Sikhs are a global community with a growing presence in the United States. To create influence, do we understand how US foreign policy is developed and implemented? What is the Biden administration’s approach to its foreign policy as it may affect the Sikhs? 80% of the Sikhs live in India, primarily in the Panjab state. What are the expectations of the US-India relationship in the next few years in reference to democracy and human rights in the context of bilateral relations? The conversation will touch upon lessons and guidance to the Sikh community on how to pursue advocacy, long-term strategies, and building coalitions via both positive and not so positive case studies from the Afhgan-Sikh crisis to the Farmers movement.
Bhai Mani Singh and Baba Dip Singh were leaders, scholars, and warriors. They played significant leadership roles in the community post-Baba Banda Singh Bahadur, keeping the Panth united under challenging circumstances. They were master scholars, some of the greatest in Sikh history, and created a scholarly tradition that still resonates in the community to this day. They were great warriors, fully living up to Guru Gobind Singh Sahib’s standard of the Warrior-Saint. And both sacrificed themselves for the Panth, becoming martyrs whose Shahidi has inspired generations of Sikhs. Join us as we explore the lives and legacy of these two preeminent Khalsa Scholar-Martyrs.
The Khalsa inauguration on Vaisakhi day in 1699 infused the Sikhs and gave them a structure of ideas and institutions that continue to shape their lives both individually and collectively. Why was the Khalsa revealed by Guru Gobind Singh Sahib? How did it transform the community in the Indian subcontinent and beyond? What are the “freedom” (political-spiritual) ramifications for global Sikhs today? We will discuss these and related matters for personal and community development.
Join us on International Women’s Day as we share the multi-faceted journeys that women have taken. What role have women historically occupied in our collective psyche? Reflecting on our past, present, and thinking about the future, how do we put mechanisms into place to ensure women’s stories aren’t forgotten? To ensure they become a part of consciousness? Through this conversation, we will imagine futures in which we move beyond the mere recognition of gendered differences and enact attention on reducing gender disparities while paying homage to the strides we have already made.
What’s “Love” got to do with it? Love is indeed a four-letter word, heavily used, very interpretive, and often taken out of context in our personal lives. How do we understand love in the Sikh context?
Join us on January 16th in conversation with Harmeet Singh, Nimrat Kaur, and Sandeep Singh on the farmer protests moderated by Harinder Singh. This webinar will discuss the protests as a pan India movement beyond the 3 Farm Bills. We will focus on the Indian and International media coverage and the Sikh historical context of Morcha in Delhi and Panjab.
In this conversation, we will be joined by scholar Dr. Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh, author, poet, and artist, Inni Kaur, and educator, Surinder Singh as they discuss the poetry, Gurbani, and the inspiration of Bhai Vir Singh.
How can we use the enchantment of children’s books to build bridges between worlds? How do we diversify the stories we tell, hear, and read? How can parents, educators, and childcare workers engage and share diverse stories? Join us in conversation with social entrepreneur and children’s book author, Deanna Singh, writer, scholar, and activist, Simran Jeet Singh, and author, poet, and artist, Inni Kaur. Together, let’s re-imagine storytelling for a new generation and tell stories that deserve to be told.
How do we remember? How do we advocate? How do we survive? Please join us for a webinar with three leading voices in the November 1984 Anti-Sikh pogroms study. Dr. Ishmeet Kaur, a professor at the University of Gujarat, will help us explore the literary and artistic response to the Pogroms. Dr. Shruti Devgan, a professor at Bowdoin College, has researched in the diasporic, 1st, and 2nd generation response to the events of 1984 and how the events have been commemorated digitally. Finally, Mr. Ryan Singh Kohli, a leading public law practitioner in the UK, will share his work with Sardar HS Phoolka in the struggle for legal justice for the victims of November 1984.
‘Saneha: Becoming Guru-centered’ are theme-based sessions (presentation, activity, discussion) to foster Sikh values based on Gurmat.
‘Saneha: Becoming Guru-centered’ are theme-based sessions (presentation, activity, discussion) to foster Sikh values based on Gurmat.
