Last year we heard the story of Lakhwinder Kahlon, a Delta, B.C. man who had been arrested for the murder of his two-year-old daughter, Rajwinder. This past week, Lakhwinder received an automatic life term when he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. The father, who admitted to strangling and decapitating his daughter, will have to spend 11 years in jail before he can apply for parole. A few days ago, the judge released the 911 call of Lakhwinder admitting to the horrific act. The call is chilling – Lakhwinder tells the operator that he killed his daughter by cutting her neck, that he is depressed, and that the police should come and arrest him.
While it is hard to come up with any explanation to describe why Lakhwinder murdered his daughter, several suggestions were made. In an immediate reaction to hearing the news, there was speculation that Lakhwinder was upset that he only had daughters. This suggestion was vehemently denied by Lakhwinder’s wife and the community was quick to denounce female inequality.
Outrage and sorrow have poured out in radio talk shows and letters to newspapers, including one from Tara Diakow of Richmond, B.C., who wrote: “Who will battle against the ugly stereotype that Rajvinder Kahlon’s death has unfortunately brought to many people’s minds – the seemingly disposable position of Indo-Canadian women?” In a forceful statement on Monday, Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh used the case to denounce the practice of aborting female fetuses, which he says continues to take place in Canadian families. [link]
Satnam Singh Gurwara, a 16-year-old refugee from Afghanistan, is currently being held in a detention center in Manchester, UK after his application for asylum was denied. His mother, is begging officials to show “humanity” and release her teenage son from the detention center. The Home Office is understood to have rejected his claim for asylum amid questions over his claimed age of 16.
Satnam Singh Gurwara says he was just 12 when he was snatched on his way to a Sikh temple in his native Afghanistan. He says he was held for two days and needed 39 stitches in his leg when he was released. But his family continued to face threats – and they decided to sell everything they owned and flee the country in April 2007. They settled in Bolton, where Satnam became a student at the community college. [link]
The Refugee and Asylum Participatory Action Research Organisation (RAPAR) is calling for the Home Office to release Satnam immediately.
Stuck in Punjab? Want to go abroad? Just buy an airplane.
Not a real one of course, that would be silly. A toy plane will do. Buy one, donate it to a gurdwara and wait. All your vilaiti dreams will soon come true. If you think I’m pulling your leg, just ask the people at Tihan gurdwara near Jalandhar. They’ll tell you it works.
In the realm of “truth stranger than fiction”, here’s an absurd story that simultaneously highlights how desperate people are to move abroad and how fantastical they imagine living in the West to be.
Who are the smartest guys in this whole tragi-comedy? The guys who’ve set-up shop outside the gurdwara to sell, yep, toy airplanes.
We covered the El Sobrante Gurdwara expansion — and the subsequent PR fallout — a while ago. Earlier this week, the county halted expansion plans pending a further environmental review. Local residents filed a petition for re-review, claiming the “regional service area” proposed in the expansion documents underestimated projected population growth/use in the area:
The appellants, El Sobrante Valley Planning and Zoning Advisory Committee and Quail Hill Homeowners Association, say the mitigated negative declaration does not adequately address their concerns regarding traffic, parking, noise, possible landslides, drainage, wildlife and emergency vehicle access.
Gurdwara leadership says that community members have it all wrong, though, and that they are off the mark in understanding how regional is defined and what it means for the future of the center.
Sikh leaders said they have spent the past 10 years fine-tuning the project to satisfy the county as well as neighbors.
“We have spent more than half a million dollars” — not including volunteer time and effort — “to comply “… and keep our neighbors advised…”
When we discussed this last time, I asked about the challenges we face explaining our presence and integrating into the fabric of religion in the U.S. We could revisit that conversation, but this time I thought it was curious that the project has been stalled in the face of a staggering economic slowdown in this region. Could this have generated jobs and funding at a time when the area could benefit from economic development? Or was this not worth the end result?
Is the question facing Sikhs in Oxford, England, as they try to find a central location to pray as a sangat without having to convert private property into religious property.
A religious community in Oxford is reeling after the city council ordered members of its congregation to stop worshipping at a house in Marston.
The city’s Sikh community has been meeting at 69 Cherwell Drive to pray for nearly three years. [link]
The neighbors’ chief complaints have been around parking and noise in the area. The story saddened me on two levels. First, because of the general difficulty Sikhs face in finding community space, and second, because of the underlying challenge to our practice of Sikhi.
