Eleanor Nesbitt
Biographic Data
| ID | 147191 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Eleanor Nesbitt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Eleanor |
| FAMILY NAME | Nesbitt |
| SIGNATURE | NESBITT E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Warwick |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3507-8206 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 46 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 36 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 46 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1981 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
I find them very helpful, courteous and friendly’: Irish women’s encounters with Sikhs and Punjab
With the aim of correcting a gender imbalance in western observers’ commentary on Sikhs and their religion, this article examines the writing of Irish and Anglo-Irish women over a period of 150 years. Their comments on religion, significant places, Sikh women and marriage, and on men, warfare and Indian nationalism are reported. As is the case with other western writers, their view of Sikhs is generally positive, although the attitude of some Iri…
Future Signs
Darshan Singh Tatla (1947–2021) generous pioneer of Sikh and Punjab Studies
Guru Granth Sahib in the Writings of Western Women
The Guru Granth Sahib is, in Sikh belief, the scripture that embodies their living Guru. Although major anthologists of western writers on Sikhs and their religious tradition have hardly noticed many European and North American women’s observations and comments, Sikhs and their scripture have featured in the travelogues and novels, journals, memoirs and monographs written by western women who were neither converts to Sikhism nor academics in the …
Obituary: Dr William Anthony Gent, 1949-2020
Dr Bill Gent: educationist, ethnographer, friend ‘If we didn’t have compassion, what would life be like?’ Birmingham school pupil in Gent (2018b, 101)Only a few weeks before his death, Bill Gent em
Reflections on Two Centuries of Western Women’s Writing about Sikhs
Dorothy Field is the one woman whose writing appears in major anthologies of European writing on Sikhs and their religion. Although Field's 1914 monograph was the first substantial study of Sikhism by a western woman, since early in the nineteenth century many other women have also commented on Sikh history, religion and society and described their face-to-face encounters in India (and, more recently, in the UK). For the purposes of this article,…
Helena Blavatsky, Dorothy Field and Annie Besant: Theosophy’s role in introducing Sikhism to the West’
The Theosophical Society, founded in 1875 as a universal brotherhood without distinction of race, creed, colour, gender or social background, promoted an ‘ageless wisdom' that resonates to some extent with Sikh teachings. This article explores how Theosophists and Theosophy introduced Sikhism to a western audience, by focusing on Helena Blavatsky, Annie Besant and Dorothy Field. The three women's political and religious views coloured their repre…
Woman Seems to Be Given Her Proper Place: Western Women's Encounter with Sikh Women 1809-2012
Over a period of two centuries, western women-travellers, army wives, administrators' wives, missionaries, teachers, artists and novelists-have been portraying their Sikh counterparts. Commentary by over eighty European and north American 'lay' women on Sikh religion and society complements-and in most cases predates-publications on Sikhs by twentieth and twenty-first century academics, but this literature has not been discussed in the field of S…
Sikhism
This entry surveys Sikhism in the context of the ethnography of Sikh communities in India and other countries. Attention is paid to issues of definition, core Sikh beliefs, the evolution of Sikh communities, and the formation of Sikh identity. The complex issues of caste and gender are considered, and briefer mention is made of time and place. The internet's role in Sikh representation and transnational Sikh community formation is noted, together…
Navigating Languages, Literacies and Identities: Religion in Young Lives
Studies of religion in the lives of young people have often focused upon communities of just one faith or ethnic background and featured communities in a single country. Navigating Languages, Liter
The Fools Argue about Flesh and Meat’: Sikhs and Vegetarianism
Starting from recent UK media reports relating to Sikhs and vegetarianism, this article examines practice in the langar (gurdwaras’ free food provision) before exploring earlier Sikh tradition (the scriptures, stories of the Gurus, and disciplinary codes) for religious guidance on meat-consumption. Contrary to some contemporary Sikh leaders’ emphasis on vegetarianism, these older sources do not provide a consistently clear prohibition of meat-eat…
Can you tell? Takeaway, Deep* within, Media, Cathedral of Santiago di Compostella
The Materiality of the Past: History and Representation in Sikh Tradition
Book Notes
