"Namdhari Sikhs in Australia: A Vibrant Punjabi Diasporic Community"

Sanjana Sharma, Student

The major community that forms Indian Diaspora abroad are the Punjabi Sikhs. They are further classified into different groups such as Nirmala, Mina, Udasi, Sewa Panthi, Nanaksari, Hindaliya, Nirankari, Damdami Taksal, Neeldhari, and Namdhari. Our focus is on the Namdhari Sikhs. The Namdharis emphasized on meditating God’s name. Numerous Namdhari families migrated from India to differnt nations across world. This study focusses on the Namdhari sikh migration towards Australia. The aim of this paper is to have insight of Namdhari sikh diaspora in Australia and finding the reasons behind their migration and a link that they have with their mother nation. This is an origin based study done in the Ellenabad block of Sirsa district, Haryana, India. This study is qualitative in nature, the data has been collected using the semi structured questionnaire, through interview, key informants and through focus group discussion. The study revealed that most of the migrated people belong to the younger age group and least number of migrants are children. The major reason behind migration is Education, followed by employment and movement with family. The major limitation is that the study involves smaller area and more better study can be done by involving the larger area.

Keywords: International Migration, Migrant Populations and Refugees, Spatial Demography, The Demography of Indigenous Populations

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