Rupinder Mohan Singh |

Candlelight Vigil on March 11, 2011 from 6-7 PM at East Stockton Boulevard and Geneva Pointe Drive

Update: Two elderly Sikhs shot in suburban Sacramento

March 10, 2011 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

There have been a few updates on last week’s horrible shooting of two elderly Sikh men in Elk Grove, California: The surviving victim, Gurmej Atwal, is now deemed in serious condition (upgraded from critical condition) in hospital. The funeral for Surinder Singh is on Saturday. While the motive of this shooting is still unclear (and no confirmation on whether the victims were targeted for their appearance), police have been actively investigating this crime for leads, including the unprecedented set-up of a checkpoint […]

Categories: Hate Crimes, News Bits • Tags: Council on American-Islamic Relations, Elk Grove, Elk Grove Police Department, Gurmej Atwal, hate crime, Sacramento, Surinder Singh

Cab driver’s attackers admit to hate crime

March 7, 2011 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Back in November, Harbhajan Singh, a 56-year-old cab driver in Sacramento, California, was attacked and beaten by two men who were later apprehended by the police. The men were charged with assault and hate crime offenses. Today, the two men pleaded guilty: 41-year-old Pedro Ramirez and 33-year-old Johnny Morales were in court Monday to enter the plea agreement and admit their guilt. In exchange, Morales will be sentenced to a year in jail, and Ramirez will get 13 years. On the […]

Categories: Hate Crimes, News Bits • Tags: California, Harbhajan Singh, hate crime, Johnny Morales, Pedro Antonio Ramirez, robbery, Sacramento, taxicab

Two elderly Sikhs shot in suburban Sacramento

March 6, 2011 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Shocking news has come out of Elk Grove, California (a suburb of Sacramento), where two elderly Sikh men were shot on the street while out on an afternoon walk: Police said Saturday that they don’t know why someone gunned down two men – frail from heart attacks and advancing years – as they slowly ambled through a quiet Elk Grove neighborhood during their daily afternoon walk. Surinder Singh, 67, died Friday afternoon on the sidewalk along East Stockton Boulevard near […]

Categories: Hate Crimes, News Bits • Tags: California, Elk Grove, Gurmej Atwal, hate crime, Sacramento, Surinder Singh, Valarie Kaur

Feeling the Power: A non-Sikh visits the Golden Temple

March 3, 2011 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Kristy Robinson, of the Yahoo! Contributor Network, describes her visit to Darbar Sahib (aka “the Golden Temple”, the heart of Sikhism) in Amritsar, India: Still uncertain of what the point was in coming to a place that none of us believed in I crept on with my host family surrounding me to keep unruly Indians from putting their hands where they need not be. It took about an hour to reach the inside of the temple and I was not prepared […]

Categories: Interfaith, Reflections • Tags: Amritsar, Darbar Sahib, Golden Temple, Harmandir Sahib, Kristy Robinson

A touch of brilliance: Sikholars 2011

March 2, 2011 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Last weekend, I was fortunate to attend the second annual Sikholars: Sikh Graduate Student Conference, a two-day event at California State University, East Bay. I also attended last year’s conference when it was held as a one-day event at University of California, Stanford. While not a formal scholar myself, I have a great interest in Sikh studies, and this conference provides a glimpse of the great academic work being done by Sikhs and non-Sikhs in the United States and around the world. This year, […]

Categories: Events, Reflections • Tags: California State University, CSU East Bay, East Bay, Jakara, Sabharwal Chair of Punjabi and Sikh Studies, Sikh Graduate Student Conference, Sikholars

Celebrate “Sikh Environment Day”: March 14, 2011

February 28, 2011 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

At the conclusion of every Sikh service, Sikhs ask God for blessings/prosperity to all (“sarbhat da bhalla“). EcoSikh, an organization noted on this blog before, is enacting this wish through Sikhism-inspired environmental/ecological protection. In the end, preservation of our natural environment benefits all of humanity. EcoSikh is currently engaging Gurdwaras (Sikh temples) and Sikh communities around the world to commemorate “Sikh Environment Day” on March 14, 2011. This date is significant in Sikh history; it was on this day in 1644 that Guru Har Rai […]

Categories: Sikhism • Tags: EcoSikh, environment, Guru Har Rai, Sikh Environment Day

The diasporic boomerang effect: American Sikh inspires Indian Sikhs

February 24, 2011 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

While interacting with students of Khalsa College, his alma mater, Rattan said he “faced many ups and downs in life, but emerged victorious on every occasion.” He said “never say die attitude” help him to reach his goal… “Sikhs mean a lot to the world,” he said, adding that in future too he would follow the ethics of Sikhism in letter and spirit. – Tejdeep Singh Rattan describes his experience in becoming a soldier in the US Army to students […]

Categories: News Bits • Tags: Amritsar, Khalsa College, Tejdeep Singh Rattan, United States, US Army

Interfaith dialogue: Turning “us vs. them” into “us”

February 23, 2011 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The Huffington Post’s Qasim Rashid discusses an interfaith conference at Princeton University, called CT5: …while non-Christians defended Christianity quite well, for every other religion, there was an honest struggle. Lesson learned? Christianity was well defended because every single non-Christian in the room knew a Christian personally. Everyone had a Christian neighbor, co-worker, classmate, even family member. And this interaction was more powerful than the vitriol spewed from the likes of the KKK and WBC. Meanwhile, all too many had never […]

Categories: Interfaith, Reflections • Tags: Coming Together Interfaith Conference, CT5, Gurdwara, Nishaan Sahib, Princeton University, Qasim Rashid

Seizing the wind: South Asian mobilization after 9/11

February 23, 2011 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

In grad school I was taught that for certain public policies to come to fruition, there needs to be a “window of opportunity”. For the South Asian community, the catalyst for this window of opportunity was the Twin Towers falling. As tragic of an event it was for everyone in our nation, that day was a starting point for our community not wanting to get together but NEEDING to get together. We were forced to organize and mobilize. We still […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes, Reflections • Tags: 9/11, Tanzila Ahmed

Considering the experience of Sikhs in America.

Author Archives: Rupinder Mohan Singh