UC Irvine

This dissertation examines how ethno-religious communities are affected by and respond to white supremacist hate violence on their bodies and buildings in the contemporary moment. I illustrate how the violent construction of white nationhood in and outside the U.S. through the latter’s statecraft of Islamophobia translates to precarity for Muslims and “Muslim-looking” bodies and buildings, particularly Sikhs and ​gurdwaras​.

I critique education and awareness programs that Sikh advocacy organizations in the U.S. have created as their means to combat the hate violence that results from white supremacy. My analysis of these programs reveals that their insistence on the Sikh community as a “model minority” is not only anti-Black and anti-Indigenous, but that such a narrative also evades the harsh realities of significant portions of Sikhs in the U.S. who are working class, undocumented, and far from the elitist narrative of “Sikhs in America” that these programs articulate. Since many of these education and awareness programs proliferated in the growing global Islamophobia after 9/11, I argue that their focus on who Sikhs are has the pernicious implication of who Sikhs are not: Muslims. Through these critiques, my dissertation brings to light the inherent Islamophobia that structures Sikh advocacy in the U.S.

Through a mixed methodology of interviews, data and media analysis, photographs, and site visits, I also look at various memorial activities and institutions created by Sikh communities across the globe. I focus specifically on ones that contextualize Sikhs’ struggles with state and hate violence with those faced by other racialized communities. I argue that, in order for true alignment with Sikh ethos, and for reasons of long-term efficacy, the current structure of Sikh advocacy in the U.S. must be revised such that it is staunchly anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist. My dissertation serves as a rubric through which to imagine this revision.