The presence of Sikhs in both Britain and France, a comparative study. The presence of Sikhs in the UK dates mostly (although there are a few exceptions of individuals in the 19th century) from the post-WWII period. There are over half a million present in the UK, today. In France, Sikhs began arriving after the 1980s, mostly since the UK had tightened immigration policy restricting them, and during a period of heightened risk following Operation Blue Star in 1984, particularly. There are estimates that there are possibly about 30-50,000 Sikhs in France (ethnic statics are not allowed in France). Sikhs in the UK have obtained exceptional treatment as an ethno-religious group, and have been granted various exemptions from UK laws (kirpan, crash helmets), mostly due to their cohesiveness, power as a group, and political sway. In France, life is very different for Sikhs since they have to take into consideration the various laws forbidding the wearing of ostentatious religious clothing. They are, however, in both countries the victims of religious ignorance and mis-recognition and confusion. The book deals with the history of connections of both France and the UK with firstly, India, and secondly, Sikhs. Despite the obvious difference in numbers and the dates when Sikhs arrived in both the UK and France, there are a surprising number of similarities between the Sikh diaspora of France and that of the UK. Both functioned along the same lines of the building of gurdwaras, both went through turban campaigns, both suffer from mis-recognition. The book is backed up by unique research, including interviews with leading Sikhs in the UK (legal counsel of Sikh organisations), Sikh historians, and a Sikh journalist (who discovered that Sikhs were the victims of increasing numbers of hate crimes), Sikh Members of Parliament (both the House of Lords, and the House of Commons), Sikh policy makers in London Councils, and a British Sikh asked to remove his turban at a French airport. Those that were interviewed in France include the male students that were suspended from French schools for wearing their turbans, and who took the French state to court, in a fight for human rights, and the right to wear their turbans. There is also an interview with Ranjit Singh, whose case is considered to be the first pioneering fight and the start of the French turban campaigns, in 2002, when he refused to remove his turban in a photograph for his residency permit. France and the UK have differing approaches not only to immigration (since the post-WWII period), but also to the rigidification of national identity (from a banal nationalistic (Anthony Smith, 1998) point of view). France has protected all of the symbols and values of the French Republic in law. The UK has not, but recent reports suggest that this may not be the case in the future, since it would like to emulate the French model. This is important in the struggle for recognition that the Sikhs have gone through in both Nation-States.