Calendars & Power: Unravelling the political economy of Sikh timekeeping practices in Punjab

My research will look at controversies engulfing Sikh communities in the Indian state of Punjab since the implementation of a solar calendar named Nanakshahi. The new chart replaces the long-established Bikrami lunar calendar. Those supporting the move presented it as a means to differentiate Sikhs from Hindus - who also use the lunar calendar - and to provide their communities with the regular rhythms demanded by capitalism. On the other hand, Sikh traditionalists oppose it and would like to continue using lunar calculations to determine religious festivals. They claim that the Nanakshahi calendar generates new understandings of the self since it relates personal and communal time to a different set of astronomical features. The result is that parallel calendars are now in use within Sikh communities, often creating confusion and reflecting social differentiation on sectarian basis. Timekeeping is an essential element of social organisation and studying this calendrical shift will provide a window into the religious, political and economic activities of Sikh communities in Punjab. Research will be ethnographically informed by conducting fieldwork in the cities of Amritsar and Chandigarh, as well as adjacent villages. This will allow me to collect the difficult to uncover material necessary to understand how introduction of the new solar calendar relates to changes in Punjab's local political and economic life.