Women and Sikhism in Theory and Practice: Normative Discourses, Seva Performances, and Agency in the Case Study of Some Young Sikh Women in Northern Italy

Abstract

The paper reflects on the role of women in Sikhism in theory and social practice, starting from a case study in northern Italy. Although the normative discourse widely shared in mainstream Sikhism affirms the equality between man and woman and the same possibility to manifest devotion through every kind of seva (social service within gurdwaras), empirical observation in some Italian gurdwaras has shown a different picture, as there is a clear division of tasks that implicitly subtends a gender-based hierarchy. This relational structure is challenged by intergenerational tensions, especially by young women born or raised in Italy, who may want to develop a different Sikh identity, considered compatible also with the Italian social and cultural context. In this initial process of collective identity definition and of agency, the female participation in the religious seva within gurdwaras is identified as the tool for change of power relations that cross genders and generations.

Domestic religion and the migrant home: The private, the diasporic and the public in the sacralization of Sikh dwellings in Italy

“…Although this is a result of the protection from the public gaze that the home affords, it is not necessarily a subversive effort. It does not challenge the gender and status hierarchies that are a subtext of much religious practice in gurdwaras (Bertolani, 2020a). As long as there is any divide, this is rather between closer and more distant worshipers, wherever located.…”

“…In-depth interviews with them, except in two cases, were part and parcel of multiple home visits (Ratnam and Drozdzewski, 2020) within religious spaces ranging from prayer rooms to specially adapted domestic corners. Bertolani conducted this part of fieldwork between September 2020 and March 2021, against a twofold, pre-existent background: her decade-long familiarity with local gurdwaras, which has recently enabled her to interview 20 young and middle-aged Sikh immigrants about the meanings of home and religion in everyday life (Bertolani, 2020a); and her visits to their communities of origin in Punjab (Bertolani and Boccagni, 2021), resulting in participant observation in their domestic spaces and in twenty more interviews with relatives of her informants in Italy. These interviews were paralleled with the observation of non-textual materials such as home-related pictures and videos, as well as religious objects, books and garments.…”

At home in the gurdwara? Religious space and the resonance with domesticity in a London suburb

“…According to our interlocutors, this role would expose women to jeopardize their reputation; it would not be possible to guarantee them privacy, since a granthi is required to sleep in the temple. As it also happens for the Sikh diaspora in other countries (Bertolani 2020a), the role of women who engage in guru seva is more confined in space and time. For example, the ladies' kirtan sessions we attended had an almost exclusively female audience, as they were organized during working hours and on midweek days.…”

“…Methodologically speaking, this paper is based on collaborative and cumulative fieldwork: two years of research conducted in the district by Bonfanti, between September 2017 and November 2019; individual and joint field visits of all the authors between June 2018 and November 2019; previous background and field contacts of Bertolani, based on her past work on gurdwaras in Italy (Bertolani 2020a). Besides visiting repeatedly Southall gurdwaras in different periods of the year and times of the day, 2 we interviewed fifteen key respondents, i.e., spiritual and secular staff inside them.…”

Vulnerable Masculinities? Gender Identity Construction among Young Undocumented Sikh Migrants in Paris

“…Purewal in the British context (Purewal 2009) and Bertolani in the Italian one (Bertolani 2020) have highlighted the highly gendered dimension of seva, with men involved in the more publicly visible and prestigious forms of seva and women confined to the more hidden and unrewarding types. Interestingly, a similar analysis can be applied to undocumented migrants who engage in seva on a regularly basis in the Singh Sabha gurdwara.…”