Sparrows and Lions: Fauna in Sikh Imagery, Symbolism and Ethics
Given that the Sikhs’ scriptures – the utterances of their Gurus - are works of poetry, this article majors on the daily presence of insects, birds, fish and mammals in the recitation of the image-rich poesy that makes up the Guru Granth Sahib. Appreciation of this imagery requires understanding of the rural Punjabi context and also of earlier Indic compositions, whether sacred or secular. The introduction of certain birds and animals in Sikh par…
Rural Nostalgias and Transnational Dreams: Identity and modernity among Jat Sikhs
Nicola Mooney has produced a classic ethnography, combining as it does breadth and depth of scholarship with acutely described detail and personal warmth. As a ‘Bahu ethnographer’, her work immedia
Interrogating the Experience of Quaker Scholars in Hindu and Sikh Studies: Spiritual Journeying and Academic Engagement
This article reports a recent investigation of the relationship between the spiritual and academic journeys of seven scholars whose fields involve the study of aspects of Sikh and/or Hindu faith. Several frameworks for the study are suggested, including Quaker encounter with Indic religions; the changing nature of social diversity; and the insider/outsider discussion in religious studies. Discussion of their experience highlights the participants…
Close encounters? The intersection of faith and ethnicity in mixed‐faith families
The encounter and intersection between faiths, cultures, and ethnicities in families where parents have different faith backgrounds are areas of social interaction about which we know little, although the number of such families is growing in the UK and globally. Mixed‐faith families reflect the multi‐cultural and multi‐faith character of society and are thus spaces where individuals develop and negotiate multiple identities in relation to faith,…
Plurality at Close Quarters: Mixed-Faith Families in the UK
'Mixed-faith' families (where parents are from different religious backgrounds) experience plurality first-hand and represent an under-researched and underrepresented aspect of religious and cultural plurality. On the basis of a three-year study at the University of Warwick, this article examines how children in such families form their own religious and social identities, in conjunction with influences from school and the wider community. We sho…
Issues Arising from an Ethnographic Investigation of the Religious Identity Formation of Young People in Mixed-faith Families
This article documents and discusses issues arising from an ethnographic study of the religious identity formation of young people growing up in mixed-faith families. It reports and reflects on challenges to the design of our project, possible explanations for these challenges and the ways in which we addressed them. The areas where we encountered difficulties relate, firstly, to the combination of traditional ethnography with cyber-ethnography a…
The Teacher of Religion as Ethnographer
Research Report: Studying the Religious Socialization of Sikh and 'Mixed-Faith' Youth in Britain: Contexts and Issues
Against a backdrop of phases of Sikh settlement in the UK, this article provides an overview of scholarship on UK Sikh communities. Attention turns to four ethnographic studies conducted by the author, two of which focused on unambiguously Sikh communities, and two of which challenge presuppositions of the boundedness of faith communities. Of these one was a study of two historically stigmatised caste-specific Punjabi communities; the other is cu…
Young People's Identity Formation in Mixed-Faith Families: Continuity or Discontinuity of Religious Traditions
The present paper draws on a recent ethnographic study which investigated the religious identity formation of young people growing up in mixed-faith families in the UK. Taking into account the parents' backgrounds in terms of faith tradition, ethnicity, and culture, we explore to what extent and in what way religious values are transmitted from generation to generation. The paper examines the meaning of transmission and places it in the context o…
Peace and non‐violence: Sathya Sai Education in Human Values in British schools 1
Not only is peace one of the values at the heart of Sathya Sai Education in Human Values (SSEHV), it is also presented as one of the programme’s outcomes. The SSEHV programme seeks to promote ‘human values’ in British schools, also with regard to educating pupils from different social, cultural or ethnic backgrounds towards greater tolerance and understanding. The programme aims to achieve this as part of the statutory provision of physical, soci…
Issues in Writing ‘Introductions’ to ‘Sikhism’
The paper sets the author’s introductions – in particular Sikhism A Very Short Introduction (2005a) – in the context of earlier introductions to (and more substantial treatments of) Sikhism. After noting challenges intrinsic to representing faith traditions, and the particular task of the writer of introductions, my focus rests on reflexivity and the fact that context and conversation – both recent events and particular collaborations – shape age…
