Pioneer Voices from California: Reflections on Race, Religion, and Ethnicity

Abstract

It has become common to talk of the Sikh diaspora, but there is some question whether or not "Sikh'' is the most appropriate category for analysis of these emigrants fro~ South Asia.While the overwhelming majority of the Punjabi pioneers in early twentieth century Qilifomia were indeed Sikhs, my .researchindicates that religion was less salient than other characteristics for these men.It was in fact a Punjabi diaspora, and to go back and emphasize Sikhs and Sikhism does violence to the historical experiences of the immigrant<; and their descendants.Most research on the Punjabi immigrants has focused on their public life.It is clear that these pioneers in the American West contended with racial, religious, and ethnic prejudices all their lives in the U.S.They battled for citizenship and lost; losing that, they fell prey to the Alien Land Laws of California and Arizona and could continue farming only in ways that put them at the mercy of non-Indians; theirGhadar party activities and conflicts with each other were magnified and misinterpreted in the press.Scholars have recently clarified, corrected, and enlarged upon the early materials about the public life of the men from the • Punjab (Barrie~, this volume;Jacoby, 1978;Puri, 1980).

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