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Sikh-Americans Bring Sunday School To Temples

Jerome Campbell |
April 20, 2014 | 4:19 p.m. PDT

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 Jerome Campbell)
Jerome Campbell)
A school bell rings through the drumming and chanting of a Sikh service at the Khasla Care Foundation gurdwara in Pacoima.

Most of the congregation remains seated on the floor of the house of worship as a few dozen turbans and headscarves rise above the crowd. Scampering feet rush across the carpet floor as children disappear out the back out of temple. 

The children enter a nearby library, trading worship for workbooks. They sift through books and binders to review previous lessons.  A few pull out completed worksheets from the week’s assigned homework: a listening assignment on worship music.

The scene resembles an American Protestant Sunday School, but that structure does not perfectly translate from the Sikh homeland of Punjab. Sikh gurdwaras in India do not hold Sunday school. In fact, Sunday worship is a completely foreign idea in Punjab. But to generations of Sikhs who grew up in diaspora, many of their own religious traditions have become foreign.

A large number of American Sikh children have limited knowledge of Sikhism nor can they read or write in Punjabi, according to Gurimander Singh Mann, University of Santa Barbara professor of Sikh studies. But Sikh families still try to pass traditions on to their child—which proves more difficult than expected.

“In Punjab, gurdwaras have worship every day and people come and go as they please. It functions more as a place of worship attached to the Sikh community,” said Mann. “American gurdwaras try to fill all the missing parts of the Sikh community abroad. However, these temples cannot recreate the entire Punjab experience. Some American elements have been adopted in their place.”

Angad Singh, 23, brings order to the room and takes his place at the front of the class. He strokes his long, tidy beard and pulls a pen from his Gap jeans. He asks his students about their recent assignment: a listening assignment in Sikh music.

“I teach these classes so Sikhs who grow up in Los Angeles will know where they come from,” Singh said.

Singh has taught lessons at Sikh School of Los Angeles for seven years. Every Sunday, and on an occasionally weekdays, he teaches classes in Sikh history, language and culture.  He has even created workbooks for his students and hosts a website where he links to relevant material and posts homework assignments.

The school serves over 150 students, ranging from young children to adults.
Some of the adults reconnect to their Punjab homeland through refresher courses in history and politics.. Younger students learn the foundations of their faith for the first and only time outside of their home.

“Knowing we have a community, knowing where I come from helps me feel better when I don’t look like everyone else in the class,” said Manpreet Kaur, 14.

Many of the children do not learn lessons about Sikhism outside of their home. Sikhs who grow up in Punjab lived with their faith integrated into the community.  American children of Sikh immigrants must seek teachings of the Guru.

But the teachings must be adjusted for an American audience. Sikh children often face prejudice. More than 50 percent have been ridiculed by classmates, according to a 2006 study by the Sikh Coalition. The same study found that 40 percent of Sikh students who wear turbans to school have experienced bodily assault.

“Most of the hate towards Sikhs comes from a place of misunderstanding. They see the turbans and think of the frightening images of Osama bin Laden or terrorists,” said Mann. “The turban is not synonymous with any particular belief, but it can be in the eyes of Americans.”

So the rising generation of Sikh-Americans have to find a balance within their identity. Singh talks to his students about the everyday lessons of being a Sikh in Los Angeles, like how to confront bullies and to explain their way of life. Sikhs in Americans face a different set of experiences than counterparts in Punjab. And it requires a special sense of identity to balance the two cultures.

“I see myself as Sikh-American,” said Singh. “I do all the same things as everybody else. I do see myself as an American, even if others do not.



 

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