‘Ideal’ Sikh in a Religious Minority School: Negotiated Identities, Global Aspirations

Abstract

This paper looks at ways in which creation of a homogenous identity construction is pursued inside schools for female students. It is set in a Sikh religious minority school in New Delhi. The school was established and run by the Sikhs, a religious minority of India. Based on ethnographic methods, the paper explores the institution’s written objective of promoting the orthodox Sikh identity among students – i.e. the baptized Sikh identity wherein it is in violation of the school’s rules to cut or trim hair, keep head uncovered during religious events in the school, among others. The institution and teachers actively pursue Sikh students to follow the rules of identity set by Sikh organizations at the helm of running these schools. They were encouraged to baptize and those who did were given fee waivers and other special concessions. Discipling through punishment, often handed out in front of the entire school, was a practice mandated by the school management if identity rules were not followed. Gender norms were actively transacted to female students constructed within religious frameworks of being ‘ideal’ representatives of the Sikh community. Parents saw these rules and culture of the school as helpful to discipline their daughters and find suitable Sikh grooms for them in India and abroad later. For the girls, however, the rules and regulations of the school were limited to its boundaries. The paper reflects on the manifold ways in which gender and religious goals of schools fail to meet the aspirations of students.