Sidak seeks to provide young Sikh adults with a gift of Gurmat-centered leadership learning experience to secure—and transform—the Sikh future.
The session explores Vaisakhi in the Panjabi and Sikh context, the relevance of Guru Gobind Singh Sahib’s Nash doctrine, and the collective aspiration to nurture the characteristics of the Khalsa.
This session attempts to understand the vision and personality of the Guru based on Guru Granth Sahib as well as secondary texts.
Sidak is a distinctive leadership development program for young adults seeking to increase their commitment towards the Sikh faith. This two-week intensive immersion into the Sikh culture, language, values and community is held annually in the summer. Sidak is available for adults 18-40 years old (17 year olds that have completed high school are considered).
Join us this afternoon as we look at love and relationships through a Sikh lens. Pritpal Singh, Mentor, Educator, Physician, explores what it really means to be in love and how it reflects in our relationships from Gurbani's perspective.
What better way to enjoy an exhibition than having a live walky-talky companion, someone who is exceptional in her story-telling style and will engage you in the stories, making it an unforgettable experience.
Join us as Harinder Singh explores the history and background of Asa Ki Var. Sessions will delve into how to go beyond duality in thought conduct, as well as action at both personal and community level.
The work that will be discussed is based on semi-structured interviews of 40 Sikh immigrant drivers of yellow taxis who came to United States mostly from the various villages in the northwest Indian state of Punjab, India.
A deep-rooted desire to connect with the land of his ancestors propelled Singapore-based Amardeep Singh to visit Pakistan and delve into the vestiges of a community, which was impelled to move eastwards owing to the partition of the Indian sub-continent in 1947. The dream was fulfilled in 2014 when he undertook the journey to explore the Sikh legacy in West Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistan Administered Kashmir.
Music has a very unique role in creating and propagating Sikh values. The width and depth of Sikh musical heritage will be shared based on selected Gurbani compositions along with resources for learning Sikh music from beginning to advance levels. The current state of Sikh music will be discussed in relation to Indian music and World music based on available literature and professional standards.
Please join Sarbpreet Singh, who has been mentoring young Sikhs for twenty-five years, for a conversation about Sikh Education, in which he will talk about his personal journey as a teacher and offer new ideas for meeting the challenges that we are all so familiar with, through Sikhia, a bold new initiative to redefine Sikh education.
What will be discussed is as to how the world class scholars, sociologists and intellectuals may accept the challenge to freshly define Sikhi Universals for the new world. Those Sikhi Universals will be desired to be operationalized in the North American cultures. New emphasis will divert Sikh intellectual and institutional resources from a mode of policing the Sikh religiosity to highlighting the spiritual, socio-cultural and political human values that serve today’s civil societies.
The British transferred the power in 1947 and the Panjab was partitioned, and later truncated in India. Millions were butchered and displaced in the aftermath. Plundered and violated, the Panjab has been caught between the Indo-Pak politics ever since. The presentation revisits the partition through Toba Tek Singh, and asks who’s Panjab is it anyway and who owes reparations to it. It assesses the current state of Panth vis-à-vis SGPC, Akalis and the community, and contextualizes the current political struggle for rights with special reference to Bapu Surat Singh and Gurdarspur attack.
The attack on the Darbar Sahib in the June of 1984 was a defining moment in contemporary Sikh history. The standard narrative promoted by the media and the Indian state in its White Paper on the attack have largely ignored the communal motivations of the state as they relate to its inextricable relationship to Hindutva. We will survey contemporary conflicts, in particular the desecration of the Babri Masjid in 1992 and Gujarat in 2002, to understand the significance of the state-sponsored terror in 1984.
What does being Sikh means in Punjab in ethical terms? If you happen to be an unwanted girl and then assert your choices to make Punjab an honorable space for humankind, what will patriarchy do to you? How will Sikh institutions respond to you who invoke sacrifices made to oppose injustice and intolerance? Let us discuss with reference of Inqlab Kaur who is in jail for a crime every Sikh is supposed to commit every moment.