Many of you will recall the protests which emerged in 2004 when Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti went to stage her second play, Behzti.  The play, which covered issues such as rape and violence within the setting of a gurdwara, caused an uproar in the Sikh community in Birmingham and was later canceled.  Many community members welcomed the decision to cancel the play, while others argued that limiting the playwright’s free speech was actually detrimental to the Sikh community.  It was nicely put in a Guardian article stating that, “The dispute became a classic conflict between the artist’s right to freedom of expression and a community’s wish to have their faith treated with dignity.”

The Rep had taken the unusual step of inviting Sikh community leaders to a private preview to air their concerns, after which they agreed not to oppose the play if the setting was moved to a community centre. Bhatti refused. “I wanted to write a play about religious hypocrisy,” she explains, “for which the setting in a gurdwara was non-negotiable. The attempt to establish a dialogue with the Sikh community was well intentioned, but ultimately misinterpreted as an invitation to rewrite my play.” [link]

Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti later found a card among her Christmas mail that read: “Seasons Greetings. This will be your last Christmas. You are a disgrace to the race. Sending you lots of hate.”  Bhatti was forced to go into hiding.  Behzti sparked protests and death threats, and now the playwright is attempting to address the controversy in her new play, Behud – which translates colloquially as “beyond belief”.

In Behud, a writer struggles to come up with a suitable ending for her play, while trying to meet the demands of incensed community leaders, troubled councillors and an excitable director. The characters mutiny and inform the dramatist that her services are no longer required. Is this a metaphor for the way Behzti got out of hand? “I don’t agree with everything my fictional playwright says,” Bhatti replies. “But I think every dramatist would recognise the point when the director and cast all look at you as if they’d rather you left the room.” [link]

The question now remains whether or not Behud will reignite the same sentiments which came to surface with Behzti.  When do we decide to encourage and support artistic expression or fight to protect our faith?  It is clear that Sikhi was not going to come to an end with the staging of Behzti so why did the confidence in our faith falter so easily over a fictional story?  An important element of our community’s development is having these very difficult conversations about violence, rape, alcoholism etc.  We can hope that our gurdwaras are protected from scenes such as those depicted in Behzti, but avoiding the issue and responding with hatred and threatening another human’s life – i just don’t see the Sikhi in that.

The details are still very sketchy, but it seems that a dera associated with the highly controversial Maan Singh Pehowa was burned down in Sacramento this past weekend.  Maan Singh has been accused of rape.

I write this post partially to clarify that it was not at a Gurdwara in Sacramento, as well as to give a place for discussion and thoughts.  The police seem to have some indication that the fire was not an accident, although very few details are being provided.  Could it be an arson against immigrants?  Could it be an accident?  Could it involve frictions within the Sikh community in Sacramento?  I do not know.  I would be interested to hear thoughts, especially from those readers in Sacramento.

A video from the local news about the fire can be viewed here.

Arundhati Roy, the author of “God of Small Things”, will be in San Francisco on March 26th at Mission High School Auditorium.  The event will start at 7pm.

Tickets can be purchased here.

Roy will be reading from her latest collection of essays, “Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers”.

This reading is a charity event for the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian-administered Kashmir (IPTK).  The proceeds will be used to institute the Peace and Justice Grant For Scholarship and the Arts In Indian-Administered Kashmir for those residing in Indian-administered Kashmir.  The grant will be housed at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.

Dear Langarites,

Over the next few weeks, we will be presenting posts by several individuals who answered our call for additional bloggers.  We hope you welcome their writing and openly dialogue with them.  Just this past week, you have seen two of our guest bloggers emerge.  As a collective decision, several of these bloggers will join The Langar Hall team - your commentary and feedback will help us determine this next phase of our growth.  Please join us in welcoming our guest bloggers!

- The Langar Hall Team

Guest blogged by Ajj Kaim

Two of my friends invited me to a Holi party in San Francisco last Friday(03/05/10). They told me the DJ was great and he always played awesome Bollywood/Bhangra music. Being an ardent dance lover this was enough motivation for me to say yes. The venue of the party was Supperclub, which seemed a lot different from any other club that I have been to. Once I was at the venue I found out that the event was organized by Asha (organization which promotes education of underpreviliged children in India) and Trikone (non-profit organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people of South Asian descent) .

