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An ethnography of voting in the Punjab elections 2022 as social practice: Liminal spaces of symbolic change Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-08-27 Kumool Abbi
The paper attempts to look at the factors leading to the victory of the Aam Aadmi Party which have not been taken up by the traditional political analysis. Making an ethnography of the Punjab assem...
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Forgotten lives of 1984: Sikhs in Jammu and Kashmir Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-08-13 Komal J. B. Singh
This year marks forty years of 1984 anti-Sikh violence in India. Though the magnitude of killings was enormous in Delhi, however, other regions were also not left untouched. This paper aims to brin...
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Immersing into the lives of Punjabi women: Personal narratives on alcohol consumption Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-08-08 Charanjit Kaur, Ashwinder Kaur, Parveenpal Kaur
Historically, alcohol has been seen as a male-dominated activity, leading to societal expectations for women to avoid excessive drinking due to their role in reproduction. This creates a repressive...
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A composite monotheism? Pakistani state identity and support to the Khalistan movement, post 1984 Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-07-31 Natallia Khaniejo, Amit Julka
Societal constructivists argue that domestic discourses of identity influence foreign policy. After the 1984 pogroms, Pakistan began its efforts to cultivate support among India’s Sikhs. This was p...
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Sindh’s Sadhu Bela: A visual and cultural analysis Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-07-30 Aliya Iqbal Naqvi, Anum Tariq, Neil Krishan Aggarwal
The Sadhu Bela temple in Sukkur, Sindh established by the Udasi community has attracted interest among Pakistani journalists and social scientists. These accounts variously refer to the site as ‘Hi...
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Gendered erasures in memory: Silencing of cases of sexual violence in 1984 Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-08-03 Anshu Saluja
In this paper, I have addressed the issue of sexual violence in the specific context of the 1984 anti-Sikh carnage in Delhi. Though a significant number of cases of sexual assault took place in Del...
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Many worlds of Sikh Pogrom (1984) Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-08-03 Himadri Banerjee
In 1984, Sikhs witnessed mass slaughter and violence in different centers of urban India. Hundreds of male Sikhs were burnt alive; their women were raped and houses were looted and scorched. No app...
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Witnessing 1984: Mnemonic representations of trauma, resilience and hope in selected fiction Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-07-31 Ritika Verma
Literary narratives constitute memory-archives that challenge state silencing of anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984. The paper draws upon Rigney's [2021. “Remaking Memory and the Agency of the Aesthetic.” Me...
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The specter and postmemory of 1984 in western diasporic Sikh advocacy Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-07-30 Harleen Kaur
I examine US and Canadian Sikh diasporic politics through the lens of 1984 postmemory, or the collective memory of traumas not directly experienced but felt as such. I use interview data with US an...
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Spiritual-political sovereignties: 3HO-Punjabi Sikh relations, pluriversal identities, and power dynamics Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-03-21 Nirinjan Kaur Khalsa-Baker
This article explores cultural dynamics, integrative tensions, and collaborations between 3HO–Sikh Dharma and Punjabi Sikh communities in North America over the last fifty-years. Sikh Dharma's 1979...
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The past is yet to come: Film, race, citizenship, and a century of diasporic outlaws in the United States Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Tavleen Kaur
This essay examines some of the social contexts underlying the Supreme Court’s decision in the seminal case of United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923). Since the Court’s decision in that case es...
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Correction Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-03-11
Published in Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory (Ahead of Print, 2024)
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Minor philology: Aphorisms Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-03-11 G. S. Sahota
This small aphoristic intervention aims to slightly shift fundamental concepts, canons, methods, and attitudes in the reemerging field of philology from the perspective of marginalized minority exp...
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From charismatic hierarchy to autonomous Sangats: a personal reflection on the evolution of the 3HO/Sikh Dharma community Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-03-11 Sangeeta K. Luthra
This paper is a personal reflection on the establishment of Sikh Dharma and its place in the larger Sikh world. While Sikh Dharma developed unique expressions of Sikh practice and belief, it has in...
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Reappraising the construction of Yogi Bhajan’s Kundalini Yoga Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-03-07 Philip Deslippe
This piece revisits my 2012 article for Sikh Formations titled ‘From Maharaj to Mahan Tantric,’ which gave a revised history of Yogi Bhajan’s Kundalini Yoga, and narrates its reception and influenc...
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Changes over time: Punjabis, Punjabi Mexicans, and Sikhs in North America Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Karen Leonard
Although post-1965 Punjabi Sikh immigrants are inclined to disavow the Punjabi Mexican community formed by the earlier Punjabi diaspora, and claim the earlier diaspora as a Sikh diaspora, arguably ...