Young People's Identity Formation in Mixed-Faith Families: Continuity or Discontinuity of Religious Traditions
The present paper draws on a recent ethnographic study which investigated the religious identity formation of young people growing up in mixed-faith families in the UK. Taking into account the parents' backgrounds in terms of faith tradition, ethnicity, and culture, we explore to what extent and in what way religious values are transmitted from generation to generation. The paper examines the meaning of transmission and places it in the context o…
Locating British Hindus' sacred space
This article examines the ways in which the sacred is located in British Hindus' homes, as well as in public places of worship. Attention is drawn to scholars' concentration on these public places of worship and identification of stages in the development of temples, and to the role of the temple as a resource and a site for negotiation involving both Hindus and non-Hindus. The contested character of the 'sacred' and the increasingly virtual dime…
Religion and identity: The Valmiki community in coventry1
On the basis of recent research this article describes the development of a Punjabi community in Coventry.2 In its struggle to emerge self‐confident from centuries of oppression in India the Valmiki community has become a religious movement, adapting traditional symbol and ritual to enhance its identity.3 After outlining the position of Valmikis in India prior to migration overseas and settlement in Coventry, I describe the establishment of their…
The Nānaksar movement
Panjabis in Britain: Cultural History and Cultural Choices
Helena Blavatsky, Dorothy Field and Annie Besant: Theosophy’s role in introducing Sikhism to the West’
The Theosophical Society, founded in 1875 as a universal brotherhood without distinction of race, creed, colour, gender or social background, promoted an ‘ageless wisdom' that resonates to some extent with Sikh teachings. This article explores how Theosophists and Theosophy introduced Sikhism to a western audience, by focusing on Helena Blavatsky, Annie Besant and Dorothy Field. The three women's political and religious views coloured their repre…
Peace and non‐violence: Sathya Sai Education in Human Values in British schools 1
Not only is peace one of the values at the heart of Sathya Sai Education in Human Values (SSEHV), it is also presented as one of the programme’s outcomes. The SSEHV programme seeks to promote ‘human values’ in British schools, also with regard to educating pupils from different social, cultural or ethnic backgrounds towards greater tolerance and understanding. The programme aims to achieve this as part of the statutory provision of physical, soci…
Values education: The development and classroom use of an educational programme 1
The article is concerned with values education in schools in the light of the requirement for schools to provide for the spiritual, moral, cultural and social development of children and in the light of wider discussions regarding ‘spirituality’ in (post)modern society. The authors focus on Living Values, a programme developed as a way of introducing values‐based education to schools as wellas to the wider community. They examine both the content…
Gender and Religious Tradition: The role‐learning of British Hindu children
Much of children's attitude to gender is developed in their home. For children from a Hindu background dharma (right conduct) involves all aspects of life. It includes family and ritual responsibilities and they are largely gender‐specific. This article is based on research among 8‐13 year‐old Hindu children of Punjabi and Gujarati origin in Coventry [2] [2] The Hindu Nurture in Coventry Project and the Punjabi Hindu Nurture in Coventry Project, …
Photographing worship: Ethnographic study of children's participation in acts of worship
This article reports the uses of photography in the Religious Education and Community Project, Coventry, England. It shows how ethnographic fieldwork and the development of curriculum materials for religious education in Britain are being conducted as phases of an integrated process. The photographic record, it is argued, is intrinsic both to eliciting data from members of the communities under study and in the sensitizing and informing of both p…
A note on Bhatra Sikhs
The Nānaksar movement
Books
Between ‘white’ and ‘non‐white’ Anne Wilson, Mixed Race Children: A Study of Identity, Allen & Unwin, London, 1987. 230 pp., £25hb., £8.95 pb. ’Race’ and ‘class’ in the allocation of public housing Jeff Henderson and Valerie Karn, Race, Class and State Housing: Inequality and the Allocation of Public Housing in Britain, Gower, Aldershot, 1987, 331 pp., £19.50 hb. Muslim family law among South Asians David Pearl, A Textbook on Muslim Personal Law,…
Books