As the economy’s downturn affects millions of North Americans, you wonder how documented/undocumented immigrants are impacted by it; particularly, when many left friends and families in their home-countries for economic opportunities in the West. Maple Leaf Sikh gave us some insight into how the Punjabi Sikh population is being affected in Canada.
Last week, a KGET news report (view below for video report), focused on the undocumented population in California’s Central Valley. Despite economic hard-times in Kern County, its large undocumented population, who are primarily Latino, has no intention of going back to their home-countries. Regardless of soaring unemployment rates, US economic recession, and a major downturn in California’s construction, service, and agriculture industries, many undocumented workers maintain a tremendous amount of faith in the US economy.
Word has passed through the grapevine that a Sikh candidate is up for election as council member-at-large in the upcoming Hoboken City Council race. Meet Ravinder (“Ravi”) Bhalla, a New Jersey native and attorney currently serving as a committee member for his district. A Democrat, Bhalla is running on a platform that centers around limiting property taxes and “increasing fiscal responsibility” in addition to focusing on transparency and modernization of public archives/resources:
Hoboken is a great city, but as many people feel these days, we can do much better. Property taxes and spending are out of control. Too many important decisions are made in the shadows of City Hall and without the knowledge or involvement of ordinary citizens. [link]
Bhalla is running in an overwhelmingly white suburb of NYC that currently has only one non-white city councilmember. In exploring his own background as a practicing Sikh and as an attorney, some of his work has featured relatively prominently around civil rights issues and freedom of religion:
Prince Harry has been roundly criticized for using the term “Paki” in refering to another miliary cadet and for suggesting that another cadet looked like a “raghead.” To his credit, he has apologized.
What’s been interesting to me about this subject, first, is the discussion of whether Prince Harry deserves a pass. In a BBC article, Sunny Hundal, a Sikh, rightfully recognizes that the Prince’s casual use of “raghead” is troublesome. But, Hundal dismisses the attention paid to Prince Harry’s blunder as simple youthful indiscretion: “He’s a young person messing around and all the rest of it. Young kids say stupid things,” he said in the same BBC piece.
Sure Prince Harry is relatively young, but he is a public figure; more specifically, he is royalty who has had a fine education and upbringing, who has been on notice for years and years that what he does and says will be scrutinized and examined by the people. He should especially know this after his costume gaffe, in which he wore a Nazi uniform to a party. The mistakes of youth may explain some things, but Prince Harry is no ordinary person; nor is he so young that we can discount everything he says or does.
The other aspect of this story that piqued my interest is the apology offered by Prince Harry with respect to the “raghead” comment. On this point, a royal spokesman said, “Prince Harry used the term ‘raghead’ to mean Taliban or Iraqi insurgent.”
This apology totally misses the boat — the concern is not whether Prince Harry “meant” to apply the term to a certain group (even if the group is terrorists or horrible elements of our society); rather the concern is that the term itself is inherently inappropriate because it is used to brand and insult anyone that wears a headdress, including an Arab or a Sikh. In other words, using “raghead” does not suddenly become okay if it is correctly targeted. When it comes to this particular word, context does not matter — it is only used in a derogatory fashion, unlike other charged terms, like the “n-word”.
I hope Prince Harry learns his lesson and removes “raghead” from his vocabulary. I also hope he — or his staff — won’t come up with such lame explanations when and if he commits the next faux pas.
In Sri Lanka last week, a brave voice was silenced. The editor of the Sunday L
eader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was killed by gunmen on two motorcycles on his way to work. With prescience, he had predicted his impending death, believing that he would be killed by the government. He wrote an incredibly moving essay, with instructions that it be published upon his death.
A brief summary of the context, the war which Wickramatunga covered and was silenced by, can be found here.
Wickramatunga’s essay is deeply moving. You can find it in full here and here. Below is an excerpt:
No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honour to belong to all those categories and now especially the last.
I have been in the business of journalism a good long time. Indeed, 2009 will be The Sunday Leader’s 15th year. Many things have changed in Sri Lanka during that time, and it does not need me to tell you that the greater part of that change has been for the worse. We find ourselves in the midst of a civil war ruthlessly prosecuted by protagonists whose bloodlust knows no bounds. Terror, whether perpetrated by terrorists or the state, has become the order of the day. Indeed, murder has become the primary tool whereby the state seeks to control the organs of liberty. Today it is the journalists, tomorrow it will be the judges. For neither group have the risks ever been higher or the stakes lower.
