Co-blogged by Sundari and The Sikh Love Stories Project

Each year, International Women’s Day is celebrated to honor women’s economic, political and social achievements. As individuals around the world celebrate this day – in both big ways and small – I am left to consider how we can work to honor the achievements of Sikh women not only today but on an ongoing basis.  Sikh women have contributed in such meaningful ways, and yet much of that dialogue is often missing from our history.

In this post, we will be sharing some images with you and discuss various ways Sikh women have been witness to and engaged in our history both locally and globally.  We know this post will not be comprehensive – there is much to unearth about Sikh women’s contributions – but we hope it’s a starting point that will encourage us to keep this valuable history in our minds. Many of the following images each depict a different element of Sikh women in history.

Stories often begin with immigration and this first image shows Sikh women pioneers in Canada who were part of an immigrant labor force recruited in the early years of the twentieth century.

Mill Town Pioneers. Most of Canada’s early Sikh immigrants found work in lumber mills throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Canada’s largest mill community, Fraser Mills in New Westminster, BC, had between 200 and 300 Sikhs living and working there in 1925.

In this photograph from that period, three Sikh women stand in front of company houses at the mill. [link]

One of them wears a traditional embroidered shawl called ‘phulkari’. The phulkari played an important role in the lifecycle rituals of women in Punjabi villages at times of birth, marriage and death.

 

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A goat
A sacrificial lamb
Halal meat
Her blood runs dry at the bottom of a river
Cleansing the land

Peshawar
Punjab
Pakistan
India
Afghanistan
Sri Lanka
The tip of my soul

New Delhi
Amritsar
Anandpur Sahib
Chandigarh
Jalandhar
Ludhiana
My constellation of stars

Drip drip dripping
Blood seeps into earth
One quick slice from the neck
Less painful that way
More fertile that way
Mothers, sisters, daughters
We bury red splashes
Virgin ground

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A young Singh in the UK has been in the spotlight the last few days after his appearance on a dating television show called “Take Me Out.”  I just heard about it a show on BBC Radio 1 hosted by Nihal, which you can listen to in its entirety here.  Nihal speaks with Param, the dating show contestant, and takes comments from listeners, who discuss Param’s appearance on the show and more generally whether turban-wearing Sikh men are discriminated against when it comes to dating and marriage. As you’ll see in the clip below, as soon as Param comes out, 20 of the 30 women turn their lights off, indicating no interest in him.  One woman who left her light on said she is interested in him because she could use Param’s turban to store her phone.

I recommend checking out Nihal’s discussion on the BBC especially starting at around 44:00 into the show if you don’t have time to listen to the whole thing. One caller named Jasminder asserts that when Param came down, it became more like a comedy show and less like a dating show given how the women and audience reacted.  He continues that turban-wearing men often feel invisible to women, not literally, but “when it comes to actually going out with someone.”

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Guest blogged by a Kaur

A note from the author: Thank you Gurlene Kaur for starting the conversation.
ਚੁਪੈ ਚੁਪ ਨ ਹੋਵਈ ਜੇ ਲਾਇ ਰਹਾ ਲਿਵ ਤਾਰ ॥
By remaining silent, inner silence is not obtained, even by remaining lovingly absorbed deep within.

1
19 years later
I still hear his cry tugging at my heart
In the middle of the night
Glistening red blood fills my consciousness

I sit up, breathless
My apartment
New York City
I see something familiar
Then drift back to sleep.

2
Sleep still in my eyes
I pull on a purple pajami and wrap myself in a chunni
One by one we pile into the car
Kirtan playing in the background

My 4 year old cousin sits next to me expectantly
Long black curls sneak out from underneath her pink hat
Betraying her age, revealing her true spirit
A kid-sized computer and backpack grace my lap
I follow the lilt of her voice as we pass by field after field.

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Disclaimer for non-Sikhs: In writing this, I am not in any way saying Sikhs are somehow more predisposed to violence than any other community. The last thing I want to do is perpetuate racist stereotypes about Sikhs. However, I write because I see an opportunity for introspection in our community. If you choose to continue reading, I encourage you to think about how similar dynamics may play out in your community/ies.

I am still having a hard time wrapping my head around what happened in Newtown, CT last week, especially given the kind of year it has been here in the United States, from Aurora, CO to Oak Creek, WI.

For now, I want to pick up the conversation where Nina left off.� Indeed, heartbreak is the right word for how I’m feeling about the deaths of children and adults due to gun violence, including those that don’t make the national news headlines, whether they are youth of color shot by police officers or families in Afghanistan bombed by the U.S. military.

