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American Sikh Council (ASC) exhibits at the American Legion National Convention Aug 27 - 31, 2021

The American Sikh Council (ASC) led and participated in the American Legion Convention held at the Phoenix Convention Center attended by over 8,000 veterans from across the nation.

 This is part of an ASC led ongoing national initiative called, ‘educate the educators’. Volunteers from Guru Nanak Dwara, Gurdwara Nishkam Sewa and others local Sikh Americans graciously stepped up to help at the exhibit make the five-day event a great success.

 There were over 100 booths exhibiting various products and services with many non-profits, but mostly catering to the veterans.

 This is the second time ASC has put up a Sikh exhibit at this particular convention. The ASC exhibit was focused on the hundreds of thousands of (Sikh) veterans who served in World War I and II. The exceptional history of Sikh American veterans is completely missing from the ‘war history in America’! ASC has worked for the last few years to change the current narrative and it is starting to make an impact on the national conscience, so that not just all veterans but the public at large is made aware of the phenomenal contributions made by the ‘turbaned Sikhs’ over the last 100+ years towards freedom, peace and liberty in the free world.

Veterans at the ASC exhibit

 Satinderpal Singh, Surinder Kaur, Hargun Singh, Gurjot Singh, Ravsehaj Singh, Fateh Singh, Adi Singh, Harjit Singh a teacher, Pawitter Singh, Ramanjit Kaur, Rajinder Singh, Jasbir Singh, Rana Singh, Harjit Singh, Devinder Singh and Kavneet Singh interacted, discussed and disseminated literature to the veterans for five days.  All the volunteers answered questions, while conversing on various issues from bullying to our history in America, while giving them multiple brochures about the, ‘Bullying of Sikh American Children’, ‘History of Sikh Americans’, ‘Sikhs and Scouts’, ’The Sikh Turban’, ‘Sustained Sikh Genocide 1984-1998’, ‘The Battle of Saragarhi’, ‘Sikhs in World Wars’.  Additionally, several academic books about the Sikhs defending Europe and helping the Allies to win the two great World Wars were also displayed.

Satinderpal Singh with attendees

 The direct face to face conversations with most of the veterans is an extremely effective way to educate them about the Sikh valor, our values, how they were centuries ahead, yet perfectly aligned with the US constitution. One of America’s founding fathers, Patrick Henry's stated on March 23, 1775 at a Virginia convention, “Give me liberty, or give me death!” The founder of the Sikh Religion – Guru Nanak Sahib resoundingly stated the same in the late 1400s recorded by him in the sacred Sikh scripture the Guru Granth Sahib and lived his entire life by standing up against all kinds of tyranny.

Some veterans at the convention stopped by at the booth to share their sorrow about the massacre in August 2012 at the Oak Creek Gurdwara in Wisconsin where six innocent Sikh Americans were shot and many injured. Others mentioned their positive interaction with Sikhs elsewhere. But most had sparing or no knowledge at all about the enormous Sikh participation in the many wars in the past 100 plus years. Sikhs have even participated and fought in the US Civil War of 1861-1865. Many were in awe of the scale of sacrifices made by Sikh soldiers to defend Europe, America and freedom, which came at an incredible cost of over 83,000 killed and over 109,000 wounded; all with their turbans intact.

The Sikh exhibit was the topic of many evening conversations through the course of the event.

American Sikh Council’s exhibit drew a lot of attention in the convention. Tim McConnell commented, “It is about time that Sikh Americans participated in the convention to change the misconceptions of Sikh Americans by many of us at this event. Thank you for being here with some fantastic literature to educate everyone!”

 Some of the veterans happily took pictures to post on social media reaching thousands across the country!

Kavneet Singh with a Vietnam veteran from Colorado

Even though the overall event was a great success, ironically a Vietnam veteran from Colorado stopped by to say hello on Aug 27, the very first day of the convention. A pastor and a wonderful man who genuinely cares for others, requested the volunteers to get a turban tied. He was ecstatic and spent the entire day going about his business wearing a green turban proudly. At around 3:30 pm the same evening while walking outside the convention hall a ‘Caucasian’ man assaulted him by ripping his turban off, tearing it and stomping on it while cursing and abusing him. The shell-shocked veteran finally called the police and the preparator was arrested. These kinds of hate crimes must stop, but unfortunately, they continue to rear their ugly heads continuously, especially due to the very recent terrible casualties of our soldiers by the Taliban.