Why then do we do it? I often wonder that. After all, I too am a husband, and the father of three wonderful children. I too have responsibilities and obligations that transcend my profession, be it the law or journalism. Is it worth the risk? Many people tell me it is not. Friends tell me to revert to the bar, and goodness knows it offers a better and safer livelihood. Others, including political leaders on both sides, have at various times sought to induce me to take to politics, going so far as to offer me ministries of my choice. Diplomats, recognising the risk journalists face in Sri Lanka, have offered me safe passage and the right of residence in their countries. Whatever else I may have been stuck for, I have not been stuck for choice.
But there is a calling that is yet above high office, fame, lucre and security. It is the call of conscience.
It’s been a long time coming but Sikhs all across the globe seem to be making more of an effort to celebrate Lohri today, not only for their sons but also for their daughters. In Tarn Taran, Punjab, this year’s Lohri’s celebrations were dedicated to the 101 baby girls who live in the area.
“The main purpose of this celebration is to make people aware of the social evil of female foeticide. The male and female ratio is getting unbalanced with each passing day. In order to balance the gap in the Sikh society, Akal Takht has given order not to support female infanticide. Female foeticide is as bad as slaughtering a holy cow,” said Parvinder Singh. Chairman, Kalpana Chawla Pragtisheel Society.
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Also in the news today is the story of Lak[h]winder Singh, a Giani in Kelowna, Canada who was arrested and is being charged for sexual exploitation, sexual interference, two counts of sexual assault and one count of assault. The allegations that give rise to the sexual offences began in late 2007 and the victim is now 16 years old.
Lakwinder Singh, the 29-year-old preacher at a Rutland temple, Gurdwara Guru Amandas Darbar, was arrested after a family with ties to the temple brought forward allegations of sexual impropriety to police last week.
Tarsem Singh, a spokesman for the Gurdwara, said Lakwinder Singh was employed at their temple for nearly seven years, but has since been fired. In addition, the gurdwara is supporting the police’s efforts in finding any other possible victims.
Balbir Singh, a Sikh, was attacked in Bellerose (an eastern neighborhood in Queens, New York) on New Year’s Eve while seemingly minding his own business. According to Balbir Singh:
“My wife and I were moving out of our house, and we had moved everything out and were cleaning the house. . . . I came outside and some guy who was standing on the corner came and punched my head and my eye.”
Balbir Singh [pictured] sustained a fractured eye socket and is unable go back to work for at least a week as the result of his injuries.
Swaranjit Singh — a Sikh who is on a local community board which has jurisdiction over Bellerose — believes the incident was a hate crime. Swaranjit Singh specifically contends that “the event was one of several attacks, verbal and physical, that Sikhs have suffered in the neighborhood.” “There is a lot of ignorance, ignorance creates fear and fear creates hatred. . . . There is a need for tolerance and respect,” Swaranjit Singh added.
The incident may be attributed, perhaps in part, to strained relations between the South Asian immigrant community and those resistant to or uncomfortable with the changing ethnic demographics of this particular area of Queens. (I stress “may” because it is unclear what the motives of the attacker were; indeed, the identity of the masked attacker is still unknown at this point.)
I was able to find only one news article reporting on this incident (it is the source for all of the quotes and information above). If anyone has other details, please share it in the comments. If I learn of anything further, I will update this post as appropriate.
As Lohiri season approaches us, the issue of gender equity was once again resurfaces. Some families will celebrate Lohiri for their daughters to show there is no difference, while others will keep it as a boy tradition. I think we should also reflect on the fact gender equity isn’t just solved by equal celebrations when from the beginning we don’t even allow daughters to be born. How many celebrations will “make-up” for the gross in-balance between the male-female ratio in our community?
The issue of female feticide in the South Asian community is an infamous issue. We have heard about the studies in India, Punjab’s high ranking, and the SGPC’s desire to raise unwanted daughters. The common source cited for killing female children is abortion- just never letting them be born. However, the issue is also prevalent in the South Asian Diaspora in America. According to The Mercury News, Indian families are 58 percent more likely to have a son after having three daughters, compared to the natural 51 percent chance.
On December 19, 2008, a UPS employee delivered a package to the home of Anant Singh. Singh’s father, a turbaned Sikh, signed for the package. Rather than entering the elder Singh’s name onto the electronic tracking slip, the UPS employee noted that a “terrorist” had signed for the package (see image at right). The incident has led outraged Sikhs to demand serious action, including an apology, from UPS. (See TLH’s previous coverage here.)
Instead of taking appropriate steps to address the incident, UPS issued a curt and grossly insufficient public statement. The inadequacy of the statement adds insult to injury, and demonstrates the need for the Sikhs to continue to press UPS for a more comprehensive and meaningful remedial response.