Today, the depth and pervasiveness of violence in American culture is more clear than ever.� The evening of the tragedy in Newtown, Michael Moore who made the Oscar-winning film about school shootings in 2002, Bowling for Columbine, stated:

I like to say that I sort of agree with the NRA when they say, ‘Guns don’t kill people, people kill people,’ except I would just modify that a bit and say, ‘Guns don’t kill people, Americans kill people,’ because that’s what we do. We invade countries. We send drones in to kill civilians. We’ve got five wars going on right now where our soldiers are killing people–I mean, five that we know of. We are on the short list of illustrious countries who have the death penalty. We believe it’s OK to kill you when you’ve committed a crime.

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Like American Turban, I am a massive fan of comic books, and particularly of the superhero narrative, so I was intrigued by the recent Op-ed piece by Vishavjit Singh of the SikhToons website, titled “Wham. Bang. Pow. It�s time for a superhero to fight hate crimes,” where he suggests the creation of minority superheroes, including a Sikh, to fight moral battles such as hate crimes.

I like the sentiment of Vishavjit Singh’s piece and I’ll address what it seems like he is suggesting at the end of this post. But first, my usual tangent. The issue as I see it is not that “minority” superheroes don’t exist. There are quite a lot of them, covering many ethnicities and religious backgrounds, even Satanism (Ghostrider, anyone?). Most of them are just not developed with as much awesomeness as their white male counterparts. Even the white female superheroes and supervillains are foils to their more powerful, funnier, and wittier male counterparts. Here’s a quick experiment to show you how quickly you run out of steam:

-Name five white, male superheroes.
-Name five white, female superheroes.
-Name five black, male superheroes.
-Name five black, female superheroes.
-Name just one Sikh male or female superhero.

I’m not even bringing sexual orientation, Hispanic superheroes, or the all encompassing “Asian” superheroes into this, and most people will struggle after the second one, and all but the die hard comic book fans who don’t rely on movie adaptations will reach #4. But to name even one Sikh character requires a certain commitment to the lore of comic books� some would call it a lack of a social life, although I would certainly not. I think people like this should be called what they are: extremely cool.

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The historic opportunity for a Sikh to lead prayer at the RNC reminded me of something Harinder Singh of the Sikh Research Institute and one of the most vocal instructors at Sidak 2012, said at an interfaith conference held shortly after the Oak Creek shooting. �To quote from one of my favorite prophets of hip-hop � Chuck D of Public Enemy. He was the one who said, �before you fight, you have to fight for your right to fight.�� And that perfectly captures what Sikhs and many other minorities are going through today in America. We don�t have a platform to voice our concerns and that is what we�re fighting for: to be heard.

After the Oak Creek Shooting, we have a temporary platform to be heard. There was an outpouring of support, with news coverage, particularly from CNN, candle lit vigils, and articles in national papers, all of which I think are commendable. Sikhs have made some monumental strides in the past few years, but our presence in the mainstream media is undeniably absent, which is why it is such a big deal when a Sikh like Ishvar Singh gets the opportunity to be seen and heard by thousands, especially to lead a prayer for a party that doesn�t have the greatest reputation for including minorities in its ranks.

Valerie Kaur wrote an interesting op-ed piece for CNN (link), where she congratulates the Republican party for this bold step, but cautions this being an act of tokenism if the xenophobic comments by some of those in the Republican Party aren�t addressed. She uses examples such as Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who took it as a source of pride to be compared to the KKK, and Newt Gingrich who made an analogy comparing Muslims to Nazis.

The first Asian-American elected to the House of Representatives was a Sikh- Dalip Singh Saund in 1957, and the only Sikh (still) to have served in Congress. And he was a Democrat, who aren�t blemish free either, but incidents involving the Democratic Party and individuals making exclusionary statements are much fewer and far between. In 2008, Obama created a stir with his comment about Hillary Clinton being the �Democrat from Punjab,� alluding to her position on outsourcing jobs to India. And just recently in May, Phil Bailey, the political director of South Carolina�s Senate Democratic Caucus, used his twitter account to refer to Governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, as �the Sikh Jesus� because of a ruling that allowed a Haley ally to run against a Republican State Senator who had once called Haley a �raghead.� But in both of these cases, apologies were rendered and amends were made. And this, I think, is the main point of Valarie Kaur�s op-ed piece. When xenophobic comments or downright racism are met with silence or a brushing under the carpet, this amounts to tacit approval of those comments and has alienated minorities and women from the party. And most of these views are frighteningly enough not from some obscure fringe group.

