Dasvandh and End of Year Giving
This season, Americans are spending $465 billion, according to the National Retail Federation and a substantial portion of that is on gifts. Luckily, the final days of the year are a chance to give in a different kind of way and by doing so, gain a benefit – namely, contributions made to a charitable...
Sikhi Is Part of the Solution: Ending Gendercide
Gendercide is a well-known problem in India.  The BBC and ABC 20/20 have highlighted this issue.  The low sex-ratio in Punjab, India shows how the soil, which gave birth to Sikhi is not devoid of this problem. The land on which our Gurus proclaimed the equality of women when others considered her impure...
Burqa ban crosses the Atlantic
The legal banning of the burqa and niqab has once again been in the headlines this last week, but this time beyond Europe, in Canada (or as Tanmit from G.N.E. called it last week at Lahir, “America’s pagh”). Minister of Citizenship, Immigration, and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney, known...
Sikhs doing Seva
For many of us school is out and the holidays are upon us.  Throughout the season, many Sikhs throughout the world engage in seva to support members of the community in which they live.  We expect this year to be no different. We hope that commenters will use this section to highlight events or drives...
Surat-Lalkaar 2012 – A New Collaboration
Guest blogged by Mewa Singh. Earlier this year, I wrote an in-depth post, summarizing the workshops and questions raised at the Jakara Movement’s annual Lalkaar conference.  I was hardly alone.  Our sisters at Kaurista shared their thoughts, as did a number of individual participants. So now...
A taste of Lahir via music and poetry (part 2)
As promised, here is my follow-up to Monday’s post about the Inquilab hip hop workshop in New York. This past Saturday night brought together hundreds of Sikhs (and others) for the fourth annual Lahir: Move the Movement.  I always seemed to have a conflict the last several years, but finally made...
Remembering Partition, One Story at a Time
Guest blogged by Ranjanpreet Nagra and Jaskiran K. Mann In February 2011, six months after finishing my Master’s in South Asian Studies from University of Michigan, I moved to Berkeley and was still looking for a job and a place to live when I met the founding members of The 1947 Partition Archive,...
A taste of Inquilab via hip hop and poetry (part 1)
As Sundari blogged about a few days ago, we just had an exciting weekend of Sikh youth art and activism in the NY/NJ area.  I was lucky enough to sit in on the Sikh Coalition’s “Inquilab: Raising Our Voices” hip hop workshop for a few hours on Saturday and then ride the bus to New...
Sikh Youth and Expression: Inquilab and Lahir
On December 2nd and 3rd, Sikh youth will have the opportunity to participate in a special workshop that will allow them to learn the power of expression and how it can be used to create change in their life and communities.  Inquilab: Raising our Voices, organized by The Sikh Coalition and Slumgods,...