The Pluralism Project at Harvard University
On Common Ground: World Religions in America
Sikhism
The Sikh tradition began in India in the sixteenth century with the mystic and teacher Guru Nanak. He emphasized the oneness and ultimacy of God, who cannot be limited by temple, mosque, or tradition. In the United States, Sikhism has more than a century of history. The first Sikhs to settle in the United States became farmers in the Central and Imperial Valleys of California in the late 1800s. They established America's first gurdwara in Stockton in 1912. The gurdwara is a place of congregation and worship; it houses the Guru Granth Sahib, the sacred Sikh scripture, which is both sung and honored.¹
The Sikh community has also been about the business of education and advocacy throughout the 1990s. In mid-decade, the Sikh Mediawatch and Resources Taskforce (SMART) was formed to correct mistaken and derogatory images of Sikhs in the media and to provide resources to the Sikh community and the press. In 2004, SMART changed its name and broadened its mandate to legal defense. Under its new name, the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), it has become a comprehensive source for Sikh advocacy in the United States and has attempted to bring its identity and agenda into line with other such advocacy organizations in the U.S.
Especially since 9/11, Sikh advocacy groups have gained prominence and urgency. The number of Sikhs harassed and subject to various forms of discrimination escalated with the popular conflation of turban-wearing Sikhs with the turban-wearing Osama bin Laden. In the days immediately following 9/11, a Sikh was murdered in Mesa, Arizona while planting flowers around his Chevron Station. The Sikh Coalition was formed, first in the New York area, to take up the growing numbers of issues related to Sikh civil rights. In the past three years, the group has served as an advocate for Sikhs who have been harassed and beaten up. It has assembled a team of lawyers who help Sikhs who have faced discrimination in the workplace. They have taken up cases such as the longstanding controversy of a Sikh who has saught permission to wear his turban as an officer of the New York Transit Authority. In the 2003-04 report of the Coalition, the achievements the group has highlighted indicate a level of engagement with American society and processes that constitute real pluralism: working with employers to allow a Sikh woman to wear her turban at work; engaging with the New York Police Department over the question of turbaned officers; running educational programs for law enforcement officers and bias officers in cities across the country.²
These are just the first steps in the long journey for the Sikh community to be recognized as a vibrant part of American life. We dream of a world where no Sikh child is bullied; the saroop (Sikh dress) is recognized and respected as the proud identity of a distinct religious group; our friends and family are free from name calling, insults, and violence driven by prejudice; government agencies support and encourage the rights of Sikhs; and no member of society can claim ignorance of who is a Sikh and what values we hold dear.³
¹Reprinted from World Religions in Boston.
²Eck, Diana L., "American Religious Pluralism: Civic and Theological Discourse," Discussion draft for conference on "The New Religious Pluralism and Democracy," April 21-22, 2005, sponsored by Georgetown University's Initiative on Religion, Politics, and Peace.
³The Sikh Coalition, 2003-04 Annual Report, www.sikhcoalition.org, Introduction.
Introduction to Sikhism
Sikhism in America
The Sikh Experience
Issues for Sikhs in America
Reprinted by permission from On Common Ground: World Religions in America, published by Columbia University Press (1-800-944-8648).