Sikh And Australia

Oz school apologises for forcing Sikh boy to shave beard

"The MEA said it had taken up the issue with the High Commission in Canberra which informed it that the school principal has apologised to the student for hurting religious sentiments," Khanna told reporters here today.

According to the letter, the Indian High Commission at Canberra was told that as per the school's rules and regulations, it is mandatory for students to shave off their facial hair. However, at no stage the boy indicated his religious practices and his beard was not shaved off, the MP said.

Last month, the Sikh boy, studying in class 11 at an outer northern Christian school in Melbourne, was forced to shave off his beard by the school administration, sparking an outrage among the Indian community which accused the institute of religious discrimination.

The Hindu and Sikh in Australia: a study of their diaspoetic and ...

Location: Graduate Seminar Room 2, Old Arts, University of Melbourne

In this presentation, the authors recount the history of the Hindu and Sikh diaspora in Australia from the early founding days to the present times (including cameleers, farm-hands, hawkers, growers, merchants, professionals, workers, to students-as-transit-PRs). Drawn from their book-length (3rd edition) study, the presentation contextualizes the particular ‘diaspoetic’ experience in the broader theoretical thinking on transnational migration, globalization and heterogeneity. How distinctive are these experiences of Hindus and Sikhs from those of other transnational desis?

Ethnographic and census data over the century provide vignettes into the complex interrelation between migration, settlement, adaptation, devotional performances, calling of the gurus and granthsahib, construction of sacred sites of worship (shrines, temples, gurdwaras), shifting demographic and socio-economic profiles, employment & education patterns, age, age-ing and morbidity, as well as cultural and political responses to mainstream (‘host society’) pressures or attitudes within a presumed multicultural milieu. 

The final part of the presentation will touch on the increasing connections over the last two decades with the global counterpart networks. While Hindu temple associations took material support from temple endowments in India, and gurdwaras looked to Amritsar, the bulk of the inspiration, moral support and sectarian templating, however, were derived from major diasporic bases in North America, with strong political undercurrents as well. Early on this was witnessed, respectively, in the globally generative Khalistan movement, mobilisation for the Tamil Eelam cause, and activities of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (with local planks of the RSS).  9/11 reinforced some anxieties on the homeland communal fronts, while also called on Hindu and Sikh leaders to interact more responsively with inter-religious community organizations.

Prof. Purushottama Bilimoria moves between Deakin and Melbourne Universities, Stony Brook (NY) and University of California@Berkeley; his research interests span classical Indian philosophy, dharma, justice and law, diaspora and postcolonial studies. His most recent publication is Indian Ethics (OUP), and special issue of Man in India on ‘Globalism, Transnational, Gender and Ecological Engagements’.

Encyclopedia of diasporas, immigrant and refugee cultures around the world. Diaspora communities

Sikhs in Australia

Religions in Australia

Sikhism, An Introduction

International bibliography of Sikh studies