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Based on empirical research on forty Sikh women in a small town of Hitchin in England, the present research tends to understand the role of women’s agency in the formation of Punjabi Sikh social identity, and cultural reconstruction across two generations, particularly, the second generation. The research demonstrates their struggle in the cultural reconstruction and changes in their identities, self perception, and mindset, at different stages of life from primordial to modern and then back to primordial, resulting in cultural replication, notably, due to the location of the community, among various other factors.

There are many studies on Sikhs in the UK that discuss their cultural practices (Jones:1980, Singh and Tatla: 2006, Rait: 2005, Bhachu: 1991 and Ballard: 1978). The challenges of second generation adolescent Asians, including Punjabis, particularly in the UK have been a recurring theme of academic discourse in the Indian diaspora (Drury: 1991, Mark: 1974, Agnihotri:1987, Ahmed: 1999, Dhruvarajan: 2003, Syed:2008, Gupta: 1999, Kalra: 1981, Muhammad:1981, Ballard: 1977 and 1979). However, these studies do not delineate change over time and are silent about recent developments in the Sikh diaspora.

The tendency to self-classify into categories based on parameters like class, race, ethnic origins, religion, and language that divides people between ‘us’ and ‘them.’ or ‘in-group’ and ‘out- group’ has been very common among the Indian diaspora (Ellemers:1991, Tajfel and Turner:1986). These categories are conventionally conceived as stable. On the other hand, people may belong to more than one group and their identities can be fluid and hybrid rather than being fixed. Stuart Hall (1992) argues that identity is a “‘production,’ which is never complete, always in process, and always constituted within, not outside, representation”. 

The notion of hybridity is central to the work of Homi Bhabha (1990, 1994). Hybridity is valorized as a condition where cultural differences ‘contingently’ and ‘conflictually’ touch: where differences of culture can no longer be identified as ‘objects of epistemological or moral contemplation’. For Bhabha, all forms of culture are continually in a process of hybridity (Bhabha 1990).

The evidence from Hitchin points out how Punjabi social identity is formed among new generations, and how one should look at the agency in the realm of cultural reconstruction, reproduction and cultural transformation. While there is a distinct stamp of ‘western’ cultural influence among Punjabi youngsters during their adolescent years, this impact seems temporary and is self-consciously discarded as the new generation matures into adulthood and confirms its allegiance to a notion of ‘Punjabiness/Indianness’ that is meant to reject aspects of Western culture. This notion of identity, however, is perceived as being defined by others. This return to ‘Punjabiness’ thus features elements of hybridity, in its incorporation of some elements of host cultural norms, but does so with a perception of limited agency available to the women who produce these cultural forms. Thus, the study of Hitchin provides an opportunity to view how cultural reproduction and hybridity are articulated under particular locally-defined community-bound constraints. Agents(women) in this environment may not be any less hybrid than others in other diasporic communities, but location here (the town of Hitchin) provides constraints on their ability to articulate their hybridity outside of hegemonic norms that exceed them. 

The Sikh Community in Hitchin
The Sikhs (read Punjabis for a wider category) is a world-wide diaspora. The present research on Sikh community was conducted in a relatively small town of Hitchin in England, which has a small yet vibrant Sikh community and thus represents a global diasporic context.  Although the Gurdwara was the first site to get connected to the community, a snowball technique was used to locate respondents outside the Sikh temple. The interviews were conducted with Sikh women in Hitchin during 2004. The study is based on exploratory research including participant observation, informal conversation, and in-depth interviews. Given the nature of the Indian community in Hitchin and the use of snowball technique, most of the respondents happened to be Jat Sikhs. Interviews were conducted in the living rooms of the respondents or their friends' homes or in the Gurdwara; one interview was conducted in a coffee shop.  
Punjabis in Hitchin share a common history of settlement, which is typical of the broader patterns of migration of Indians to Britain in the 1960s. Migrants were largely from the Indian Punjab. During the last five decades, they have grown from mainly working-class migrants to a diverse community differentiated by caste affiliations, economic backgrounds, kinship structure and marriage alliances. At the time of this research Hitchin had four gurdwaras for four different castes, i.e., Ramgarias, Balmikis, Khatris and Jats. The leadership of the community is generally acknowledged to be held by Jat Sikhs due to their numerical strength and their economic success in small businesses. They contribute generously for any cause and have been patrons of the community. Their authority also owes to their traditional domination in Punjab villages,1 a dynamic that is maintained in Hitchin as well. It can be argued that, leaving aside caste distinctions, members of the Punjabi community in Hitchin are homogeneous, sharing a common Punjabi ethos, cultural patterns and educational background. In many ways, the community replicates the Punjabi diaspora across the globe. However, what is so distinctive about Hitchin is that it is a very tight knit community so much so that Punjabis living there practice town exogamy what I would call ‘Hitchinian exogamy’ as has been practiced back home a the relatively small, homogeneous, traditional rural setup. Hitchin, therefore, represents a particular variant of the Punjabi diaspora community.

