Since the 1990s, a sizeable body of case law has formed in the Canadian province of British Columbia in response to disputes over the political leadership of local gurdwaras, the name for Sikh places of worship and assembly. Although the disputes stemmed from religious and political disagreements, the legal issues addressed by the courts concern the proper bureaucratic administration of Sikh institutions that have been legally incorporated as nonprofit “societies.” Through a textual analysis of 55 legal decisions related to gurdwara leadership disputes, this article explains how the courts have decided these cases without ceding the pretense of secular neutrality by mobilizing a series of shifting discursive distinctions between religion, politics, materiality, civil society, and bureaucratic procedure. Building on critical secular and sociolegal theory, this article tracks how law is able to establish and extend the state's jurisdiction over Sikh practices and populations through its capacity to inscribe and delimit the social and political parameters of religion. It illustrates how this case law serves as a mechanism of racial governance by extending forms of surveillance and legal intervention that work to embed the diasporic practices of Sikh communities within the spheres of Canadian state power.

中文翻译：

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神圣的区别：不列颠哥伦比亚省锡克教徒古德瓦拉斯的法律和政治法规

自1990年代以来，在加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省形成了相当大的判例法，以应对当地古德瓦拉斯（锡克教徒的礼拜场所和集会地名）的政治领导权产生的争议。尽管纠纷源于宗教和政治上的分歧，但法院处理的法律问题涉及锡克教机构的适当官僚管理，这些机构已合法地合并为非营利“社团”。通过对与gurdwara领导权纠纷有关的55项法律裁决的文字分析，本文解释了法院如何通过动员宗教，政治，物质性，公民社会和官僚程序。本文以批判性的世俗和社会法律理论为基础，跟踪法律如何通过其刻写和界定宗教的社会和政治参数的能力来建立和扩展国家对锡克教徒习俗和人口的管辖权。它通过扩展监视和法律干预形式，将锡克教徒社区的流放行为嵌入加拿大国家政权的范围内，说明了该判例法如何作为种族治理的机制。