According to the latest IPSOS report, Global Religion 2023, there is a correlation between the percentage of people who believe those with religious faith are happier and the percentage of those who regularly attend a place of worship. This connection can be explained through sociological literature: a place of worship serves not only as a space for religious practice but also as a hub for social interaction, community building, and the formation of bonds. For those who leave their home country and settle elsewhere, reconstituted religious communities and their meeting places become, in social demographer Charles Hirschman’s terms [1], “a resource in times of need,” offering a refuge where cultural references can be preserved, and respectability maintained, often in conditions marked by economic regression and social exclusion. In addition to their primary functions, political scientist Paolo Naso, along with sociologists Maurizio Ambrosini and Samuele Davide Molli emphasize that these spaces act as “garrisons of integration” in host countries [2].
But what role does the architecture of a place of worship and its location in the urban space play in the well-being and socialization of its attendees? How do these factors contribute to the public image of the religious group and influence social interactions?
These questions are becoming increasingly urgent, as several studies indicate [3], due to a paradox at play: while urban spaces are increasingly defined as religiously plural, some components, either voluntarily or forcibly, camouflage themselves by repurposing buildings that reduce their visibility and recognizability, thereby limiting their social inclusion.
To address these issues, the European Union has funded a three-year research project, GAP (Gurdwara Architecture in Diaspora), under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. This project will investigate the emblematic case of gurdwaras, the places of worship of the Indian Punjabi community belonging to Sikhism, in Italy and Singapore – two diasporic contexts where Sikh temples take markedly different forms.
Singapore, a destination for the Sikh-Punjabi diaspora [4] since the mid-19th century, offers a privileged observatory in terms of the urban integration of gurdwaras. Sikh temples in Singapore are recognized and easily identifiable due to their preservation of “iconic” architectural forms, similar to the Punjab gurdwaras [5]. The Central Sikh Gurdwara, one of seven Sikh temples in Singapore was originally established in 1912 as the Queen Street Gurdwara. Now located in Towner, it houses the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scripture of the Sikhs. Besides its religious function, the gurdwara also serves as a community center with dining halls and a library. An adjacent seven-story tower hosts cultural activities and religious classes. It has been designated a historical site since 1999.
In Italy, approximately 100.000 Sikhs reside and work, according to CESNUR. The growth of Sikh communities and the geography of gurdwaras are the result of a centrifugal process that began in the 1990s with the establishment of domestic gurdwaras in major cities like Rome and Milan. This expansion continued through the 2000s, when the first Sikh places for worship were opened in provincial capitals in northern Italy, and accelerated from 2010 to 2019, with new openings even in smaller towns. Italy now hosts 58 out of Europe’s 140 gurdwaras, making it the country with the largest number of Sikh temples in the EU since Brexit. However, the architecture of these temples is characterized as hybrid [6].
Despite this growth, Sikhism has yet to achieve legal recognition in Italy under the provision of Article 8 of the Italian Constitution and Law No. 1159 of 1929, despite ongoing efforts by organizations such as Unione Sikh Italia [7] and the “Sikh Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee Italy.” This lack of formal recognition complicates the application of regional and municipal urban planning regulations regarding places of worship, making it difficult to construct officially recognized and recognizable gurdwaras. As a result, Sikh communities across Italy, like other religious denominations, are forced to find alternative locations. About 95 percent of Sikh temples in Italy have been established through the informal reuse of large structures – industrial warehouses, shops, houses, supermarkets, discos, and agricultural buildings. These buildings, acquired or rented with the sole financial support of local Sikh communities, are often adapted for religious use but remain temporary, poorly suited, and largely invisible due to their hybrid architecture.
Given these differing architectural conditions, the GAP project will explore the geography (location and architecture) of gurdwaras in Singapore and Italy. It will gather the opinions of both the Sikh community members and non-members regarding the materiality and aesthetics of gurdwaras in these two diasporic contexts. The data collected in Singapore will inform reflections on how to improve the materiality and aesthetics of gurdwaras in Italy. This research adopts a transdisciplinary approach, integrating the history of religions, geography, and architecture, and employs qualitative research techniques, participatory activities, and digital humanities methods.
Bibliography
[1] Hirschman, C. The Role of Religion in the Origins and Adaptation of Immigrants Groups in the United States. International Migration Review, 38 (2004), pp. 1206-1233.
[2] Ambrosini M, Molli S. D., Naso P. (eds. 2022) Quando gli immigrati vogliono pregare. Il Mulino, p. 335.
[3] Becci I., Burchardt M., Casanova J. (2013). Topographies of Faith: Religion in Urban Spaces. Leiden: Brill.
[4] Gerald Barrier N., Dusenbery A. V. (1989). The Sikh Diaspora: Migration and the Experience beyond Punjab. Chanakya; Hawley M. (2013) Sikh Diaspora: Theory, Agency, and Experience. Brill; Singh P., Fenech E. L. (eds, 2014), The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies; Takhar O., Jakobsh D.R. (2023) Global Sikhs. Routledge.
[5] McCann G. (2011). Sikhs and the City: Sikh history and diasporic practice in Singapore. Modern Asian Studies.
[6] Omenetto S. (2015) Dio non ha passaporto. I gurdwara dal Punjab all’Italia. Studi e materiali di Storia delle religioni, 2, pp. 616-650.
[7] https://unionesikh.it/2023/09/06/attentato-al-presidente-dellunione-sikh-italia/
Silvia Omenetto is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at Sapienza University of Rome. She is part of the SHARP Lab (Sharing Religious Places), a network of scholars focused on inter-religious interactions, with a particular emphasis on their spatial dynamics. By definition, it is a transdisciplinary network, bringing together historians of religions, geographers, art historians, architects, sociologists, Islamicists, theologians and anthropologists.
Cover photo: Gurudwara Shri Guru Nanak Darbar Roma, in Rome, Italy. Photo by Silvia Omenetto. All rights reserved.
