This paper contributes to the discussion of Sikh struggles for autonomy and human rights by developing the focus beyond a Punjab-centric understanding of Sikh religious and political identity to a broader diasporic framework. It challenges conventional territorial assumptions by exploring how Sikh communities in the UK, South Asia, and East Africa create and contest sacred spaces through everyday religious practices, aesthetics, and artistic expressions. This directly responds to the call’s emphasis on historical and contemporary struggles for Sikh autonomy by demonstrating how diasporic Sikhs actively shape and reclaim religious and cultural heritage beyond national borders.
The concept of sacred worlding introduced in this paper offers a fresh lens through which to understand Sikh activism and resistance, which has not been used in the literature in this way previously. Rather than viewing Sikh struggles solely in terms of legal or political mobilisation, the paper highlights how creative heritage practices—such as poetry, craft, and music—function as powerful mediums of self-expression, solidarity, and resistance against marginalisation. This aligns with the call for papers’ invitation to explore cultural expressions of freedom and human rights, showing how Sikh heritage itself becomes a site of contestation, identity formation, and political agency.
Moreover, the paper critically examines the role of caste, gender, and generational differences in shaping Sikh diasporic religious politics. By addressing these internal complexities, it engages deeply with the call’s theme of equality in Sikh teachings, demonstrating how different social and cultural intersections influence the articulation of Sikh identity and activism. The study highlights how these contested expressions of sacred space not only reflect historical struggles but also actively contribute to contemporary debates on inclusion, justice, and human rights within Sikh communities.
In addition, the paper’s focus on diasporic Sikh heritage resonates with the call’s interest in the role of Sikh organisations in global advocacy. By mapping out the interconnected scales, spaces, and sites where Sikh sacred heritage is preserved, reimagined, and sometimes challenged, the study sheds light on how diasporic Sikhs navigate questions of autonomy and belonging. It offers a broader perspective on the ways Sikh communities mobilise heritage as a political and spiritual force, influencing both national and international conversations on Sikh rights and identity.
Ultimately, this paper expands the scope of Sikh struggles for freedom by illustrating how diasporic Sikh communities construct alternative geographies of religious and political engagement. Through its emphasis on sacred worlding, it provides a rich empirical and theoretical contribution that moves beyond state-centred narratives, instead emphasising the dynamic, lived experiences of Sikh heritage as a site of both struggle and transformation.
Studies of Sikh diasporic religious politics and identity are often framed by territorial assumptions centred on Punjab. This paper examines how everyday spiritual values, aesthetics, and practices shape contested articulations of sacred space across the UK, South Asia, and East Africa. Advancing the concept of sacred worlding as a political ontology, it explores how religious practice, politics, and history intertwine within poetic, craft, and musical expressions of Sikh heritage.
Our findings reveal that diasporic support for creative heritage takes contested material and embodied forms, shaped by intersections of caste, gender, and generation. These tensions reflect and produce divergent territorialised and deterritorialised concepts of Sikh sacred space. We argue that sacred worlding offers a framework for understanding the plural, symbolic, and sensory production of religious projects. It deepens empirical analysis of creative religious expressions, contextualises diasporic settlement journeys, and reframes the geographies of diasporic religious politics across interconnected scales and sites.