In Hitchin, first generation Punjabis lived in joint families with four to six members on an average. Most of the families owned a two or three-bedroom house. Second generation married couples would separate and usually lived not far from their parents; in a number of cases, they were living in the next lane from their parents’ abode.  The age of second-generation respondents ranged from teenagers to the early thirties. They were mostly from a ‘middle class’ background: many second-generation respondents were either students or employed as clerks, accountants, bank cashiers, primary school teachers and social workers. Their work was in Hitchin or in other small adjacent towns. A small number had only completed their high school education and were following vocational courses. None pursued higher education as they found jobs after completing secondary school education. Among the first-generation women who were interviewed, the majority were retired or were out of employment. All of them had earlier worked in factories that have now been closed. These women were no longer engaged in productive work outside the home. These women had followed their husbands to England in the 1960s or 1970s. Their husbands’ profile was more or less of working-class men who worked in the construction industry, transportation (taxi or truck drivers), mechanical jobs and as small shopkeepers; a few had emerged as businessmen. Most of the elderly respondents hardly knew the English language and had no driving skills, mainly dependent on others for transportation. Many did not even need to drive, as they worked in the nearby factories as manual labourers and could take a local bus for commuting. Lack of English language was not a major hurdle in their earning capacity as manual work required no language skills. Hitchin being a small town, with a small shopping centre, these women managed quite well with local public transportation.

The Hitchin study allows us to see that while Sikh Women in Hitchen are engaged in hybrid cultural constructions, they perceive their choices as being constrained within relatively clear categories that appear to them as primordial vs Modern, i.e., “Punjabi” vs. “English.” Exploration of the continuing salience of these categories for women across generations demonstrates important features of diasporic cultural reconstruction and these women as an agency and at the same time the limits of this agency.

Identity Formation Across two Generations of Women

Empirical results clearly define a sense of generational difference in the process of identity formation among respondents.  The younger generation felt a considerable gap between the expectations of their parents, and the demands put on them by the wider society. Perceived contradictory role expectations confused them. While they had their individual preferences, they knew their obligation towards societal expectations.

Sandwiched between the two cultures - behavioural demand from the host community and their own communities- many went passed through spells of confusion, depression and alienation and some even testified to a period of hostility towards their parents, relatives, the wider Indian community and the ‘dated culture’. Such an attitude was generally associated by them with their school years and immediately after that period. With this sharp contrast between home and the school environment, several of them harboured rebellious moods at that time, whether manifest or hidden. Their peer-pressured young minds wanted to be as ‘Western,’ as their British friends at school, and asserted their autonomy and preferences for social interaction. Whereas at later stages their mindsets reversed and they found such sentiments as ‘rubbish’ and they controlled and prevented their children from going astray from their roots. For example, a woman who had questioned her parents’ efforts to make her conform to ‘Punjabi cultural values and ethos’, now tries to assert her Punjabi identity with her young children and is rather proud of owning that heritage. Another woman who had a similar experience of a change in attitude over her life cycle narrated how she used to wonder about her parents’ social life, limited to the Sikh Temple.  After her marriage and childbirth, she was drawn towards gurdwara and its activities as a way to discover ‘cultural roots’ and Indian heritage.  Engaging in such self-conscious cultural reconstruction, these Hitchin women expressed dissatisfaction with their own or their children’s participation in what might be called a ‘cosmopolitan hybrid culture.’ The community’s religious place, the temple, has thus become a site of ‘cultural transfer’ that is best seen as what Verma (2003) calls “an attempt by the de-territorialised individuals to re-territorialise themselves”, here with clearly articulated poles of that which is “Punjabi” and that which is “English.” 

