Rupinder Mohan Singh |

Photo from Kush. (Source: Kush website.)

Kush, film about 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom, wins award at Venice film festival

September 3, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Recently featured at the 70th Venice International Film Festival, the film Kush by Shubhashish Bhutiani– set during the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom in New Delhi, India — has been awarded the festival’s “Best Innovative Budget” award: “Kush” was made on a shoestring budget thanks to private contributions including by the Film Director and other individuals who sacrificed their fees and charges to make the film possible. The Director, a student of the School of Visual Arts in New York was also […]

Categories: 1984, Art, TV/Movies • Tags: 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Indira Gandhi, Kush, School of Visual Arts, Shubhashish Bhutiani, Venice International Film Festival

Waris Ahluwalia appears in an article in Vogue Italy's July-August edition. (Source: Vogue Italy)

Your long weekend Waris, part III

August 30, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

As only he can, noted designer/actor Waris Ahluwalia appears on the cover of the July-August 2013 Italian version of Vogue Magazine, which also includes a pictorial of Waris in various forms of dandy. Here’s to a relaxing long weekend. (See previous posts about Waris Ahluwalia here.)

Categories: Literature, Profiles • Tags: Fashion, Italy, Vogue Magazine, Waris Ahluwalia

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Jasjit Singh, Executive Director of SALDEF, addresses the audience during the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. (Source: SALDEF)

Picture of the Day

August 28, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

On Saturday, during an interfaith ceremony to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, Jasjit Singh of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) addressed the audience gathered at the Lincoln Memorial as a representative of the Sikh community: “From four girls in Birmingham to six worshippers in Oak Creek, from a bridge in Selma to a march on Washington: we stand with you, we march with you, we serve with you.” Read more from SALDEF.

Categories: Events, Interfaith, Picture of the Day • Tags: Jasjit Singh, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Martin Luther King, National Mall, SALDEF, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund

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Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial in Washington, D.C. (Source: About.com)

The benchmark for social justice

August 28, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

On the Sikh blog Naujawani.com (based in the UK), Ranjit Singh “Kuki” Gill discusses Martin Luther King, Jr., and the legacy of his speech at the March on Washington in 1963: He created a bench mark for all the people in America and around the globe who are committed to the cause of justice and equality and who wish to stand up for human dignity and liberty. It is remarkable that many who celebrate the anniversary of the march and […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Events • Tags: "Washington, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Martin Luther King, Naujawani.com, Ranjit Singh "Kuki" Gill, United States

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Workers install seven domes now adorn the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek earlier this month, as tributes to the lives lost in last year's shooting rampage by a white supremacist. (Source: WISN-TV)

Guru Gobind Singh’s Zafarnama and Oak Creek, Wisconsin

August 27, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

What manliness you have shown by extinguishing a few sparks? You have made the conflagration brighter and more furious. — Guru Gobind Singh to Aurangzeb, Mughal emperor of India, 1705. In 1705, the tenth Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh, wrote a letter in Persian entitled Zafarnama (“Epistle of Victory”) to Aurangzeb, the Mughal emperor of India who engaged in a campaign to eradicate the Sikh people, resulting in the execution and deaths of the Guru’s four young sons […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes, Reflections • Tags: Aurangzeb, Guru Gobind Singh, hate crimes, Oak Creek, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, Zafarnama

"A statue of Martin Luther King stands across from the historical Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala." (Photo: Ken Wells, Bloomberg. Source: USA Today)

Still “mountains to climb” to combat hate

August 26, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

In USA Today, Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center offers an assessment of where the country is today, 50 years after the March on Washington: “We still have mountains to climb. The best estimates suggest there are a stunning quarter-million hate crimes in this country every year. Hate groups have been rising steadily over the last decade and now number more than 1,000. Our public discourse, including that of a shameful number of politicians, preachers and pundits, is […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes, Reflections • Tags: 16 Street Baptist Church, Alabama, Birmingham, hate crimes, March on Washington, Mark Potok, Southern Poverty Law Center, USA Today, White supremacy

A 1000-year-old coin from Pakistan in the collection of the father of Ravleen Kaur. (Source: Slant of Light)

The coin collection

August 26, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

On Slant of Light, Ravleen Kaur, a college student in Oregon, reflects about her father’s passion for collecting coins, particularly those struck during the era of Sikh rule in Punjab, India, and other historic relics: “You know, you know, legend goes,” Papa says, his cheekbones rising and nostrils flaring as they do when he shares oddball knowledge and fun facts, “that when the Sikhs took power in Punjab, they sometimes stamped their seal over old coins instead of minting new […]

Categories: Reflections, Sikhism • Tags: Coin, coincollecting, Ravleen Kaur

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Scene from Kush, a short film by Shubhashish Bhutiani. (Source: Kush website)

Kush, film about 1984 anti-Sikh riots, to be screened at Venice film festival

August 22, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Based on a true story, Kush is a short film set in Delhi in the aftermath of the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in October, 1984, when organized mobs engaged in an anti-Sikh pogrom in India’s capital city and beyond. Thousands of innocent Sikhs were killed, burned alive, beaten, raped and tortured to avenge the Prime Minister’s death. To this day, few — including government officials implicated in the massacre — have ever been held to account by India’s […]

Categories: 1984, Art, TV/Movies • Tags: 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Indira Gandhi, Kush, Shubhashish Bhutiani, Venice International Film Festival

Sikh philanthropist GP Singh gives back

August 22, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The San Antonio Express-News features Sikh philanthropist Gurvinder Pal Singh (otherwise known as G.P. Singh), of San Antonio, Texas: “I have lived here for 34 years,” says Singh, who turned 60 on June 30. “My children were born here. They got educated here. I ran a business here. I employed over 400 people here. So, I am defined by San Antonio and I feel it’s my duty and frankly a privilege to give back to the community that has been […]

Categories: Profiles • Tags: Gurvinder P. Singh, San Antonio, San Antonio Area Foundation, San Antonio Express-News, TED, TEDx, Texas

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Considering the experience of Sikhs in America.

Author Archives: Rupinder Mohan Singh

Kush, film about 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom, wins award at Venice film festival

Your long weekend Waris, part III

Picture of the Day

The benchmark for social justice

Guru Gobind Singh’s Zafarnama and Oak Creek, Wisconsin

Still “mountains to climb” to combat hate

The coin collection

Kush, film about 1984 anti-Sikh riots, to be screened at Venice film festival

Sikh philanthropist GP Singh gives back