Over the past several months I have been accustomed to the crowd at Rikshaw Stop for Non Stop Bhangra party every month so this atmosphere was a lot different for me. The DJ kick started the evening with a good mix of Bhangra and Bollywood music. The regular flow of the party was disrupted by two “artists” who tried to entertain the crowd with tasteless mix of bollywood dance, vulgarity and modern art. I had a hard time understanding what was being appreciated by some of the on-lookers. This break lasted for about 10 minutes and after that DJ Precaution started belting some more amazing tracks. It seemed like a perfect way to unwind after a hectic week at work. And then this happened.

The DJ stopped the music and there was a buzz and it seemed it was time for another “artist” to perform. This time we were to be “entertained” by a barely covered trapeze artist but in the background the DJ started playing the mool mantar from the movie Rang De Basanti. I was shocked! An almost half nude artist was dancing on Ik onkar, satnam, karta purakh….. and everybody was looking at the performance like everything was normal. Immediately I rushed to the DJ and said to him “What are you playing? This song is my prayer!” He pretended as if he didn’t hear me, I kept shouting at the top of my lungs and then he said he is following direction of the organizers. I went around looking for someone who I had seen acting like an organizer earlier in the night. I caught hold of one of them and started telling him to stop this nonsense as he is hurting my faith by using my paatth in such a distasteful manner and it is highly offensive. He was clueless and didn’t know how to react. I saw few other people nodding their head that it was wrong to use mool mantar in the way it was being used but nobody came out in open. I went to the front of the club where an Indian girl had taken 20$ entry when I came in, she was still there and heard me cry out about the nonsense going on inside. I was flabbergasted at the whole situation. I was feeling helpless and extremely hurt. I couldn’t take it anymore and made my way out of the club.

It has been few days since the incident happened and I have finally got over my anger. It got me thinking, I never considered myself very religious but this hurtful action by some ignorant people had me so charged up, it is unimaginable what goes through the minds of people when some group destroys and attacks on their religion on purpose (Gujarat riots, 1984, Ayodhya etc).

Now that I reflect back, I am proud of myself that I spoke up against something that was wrong and I was not a silent spectator.

As communities around the world celebrated International Women’s Day yesterday, there were several interesting articles discussing the role of women in the world.  Nicholas Kristof wrote about Three Proven Steps to Advance the World’s Women (education, micronutrients, and helping women start businesses). Another article talked about The World’s Best Countries for Women.  The Christian Science Monitor discussed Gender Selection – an issue which we have often dialogued about here on TLH.  The article talks about the repercussions of sex selective abortion – specifically, the gender imbalance leading to fewer women available to be wives.

Villagers here say that the dearth of females has already had a direct effect on dowry customs: Dowries are getting smaller or disappearing altogether; instead, the onus is increasingly on young men to provide well for their future brides… Baljeet Singh, a 37-year-old truck driver, says he began to despair of finding a local wife once he turned 26. Men in this village, where most are farmers, consider it ideal to wed between 20 and 25. “I’m a van driver, I don’t have many prospects, and it seems that you have to have a very good job to get a bride these days,” he says. So last year, Mr Singh used his life savings to marry a 16-year-old Muslim girl from Assam; though village rumors have it that Sonu Khutum is an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh. She is happy to be living in a predominantly Hindu village, she says, joggling the couple’s 7-month-old baby girl on her hip. But lonely bachelors’ new quick fix, buying brides from impoverished parts of India, seems likely to do little to enhance the status of women. [link]

It becomes an interesting conversation when sex selective abortion and the consequential drop in girls leads to a dialogue around the elimination of dowry and the improved status of women.  Making such a connection can be problematic to how women and girls are seen in many cultures around the world.  We have huge improvements yet to make.  The issue of gender imbalance continues to exist but we can hope that one year, as we celebrate International Women’s Day, we no longer have to worry about sex selective abortions or dowries but rather we can focus on the advancement of women in communities around the world.

Of some note to Sikhs, members of the Bachchan actor family has caught the fancy of the Indian press in relation to our faith. It started with Amitabh Bachan’s blog post, where he wrote:

Abhishek shoots Bingo in the Holy City of Amritsar and his sister Shweta joins him to pay homage and prayer at the Harmandir Saheb. I wish I could do the same, but am unable to. Soon however I shall find the time. Or as they say in such situations, when the time comes He will call you and providence shall make the right moves and ways to permit us to do so. The Sikh blood in me beckons and I must honor it. It is rather strange, but in the last few months, my attraction and interest towards my Sikh links, attain some prominence and I feel drawn towards it. Two lockets of Guru Nanak ji, Sacche Padsha, are constant on my neck – one a gift from Guddi Behenji my cousin, daughter of my Mother’s elder sister Gobind Masi ji and the other I found as a gift to me that was lying on my desk unnoticed. Now they both adorn my neck. Raj Kanwar, one of Abhishek’s early directors had presented me with a photograph of all the Guru ji’s and they now are with me at my place of worship. I seek blessings from them each morning – ‘Sat Naam Wahe Guru’ , I recite, as I touch their images and a strange sense of fulfillment and strength consumes me.[link]

Now many Indian press website running headlines – “Big B Feels Drawn Towards Sikhism” and the like. New headlines are now coming out about his son – Abhishek – performing seva at Darbar Sahib.