The American Sikh Council continues to educate the public about the Sikh American experience, because education must be sustained to bring about real understanding, mutual respect and peace among all citizens of this great land. 

 Remembering Dr. Gurbakhsh Singh Gill

Dr. Gurbakhsh Singh Gill was born in village of Gill, Ludhiana, Punjab on September 15, 1927. He studied in Lyallpur (West Punjab) and later at Khalsa College, Amritsar graduating with a BS. He went to study Agricultural Chemistry and graduated with an MS from Punjab University, Chandigarh. Under the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, he went on to pursue a doctorate from Ohio State University, Columbus, OH and completed his PhD in 1965.

After returning from the US, he joined PAU as Associate Professor of Agronomy at Ludhiana. In 1968, he became the Chief Scientist, ICAR-Central Institute at Hisar. He became professor and headed the Department of Agronomy. Dr. Gurbakhsh Singh’s immense contributions made a tremendous impact on PAU and in the state of Punjab. He established the Department of Agronomy as a leading center of learning at the national level. His research contributions to the Green Revolution in the Punjab are unparalleled. He played a key role in developing the agronomy of newly introduced wheat varieties with reference to their time of sowing, depth of seeding, timing of first irrigation and practices for late sown wheat. During that period, he was an authority at the national level on the agronomy of newly introduced genotypes. He developed systems for crop intensification for different agri-climatic zones of the state. Besides, he also established a Forage Section to enhance the dairy farming and developed agricultural practices for the supply of green fodder throughout the year.

Dr Gurbakhsh Singh, an eminent agronomist with countless contributions to the Punjab peasantry. The 96-year-old scientist was a distinguished teacher, a mentor, a man of highest integrity and honesty who was committed to agriculture, the Sikh religion and service to humanity.

 A selfless Sikh who took his religion seriously. After retirement he devoted his time and energy towards empowering and teaching Sikh religious history to Sikh children at and through summer camps for more than twenty-five years across the US, Canada and UK. His unpretentious and straightforward way of explaining the Gurbani and the basic Sikh principles was the reason his several books for Sikh children were extremely popular in the West. There is an entire generation of Sikhs in North America who were positively impacted by his teachings. His books for Sikh youth are regularly used at most Gurdwaras schools and for various speech competitions, empowering many. Dr Gurbakhsh Singh was also a founding member of Akal Trust, Baru Sahib, Himachal Pradesh.

 Dr. Gurbakhsh Singh passed away on Aug 19, 2021 after living a full life while enriching countless others. He will be remembered as a great Sikh academic in our history for all his selfless contributions to changing the lives of so many young Sikh Americans.

Leadership change at the American Sikh Council (ASC)​

 The Board of the American Sikh Council (ASC) through consensus, nominated the following sewadars to the new executive committee. S. Jasbir Kaur of Ohio the President, Dr. Manbir Singh of California the Vice-President, S. Harkirat Singh of Illinois the Treasurer and S. Kavneet Singh of New Jersey the interim Secretary and Chief Resource & Advocacy Officer.

S. Jasbir Kaur is a longtime educator and a high school English teacher in the Youngstown district. She is also a much sought after Gurbani scholar, a Sikh activist who has been promoting the Sikh value system actively on Radio and TV platforms for the last ten years, while actively participating in many Sikh youth camps across our nation and serving on the ASC board. It is the first time that a woman has been nominated the President of the American Sikh Council (ASC) a national umbrella organization of 74 gurdwaras and Sikh institutions.

Dr. Manbir Singh is a practicing physician and served on the (ASC) board for many years, who also is a founder of the Guru Angad Darbar Gurdwara in Bakersfield, CA, a longtime convenor of the Sikh Youth Symposium, a public speaking platform for Sikh youth across the nation, a former joint-secretary of the Tri-State Sikh Society Gurdwara, Monroeville, PA, and continues to be actively involved in Sikh affairs.

S. Harkirat Singh is a businessman who is (ASC) board member as well as well as the representative of the Sikh Religious Society (SRS) Gurdwara, Palatine, IL.  He has served on their board and continues to be actively involved at the SRS Gurdwara while a sewadar on the ASC board.

S. Kavneet Singh, a longtime board member, has served on the executive committee in various roles. He has been instrumental in leading and guiding the various national initiatives which are being promoted across the nation by ASC on an ongoing basis today. 

The ASC board expects that the new executive will lead the organization to greater heights, including promoting and protecting accurate Sikh values, while trying to build bridges through the Sikh American community across the country and beyond.

