Unsettling Sikh and Muslim Conflict by Sian Katy P.;

Author:Sian, Katy P.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Published: 2012-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

The power balance between Sikh males and Sikh females appears to have shifted in the diaspora. However, the “forced” conversions narrative provides a space in which such a shift of balance can be (re)negotiated; that is, the regulation and the narration of Sikh females throughout this story serves to restore the patriarchal balance, where once again man is “normative” and woman passive (Sian 2011a; Jakobsh 2003). The silence of Sikh women in such accounts makes them the very object of this narrative. These stories are told about them, however, we rarely hear “herstory.” The Sikh woman does not represent herself; rather, she is represented for (Jakobsh 2003). These narratives not only allow Sikhs or rather Sikh men to imagine themselves as a distinct community but also allow Sikh males to police “their” women, as well as strengthening their position of dominance that has been seen to be increasingly undermined with the greater autonomy practiced by Sikh females in the diaspora.

Indeed, within the context of the nationalist movement, ever encroaching controls over women were essential; the focus on the “inner” world, the home, and womanhood was a selective coping mechanism in coming to terms with the West. In the fight against the enemy from the outside, something within gets even more repressed and “woman” becomes the mute but necessary allegorical ground for transactions of nationalist history (Jakobsh 2003: 199).

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