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The poetics and politics of recognition: diasporan Sikhs in pluralist polities
Author(s) -
Dusenbery Verne A.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1997.24.4.738
Subject(s) - nationalism , poetics , politics , ideology , sociology , state (computer science) , gender studies , political science , law , literature , art , poetry , algorithm , computer science
In this article I explore the intersection of nationalist and multiculturalist discourses in the contemporary world. I contrast the experiences of Canadian Sikhs and Singaporean Sikhs to suggest ways in which the nationalist and multiculturalist projects of two pluralistic nation‐states (Canada and Singapore) have affected local political fortunes of the Sikhs, a small but visible ethnocultural group with its own global nationalist aspirations. I attribute the different fortunes of Sikhs in gaining the recognition of the state, in part, to differences in state ideologies, policies, and practices of nation building and ethnic management in corporatist Singapore and quasi‐liberal Canada. In this analysis I highlight the challenges and costs of playing the “politics of recognition” at the intersection of pluralist polities and global ethnoscapes and suggest how ethnographers might fruitfully engage the poetics and politics of sameness and difference.