The Board sincerely appreciates the sewa of the outgoing President, Dr Gurdas Singh of Ohio. He has been instrumental in not only guiding the organization smoothly but has built bridges, with his team building style of leadership through consensus. He has been consistently supporting the organization in every which way he can, especially through the ongoing pandemic. The board is very thankful for Dr. Gurdas Singh’s leadership and his humble sewa.

All the sewadars on the board also thank the member gurdwaras for their continued involvement and support. More gurdwaras need to join so there is strength in numbers and the collective voice of Sikh Americans can make a bigger impact regarding many critical issues affecting the Sikhs in America.

 Stop the demolition of the Guru Ram Das Saran at Darbar Sahib, Amritsar!​

The American Sikh Council (ASC) is very concerned about the continued lackadaisical and callous attitude of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) when dealing with any and all buildings or structures connected with the Sikh heritage.

The SGPC should have a permanent, highly educated professional staff of archeologists specializing in Sikh heritage, who are constantly vigilant about saving those particular structures where the blood of so many innocent Sikhs has been spilt, and not to mention are truly historic in nature.

The SGPC seems to operate more on the lines of a typical corrupt enterprise, run by mostly incompetent men who are hand in glove with the political toadies of the Akali Badal Party, which is in bed with an extremely corrupt right-wing Hindu BJP Party, which in turn is trying their best to demolish every tiny facet of the Sikh heritage in any way which they can!

By and large even the common Sikhs in Punjab seem to have lost their moral compass, as no large-scale protests are being held, especially when the nincompoops running the SGPC pretend not to see beyond their noses and are destroying the Sikh heritage buildings thoughtlessly. 

The entire Darbar Sahib complex has history written in every nook and cranny. Every brick and tile has a story to tell, as long as we have the patience to listen. Earlier many such really historic buildings have fallen victim to the so-called Indian government proposed ‘Galiara project’ which was planned right after their June 1984 attack, so that the it would be easier for the Indian regime to enter and exit if they ever had to attack the Darbar Sahib again, all under the clever pretext of beautifying the overall complex.

The Darbar Sahib complex is the heartbeat of a living Sikh religion, with over four centuries of phenomenal history and drenched with the blood of many martyrs. To remove even a single brick, is sullying our hallowed heritage.

Unfortunately, the current toothless guardian of the Akal Takhat and the criminally tainted President of the SGPC have bartered their souls to the Badal devil for a pittance, hence all voices of protest about the impending demolition Guru Ram Das Saran may fall on deaf ears.

There have definitely been some sane and loud voices of objection from a few Sikh groups on the ground, including the Sikh activist Baldev Singh Wadala.

The Guru Ram Das Saran is the oldest operational serai in the Darbar Sahib complex and must be treated as such. There are multiple construction engineering techniques available today to fix old buildings without razing them and rebuilding.

It will not surprise anyone if the entire contract to rebuild the Guru Ram Das Saran is given to a (un)holy Kar Sewa Baba or another (un)sanctified contractor who will have to give massive kickbacks to Badal and Co, because the Darbar Sahib is used as an ATM by many who run it.

SGPC President, Bibi Jagir Kaur, stated, “Many Sikhs were killed in the serai in 1984 and their names along with photographs would be inscribed.” After destroying the Guru Ram Das Saran and then sticking photographs and inscribing names of those murdered by the Indian regime, on a new wall will not save and keep the original heritage intact.

The American Sikh Council (ASC) requests all sane Sikh individuals with a conscience to vociferously protest against the destruction of our heritage, so that Bibi Jagir Kaur and her colleagues come to their senses. The American Sikh Council appeals to all those Sikh historians, archeologists, heritage buffs in Punjab to band together immediately and form an ad-hoc committee to hold the SGPC accountable for everything that they do and stop them before they destroy our glorious heritage.

Please note: ASC strongly objects to anyone calling the Darbar Sahib, the Golden Temple. The Darbar Sahib is the only correct and accurate name, as the ‘court of the ONE’. It is not a temple in any shape or form, while the gold is completely incidental.

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The American Sikh Council is the umbrella organization representative of Sikhs in the United States. It is an elected body of Sikh Gurdwaras and institutions. Currently 74 Gurdwaras and other Sikh institutions across the nation are members of ASC. The major governing purpose of the organization is to represent the collective view of Sikhs in the United States. ASC works to promote Sikh interests at the national and international level focusing on issues of advocacy, education, and well-being of humankind.