2020 Census Will Tabulate Sikhs As Ethnic Category

India West reported yesterday that for the first time, Sikhs can be counted in the ongoing 2020 census as a separate group, despite the legal prohibition on the census asking questions about religion.  The Census Bureau will consider Sikhism to be a cultural or ethno-religious category.  As explained by India West:

Sikhism does not appear as a category to tick off on the census forms ..., but Sikhs can tick off the "Other Asian" category and write in their religion as a sub-category instead of listing themselves under Asian Indian or other listed racial and ethnic identities....

But while anyone can write in any religious or ethnic or linguistic identities beyond the categories that appear on the form, only Sikhs and some others are given a code that will allow them to be tabulated separately....

"'Sikh' will be included as a distinct detailed population group within the 'Asian' racial category, and not classified as 'Asian Indian' as it was in the 2010 Census when it was viewed as a religious response," according to the Census Bureau.

The bureau did not say where Sikhs who were not of Asian origin, like many members of the Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere, who are racially White, can write in their separate identity.

"The Census Bureau included 'Sikh' codes as part of the draft 2020 Census code list within the 2018 Census Test Redistricting Data Prototype," it said.

British Court Says Sikh Challenge To Census Proposal Is Premature

In Gill, R (on the application of) v UK Statistics Authority, (EWHC, Dec. 12, 2019), a High Court judge in England dismissed as premature a challenge to a proposal by the UK Statistics Authority not to include a Sikh ethnic group tick box response in the 2021 census. Under the proposal there would be a specific "Sikh" response under "Religion", but those wishing to list themselves as Sikh under ethnicity would need to check the "Other, specify" box. The court agreed with the government's claim, which the court described as follows:

[T]his claim is a pre-emptive challenge to the exercise of the Queen's powers ... before the Minister has made a final decision on the form of the census questionnaire, or laid the draft delegated legislation before Parliament, and before Parliament and the Queen in Council have had an opportunity to consider it. The Defendant submits that the claim is premature, and in breach of Parliamentary privilege, as a declaration in the terms sought would not respect the separation of powers between the legislature and the judiciary.

Law & Religion UK has more on the decision.