The following are recent examples from nationally syndicated talk show hosts:

Right-wing talk-show host Janet Meffer praises Pat Buchanan for his speech at the RNC about the great culture war back in 1992. And then says, �Now, in 2012 we have somebody from an Eastern religion offering the invocation at the Republican National Convention. I’m not saying people from different religions can’t vote Republican, but what this really is, is a syncretism that is kind of seeping under the door like a gas.� Yep. Like a GAS.

And fundamentalist Christian radio host Bryan Fischer tweeted �A Sikh will pray tonight at RNC. Christians should be respectful, but not bow their heads. Praying to a different God.� The same guy, incidentally, who claims that Wade Michael Page was obviously a liberal because had he been grounded in the Ten Commandments of the Christian faith (you know, Thou Shalt Not Kill), he wouldn�t have committed the massacre.

At the actual convention two people were chucked out of the RNC after they humiliated an African-American reporter from CNN by throwing peanut shells at her and saying, “This is how we feed animals.” Then a group of Republicans started drowning out a Hispanic speaker who had a slight accent with chants of “U-S-A, U-S-A.” Fortunately, both instances were handled properly, with statements issued that these incidents in no way represent the Republican Party. But I have not heard of any statements made within the Republican Party to either Bryan Fischer or Janet Meffer, or the countless other fundamentalists who seem to have taken over the Republican Party.

And contrary to what these fundamentalists all claim, the Founding Fathers of America were not Christian, nor did they envision America to be a Christian nation. �With Freedom and Liberty to All� is very much in tune with the last line of every Sikh prayer, including the one Ishvar Singh lead: �Nanak Naam chardi kala, tere bhano sarbat da bhalla.� Not Sikhan da bhalla � for the well-being of the Sikhs, but for the well being of the sarbat – humanity. Everyone, regardless of what their spiritual journey is, whether they believe in God or don�t believe in God, and regardless of their caste, gender, or what denomination they belong to. In short, the bhalla (well being) excludes nobody.

I was happy that there wasn�t any heckling of Ishvar Singh�s prayer. But I did find it odd that there was no mention of the Oak Creek victims. Notice in the video below how many people seem to be taking Bryan Fischer�s advice by not bowing their heads:

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During this past week following the tragic events in Wisconsin, our community has changed substantially. We have grown as a people and identified even more with Sikhi, standing up in a time of crisis, and responding in a positive and effective way, battling apathy with activism and suffering with solidarity.

SALDEF�s�SikhLEAD�Leadership Development Program will ensure that our youth remain engaged with the issues that continue to affect our community today and will provide them with the tools they need to enact real change. Although it may be a dark time for many of us, it is now more than ever that we need leaders and young activists leading the struggle against oppression. It is now more than ever that we need the younger generation to step up to the podium and speak out and act against injustice. It�s not enough to feel for our Sikh brothers and sisters anymore. The time is now for the youth to rise up and become leaders, especially in the wake of the Wisconsin shooting tragedy.

The Leadership Development Program brings together approximately 15 young Sikh American leaders from across the country to participate in six days of training spread over Columbus Day and Memorial Day weekends. Attendees will participate in a series of workshops aimed to challenge, inspire and support a group of intelligent and motivated Sikh leaders. The purpose of the program is to empower the Sikh American youth to be confident, aware and resourceful individuals, equipped with all the tools they need to fulfill both their personal potential but also that of the Sikh American community. �For more details please visit www.sikhlead.org.

Let us take on the Guru�s seva together and become the pioneers of our own future, a future that has no place for events such as the Wisconsin shootings. The deadline to apply for the SikhLEAD LDP has been extended until August 19, 2012 at 11:59 EST.

News has started to trickle on this day that Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana was initially scheduled to be hung. �Due to the stay ordered by President Patil of India, there is an indefinite delay.