Dating, Courtship, Marriage and Caste Endogamy  

Another area of contention between first generation and second generation social identities is the central institution of marriage. The contrast between an Indian style ‘arranged marriage’ and Western style ‘love marriage’ has found much discussion as markers or components of personal and social identity. Arranged marriage is seen as ‘central not only as an externally imposed stereotype of India but also to diasporic Indian identity’ (Baumann 1996:153). According to Shukla ‘arranged marriages, in particular, are central to the production of meaning of ethnic community in a variety of ways. Not only do they describe a basic form of reproduction of that community and retention of certain forms of membership, they also function as hyper-symptoms of misrecognition between East and West, that which continues to make immigrant communities, especially in Britain and the United States, unknowable, exotic and mired in tradition” (Shukla 2003). The role of media in this stereotyping can not be ignored, as ‘the western media easily latches onto the arranged marriage as descriptor of a struggle between the old and the new worlds. 

However, one needs to look at the empirical reality more closely. In the Sikh diaspora of Hitchin, children do respond to modern courtship and marriage practices of the host society. But this is, in a sense, carefully controlled and channeled by the parents and such channeling is widely accepted within the community. There are, therefore, prescriptions and proscriptions about who one’s love mate should be, Limitations set upon ‘romantic choice’ are conveyed in various ways. The concept of caste is conveyed in early life; similarly, ideas of social compatibility based upon caste, religion and family status are part of daily family conversation. The evidence from Hitchin demonstrates no radical departure from these prior norms. While the diasporic Punjabi community is liberal in accepting ‘love marriage’, this is strictly within the caste and other cultural fault lines.    

The Shikh community in Hitchin and elsewhere in Britain and overseas has adopted a middle path for two reasons. Firstly, arranged marriage in the diaspora is perceived as problematic and “different” from English norms. Secondly, knowing that ‘western’ influence would turn their kids to ‘love marriage’, Punjabi parents have themselves adopted the ‘love marriage’ strategy. Parents try to arrange potential partners to meet in familiar scenarios, such as family functions, and act as cupids to  ensure that such coupling then leads to a marriage. Thus, love marriages are ‘designed’ in ‘arranged ways’, taking into consideration parental concerns and the communitarian and cultural ethos of the Punjabi community. Love is motivated/initialised within the community by parents or through family friends, many a times without children’s knowledge. This is usually done before the youngsters reach the age to fall in love with someone outside the community. Thus, it is not ‘love marriage’ in the ideal sense of the term but ‘arranged love marriage.’ Generally speaking, such a strategy has worked with the second and third generation Punjabi boys and girls in overseas settings. The new generations seem to ‘respect’ such considerations and demonstrate considerable faith in this kind of ‘familism,’ over ‘individualism.’ which is a characteristic of western industrial world where these women are born and brought up. Drury (1989) in her research on Second Generation Sikh Girls in Nottingham also indicates how endogamous marriage practices play a crucial role in the process of cultural encapsulation. 

Evidence from the Punjabi community in Hitchin broadly confirms the above scenario. However, there are some exceptions. In Hitchin, one boy is married to a British woman, one to an Italian woman and the other one to a Hindu Punjabi girl. Broadly speaking the majority of Punjabi Sikh marriages have taken place within the community taking due consideration of caste, class and religion. Indeed, many youngsters have accepted what is jokingly referred to as ‘BMW’ model -common term used for barring marriage partners from Black, Muslim and White society. Certainly, alliance with a Muslim or a Black person is a ‘big no.’ However, such a choice, if we may call it so, is open to some manipulation by boys, although for white girls only. Punjabi Sikh girls are expected to follow caste endogamy more strictly.

Hitchinian Exogamy

Hitchinian exogamy’ is an important feature of marriage as it is practiced by those interviewed. Since Hitchin is a small place and Punjabis have a strong kinship and tight neighbourhoods, youngsters born and/or brought up in Hitchin consider each other as brothers and sisters. There is a strong tendency to have love or marriage partners selected from nearby towns. This suits youngsters as they usually indulge in courtship outside Hitchin in order to hide it from their worried parents. Thus ‘arranging love for marriage’ and the practice of caste endogamy and town exogamy shows that courtship practices are modern but marriage practices are “traditional” in their reproduction of the community. 

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