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Spectral wounds of 1984: Sikh massacre in Harpreet Kaur’s The Widow Colony: India’s Unsettled Settlement Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-03-05 Jasleen Kaur, Vinita Mohindra
In 1984, Sikhs were massacred following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Cultural expressions attempt to foreground the haunting legacies of this genocide. This paper explores Har...
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Reading Sikhi and transness together: Theorizing a politics of death and unbodiment Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-02-29 manmit singh
As the second article to a two-part series comprised of ‘The Ally Must Die: Theorizing a Politics of Death and Unbodiment’ and ‘Reading Sikhi and Transness Together: Theorizing a Politics of Death ...
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‘Provocation’ reflections on Sikh Dharma at Fifty Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-03-01 Verne A. Dusenbery
Our panel on Sikh Dharma at Fifty, organized for the May 2023 Sikh studies conference at the University of California-Riverside, allowed me to update what I have previously written on 3HO/Sikh Dhar...
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Resisting White Nostalgia: Sikh history in Abbotsford Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-03-01 Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra
This paper uses the Sikh Heritage Museum, a National Historic Site Gur Sikh Temple, the oldest still standing gurdwara in the western hemisphere, in Abbotsford, BC, as a living site of Sikh story t...
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Multicultural exceptionalism: Race and gender in the Sikh diaspora of the transnational Pacific Northwest Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Sasha Sabherwal
Multiculturalism discourse simultaneously produces, celebrates, and erases differences. This paper explores racial violence within the Sikh diaspora of the transnational Pacific Northwest (PNW) to ...
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Legitimacy in 3HO/Sikh Dharma Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Simranjit Steel
The 3HO/Sikh Dharma International community has been mired in controversy since 2020. I study this community, focusing on efforts to cultivate and maintain legitimacy when it has been seriously und...
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Unleashing the power of the youth: A sparkling new era of Sikh activism Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Komal Kaur
This article discusses the emerging trend of Sikh women in leadership roles who are making significant contributions to build a more inclusive and equitable Sikh community outside of traditional ma...
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Agrarian transformations in British India: A case study of colonial Punjab Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-02-26 Bhupinder Singh, Sandeep Singh, Hareet Meena, Bawa Singh
The agrarian transformation in Punjab under British rule had significant implications for understanding the fundamental principles behind these agricultural developments. The British government aim...
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Partition violence, Mountbatten and the Sikhs: A reassessment Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-02-22 Gurharpal Singh
Despite major advances in the historiography of the partition, the causes of violence remain poorly understood. Drawing on new archival material, this article argues that violence in the Punjab res...
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Unearthing, preserving, and promoting Sikh American history: The Sikh American history project Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-02-22 Tejpaul Singh Bainiwal
The Sikh American History Project (SAHP) is a grassroots organization of scholars, students, and community members committed to unearthing, preserving, and promoting the stories and experiences of ...
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The Emergence of the Sikh Misls – Abbé Raynal's Histoire and a map by Rigobert Bonne Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-02-02 B.S. Marwah
This article examines a sketch of the Sikhs in Abbé Raynal's ‘Histoire … dans les deux Indes’ (1780), and a corresponding reference to ‘les Scheiks’ in an accompanying atlas by Rigobert Bonne. Rayn...
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A Critical Review of Colin Bloom's ‘Does Government “Do God?”’ Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-02-02 Jasleen Singh
Earlier this year, the British Parliament launched an independent review that was headed by Colin Bloom, titled ‘Does Government “do God?,”’ This review was meant to assess the government's engagem...
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The ally must die: Theorizing a politics of death and unbodiment Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-02-02 Manmit Singh
As the first article to a two-part series comprised of ‘The Ally Must Die: Theorizing a Politics of Death and Unbodiment' and ‘Reading Sikhi and Transness Together: Theorizing a Politics of Death a...
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Kisan Andolan in India (2020–21): Punjabi singers’ perspective Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-02-02 Birinder Pal Singh
The Kisan Andolan (2020–21) was a unique protest in independent India that kept the struggle at high pitch for 13 months girding Delhi at all its borders. Besides the protesting farmers, the genera...
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Bhai Vir Singh's Sundri: A semiotic reclamation of native meanings and imagination Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-02-02 Harjot Kaur, Amandeep Singh
This paper backtracks many commentaries on Bhai Vir Singh's master piece novel Sundri, enunciated by scholars of Punjab studies, feminist studies, and critical theory. While contesting that these e...