On Gurdaspur

News media are reporting the Punjab Police has suspended SSP (Senior Superintendent of Police) of Gurdaspur, Varinder Singh, for the shooting and has registered a case against the DSP (Deputy Superintendent of Police). �This has only occurred due to the pressure of the sangat, especially that of Jaspal Singh’s family, who have refused to perform the cremation until the arrest of the Shiv Sainiks and police officials. �According to some reports via Facebook (so read with caution) heads of the Sant Samaj coalition along with Jathedar Gurbachan Singh had started a dharna along with Jaspal Singh’s family calling for the police officers that ordered the firing to be punished. �Badal was against this action by Gurbachan Singh, but Gurbachan Singh and heads of the Sant Samaj threatened to call for a bandh in Gurdaspur, if action was not taken. �Badal then conceded to the request and brought about the orders against some police officers, though I have not heard anything about charges or FIRs against the Shiv Sainiks. �If this is true, expect Prakash Badal to REIGN in his appointee – Gurbachan Singh – and for him to better play the role of a puppet. �Gurbachan Singh knows who pulls his strings and this act of independence will be punished. �Expect more pro-Badal quotes and a calling for an end to all events. �We would do well to begin ignoring him.

Other news in Punjab

Members of the Sikh Channel were detained by Punjab Police for four hours. �This is a serious blow against freedom of the press. �While we are excited that they have been released, we hope that UK Sikhs put full pressure on the UK Foreign Office to reprimand the Indian Government on such matters. �When UK journalists were captured in Iraq, Libya, and other war-zones, the Foreign Office helped put pressure for their release. �We would expect them to lodge a complaint against Indian officials in this matter as well. �If someone from the UK is drafting a letter and would like to share, please send us the link.

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I came across this poem today, and definitely wanted to share with all you Langarites. �Preeti Kaur, the author from California, is able to speak to numerous aspects of self-identifying as a Punjabi. �We’ve had some discussions around Punjabi and Sikh identity here before, thought it would be refreshing to have an artistic take to the topic. �Here are a few of my favorite lines:

You Bring Out The Punjabi In Me
By: Preeti Kaur
with respect to Sandra Cisneros� �You Bring Out the Mexican In Me�

…
sonu
you burn the inquilabi in me
ghadar is a language
i speak only to you
pacific mist we breathe
the subcontinent to freedom
from our san francisco dreams
hidden under guise of fog
tag taxis with saffron orange bumper stickers
ZINDABAAD!!! ZINDABAAD!!!
perhaps the morning pooni the start of our rebellion
radioactive jalebis the danger
we eat

Click here for the audio podcast and full poem�published at the online literary magazine�Qarrtsiluni.�

The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) has announced the application for the 2012�SikhLEAD Internship Program.�The objective of SikhLEAD is to inspire, train, and support motivated and enterprising young Sikh American leaders as they prepare for a lifetime of community engagement and community leadership.

The internship program is aims to put Sikh American college and graduate students, as well as recent grad, in competitive internship in the White House, on Capitol Hill and government agencies. Through this program, students will be afforded first-hand perspective into the functioning of the federal government, as a way of providing experience-based training to individuals interested in civic engagement and government affairs.

Through the experience of interning in a congressional office, interns will:

• explore a potential career track
• create a network of professional and personal contacts
• develop real-world skills
• build confidence and professional work habits

The application deadline for summer 2012 internships is THIS SUNDAY, Feb 26th, 2012!�

Visit�www.sikhlead.org�for more details and to apply.�Spread the word and tell your friends about this exciting opportunity.

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Here on TLH, we look forward to sharing stories�about young Sikhs pursuing their passion.

YouTube, Lenovo, and Space Adventures are running a competition to find an amazing space experiment and 16-year-old Pranav Singh is one of the finalists! �If he wins,�his experiment will be carried out on the International Space Station and streamed live from space on YouTube.

You can view Pranav’s video below and learn about his experiment here. Don’t forget to VOTE! You can vote each day until January 24th. Pranav is a finalist and has a good chance to have his experiment picked! Remember, he is only 16-years old!

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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 has now become the dumping ground for unwanted baby girls.� Their pure bodies are thrown onto piles of garbage for dogs to nibble away.� Dead fetuses are stuffed into water wells.

A seminal research study conducted by Monica Das Gupta on selective discrimination against female children in Punjab states that Punjabi Sikh women are highly educated and well-treated in Punjab compared to other states.� The harsh reality is that a rise in �status� has not changed the value of women.� Women can be loved and cared for, but still under valued.� They can be highly educated and treated well, but families want one of these daughters not two.� But two sons would be okay. The value of daughters and sons is displayed when couples develop family-building strategies. How many children to have? If we have one daughter or two, will we be content with another daughter? Should we have only one son? Studies show that common answers to these questions are strongly rooted in a distorted value system, which reinforces the secondary status of women and allows for structures to be created to perpetuate this inequity.�� Thus, value systems and structures produce a circular cycle of mutually reinforcing each other.

