Happy Birthday Malcolm
Today marks the 86th birthday of the late African American activist Malcolm X. We’ve been hearing a lot about Malcolm X lately since the recent release of a new biography about him written by the great scholar Manning Marable, who just passed away a few weeks ago.
A controversial and often misunderstood...
Letter from Kashmir
Posted by Mehmaan (Guest) in Human Rights, India, Politics, World News on 07 15th, 2010 | 82 Comments
Guest Blogged by Amritpan
Earlier this week I received an email letter from Kashmir. This was not the first such letter from Kashmir, nor I fear, will it be the last. I’ve read this letter once, twice, again and again and still cannot begin to explain the helplessness, anger, and despair that...
Amnesty International Concerned for Condemned Sikhs in Dubai
Last month 17 Indian nationals were sentenced to die for killing a Pakistani man. 16 of the 17 men come from a Sikh background.
The case has attracted some attention in the Indian press, but has now found place on the BBC and other sources due to Amnesty International, a premier human rights group,...
Ambivalent About Amnesty
Blogged by: Amol Singh
In events and programs highlighted at remembering 25 years since 1984, the most vocal criticisms of these remembrances revolve around a desire to forgive or forget. For many it seems regressive and contradictory to highlight these tragedies while India hoists its Sikh Prime Minister...
A new kind of Joan of Arc/(Punjab?)
Blogged by: Amritpan
For many years UNICEF India has attempted to survey and document the declining sex ratio and female feticide in India. And for many years the government of India has maintained that Punjab (and thus Sikhs) consistently registered the highest number of ‘kuri maar’ cases, as...
Lahir 2009: The Movement Has Only Begun
This past Saturday night, twenty artists from all over the country took to the mic in front of a packed and energetic crowd at the University of Maryland for Lahir 2009. It was a powerful evening of remembrance and reflection to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 1984 Sikh Holocaust, organized...
Moving The Movement…Lahir 2009
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
(Margaret Mead)
Last Summer, a small group of thoughtful, committed Sikh youth from the DC Metropolitan area came together to form “Lahir” (movement)...
My Gurdwara’s Human Rights Committee?
Play along with me here…imagine this Sunday you walk in to your local Gurdwara – remove your shoes, wash your hands, and as you make your way to the main darbar hall, you read the notices on the wall – “Education Committee holding Kirtan Classes Wednesday Night @ 6pm.” ...
This Is Who We Are
In remembrance of the 25th anniversary of the Darbar Sahib attack, I’m re-posting a piece I had written for sikhchic.com‘s “1984 & I” series:
This Is Who We Are
Years ago, I was giving a local church group a tour of our Gurdwara. While I was showing them around the langar...
Sukhdeep Kaur Receives Zeff Fellowship
Rice University senior, Sukhdeep Kaur, has received the Roy and Hazel Zeff Memorial Fellowship – a $25,000 grant, which will allow her to study issues of human rights and access to justice in areas around the world. The news release states:
A political science and policy studies major with a...
Building Human Rights Culture
Breakthrough is an innovative, international human rights organization using the power of popular culture, media, leadership development and community education to transform public attitudes and advance equality, justice, and dignity. Through initiatives in India and the United States, Breakthrough addresses...
Enjoy The Show But Leave Your Kirpan At Home
Posted by Maple Leaf Sikh in Bhangra, Entertainment, Europe, General, Human Rights, Law, Musings, UK on 05 4th, 2009 | 98 Comments
Vaisakhi in the diaspora usually brings two things to those living in cities with large Sikh communities: Nagar Kirtans and Vaisakhi concerts. Unfortunately, if you were an Amritdhari Sikh in London this year and you wanted to partake in both, you would have been out of luck. Tickets for the recent...
Let The Truth Be Heard
Earlier this month, worldwide Human Rights organization Amnesty International released a news article on the plight of Sikh Massacre victims of 1984, still awaiting justice after 25 years. This came shortly after the Delhi Court delayed ruling on Jagdish Tytler, due to the CBI’s inability to...
The Great Sikh Hope
I remember that night…election night, watching on TV students rejoicing in the streets outside of Howard University (a local Historically Black University). I’m not sure how much of it was about Obama’s policy, or just the “historic” nature of the event, but it was all...
A State of Denial
I recently stumbled on a report from the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHC), titled Torture in India 2008: A State of Denial. This document claims to be “the first nationwide assessment of the use of torture in India.”
ACHC is a Delhi-based organization focused on protecting human rights...
Blame Canada(‘s Sikhs)
Canada’s problem with its Sikh minority should be of concern to Americans not just because Vancouver borders on the US, but for the broader lessons this story of ethnic conflict teaches. When a country imports an alien population, it often brings in all of the conflicts that bedeviled the immigrants...
India’s Shoot-Out Cops
Posted by Maple Leaf Sikh in Activism, General, Human Rights, India, Law, Punjab on 02 15th, 2009 | 30 Comments
We recently posted on Ensaaf’s new report that studies the all too common practice of extra-judicial killings (usually referred to as ‘encounters’) and the mass cremations that followed by the Punjab police forces during the 1980s and 1990s. Well it looks like these practices were...
Turbans and The Home Depot
A Sikh gentleman has been involved in a Ontario Human Rights Tribunal matter relating to alleged discrimination against him for wearing a turban at work.
The case centers around treatment that this gentleman received at the hands of a Home Depot employee while posted by a third party security company...
California Cultural Clash
While driving yesterday I heard about an interesting news story on the local conservative talk radio station. Basically, the Mexican father of a 14 year old daughter was arrested by California authorities for selling his 14 year old daughter’s hand in marriage to an 18 year old man. Apparently...
CBI collects testimony from 1984 witnesses in US
The dance continues. India’s infamous Central Bureau of Investigation just made a trip to the US to record testimony from two witnesses who identified Jagdish Tytler as an organizer of three days of violence in 1984 against Sikhs in Delhi.
A team from India’s Central Bureau of Investigation...
