Sikh and British

"In 1998, Prince Charles opened a new exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum to celebrate the Sikh arts. This made me very proud to be a British Asian because not only does it mean Sikhs can understand more about their historical roots, but it reveals a desire of the British Government to appreciate that Britain is truly a multi-cultural society.

"At this moment in history, the tricentenary year of the Khalsa, the Sikh people are entering a new era, one of cultural hybridity. Sikhism is no longer a religion confined to India: we are a hybrid people, with large communities of first, second and third-generation Sikhs living in Britain, America and Canada.

"Our lives are an amalgam of East and West. Religious leaders criticise the young Sikhs growing up in this country for being too Westernised, for speaking English rather than Punjabi, for knowing next to nothing about Sikh culture, history and society, for sacrificing the basic tenets of our faith because of our immersion in white values.

"I would like to prove anyone who believes these things wrong. I am a third-generation Sikh girl, born and bred in England. Yes, I speak English as a first language, and yes, I am lucky enough to have won a place to study it at Oxford.

"But this has not been at the relinquishment of my Sikh identity. I speak, read and write Punjabi. I read the Guru Granth Sahib, and I spend as much of my time at Oxford looking up books on Sikhism as I do in reading English.

"It has been possible for me to keep a balance between Western and Eastern values and I am not an exception to the rule."