Do the Right Thing: Kudos to Pioneer Bhangra

In all honesty, I have grown tired of bhangra. Gone are my days of competing; gone are my days of organizing; gone are my days of even caring.

Still sometimes there are things that are newsworthy and call for praise and attention. This is one such story.

The Pioneer Bhangra competition, hosted by CSU East Bay’s Associated Students Association, had originally scheduled their competition at Chabot College Performing Arts Center in Hayward on June 6, 2009. The date should immediately ring alarm bells. It was to fall on the day of the 25th year of commemoration of Operation Bluestar (the Third Sikh Ghallughara) in 1984.

Although the competition does not bill itself as a Sikh event (as it shouldn’t), overwhelmingly the organizers, competitors, and audience belong to the Sikh community.

Performers from the competing teams, members of the community, and even members of the Jakara Movement sent emails voicing their concern to the Pioneer Bhangra committee, believing they may have accidentally overlooked the date. Understandably there was some hesitation due to the time it takes to book venues and make arrangements. Still the committee came to the right decision and cancelled the event in order to respect the sentiments of large sections of the Sikh community.

Sometimes mistakes happen, but much more important is when a group rectifies it. The committe in a press release wrote:

The Associated Students Inc, at California State University, East Bay has officially decided to cancel the pioneer bhangra competition/cultural show on June 6, 2009.The Pioneer Bhangra Committee will be working on new dates for hosting the show and will make sure that the date does not coincide with similar events that have taken place in 1984. Although, we here at CSUEB do not support or represent any one religion in particular, by no means do we mean to offend any specific religion or community. We do apologize for our ignorance on the events that occurred June 6, 1984 and do share our condolences & sentiments with the Sikh Community around the world.

I hope our readers will write emails in support of Pioneer Bhangra’s decision (pioneerbhangra@gmail.com)and hope that community members in the Bay Area that are so inclined should attend and participate when a new date is set.