While many Indians and even some Sikhs are impressed, I can’t help but have little care. Maybe it is because of long allegations in the community that have never been dispelled.

Eye-witnesses and victims of the Indian government-sponsored pogroms in Delhi and throughout North India in 1984 have talked about Amitabh Bachchan’s role in inciting violence against the Sikhs.  Groups such as the AISSF and Sikhs for Justice have attempted to press charges against the actor:

The AISSF on Friday demanded a probe into the role of film star Amitabh Bachchan for inciting violence against Sikhs following the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In a documentary released here today, Babu Singh Dukhia, a resident of Tirlok Puri in Delhi, claimed there were eyewitnesses that saw Amitabh Bachchan inciting mobs to avenge the death of Indira Gandhi. The documentary says Amitabh Bachchan was clearly involved in inciting mobs and was heard saying “khoon ka badla khoon” at the funeral of late Indira Gandhi.[link]

One Sikh blogger has even dedicated a website to expose Amitabh’s role.  While other Sikh bloggers see historical conspiracies, I am rather skeptical of such easy interpretations.  Still Amitabh’s new film, where he will be starring as a top lieutenant to the “Butcher of Punjab” (KPS Gill) leaves little to speculate where his loyalties lie.  I care less for any “Sikh blood” or any interest towards “Sikh links.”

Guest blogged by Brooklynwala

This week the South Asian Magazine for Action and Reflection (SAMAR) along with Theaters Against War (THAW), published several letters of support they solicited for Syed Fahad Hashmi, a US citizen who has been held in solitary confinement since May 2007 in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City.  That’s right, solitary confinement, debatably a form of torture, for almost 3 years – not at Guantanamo Bay, but in downtown Manhattan.  Fahad is awaiting trial and has not been convicted of any crime.

Journalist Chris Hedges wrote, “The case against Hashmi, like most of the terrorist cases launched by the Bush administration, is appallingly weak and built on flimsy circumstantial evidence… If it were a matter of evidence, activists like Hashmi, who is accused of facilitating the delivery of socks to al-Qaida, would probably never be brought to trial.”

I wrote a letter to Fahad last week, which you can read in its entirety below.  Check out all the letters published in SAMAR here.  To me, there is a deep connection between Fahad’s unjust incarceration and the discrimination and racism we as Sikhs face throughout the world.  I hope that more of us get involved in the movement to free Fahad Hashmi and stop the draconian policies of the U.S. government, which continue under President Obama’s leadership.

Learn more about Fahad’s case at www.freefahad.com, and consider writing him a letter of support. Mail it to:

SYED FAHAD HASHMI – REG#60011-054

METROPOLITAN CORRECTIONAL CENTER
150 PARK ROW
NEW YORK, NY  10007

And send a copy letters2fahad@gmail.com.

Below is my letter to Fahad.

February 24, 2009

Dear Fahad,

I am writing to say that I, and thousands of others, support you.  I have attended a few of the vigils outside of the MCC on Monday nights and have learned a lot about your case and the injustice and inhumanity of your detention.  When we chant outside of the MCC for justice and to “Free Fahad!,” I sometimes wonder whether you can hear us.  Hopefully this letter and many others you receive will get to you and you will indeed hear and feel the support, love, and solidarity from outside.

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting one of your best friends from Brooklyn College and one of your professors, and hope to meet you in person some day.  Your unjust detention encapsulates so much of what is wrong about our government and its repressive and unjust policies.

I hope you are finding ways to feel peace and strength despite the horrible conditions that you are forced to endure.  I hope you know that the people are with you, your community is with you, the movement is with you, and God is with you.