Jeanne Gregory, Sex, Race and the Law: Legislating for Equality London: Sage Publications, 1987, 216 pp., £22.50 h.b., £7.95 p.b. Camilla Palmer and Kate Poulton, Sex and Race Discrimination in Employment London: Legal Action Group, 1987, 189 pp., £14 p.b. John W. Shaw, Peter G. Nordlie and Richard M. Shapiro (eds), Strategies for Improving Race Relations: The Anglo‐American Experience Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987, 226 pp., £25 h…
The body: The Gurūs' teaching and contemporary Sikh practice
Gurū Nānak and successive Sikh Gurūs proclaimed the need for inner devotion rather than the external physical requirements of Hinduism and Islam. Nonetheless, Sikh worship involves particular postures and symbolic acts. Some tendencies in popular Sikh practice echo the ritualism and asceticism of Hindu tradition. Arguably, the stronger a Sikh's faith is in the scriptures as the Gurū's embodiment, the more striking these tendencies may appear to b…
Religion and identity: The Valmiki community in coventry1
On the basis of recent research this article describes the development of a Punjabi community in Coventry.2 In its struggle to emerge self‐confident from centuries of oppression in India the Valmiki community has become a religious movement, adapting traditional symbol and ritual to enhance its identity.3 After outlining the position of Valmikis in India prior to migration overseas and settlement in Coventry, I describe the establishment of their…
Christian and Hindu Children
This article reports the views which groups of Hindu and Christian children who attend places of worship in Coventry expressed about their own religious traditions and other people's. Some observations were common to both groups. However the Christian children showed less sign of relating their faith to any other and tended to be more negative in their assumptions than Hindus were about Christianity. By the Hindu children, unlike most of the Chri…
Books
Hasan Askari, Spiritual Quest: An Inter‐Religious Dimension, Pudsey: Seven Mirrors, 1991, 139 pp., £10.00 p.b. Dermot Killingley, Werner Menski and Shirley Finch, Hindu Ritual and Society, Newcastle upon Tyne: S.Y. Killingley, 1991, 92 pp., £8.95 p.b. Martin Palmer, What Should We Teach: Christians and Education in a Pluralist World, Geneva: WCC Publications, 1991, 63 pp., £3.60 p.b. Anne Pattel‐Gray, Through Aboriginal Eyes: The Cry from the Wil…
Books
Monica J. Taylor, SACREs: Their Formation, Composition, Operation and Role on RE and Worship Slough: National foundation for Educational Research, 1991, 193 pp, £5.00 p.b. Subrata Kumar Mitra (ed), Politics of Positive Discrimination London: Sangam Books, 1990, 157 pp., £17.95 h.b. Max Silverman (ed), Race, Discourse and Power in France Aldershot: Avebury, 1991, 129 pp., £25.00 h.b. David R. Goldfield, Black, White and Southern. Race Relations an…
Gender and Religious Tradition: The role‐learning of British Hindu children
Much of children's attitude to gender is developed in their home. For children from a Hindu background dharma (right conduct) involves all aspects of life. It includes family and ritual responsibilities and they are largely gender‐specific. This article is based on research among 8‐13 year‐old Hindu children of Punjabi and Gujarati origin in Coventry [2] [2] The Hindu Nurture in Coventry Project and the Punjabi Hindu Nurture in Coventry Project, …
Photographing worship: Ethnographic study of children's participation in acts of worship
This article reports the uses of photography in the Religious Education and Community Project, Coventry, England. It shows how ethnographic fieldwork and the development of curriculum materials for religious education in Britain are being conducted as phases of an integrated process. The photographic record, it is argued, is intrinsic both to eliciting data from members of the communities under study and in the sensitizing and informing of both p…
Panjabis in Britain: Cultural History and Cultural Choices
Splashed with goodness’: The many meanings of Amrit for young British Sikhs
The importance of amrit ('nectar', holy water) for Sikh children in Coventry illustrates the sanctity of water in Indian tradition in ways which challenge the understanding of amrit in publications on the Sikh tradition. For these young British Sikhs amrit is water which has been transformed and, in turn, transforms. It is a readily available means of channelling the Guru's power into the individual's life and is often associated with living mast…
British, Asian and Hindu: Identity, self‐narration and the ethnographic interview
This article, based on a longitudinal study of young British Hindus’ perceptions of their religious tradition, explores their understandings of themselves as ‘British’, ‘Asian’ and Hindu’ [1] [1] The Longitudinal Study of Young British Hindus’ Perceptions of their Religious Tradition was funded by the Leverhulme Trust and directed by Professor Robert Jackson in the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, University of Warwick 1995‐97. Earl…
Researching a New Interface between Religions and Publicly Funded Schools in the UK