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An unsettling year Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-12-30 Arvind-Pal S. Mandair
Published in Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory (Vol. 19, No. 4, 2023)
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Movers and Makers: Uncertainty, resilience, and migrant creativity in World’s of flux Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-11-13 Michael Hawley
Published in Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory (Vol. 19, No. 3, 2023)
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Bicycle Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-11-13 Bismark Singh
Published in Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory (Vol. 19, No. 3, 2023)
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Australian press representations of the partition violence in Punjab Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-11-13 Ilyas Chattha
This article explores how the Australian press interpreted the 1947 partition violence. The coverage holds considerable interest both from the point of view of Australian press history and ‘imperia...
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‘Born in villages, roaming the world’: Diasporicity in Fateh’s Sikh Canadian hip hop Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-08-27 Sara Grewal
ABSTRACT This paper shows that various songs by Sikh Canadian rap artist Fateh represent engagements with essentialist discourses that neatly mirror Bibi Bakare-Yusuf's notion of “diasporicity”: the continual re-inscription of the origin in acts of embodied agency that retain their connection to tradition while also negotiating the body's social meanings that exist outside of the subject's self-positioning
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Matimen, thugs, soldiers and landlords: Mazhabi Sikhs in the colonial period Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-08-08 Kulbir Kaur
The article, focuses on Mazhabi1 Sikhs in the colonial period and, contextualises British ideals of race and religion in the region of Punjab. The British formulated the myth of the martial races. ...
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Sikh parents’ perception on the practice of diverse sexual identities Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-08-08 Charanjit Kaur, Ashwinder Kaur, Parveenpal Kaur
This article explores the perspectives of Malaysian Sikh parents on sexual identity and their interpretation of the Guru Granth Sahib. As a minority in a diverse society, their views are significan...
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Politicking Sikh identity: Memory, music, and mobilization in the Kisan Andolan Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-08-04 Seerat Arora
Popular culture, though not apolitical, overlaps with overt political mobilisation, and vice versa. With the resurgence of populism, it is reaffirmed that politics has a propensity to co-opt popula...
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Editorial Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-07-31 Arvind-Pal S. Mandair
Published in Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory (Vol. 19, No. 2, 2023)
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A historian’s quest for Sikh history Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-07-20 Louis E. Fenech
Published in Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory (Ahead of Print, 2023)
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Growing pains in the field of Sikh Studies in the Western Academy Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-07-18 Pashaura Singh
ABSTRACT The field of Sikh Studies has arrived in the Western Academy along with a rich experience of growing pains during the last three decades. The vocal opposition of ultra-conservative fringe groups in the Sikh diaspora frequently managed to gain a dominant voice in community media effectively trolling, harassing, and marginalizing progressive scholarly voices. There is an urgent need to understand
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No Gold Standard: Jewish studies on the American campus Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-07-18 Michael Scott Alexander
Published in Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory (Ahead of Print, 2023)
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Beyond geography: A study of smart culture and digital surrogates in Komagata Maru historical material Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-06-04 Shilpa Daithota Bhat
Examined within the matrix of political and historical frames, and digitally interceded memories, the Komagata Maru is connected with the Canadian Immigration Act (1908). While appearing ‘fair to a...
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RAG HEAD, white supremacy, and violence: Dramatic reflections on a decade after the Oak Creek gurdwara shootings Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-06-04 Tavleen Kaur
ABSTRACT This essay examines how five playwrights from the global Sikh diaspora use theater to resist various forms of violence. My analysis of their plays shows how the playwrights engage with the messiness of diaspora lives, lives in which hate and state violence, domestic violence, the violence of [ongoing] colonialism, and intergenerational trauma are faced head-on -- including for the audiences
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The 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms: Phenomenological experiences and perceptions of direct and indirect victims of violence Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-06-04 Kaur Harsimran, Kumar Surbhi
ABSTRACT Previous literature explores the socio-political contours of Hindu-Muslim violence, with limited attention given to the experiences of victims and the Hindu-Sikh inter-communal relationships. This study specifically examines the 1984 Anti-Sikh pogrom, employing a phenomenological approach to gather insights from Sikh participants who were direct or indirect victims of the violence and aged
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Editorial: Recent Developments in Punjab Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-04-27 Gurharpal Singh
Published in Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory (Vol. 19, No. 1, 2023)
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Geographies of rage: India-Pakistan rivalry and Guru Nanak Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-04-21 Tawseef Ahmad Mir, Anayat Ullah Mugloo
This paper examines how the shared cultural and spiritual heritage of Guru Nanak is intertwined with the political tensions and violence that have defined the complex relationship between India and...
