Sikh Experience in the US (Cultural Event #5)

For my last cultural event I chose to attend the conversation on diversity regarding the Sikh Experience in the US. The speaker for this topic was Professor Dan Veidlinger from the department of Religious Studies and he also brought with him a Sikh student, Rajbir to share his personal experiences with us.

Driving down south of Chico pass Yuba City one might seem to notice the large population of Sikh people primarily identifiable by the turbans they wear on their heads. Have you ever noticed how such a large population of Sikh people came to being in this small place?

So who are the Sikhs and where are these people from? Professor Veidlinger started off the talk by explaining to us that the word ‘Sikh’ refers to a student or disciple. This is associated with the idea of a teacher called a guru. Sikhs are primarily from the northwest region of India called Punjab - “Pun” meaning five and “Jab” meaning river, which make up the 5 rivers that feed into the Indus River. The Sikh population comprises of about 25 million people in total. Of this large population, about 19 million live in India, (this corresponds to only 2% of India’s population) which means that there are a lot of Sikhs around the world. In the US alone there are around 100,000 Sikhs of which 40,000-50,000 live in Yuba City.

Sikhism was founded in 1499 by Guru Nanak. The core idea of the Sikh belief and that of Guru Nanak is called the Mul Mantra. This is found in the Adi Granth, which is the holy book of the Sikhs. This means “There is one supreme eternal reality; the truth; immanent in all things; creator of all things; immanent in creation. Without fear and without hatred; not subject to time; beyond birth and death; self-revealing”.

Sikhs that are baptized become part of the Khalsa and have to follow the five K’s:

·         Kara (Bracelet)

·         Kanga  (Comb)

·         Kesh (Uncut hair )

·         Kaccha (short pants under clothing)

·         Kirpan (dagger)

The most important shrine of the Sikhs is the ‘Golden Temple’, (above) built by the 5^th Guru. However, there are no idles in the temple because Sikhs don’t believe in idle worshiping. There were ten main Gurus honored by the Sikhs. The tenth Guru terminated the line of human Gurus by making the holy book, the Adi Granth, his successor.

Professor Veidlinger pointed out that Sikhism believes in 1 universal God, the creator, who is never incarnated, in other words, never comes down to earth in the form of a human being. I found this interesting because of 2 main reasons. One being that most Indian religions such as Hinduism believe in the idea of many Gods and so one might assume Sikhism to be the same. Another reason was that unlike Christianity that believes in the idea of God coming down to earth in the form of man; Sikhism does not share that belief.

Professor Veidlinger also pointed out was that Sikhism is against the caste system and believes in equality. This could be seen by the ‘Langar’ service (pictue below) in which all the members (and even non-members) of the community sit and eat together as equals. One of the Sikh students present said that another way that the Sikhs use to eliminate the caste system is by having ‘Singh’ added to everyone’s name.

Finally, Professor Veidlinger brought up the issue about the Sikhs being discriminated against, after the 9/11 attacks on the US. This happened because many people mistook their long beards and turban for Muslims and supporters of the Al Qaida. One of the students also stood up and handed over a wallet-sized card to Professor Veidlinger that contained the Sikhs’ criticism of the 9/11 attacks. This was sad to hear as the Sikhs are peaceful people who do not believe in (or for that reason support) terrorism.