The Sikh Gurus gifted us a value system that does not permit this secondary status of women.� However, many have chosen not to implement it in their lives.� It has even seeped its way into how Sikhi is practiced.� Women are not allowed to do all kinds of seva at the Harmandar Sahib and our granthis/ragis� kathaa most often highlight how a Sikh woman went to the Guru to request only a son.

If Sikhi is a key element to any solution for gendercide within the Punjabi Sikh community, wouldn�t kathaa/sikhyaa in the Gurdwara be the most logical place to start?� We do enter the house of our Guru to understand and reinforce our Sikh value system.

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Co-blogged by Sundari and Ajaib Kaur�

How many young Sikh women do you know who are looking to meet their Sardar? �And how many young Sikh men do you know who are looking to meet their Sardarni?

Lots? �We hear you. �But how can we make these two groups meet?

We decided to write a post on this topic for many different reasons. �It�s clear that there is little space elsewhere to talk about how young Sikhs can meet each other, with the potential of pursuing something beyond a friendship.

Gasp! Are we actually admitting this? After a few dialogues with friends and families, we decided that we may as well start breaking the ice here on the West Coast. �Over the last few years, SikhNet has been hosting �Gursikh Speed Meetings�, in cities such as New York, Boston, and Toronto. ��It is nice to see that the organizers has decided to bring this successful event to the West Coast, in our beloved City of Angels. �These events give young, single Sikhs between the ages of 25-40 a chance to meet fellow single-and-ready-to-mingle like minded Sikhs in a communal safe space. �This concept may feel familiar, because it is. �The �speed meeting� is a popular spin-off of an American cultured speed-dating event; having an even number of men and women participants, and rotating through getting a brief chance to connect with everyone in the room. �It seems like a lot of work, but based on our feedback from some past participants, it is fairly enjoyable. �The best part: if you do not click with someone mutually, you do not need to face them again. �Contact information is only shared if both parties have expressed interest in each other. �Fool proof for both ladies and gents!

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For the past few months, I have been inundated with information about the much-hyped Canadian-Bollywood venture, Speedy Singhs, also called Breakaway. As of September 3o, the film is available in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and India.

It’s interesting to note that, in the comments to another post on TLH titled “Stick Handling Singhs,” �even those who thought the movie sounded corny (it is) would go watch it to “see what’s out there.” I have lost count how many conversations I have abruptly ended that began with, �Dude, have you heard about. . . � or that mentioned the names of �Russell Peters,� �Rob Lowe,� “Camilla Belle,” or �Akshay Kumar.� The film has been endorsed by everyone from Ludacris to Jus Reign to the king of Punjabi slapstick, Ghuggi Sahib himself.

There are many sports movies that transcend the rules its genre are bound by to provide real insight into their characters, award-winning films like Any Given Sunday or The Fighter. And I can name plenty of Bollywood films that have impressed me over the years with the way they tackled real issues. Similarly, Speedy Singhs/Breakaway�takes on heavy issues like school bullying, tradition, and religion, but the film suffers from an identity crisis. It’s a romantic-comedy. It’s a melodrama. It’s a Punjabi comedy skit. It’s action. It’s even Bollywood at times. There were a few funny lines and scenes in the film, but you can find them all in�the trailer.

The actors and musicians involved with the project are quite impressive, but the�writing just isn’t good enough to keep up with the shifting genres �– it’s not worthy of this caliber of actors. Case in point:�The not-so-subtle sexual jokes and one liners by Russell Peters are amusing for about five minutes, but they do get tiring when you realize there really is nothing more to his character than that. He might as well have played himself.

It’s like the producers went out of their way to create a project where the actors would be confined by the quality of writing. And while a film about team of underdog turbaned Sikh ice-hockey players who have to battle whitey is just destined to have an audience, the storyline is essentially unoriginal, the writing is mediocre (with occasional spurts of witty dialogue), and it is riddled with clich�s throughout. Here are some examples:

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My childhood was full of insecurity and self-doubt, the result of years of harassment, taunts, and jokes about the ball/rag/tomato/towel/etc. on my head as a turban-wearing child. My insecurities, however, began to shift (or expand) as puberty hit.  Let’s call it facial hair anxiety.

At first, having a moustache grow in at a young age wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, I passed as much older than I was, which was nice for a scrawny brown kid like me.

