog/2019/memory-deputy-dhaliwal/ (accessed 29 October 2020).

55.

Sikh Coalition (2020) Steps forward for Sikhs in law enforcement. Sikh Coalition. Available at: https://www.sikhcoalition.org/blog/2020/steps-forward-sikhs-law-enforcement/ (accessed 11 December 2020).

56.

Sikh Coalition (n.d.) Sikhs in the U.S. Armed Forces. Available at: https://www.sikhcoalition.org/our-work/ending-employment-discrimination/sikhs-in-the-u-s-armed-forces/ (accessed 9 December 2020).

57.

Singh

(2019) Decoding dress: countersurveillance poetics and practices under permanent war. Surveillance & Society 17(5): 662–680.

58.

Singh

(2002) “No Sikh Jose”: Sikh American community mobilization and interracial coalition building in the construction of a sacred site. UCLA Asian Pacific American Law Journal 8(1): 173–201.

59.

Singh

(2014) Sikh-ing online: the role of the Internet in the religious lives of young British Sikhs. Contemporary South Asia 22: 82–97.

60.

Singh

(2020a) In 1979, my dad began an application to serve in the U.S. Army. He didn’t look like a typical candidate. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/naureensingh_in-1979-my-dad-began-an-application-to-serve-activity-6686071176940331008-d4wW/ (accessed 9 December 2020).

61.

Singh

(2020b) Meet Naureen Singh: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Air Force. Available at: https://www.wearesikhs.org/meet_naureen_singh (accessed 26 February 2021).

62.

Singh

(2013) Let Sikhs serve in the U.S. military. The Hill, 5 August. Available at: https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/religious-rights/315357-let-sikhs-serve-in-the-us-military (accessed 9 December 2020).

63.

Spade

(2015) Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

64.

Stoler

(2011) Colonial Aphasia: race and disabled histories in France. Public Culture 23(1): 121–156.

65.

Streets

(2004) Martial Races: The Military, Race and Masculinity in British Imperial Culture, 1857-1914. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

66.

Takhar

Bebek

Jamal

(2021) Activists of themselves: liminality of Instagram and its role in the ethnic identity construction processes of third generation British Sikhs to their imagined identities. International Journal of Information Management 70: 102467.

67.

Trouillot

(1995) Silencing the past: Power and the Production of History. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

68.

Tuohy

Contreras

(2021) 4 killed in FedEx shooting were part of Sikh community. What to know about Sikhs. The Indianapolis Star, 16 April. Available at: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/indianapolis/2021/04/16/indianapolis-fedex-mass-shooting-victims-sikh-indiana-community/7258846002/ (accessed 13 July 2022).

69.

Vimalassery

Pegues

Goldstein

(2016) Introduction: on Colonial Unknowing. Theory & Event 19. Available at: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/633283 (accessed 23 October 2018).

70.

Wang

(2012) Against innocence: race, gender, and the politics of safety. LIES: A Journal of Materialist Feminism 1: 145–172.

71.

White

(1987) The Content of the Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation. Baltimore, MD: JHU Press.

72.

Williams

Webber

(2019) Slain deputy devoted life to Sikh faith, serving others. AP News, 28 September. Available at: https://apnews.com/article/bc25705920724f78a3431d93afe598e0 (accessed 29 October 2020).