Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows

The Sikh religion originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of northern India, a region bifurcated into an independent India and Pakistan with the Partition of India in 1947. In advance of the partition, many Sikhs fled south to the Indian side, fearing violence from Muslim minority rule. Many protested Partition too, arguing that Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus shared an ethnic or regional identity as Punjabis that the partition would destroy.

A number of empires dominated the modern period of the Punjab. First was the Mughal Empire (c. 1526-1761 CE), then the Sikh Empire (c. 1799-1849 CE), and finally the British Empire (c. 1849-1947 CE). While not an official policy, many colonial rulers applied a “divide and rule” approach that separated communities on ethnic or religious grounds. This division made it easier for colonizers to control their colonial subjects. The French did the same in Algeria, dividing the Kabylie Amazigh (formerly called “Berbers”) from the Arab population. In India, the divisions often split along religious lines, with the colonizers singling out the Sikhs as especially fierce and loyal soldiers. This attribution was in part due to the Sikhs’ fierce fighting during the two Anglo-Sikh wars (1845-1846 and 1848-1849), in which the Sikhs resisted British colonization of the Punjab region.

Sikhs, along with Muslims from the Punjab region, began settling in Britain in the early 1900s, mostly in the industrial cities of Birmingham and Leeds as well as in the Southall region of London. The first Sikh gurdwara was built in 1911 in London (“A Brief History of Gurdwaras in England.” Historic England). A more significant migration happened after World War II as Britain encouraged immigration from Commonwealth countries to accommodate labor shortages. The early 1970s saw another wave of migrants, this time from East Africa, who were caught up in the unrest and expulsions of the “Africanization” policies. The Sikh community has since been very successful financially in their adopted homeland: Approximately 90% are at least partial homeowners, and two-thirds of the population have an income over the national average (British Sikh Report 2014).

The Southall neighborhood of London is the preferred site of many Sikh immigrants. The Guardian article “How London’s Southall Became ‘Little Punjab’” provides an accessible overview of the community’s evolution from its early residents, who arrived around 1950 from the Punjab, to its more recent residents, who hail from countries like Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Somalia. New immigrants often choose to relocate to the same place, as earlier groups have already established a community. Such communities ensure residents can find local foods and services, often in the language of their homeland. Indians were part of the larger British Empire; accordingly, Indians moved to England during colonial rule, establishing communities throughout the empire. Millions of people with Indian heritage live in East Africa today, for example. Similarly, almost 10% of the population of Singapore (the home of the novel’s author) are of Indian origin. Many of the Indians from the Punjabi region chose to relocate to the Southall neighborhood of London, which is where much of the action of this novel takes place. Nikki is struck by the bilingual signs (in the Latin and Gurmukhi alphabets), and her mother asks her to bring back special Sikh sweets not available elsewhere in London. The temple is central both physically and psychologically in the lives of the neighborhood residents. Several see it from their windows, and people may be “temple ladies” (136) just as food can be “temple dal” (138).

The replication of communities from the homeland was ironically what the British strove to accomplish in India. The British reproduced homes and gardens in the style of English villages and continued their habits of tea and the club. E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India (1924) describes the order of the British suburb against what he perceives as the chaos of Indian areas. The British retained many of their norms in part to mark themselves as different from, and in their minds superior to, their Indian colonial subjects. This effort also provided them with a sense of comfort against homesickness. In comparison, Sikhs gathered in Southall not only out of longing for home but also as a means of protection and support against the larger British society, which was not always welcoming. Political committees have often emerged from communities like Southall to fight racism and discrimination. Diasporic communities can also play important roles in the politics of their homeland, such as with support for the Khalistan or separatist movement.