I. Introduction
My last post, which addressed the First Global Sikh Civil Rights Conference held by the non-profit group United Sikhs, generated significant discussion. In an attempt to re-focus and reinvigorate that discussion, I wish to first clarify what the post was not about — it was not intended to serve as an indictment of the United Sikhs’ work overall, to criticize specific projects or initiatives other than the conference, or to compare their efforts to that of other Sikh organizations with greater financial resources. Some of the comments did touch on these subjects, though this was not my intention.
My sole interest was and remains the manner in which the United Sikhs decided, on its own, to describe the conference and the report to the public, including necessarily the Sikh members of it. I wrote that it was “the United Sikhs’ characterizations of the conference and report” that I found problematic. Regrettably, the comments to my post — some made spiritedly by United Sikhs Director Mejindarpaul Kaur and others working for or affiliated with the United Sikhs — have done little to assuage my earlier concerns.
Two steps forward and one step back. Just when you think we’ve made some progress in terms of creating awareness about who we are as Sikhs, you hear of incidents like this. Here’s the story on NBC’s KGET.
During this holiday season of hard times, not even houses of God have been spared. Some lenders believe more churches than ever have fallen behind on loans or defaulted this year. Some churches, and at least one company that specialized in church lending, have filed for bankruptcy. Church giving is down as much as 15% in some places, pastors and lenders report.
An article in today’s Wall Street Journal highlights the financial pressures being faced by many churches across America. From my perspective, there’s two implications for Sikhs here, one a threat and the other an opportunity.
“There have been too many churches with a ‘build it and they will come’ attitude,” says N. Michael Tangen, executive vice president at American Investors Group Inc., a church lender in Minnetonka, Minn. “They had glory in their eyes that wasn’t backed up with adequate business plans and cash flow.”
Yes, a company called IndiaNIC has developed a Sukhmani Sahib iPhone application. For $0.99 you can download the entire Sukhmani Sahib and with a single swipe, read through it on your iPhone. Information about this application reads,
This iphone book has following features:
– Full Sukhmani Sahib in Hindi Language
– No need for internet connectivity to view content
– Each page changes with swipe and button options
– No need of Language Setting
– Elegant Layout & Cool Design
– Easy to carry everywhere you go
No, you did not read incorrectly. This Sukhmani Sahib is in Hindi and not Gurmukhi as … perhaps would be expected? There are few different questions that come to mind when trying to assess why the company chose to publish this application in Hindi. Who is their target audience I wonder? Are there many non-Sikhs who read Sukhmani Sahib (that’s great if that is the case!)? We’ve had the debate before about whether Punjabi is a diminishing language – so I wonder how much of that plays a role in this initiative. (I know, I know, I seem to be full of many questions and few answers). With the growing popularity of mobile-based content, it is nice to find these Sikhi focused applications. Mr. Sikhnet recently discussed his efforts and the need to develop applications for mobile phones. I assume there will be challenges associated with transitioning texts such as Sukhmani Sahib, which are predominantly read by using gutkas to reading Gurbani on your iPhone while you’re waiting for the bus. Personally, I think that Gurbani should be accessible to all and whether it is read in a gutka or on your mobile phone screen should not be important. Those individuals who do not already have an interest in learning Gurbani will probably not download this application anyway. It is likely targeted at those who are wanting to learn and if it so happens to be on an iPhone, then I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. Nevertheless, I am still wondering about the choice of Hindi….
Last week on TLH we addressed the police brutality faced by the Tagore family in Texas.
You will find here a consolidated list of how to TAKE ACTION NOW on this injustice. Different organizing tools are available for the Sikh community to act, we just need to use them. Taking action in at least one way is better than none!
Please remember, we have to empower ourselves as individuals and a community to take action and not just rely on a few community lawyers or media-based activists. Our actions as a whole are much stronger than a few!
Sign A Sikh Coalition Petition here: Harris County Sheriff-Elect Adrian Garcia is visiting the Sikh Center of Houston on Sunday, December 14, 2008. He will be the new Sheriff for Harris County next year. This petition will be directly handed over to him, so please help us gain as many signatures as possible.
Submit A Question here: Harris County Sheriff-Elect Adrian Garcia is visiting the Sikh Center of Houston on Sunday, December 14, 2008. During his visit the Tagore family and sangat members will be able to ask him questions on the actions he will take in response to the treatment of the Tagore family by police officers. Submit a question for the Tagore family to ask Sheriff-Elect Garcia directly when he visits the Gurdwara.
