What Sikhs think about making ‘Sikh’ an ethnic category on the 2021 census: ‘This campaign is divisive and counter-productive’ The campaign is creating hostility among the Sikh community.

On the 2021 census, I’ll write that my name is Serina Sandhu, that I was born in England and that my religion is Sikh.

Under normal circumstances I would probably have ticked that my ethnic group is Indian, despite feeling culturally and socially different to others who hail from the same country. The Punjab, where my grandparents used to live, is one of a number of regions in India – some the size of a country – which have distinct languages, cultures and diets.

Other Asian Sikhs in Britain may have said their ethnic group was Pakistani. A smaller proportion may have ticked Bangladeshi.

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But some within the religion’s community feel strongly that these options are not enough. Inaccurate, even.

In the last census, in 2011, more than 83,000 Sikhs refused to tick any of the ethnicity options. Many ticked ‘other’ and chose to write the word ‘Sikh’ instead.

Activists have been calling for Sikhs to have their own ethnic group in the next census and their comments have led the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – responsible for the census in England and Wales – to hold consultations with the public and stakeholders on the matter. More than 100 Gurdwaras (Sikh temples) have backed the move.

Divisive issue

But the complex issue of Sikhism and ethnic categorisation appears to be causing disagreement and hostility among some parts of the community.

The idea that a religion, which by definition is about beliefs, could be considered an ethnicity, which is usually about inherited characteristics people share, is seen as ludicrous by some. No other religion has an ethnicity tick box but the ONS is considering one for the Jewish community.

“It’s an agenda being pushed by a few small but vocal groups. Worse, it gives the wrong impression of [Sikhism] to the wider public because you cannot change your ethnicity but you can adopt Sikh beliefs.” Sunny Hundal

“I think this campaign is divisive and counter-productive because there has been hardly any consultation and debate with Sikhs about it,” Sunny Hundal, a Sikh journalist, tells i.

“It’s an agenda being pushed by a few small but vocal groups. Worse, it gives the wrong impression of [Sikhism] to the wider public because you cannot change your ethnicity but you can adopt Sikh beliefs,” he adds.

For Dr Jagbir Jhutti-Johal, senior lecturer in Sikh Studies at the University of Birmingham, the ONS’s consultation feels premature. She too questions whether the feelings of the whole Sikh community have been considered.

“Have the views of the 346,658 Sikhs who presumably ticked one of the existing ethnic categories [in the 2011 census] been sought?” she asks.

“Most importantly, how did the leadership of the 112 Gurdwaras consult their congregations before writing their letters of support? A question also remains regarding the relationship between the Sikh groups that the ONS has consulted and any common membership they share.”

Data collection

Among the most logical of the reasons in favour of ethnic classification is to ensure public service providers have the data they need for Sikhs, which make up the fourth largest religious population in Britain. While filling in the religion section of the census is optional, the ethnicity part is compulsory.

The Sikh Federation, which is a prominent supporter of ethnic classification, says thousands of public bodies only consider the ethnic category when it comes to providing services to different groups.

“Information on Sikhs as an ethnic group has therefore not been systematically collected to ensure fair treatment and Sikhs have been more or less totally ignored when it comes to decision making and allocation of resources at every level,” said Amrik Singh, chair of the non-governmental organisation.

This was “institutionalising discrimination against the Sikh community as a whole”.

“This discrimination has existed for nearly two decades and will continue indefinitely unless Sikhs secure a Sikh ethnic tick box in the Census 2021,” he added.

Both Preet Gill, Parliament’s first ever female Sikh MP and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on UK Sikhs, and Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, the first male MP to wear a turban in the House of Commons, echo this argument.

While previous censuses have captured some data on Sikhs, “it was not fully reflective of the community at large and did not examine some of the intricacies of the lives of British Sikhs in a way that would be useful to stakeholders, including identity, discrimination and hate crime,” Mr Dhesi tells i.

“Most Sikh organisations feel strongly that, in addition to inadequate monitoring of community numbers, allocation of resources by public bodies is not being undertaken to deal with issues specifically affecting Sikhs. This includes increased incidents of hate crime, bullying at school (because of children wearing turbans) and higher than average prevalence of certain ailments (such as diabetes and heart disease),” Mr Dhesi adds.

‘Makes no sense’

However, this motive is considered disingenuous by critics.

Lord Indarjit Singh of Wimbledon, an active member of the Sikh community, says it is impossible to compare members of a religion with an ethnicity even for data-gathering purpose.

“Indians would contain Sikhs. You’re not comparing like with like. It does not make sense at all.”

Lord Singh, the first turbaned member of the House of Lords, says that advocates are conflating Sikh identity and Punjabi identity. The Punjab is considered the historic homeland of Sikhs and the majority, including myself, originate from there. But not all.

