Sikh ethnicity

[Guest Randomer]

I’ve noticed in the USA on the census ethnicity is Chinese, Indian etc. Same for Canada. But in England they’re making it so there’s British Indian and British Sikh. In your opinion are Sikhs really genetically different from the rest of Indians (esp Hindu Punjabi’s) and what about non Punjabi Sikhs? What’s your view in this issue

[Guest WJKKWJKF]

Sikhi is not an ethnicity.  This is foolish and to me sounds very ignorant.  There a punjabi, jott, kashmiri, caucasian, african-american, arab, etc sikhs!  You can be punjabi and not be of the faith and thereby not sikh.  I can not wrap my head around how foolish the UK government is in all efforts. 

[dallysingh101]

There is probably a hidden agenda by the Brits here (like there isn't always anyway), and some Sikhs over here are probably miffed at being pretty much invisible in any statistical analysis, so there we go.

Certain sections of Sikhs have always played this opportunistic type of identity politics in the west. It was done in America in the past (getting Sikhs defined as caucasians), and race has always been an obsession with Anglos with many Sikhs buying into these ideas (think of all the Aryan, Scythian boll0cks apnay bought into that still defines a lot of pendu brothers in their heads). 

For the record I don't think Sikhs are a race. SIkhi is a belief system, worldview, way of life that has never been restricted along racial lines. Just look at the diverse backgrounds of Guru ji's original panj piaray for example - some of them came from places very far from Panjab. 

There are political reasons for the 'racialising' of the Sikh community that I believe stems from the colonial period when  foreign (and in my mind antiSikh) ideas were brought into the panth by the Brits for a divide and conquer strategy - that some of our  people are still too dumb to comprehend, let alone shake off.