This article employs theories of media framing to ‘the crisis in Punjab’ in 1983 and 1984. I argue that The Times of India frames Sikhs and the crisis in such a manner as to generate a stereotype of Sikhs as inherently violent, pre-modern and dangerous to the Indian state. Such a framing, I argue, mimics stereotypes of religion and violence critiqued by William Cavanaugh [2009. The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict. New York: Oxford University Press.]. I employ Cavanaugh’s critical lens on the myth of religious violence to demonstrate that this framing of Sikhs is a tool of media and the state to justify illegitimate violence again Sikhs.

This article examines newspaper articles and opinion pieces related to the 1989 and 1990 case of allowing RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) officers to wear turbans as part of their formal uniform. Many of those opposed to allowing for this change in RCMP policy demonstrate a sense of an assumed national identity that tends to label immigrants and people from non-European backgrounds as un-Canadian. Once the federal government approved this change in RCMP policy, some of the groups that opposed it attempted to bring it to the Supreme Court of Canada. The argument they made was one for closed secularism. The policy change, however, and the impact it had on Baltej Singh Dhillon, the first Sikh RCMP officer who became an officer and was allowed to wear his turban the results of which present a case for open secularism.

This article examines the presentation of Sikhs in Canadian media in the 1980s. It argues that Sikhs are mostly presented as threats to Canadian society and this media framing of Sikihs mostly follows Indian media frames of Sikhs as violent anti-state terrorists. Much of this media framing, however, does not discuss the actual circumstances in India, nor does it allow for the voices of Sikhs to be heard unless they are presented as violent.

This special edition comes out of a conference held at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, on 17–19 October 2014. The Conference was called ‘Deconstructing the Myth of Violence and Religion in Sou...

This article studies Canadian and international newspaper reports from September, 1995, of the Ganesha milk drinking miracle. It analyzes the chronology of the newspaper reports as the story develops from an account of a miracle in the “exotic” East to an account of a miracle also occurring in Canada. The evidence demonstrates an inability on the part of the Canadian news media to view religion as hard news with broad social and political implications. The comparison with international reports demonstrates that the story had a significant political dimension and was viewed as hard news in other parts of the world. The comparison questions the assumed boundaries between the public and private spheres in relation to religion and demonstrates that such boundaries are constructed through power relationships and the news media itself.

This essay surveys the history of material culture in relation to the study of Buddhism and Hinduism. The essay opens by exploring the factors in Reformation and Enlightenment Europe that led to the marginalization of material culture in relation to religion, and how these attitudes towards the use of material objects in religion entered the academic study of religion as the discipline developed. Colonial attitudes towards Buddhist and Hindu material culture are also addressed as an example of how the western move towards a privileging of texts and doctrines over matter impacted the early study of Indian religions by western academics. The more recent shift towards including data from material sources is also demonstrated with a focus on two fields within religious studies: the history of religions and lived religions. In relation to the history of religions, the essay demonstrates that incorporating material sources both questions accepted scholarship based solely on texts and allows for a more complete historical context through which scholars can explore both texts and objects together. The discussion of lived religions and material culture emphasizes the movement towards understanding religion as embodied and that a study of how objects are produced, exchanged and understood gives us insight into everyday religious practice and the social relationships that are constructed through the use of 'stuff'.

This article explores the origins and development of the Hindu deity Skanda in North India from approximately the fourth century BCE to the seventh century CE. The author suggests that previous scholarship on this deity has located his origins in two sources: the Indus Valley and in an amalgamation of related deities. The article questions the Indus Valley hypothesis and develops the amalgamation hypothesis by examining a variety of textual and non-textual sources. The author also argues that a shift occurs in the representation of Skanda and in his cult base over time. The article suggests that his cult begins in propitiation cults for Grahas and warrior deities in the north of India and shifts to one based in royal propaganda and military emblems. The cult of Skanda is also absorbed into the broader Saivite cult during this time. These shifts, the author argues, result in the diminished popularity of Skanda in North India by the seventh century CE.