The article reports initial findings from a values education programme that is currently being implemented, in various forms, in several primary schools in England. The programme is ‘Living Values: an educational program’ and it was developed in association with a Hindu-related religious organisation, the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University. The article situates the research within a social and theoretical context and reports from fieldwork…
Religious Organisations in the UK and Values Education Programmes for Schools [1]
In the context of English schools' increasing interest in values education programmes this article examines the contribution of three religious organisations: the Brahma Kumaris Spiritual University, the devotees of Sathya Sai Baba and the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Discussions of values and values education in relation to citizenship and the new (2002) statutory subject of citizenship education are summarised and, on the basis of pr…
Values education: The development and classroom use of an educational programme 1
The article is concerned with values education in schools in the light of the requirement for schools to provide for the spiritual, moral, cultural and social development of children and in the light of wider discussions regarding ‘spirituality’ in (post)modern society. The authors focus on Living Values, a programme developed as a way of introducing values‐based education to schools as wellas to the wider community. They examine both the content…
Locating British Hindus' sacred space
This article examines the ways in which the sacred is located in British Hindus' homes, as well as in public places of worship. Attention is drawn to scholars' concentration on these public places of worship and identification of stages in the development of temples, and to the role of the temple as a resource and a site for negotiation involving both Hindus and non-Hindus. The contested character of the 'sacred' and the increasingly virtual dime…
Issues in Writing ‘Introductions’ to ‘Sikhism’
The paper sets the author’s introductions – in particular Sikhism A Very Short Introduction (2005a) – in the context of earlier introductions to (and more substantial treatments of) Sikhism. After noting challenges intrinsic to representing faith traditions, and the particular task of the writer of introductions, my focus rests on reflexivity and the fact that context and conversation – both recent events and particular collaborations – shape age…
Retropect and Prospect: Sampradayas and Warwick Fieldwork in Religions and Education
This article surveys 20 years of fieldwork, indicating how themes emerged and successive phases were interconnected. The fieldwork in question was conducted by the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit (formerly the Warwick Religious Education and Community Project) in the Institute of Education (and formerly in the Department of Arts Education) at the University of Warwick in Coventry, a city in the West Midlands, UK
Retropect and Prospect: Sampradayas and Warwick Fieldwork in Religions and Education
Spirituality in Education: Promoting Children's Spiritual Development through Values
This paper reports on research in the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit (WRERU) at the University of Warwick regarding an educational programme, which is based on what are perceived to be universal values. The programme aims to contribute to the spiritual development of children in schools, which is one of the statutory requirements of mainstream school provision in England and Wales. The Sathya Sai Education in Human Values (SSEHV) o…
Peace and non‐violence: Sathya Sai Education in Human Values in British schools 1
Not only is peace one of the values at the heart of Sathya Sai Education in Human Values (SSEHV), it is also presented as one of the programme’s outcomes. The SSEHV programme seeks to promote ‘human values’ in British schools, also with regard to educating pupils from different social, cultural or ethnic backgrounds towards greater tolerance and understanding. The programme aims to achieve this as part of the statutory provision of physical, soci…
The Teacher of Religion as Ethnographer
Research Report: Studying the Religious Socialization of Sikh and 'Mixed-Faith' Youth in Britain: Contexts and Issues
Against a backdrop of phases of Sikh settlement in the UK, this article provides an overview of scholarship on UK Sikh communities. Attention turns to four ethnographic studies conducted by the author, two of which focused on unambiguously Sikh communities, and two of which challenge presuppositions of the boundedness of faith communities. Of these one was a study of two historically stigmatised caste-specific Punjabi communities; the other is cu…
Sociology (39 works) · Philosophy (26 works) · Anthropology (22 works) · Gender Studies (22 works) · Religious studies (20 works) · Political science (18 works) · Hinduism (17 works) · History (16 works) · Religious Education and Schools (16 works) · South Asian Studies and Diaspora (16 works)