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Sikhs of Burma Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-04-15 Himadri Banerjee
The essay1 critically engages with more than a century-long Sikh settlement in Burma. The Sikh community immigrated to Burma following the completion of the British annexation of the country (1886)...
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Making sense of Sikh nationalism Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-04-11 Gurharpal Singh
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
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Catholic-Sikh dialogue and the importance of Guru Nanak Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-02-17 Peter Admirand
ABSTRACT In this article, I first address the call for Catholics to participate in interreligious dialogue and note the absence of Sikhi in most Vatican documents prior to recent times. I then trace recent Catholic-Sikh dialogues or papal tweets about Sikhi or the inclusion of Sikhs at interfaith events. I also argue why Sikh individuals, communities, and institutions should engage in this specific
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Some Soprano lessons: On approaching diasporic marginality, absence, and television Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-02-15 G. S. Sahota
ABSTRACT What does the mass cultural phenomenon The Sopranos have to suggest for diasporic criticism? A great deal, claims this essay. Through thick descriptions and critical analyses of marginalized presences in the television series, this essay zeroes in on the phenomenology of absence, the complicated connections between racial stereotypes and the culture industry, and the morbid political impasses
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Cosmopolitanism, millenarianism, and Sikhism in a Persianate India: Some motifs in recent historiography Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-02-03 G.S. Sahota
ABSTRACT This article, divided into two parts, explores the ramifications of Eaton's India in the Persianate Age for salient topics in Sikh historiography. The first part defines Eaton's arguments and expands on facets of the Persianate dispensation, drawing out relevant features of his biography and previous works. Secularity and universality as well as the approaches adopted to break from reified
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Sikh schools and academies in England Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-02-01 Prabhjap Singh Jutla
ABSTRACT A diverse range of Sikh organizations have shaped the direction of Anglo-Sikh education, including the Guru Nanak Sikh Multi Academy Trust (GNSMAT), Nishkam Schools Trust (NST), Khalsa Academies Trust (KAT) and Sevak Schools Trust (SST). The new Sikh Free Schools have also been heavily influenced by the discourse of British Multiculturalism, which is discernible in their aims, approach to
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The intersections of postcolonialism, postsecularism, and literary studies: Potentials, limitations, bibliographies Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-01-17 Manav Ratti
ABSTRACT This article presents some features, potentials, limitations, and bibliographies of the intersection of postcolonialism, postsecularism, and literary studies. It examines literatures, cultures, religions, indigenous beliefs and practices, and political imaginaries from Africa, Europe, and South Asia. The religions discussed include Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Sikhism. The
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Prof Jagtar Singh Grewal: An obituary Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2022-11-21 Gurharpal Singh
Published in Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory (Vol. 18, No. 3-4, 2022)
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The ice within you: Sovereign impunity, unreadability, and the archive of November 1984 Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2022-11-11 Raji S. Soni
ABSTRACT Jaspreet Singh's Helium, a novel concerning 1984's anti-Sikh pogroms, seeks to archive the impunity on which sovereignty is based. This basis remains indelible. Impunity's unconscionability contaminates conscience as we know it and as it allows us to know. The cruelty that imbues impunity impacts all social formations and compromises our ethics and politics in practice and in theory as we
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Gendered impunity: Complicity and the body as archive in Helium Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2022-11-10 Sailaja Krishnamurti
ABSTRACT In this short essay I read Jaspreet Singh's Helium through Julietta Singh's concept of the body as archive. It is a book about impunity and failed responsibility, but this is deeply gendered. It is the women in the novel who carry trauma in their bodies.
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Violent elements: the impossible document of ‘1984’ Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2022-11-08 Ben Baer
ABSTRACT Helium dramatizes a traumatized witness's attempt to write about India's 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom. Depicting his attempt to write an investigative confession of complicity, the novel discloses larger patterns of fantasy, sexual economy, and gender violence that make the pogrom and his own self-story possible. Through a complex narrative framework, Helium shows that unlike legal redress, justice
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‘Event, memory, metaphor’: The 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms in India Sikh Formations (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2022-11-07 Reeju Ray
ABSTRACT In this essay, Jaspreet Singh's novel Helium is read as a historical text alongside government reports of the pogroms, media reports of the event, and oral ethnographies of survivors of 1984. Helium offers an understanding of how the memory archive challenges continued impunity of perpetrators of state violence. Impunity is embedded in the state's judicial processes, in a lack of public accountability