Sikhs in America: A religious community long misunderstood is mourning deaths in Indianapolis mass shooting

Eds: This story was supplied by The Conversation for AP customers. The Associated Press does not guarantee the content. Simran Jeet Singh, Union Theological Seminary (THE CONVERSATION) On April 16, 2021, a gunman opened fire at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis killing eight people and injuring several others before taking his own life. Four members of the Sikh community were among those gunned down. The site was reported as having a significant number of Sikh employees, and the massacre has left the community shaken and in grief. ‘œI have sat with families from our community and so many others at the Holiday Inn Express as they wait to hear the fates of their loved ones,’� said Maninder Singh Walia, a member of the Indianapolis Sikh community. ‘œThese kinds of violent attacks are a threat to all of us. Our community has a long road of healing ‘” physically, mentally, and spiritually ‘” to recover from this tragedy.’� The shooter’s motive is not yet known. In a statement following the incident, the Sikh Coalition, an advocacy group, called on authorities to conduct a full investigation ‘œincluding the possibility of bias as a factor.’� Sikhs have in the past been targeted in racist attacks. As a scholar of the tradition and a practicing Sikh myself, I have studied the prejudices and barriers that many Sikhs in America face. I have also experienced racial slurs from a young age. The bottom line is there is little understanding in the U.S. of who exactly the Sikhs are and what they believe. So here’s a primer. Founder of Sikhism To start at the beginning, the founder of the Sikh tradition, Guru Nanak, was born in 1469 in the Punjab region of South Asia, which is currently split between Pakistan and the northwestern area of India. A majority of the global Sikh population still resides in Punjab on the Indian side of the border. From a young age, Guru Nanak was disillusioned by the social inequities and religious hypocrisies he observed around him. He believed that a single divine force created the entire world and resided within it. In his belief, God was not separate from the world and watching from a distance, but fully present in every aspect of creation. He therefore asserted that all people are equally divine and deserve to be treated as such. To promote this vision of divine oneness and social equality, Guru Nanak created institutions and religious practices. He established community centers and places of worship, wrote his own scriptural compositions and institutionalized a system of leadership (gurus) that would carry forward his vision. The Sikh view thus rejects all social distinctions that produce inequities, including gender, race, religion and caste, the predominant structure for social hierarchy in South Asia. Serving the world is a natural expression of Sikh prayer and worship. Sikhs call this prayerful service ‘œseva,’� and it is a core part of their practice. The Sikh identity In the Sikh tradition, a truly religious person is one who cultivates the spiritual self while also serving the communities around them ‘” or a saint-soldier. The saint-soldier ideal applies to women and men alike. In this spirit, Sikh women and men maintain five articles of faith, popularly known as the five Ks. These are: kes (long, uncut hair), kara (steel bracelet), kanga (wooden comb), kirpan (small sword) and kachera (soldier-shorts). Although little historical evidence exists to explain why these particular articles were chosen, the five Ks continue to provide the community with a collective identity, binding together individuals on the basis of a shared belief and practice. As I understand, Sikhs cherish these articles of faith as gifts from their gurus.