Law, Empire and the Institutional Conditions of Sikh Citizenship in British Columbia, 1900-1947

Until 1947, Sikh and South Asian populations were denied legal citizenship in Canada. Yet, archival records gesture to the complex institutional apparatuses that mediated the political status of Sikh communities in British Columbia before and after they were enfranchised. This talk pursues the specific forms of Sikh citizenship that emerged and transformed through the workings of gurdwaras, lumber mills, and diasporic presses, especially as they figured in the political landscapes of empire and racial nationalism. 

Bonar Buffam, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Irving K Barber School of Artsand Sciences at UBC’s Okanagan Campus. He is currently working on a SSHRC-funded projecton the changing political circumstances of religious minorities in Western Canada. His research has been published in Theoretical Criminology, Identities, Sikh Formations, and Cultural Studies.

Organized by the Interdisciplinary Histories Research Cluster, in collaboration with the Centre for India and South Asia Research.