Call numbers available here, here, and here (numbers are also in the comments section): A few pointers when calling are-
- Be Polite and Respectful
- Express your concern about police brutality and specifically the needless handcuffing of Kawaljeet Kaur Tagore and her family members, including her 60 year old mother
- Express your concern about the needless use of foul curse words against the family by officers
- Express your concern about the lack of knowledge by officers on Sikhs and Sikh practices
Please tell your family and friends about these different ways to act NOW … at the end of the day your voice is stronger in spreading the word than a TLH post, any blog, or an organizational e-mail! 
Karambir Singh Kang, the general manager of the Taj Mahal Hotel, acted with great courage during the recent Mumbai tragedy. (Thanks for the tip, It’sM
e)
Karambir Singh lost his wife and two sons in the hotel when they were forced to barricade themselves inside a room on the 6th floor. They died from asphyxiation while hiding in the bathroom of their hotel residential suite. Karambir called his mom in Mohali, Kanwaljeet Kaur, to tell her what had happened. Her words, “Go save the others,” gave him the courage to help other hotel guests while his wife and children could not be reached.
It was, he said, his mother’s words of courage that prodded him to fight back after watching his world blow into smithereens in front of his eyes. “I got a call from Karambir and his voice was shaking,” his mother Kanwaljeet Kaur said, tears rolling down.”He told me that terrorists have entered the hotel and his family is stuck on the 6th floor and that he can’t save them. I just said, ‘You are a brave boy, go save the others.” [Times of India]
Karambir followed his mother’s advice and saved many guests at the hotel.
“He saved many amid firing and grenade explosions, but he could not reach the sixth floor where his family was trapped in their residential suite,” said Kamaljit. [Indian Express] Yet even after he learned of the death of his wife and children, the hotelier, originally from the Punjab, stayed at his post. On Saturday morning, when the final gunman holed-up in the landmark hotel was killed by commandos, Mr Kang was still working. Reports said that the hotel’s owner, the industrialist Ratan Tata, had to personally tell him to go home and be with his relatives. [The Independent]
Ardaas was held for Karambir’s wife and son at a gurdwara near their farmhouse in Kandala, Mohali. Outside of the gurdwara, the family installed a board where guests could pay tribute. Their message to the well-wishers was: “Now time has come to stand united and forget all differences, may it be political, ideological or religious to give a befitting reply to terrorism and those who perpetrate it.”
UPDATE: If you are outraged by this incident, please CALL THE HARRIS COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE (TEXAS) @ (713-755-6044) and let Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas know how you feel. These Officers need to be reprimanded and we as a community need to push the Sheriff’s Office to act. You can also contact Houston Mayor Bill White at (832-393-1000) or mayor@cityofhouston.net.
The night before Thanksgiving you are robbed of your sense of security and $15,000 of your home belongings AND THEN you are robbed of your humanity by Sheriff’s Officers who promise to protect you. All this happens in your own home …
The Tagore family in Texas were criminalized and terrorized because of their Sikh articles of faith after calling in to report a burglary in their home.
Ramandeep Singh Tagore says,
“That night we were actually robbed twice … Once by the actual burglars, who we don’t know who they were, and secondly by the Sheriff’s Department, who we knew who they were.”
Once the Sheriff’s Officers had arrived in their home they started focusing on Kawaljeet Kaur’s kirpan and told her: “You can’t wear that”, she felt like she was being treated “ … like a criminal in my own home … “. Kawaljeet Kaur [Ramandeep Singh Tagore’s sister] told the Houston News that “I didn’t appreciate the way that I was treated that day … I’m a human and I would have expected to be treated like a human.” Kawaljeet verbalized her feelings and constitutional right to practice her faith to the Officers. Their response was pushing her out of her house, having her sit in the middle of the street, and handcuffing her.
Ramandeep said to Harpreet Kaur of Sach Productions (watch the video below for more in-depth reporting)
“first we are calm and then the aggression … brutality type of thing … pushing and shoving is starting when the cops get here I mean their acting like thugs … if we are civilizingly dealing with them then why do you have to come push me and shove me when we’re trying to talk to you … is it because I look different or something.”
Manjit Kaur, Ramandeep’s mother, felt: “Dekhoo ik taan saade ghar robbery hoyi hai ..tusi lok saadi help karan aaye aan k saanu arrest karan aaye aan” (Look there has been a robbery in our house … have you people [Sheriff’s Officers] come to help us or arrest us?)
