Reflections | | Page 16

Fitting in with the Sikhs of Tracy, CA

March 25, 2011 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Jon Mendelson, of the Tracy Press, writes about his visit to the Gurdwara in Tracy, California: Earlier this month, two Sikhs walking down the side of the road in Elk Grove while wearing turbans were shot down, one fatally. Police say there’s no apparent motive, but common sense screams hate crime, that some ignoramus wanted to send a message — you don’t belong here. It’s stunning irony. Because if that unknown thug had talked instead of shot, he probably would […]

Categories: Hate Crimes, Interfaith, Reflections • Tags: California, Elk Grove, Gurmej Atwal, Jon Mendelson, Surinder Singh, Tracy, Tracy Press

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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

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

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The stories that photos tell

January 13, 2011 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Julianne Hing, at The Atlantic, reflects on her own feelings about being an Asian American after seeing a black-and-white photo of Sikhs from 1945: Knowing that I have a history that is much bigger than my own small life makes me feel like I have the right to be in this country, and an obligation to defend my community and other people society would be more comfortable labeling perpetual unwelcome outsiders. View a higher resolution of this photo here. Similarly […]

Categories: Picture of the Day, Reflections • Tags: Asian American, Julianne Hing, Sikh Pioneers, The Atlantic

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On Dastaar Bandhi

December 23, 2010 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Recent articles by the respected I.J. Singh on sikhchic.com discussed dastaar bandhi (“turban tying”) – the ceremony Sikh boys go through when they wear their first full turban. As he describes, in many ways dastaar bandhi is a “coming of age” ceremony. I.J. Singh’s first essay recounts a ceremony that he witnessed and discusses the significance of the Sikh turban: One way then is to look at the turban is as a crown on a Sikh’s head. History teaches us that Sikhs would rather lose a head […]

Categories: Reflections, Sikhism • Tags: dastaar bandhi, dastar bandi, I.J. Singh, pagri, patka, Turban

The “city of turbans and beards”

December 19, 2010 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Days earlier, I had visited the city of turbans and beards, Amritsar, the Sikh holy shrine in the Punjab region. My desire, like that of millions of Sikhs, was to see the magnificent Golden Temple, which preserves within its walls the sacred scripture of Adi Granth. The hospitality was immaculate. Instead of me taking pictures of the faithful, they were asking to be photographed with me. — Daniel Shoer Roth, a columnist for the Miami Herald, writes about his trip […]

Categories: Reflections • Tags: Adi Granth, Amritsar, Daniel Shoer Roth, Golden Temple, Harmandir Sahib, Miami Herald

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Considering the experience of Sikhs in America.

Category Archives: Reflections

Fitting in with the Sikhs of Tracy, CA

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

A touch of brilliance: Sikholars 2011

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

Seizing the wind: South Asian mobilization after 9/11

The stories that photos tell

Top 5 Sikh American Stories of 2010

On Dastaar Bandhi

The “city of turbans and beards”