Where the Dead Belong: Sikh Cremation, Islamic Burial, and the Making of Diasporic Futures

• In Event: Death, Religion, and Transnational Approaches (Co-sponsored by Sociology of Religion Section)

Abstract

Among South Asian immigrant communities, the ability to perform funerary rites in North America has often been constrained by the politics of racialization and religious difference. At the same time, Muslim and Sikh communities have worked to establish autonomous infrastructures for funeralizing the dead within the legal and social frameworks of North American societies. This presentation examines two such cases: a Sikh funeral home in British Columbia and the establishment of the first Islamic cemetery in Massachusetts. It traces how migrant funerary practices reveal the enduring significance of religion in diaspora, while also illuminating the environmental implications of Sikh cremations and Islamic burials. In so doing, this paper shows how diasporic death rites are a critical site for reimagining belonging and futures beyond the confines of the nation-state.

Author

• Jyoti Puri, Boston University