Reflective Commentary. The British in India: the poetics of trauma and the emerging Sikh diaspora in England. Poetry Collection. My heart: an aquarium.

Kaur, Gurkiranpreet

Abstract

This thesis includes a poetry collection, My heart: an aquarium, and a reflective commentary, The British in India: the poetics of trauma and the emerging Sikh diaspora in England. The former creatively, and the latter critically, explore the traumas that Punjabi Sikhs endured under the British Raj, including the internalisation of violence (perpetrated by the British), the loss of their spiritual home (Punjab), food insecurity, the threat of disease and famine, Partition, and finally, Operation Blue Star and the Sikh genocide. The thesis traces transgenerational trauma within the author’s own family and the emerging Sikh diaspora in contemporary England.

The collection thematically focuses on migration, assimilation, violence, genocide, love and healing, where the overarching theme is the legacy of British imperialism. The poems outline the transmission of trauma between the author’s family and its passage within the nuances of the author’s life. To re-explore inherited trauma, the poetical work breathes in a world of mysticism, erasure, and nature; offering regeneration where there is decay.

The methodologies used to track trans-generational trauma include following the guidelines of autoethnographic practice to poeticise ancestral oral stories that have been inherited by the author. A literary analysis of the works of Sikh writers as well as a re-visitation of British imperialism in India, has been conducted to better understand diasporic voices and the traumas they have had to contend with due to colonialism.

Lastly, the thesis investigates private oral stories that question public historical discourses where it suggests that trans-generational trauma is an inevitable occurrence within the Punjabi Sikh diaspora. However, it argues that there are therapeutic benefits from writing creatively about trauma—that healing is possible through collectively confronting and questioning the history that often denies a voice to communities that were once colonised.

Citation

Kaur, G. (2025). Reflective Commentary. The British in India: the poetics of trauma and the emerging Sikh diaspora in England. Poetry Collection. My heart: an aquarium. (Thesis). Keele University. https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/1283928

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Online Publication Date: Jun 26, 2025
• Deposit Date: Jun 30, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 30, 2025
• Public URL: https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/1283928
• Award Date: 2025-06