“Sikhs come from a variety of nations and cultures and as a group share religious values. For me it doesn’t satisfy what an ethnicity is,” says Rosie Ginday, a patisserie chef whose mum is Sikh Punjabi. She says she doesn’t agree with the prospect of a new tick box.

Ethnic protection

Lord Singh also refutes the notion that the 1976 Race Relations Act protects Sikhs as an ethnic minority – another argument pushed by proponents of ethnic classification.

In 1983, the Mandla v Dowell Lee case gave religious protection to a boy banned from attending a school in Birmingham because of his turban.

“Most Sikh organisations feel strongly that, in addition to inadequate monitoring of community numbers, allocation of resources by public bodies is not being undertaken to deal with issues specifically affecting Sikhs.” Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, MP

At the time, the Race Relations Act only provided protection on grounds of race, nationality and ethnicity – not religion. Lord Singh, an expert witness in the case, decided to argue for protection for the boy under ethnicity, which related to characteristics such geography, language, place of birth and cultural features.

The House of Lords eventually ruled that to prevent discrimination, Sikhs could be considered an ethnic group for the purposes of the 1976 Race Relations Act.

While many arguing for ethnic classification hark back to this case, for others, it simply does not hold water.

“The Equalities Act 2010 has since replaced this previous legislation,” points out Hardeep Singh, of the Network of Sikh Organisations.

“All religions today are granted equal protection under law, so there is no need to undertake intellectual gymnastics to loosely define Sikhs as a group with ‘ethnic origins’.”

Historical tension

Amid the rhetoric being pushed out by those in favour of ethnic classification, it is hard to turn a blind eye to the historical tension between Sikhs and other communities from the Indian Subcontinent and the extent to which this may have influenced the debate.

The current options for British Asian Sikhs in the census’ ethnic category are likely to provoke ire among some.

Some Sikhs were expelled from Pakistan after partition and so may not want to tick this option. Others may have been affected by the ethnic cleansing of Sikhs in India in 1984. Understandably they would not want to be associated with India, let alone have to tick it as their ethnicity.

For many years there has been a campaign for an independent Sikh state. Khalistan would encompass the Punjab, which straddles eastern Pakistan and northern India. Making ‘Sikh’ an ethnic category on the census would undoubtedly strengthen this separatist campaign.

Alienating non-Asian Sikhs

It is not yet clear whether the ‘Sikh’ option, if adopted, would be a separate category under the ethnicity question or whether it would be an Asian sub-category.

While the overwhelming majority of Sikhs in England and Wales have their roots in the Indian Subcontinent, placing ‘Sikh’ next to Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi under the Asian category risks alienating non-Asian followers of the religion.

One man with the Twitter handle @TurbanRed, who became a Sikh eight years ago, worries this would exclude “non-Asian Sikhs from being considered complete members of our own community in the eyes of the Government and in those of Sikh organisations”.

The 2011 UK census, along with many similar demographic questionnaires in the UK, categorised ethnicity into racial groups. For instance, there is a "white" category, containing white British and Irish and other white ethnicities, followed by an Asian/Asian-British… — RedTurbanRebellion (@TurbanRed) July 27, 2018

The issue is also worrying Sikhs in other countries. Justin Mann, a white Sikh from Alberta, Canada, tells i he is “confused and concerned” about the direction the debate is headed.

“It certainly isn’t what the Guru tells us is important… It just seems altogether destructive,” he adds.

Principals of Sikhism

So is there a solution? Lord Singh suggests it would be sensible to have a ‘Punjabi’ ethnic category rather than a ‘Sikh’ one, saying that people from the region have a shared history, language, culture and propensity to certain diseases.

“The founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, travelled across India, Sri Lanka, Tibet and the Middle East promoting one humanity. He rejected man-made labels such as caste, race, class hierarchy and by extension, today’s debate on ethnicity.” Hardeep Singh

This would also protect the guiding principles of Sikhism. “There are a number of reasons why adding ‘Sikh’ as an ethnic group to the 2021 census is a bad idea,” says Hardeep Singh.

“The founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, travelled across India, Sri Lanka, Tibet and the Middle East promoting one humanity. He rejected man-made labels such as caste, race, class hierarchy and by extension, today’s debate on ethnicity.

“The tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, echoed this core value when he said: ‘Recognise the human race as one.’”

The ONS is set to publish its recommendations about the Sikh tick box in a Government White Paper later this year.

But what if the campaign is successful? Would Sikhs on the other side of the debate tick the ethnic category box if faced with it in black and white? Tests run by the ONS in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, and Hounslow, west London, found that only 24 per cent of people would use it. However, this data was considered inconclusive because so few households responded.

Hardeep Singh wouldn’t tick the box. Neither would Hundal. “I will continue to tick Sikh just as my religion not my ethnicity.

“And I suspect most British Sikhs will do the same,” he added.

Without proper consideration, the ONS could be faced with a rebellion that undermines their data-collecting efforts.