But soon enough, the complex around my dhari (beard) settled in, and no amount of time with a thatha tied tightly around my head was ever enough to totally alleviate my beard insecurities.

Surrounded by peers for whom shaving was a rite of passage into manhood, it’s not surprising that I felt a little left out (though to be clear, the idea of a razor on my face never sounded so pleasant). Further, I was inundated with the voices of young women in my school casually referring to facial hair as gross or unattractive (with no intention to hurt my feelings I’m sure) and their preference for guys who were “clean-shaven.”

CLEAN-shaven. The implication being that facial hair is…dirty?

These are the messages we get from our peers and from the media every day. So naturally I assumed it was highly unlikely that any of my female classmates would ever be interested in dating someone like me. The combination of a dirty face plus a patka was enough to cause a whole lot of anxiety and insecurity for this angsty teenage Singh.

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There have been a few posts on TLH (link) that talk about the merits of having children exposed to other languages, but none that discuss actual strategies. So, I thought I�d add my thoughts on the subject.

Over the past month or so, our 18-month-old daughter, Kavya, has started connecting words to concepts and it�s interesting to see what English and Punjabi words she�s picked up. Here are some of the things she�s picked up, along with translations:

Paa = Paani (water)
Baba= Banana
Baa = Baar (when she wants to go outside)
Ayyy= Ice
Tootoo= broken (used in conjunction with a look of feigned surprise right after she flings my mobile with all her might and its guts spill onto our hardwood floor).
Choos: Shoes

I would like to say that we are very organized and systematic about how we are teaching Kavya to integrate English with Punjabi and Hindi, but the truth is we are totally winging it.

Initially, we did attempt to use two strategies I read about in an East Coast magazine called �Little India.� Neither of them worked very well for us, but we did use a hybrid form of them. Here are the original strategies:

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This Monday, Sikhs for Justice is organizing a rally at the United Nations Headquarters to call for UN intervention stop India�s planned execution of Professor Devenderpal Singh Bhullar. �Professor Bhullar�s brother, Tejinder Singh Bhullar will be addressing the rally.�In their appeal to Secretary General Ban Ki moon, Sikhs for Justice is calling upon the U.N. to intervene and free Professor Bhullar based on a UN General Assembly resolution adopted in 2008 known as�Resolution 62/149�which called on all major states to abolish the death penalty. 62/149 is a nonbinding instrument to mark progress on the United Nation’s position that they death penalty undermines human dignity and acknowledges the serious claim that any failure of justice in the implementation of the death penalty is irreversible and irreplaceable.

The death penalty too, runs contrary to Sikh historical positions on capital punishment. The Sarkar-e-Khalsa of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji, followed a no death penalty policy, as M. Gregor in his 1846 �History of the Sikhs� writes. He notes that, �[Ranjit Singh] was the exception of�Oriental monarchs, and never wantonly inflicted capital punishment and mutilation.� Other authors describe, that �Humanity indeed, or rather a tenderness for life, was a trait in the character of Ranjit Singh. There is no instances of him having wantonly imbued his hands in blood.� These sentiments that can be seen as consistent Sikh political philosophy captured by the Zafarnama and other documents. Specifically in the Zafarnama, Guru Gobind Singh Ji quotes the Persian poet Firdausi, writing, �How nicely the sweet tongued poet Firdausi has said, to act in haste is the work of the devil,� referring to Aurungzeb�s executions of the youngest Sahibzadas Zorawar and Fateh Singh and Mata Gujri in Sirhind as the act of ‘Sheitan.’

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A Pakistani friend of mine from Lahore passed on a video about a 70 year old man named Mushtaq Ahmed from a Punjabi village near Gujranwala, who just complete his MPhil and will be starting his PhD soon in Education.

With five daughters and three sons, Mushtaq Ahmed completes all his necessary farm work, including working in the field and managing and livestock, while carrying his books with him. His plans are ambitious: to go to the university and teach, because for him, �Being a Muslim, we should get education from cradle to grave.�

Here�s the clip:

I couldn�t help think about how this applies to our community. My intention here is not to distinguish from people who are �parrd� or �unparrd� or the class implications this has in the Sikh community in Punjab and the Diaspora. (I�ve met many unparrd/’uneducated’ people who were far wiser than those who were parrd/�educated� in some of the most expensive universities in the Diaspora and in the watan. I don’t like those terms myself but just laying out what’s what.) From a Sikh point of view this type of distinction is quite counter productive and has nothing to do with living a life that is Guru-centered.

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