Paper short abstract:

What role does the Sikh Temple play in the formation of British Sikh Identity for the youth in London? Does it help, hinder or ignore the process of citizenship and communitarianism? This paper proposes that it does all three - with failed societal coalescence a result of this institutional agency.

Paper long abstract:

London's Sikh youth have developed a diverse relationship with the religion's place of congregation: the Gurdwaras. These spaces have traditionally been an important factor in the passing on of Sikh identity inter-generationally. This paper tries to understand the role of the Gurdwara in Hounslow (SGSS) in the transmission of British Sikh identity as viewed by Sikh youth and previous Sikh generations. Ethnographical interviews, secondary source literature and observational fieldwork will show that the youths' identity goes beyond the bifurcated concept of being "stuck between two worlds" that many commentators have posited.

This paper is based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews with youth aged 18-30 as well as management, staff and parents as the study's "transmitters". This field research is then analysed using a historiography centred on the sociology of religion, particularly Max Weber's "switchman" concept and Émile Durkheim's ideas of the "sacred" and "profane".

The conclusion advanced is; Sikh youth, whilst maintaining their nuanced approach to the Hounslow Gurdwara, consider it to predominantly assist in the transmission of an unambiguous part of British Sikh identity - that of religion (piri).

Even though Sikhism remains an important component of identity politics for contemporary Sikh youth; their approach is less doctrinaire than the "transmitters". It entails greater cogitation than previous Sikh generations or the SGSS. The youth therefore find Sikh identity in Britain challenged by secular concerns (miri) that distance them from the Gurdwara due to its focus on religiosity.

This disjuncture is considered here.

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