Santbir Singh

Research Associate

Santbir Singh is a Research Associate with SikhRI. He is currently doing his Ph.D. in Sociology at York University. His graduate research focuses on Sikh activism and the inherent relationship between Sikhi and anarchism explored through historical and contemporary Sikh movements, such as the Kisān Morcha (Farmer’s Protests) of 2020-2021. 

Santbir Singh has served as an educator and activist in the Sikh community for over two decades. He continues cultivating a deeper relationship with Sabad Guru while focusing on Sikh inspirations for social activism, feminism, and decolonization through a multifaceted critical analysis using different schools of thought and tradition.

Santbir Singh is a facilitator at Sidak and an alumnus of Sidak 2012. He lives on Wendat, Anishinabek, Haudenosaunee, Mississauga, Hiawatha, Alderville & Métis Territory on Williams Treaties land (colonially known as Toronto), Canada, with his wonderful wife, incredible children, and wild dog.

Videos

Tuesday
,
9
February
2016

Liv - Free Akal Takht - Looking Back - Forging On

We were once free. Our sovereign institutions were answerable only to the Guru and the Divine. Today the Akal Takht, built by Guru Harigobind Sahib, is under the laws of the Indian state.

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Podcasts

Tuesday
,
13
April
2021

Countdown to Vaisakhi 2021: Santbir Singh

Santbir Singh, Sidak Facilitator at Sikh Research Institute (SikhRI) shares his reflection on Vaisakhi.

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Friday
,
6
November
2020

Genocide

How do we remember? How do we advocate? How do we survive? In this episode we feature three leading voices in the November 1984 Anti-Sikh pogroms study.

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Articles

Monday
,
31
August
2026

Guru Angad Sahib: Cultivating the Sikh Mind, Body, and Community

Guru Angad Sahib shaped the Sikh mind, body, and community through Gurmukhi, langar, and physical training, laying the foundations of the Sikh Panth.

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Sunday
,
31
May
2026

Pierced by Compassion

Some sabads remain on the page. Others begin to live inside us. In this reflection, Santbir Singh returns to a sabad of Guru Nanak Sahib on Ang 795 that has become an ardas in moments of grief, stress, and surrender.

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Tuesday
,
7
April
2026

Sovereignty in Motion: Sikh Governance Models

In the Sikh tradition, sovereignty is a boon of the Divine, entrusted to the House of Nanak and carried forward through the Gurus into the dual institution of Guru Granth and Panth.

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Friday
,
27
February
2026

Guru Harikrishan Sahib: Capacity, Care, and the Rights of Children

Explore how Guru Harikrishan Sahib redefined leadership as a child. This article invites readers to reflect on what the Guru’s life teaches us about children’s rights, capacity, and Sikh ethics of care.

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Thursday
,
29
January
2026

Joy as Refusal

Guru Gobind Sahib’s engagement with aesthetics, joy, and poetry became tools against imperial attempts to shrink Sikh life into fear, silence, and mere survival.

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Tuesday
,
28
October
2025

Guru Harirai Sahib: The Healer and the Defender

Guru Har Rai’s reign was one of seeming contradictions: compassion and ever-readiness to fight for sovereignty, spiritual and political development, and strengthening and consolidating innovations of earlier Gurus.

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Presenting at Upcoming Events

Sat
,
Oct 24

What Makes a Man?

Join us for an honest and reflective conversation, moving beyond polarizing discourses, exploring how the Wisdom of Bani and our history can help us understand masculinity, identity, and gender dynamics as we...

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