Undercurrents: Activism & the Arts

Abstract

Concurrently with the special issue on the Farmers’ Protests, we are also marking the creation of a new section in Sikh Formations with this issue we are calling, Undercurrents: Activism and the Arts. Undercurrents is a new section created in recognition of the importance of activism, the arts, and engaged scholarship in Sikh and Punjabi life-worlds. This new section aims to further the original scope of the journal to “open alternative horizons,” “provide a venue for the emergence of new perspectives,” and remain "open to multiple ways in which cultural production creates zones of profound expressive possibilities”. In this vein, the “Undercurrents” section provides a forum for thought and creativity that expresses new oppositional solidarities in light of current events as well as events that remain hidden under or counter the dissemination of current events. This section seeks to highlight alternate engagements with prevailing scholarly, social, and cultural trends by embracing sentiments and experiences of exclusion and marginalization that are too often submerged by the tide of majoritarian idealized approaches. We are particularly interested in publishing articles, artwork, photoessays and video-essays on topics that defy easy categorization, and forms of expression that resist professionalization and rigidification of the knowledge system. Artists, activists and members of the public are encouraged to submit essays that inquire critically yet creatively into processes of subjective, social, ethico-political significance as they emerge in contemporary local and global affairs.