I am a turban-wearing Sikh and have faced a great deal of racism since 9/11, which is a part of the backlash and repression the Muslim and Arab communities have been subjected to.  When someone calls me “bin Laden” or “terrorist” or tries to pull of my turban, I think about individuals and families who have been detained and deported simply because of their Muslim identities.  I think about how an entire group of people has been vilified by our government and media as “the enemy.”  The struggles the Sikh community faces are inherently linked to the struggles of the Muslim community, and we are working here on the outside to unite our communities to build a stronger movement for social justice.

Brother, know that there is a growing movement to free you from this cruel and immoral detention.  You are in our thoughts and prayers always.  I also wanted to send you one of my favorite poems by June Jordan, a freedom fighter from Bed-Stuy who is a great inspiration to me.

Chardi Kala (with eternal optimism)

“Poem About My Rights”, by June Jordan.

The Saanjh Sikh Scholarship project is awarding 4 scholarships totaling $6,000 to Sikh students who are graduating California high school seniors or community college students pursuing higher education.  The scholarships are need & merit based.  All California Sikhs who are graduating high school seniors starting the first year of undergraduate studies at a 4-year university or community college in Fall 2010 can apply for the scholarships. Also, current community college students who will be transferring to a 4-year university in Fall 2010 are eligible to apply for the scholarship.  Go-online for more information at www.saanjh.org/scholarship. The deadline is April 01, 2010 April 15, 2010 by 11:59 PST (and no that is not a April fools joke).

The Saanjh Sikh Scholarships are one of the projects that came out of  Saanjh-The Bay Area Sikh Retreat in August 2009. The project’s mission is  to work with parents, students, and community members to encourage higher education for California Sikh students by providing need and merit-based scholarships to selected students entering their initial years of undergraduate studies. Awarding the scholarships to enterprising California Sikh students is a good way to support higher education in our community in an effort to create more human and social capital to address the issues impacting the Sikh Quam.

• Join the Saanjh Sikh Scholarship group on Facebook to stay informed!
• Saanjh Sikh Scholarship Sevadars can be contacted at: saanjhscholarship@gmail.com.
• More details about the scholarship and online application can be found at: www.saanjh.org/scholarship.

The four Saanjh Sikh Scholarships are named after contemporary Sikh activists.  More information about them and the amount of each scholarship can be found below the fold.

Sardarni Balbir Kaur was only 22 years old when she and her 3 year old son were martyred in the first Jatha of the Jaito agitation, an organized and peaceful resistance to the hegemony of the British in 1924.
***Awarded to 1 high school senior entering a 4-year university in Fall 2010. ($2,000 Scholarship)

Sardar Kartar Singh Sarabha an alumni of UC Berkeley, was a leading Sikh-Indian revolutionary during India’s bid for independence.  He supported his education at Berkeley by picking fruit in orchards, and during his time in California, became the editor of the Ghadar newspaper and a leading Ghadarite..
***Awarded to 1 high school senior entering a 4-year university in Fall 2010. ($2,000 Scholarship)

Sardarni Kishan Kaur was an undercover spy and nurse during the Jaito resistance.  Disguised as a lady of the Hindu trading association, she collected intelligence about government’s plans and preparations for the Jaito jathas.  She was later arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced to 4 years of rigorous imprisonment for nursing the wounded in the Jaito massacres. ***Awarded to 1 high school senior entering a community college in Fall 2010. ($1,000 Scholarship)

Sardar Ditt Singh was an eminent member of the Singh Sabha movement, was a powerful speaker and writer.  He helped found Khalsa College, authoring many of the first textbooks, and served as the editor of Khalsa Akhbar.  He penned over 40 books and pamphlets on Sikh theology and current issues and was a powerful comparative religious debater. ***Awarded to 1 community college student transferring to a 4-year university in Fall 2010.                   ($1,000 Scholarship)

• Saanjh Sikh Scholarship Sevadars can be contacted at: saanjhscholarship@gmail.com.
• Online application can be found at: www.saanjh.org/scholarship/application.                                                   (Deadline: April 01, 2010 April 15th, 11:59pm PST)
• Hard copies of the application & promotional material can be downloaded at: www.saanjh.org/scholarship/scholarshipforms.

Amongst the male youth in Punjab, drugs are a serious problem today.  With high unemployment rates, and a history of violence in the region, the environment is ripe for drug abuse.  A Punjab government survey found that one out of three male students use at least a form of tobacco. And on a recent trip to the region, as we were driving between pinds, my relatives pointed out the jeeps, distinctive with their black lights, that carried young drug dealers.  The young men sitting inside were all in their teens.

In response, Ajmer Aulakh, a well known Punjabi professor and writer has written a play, “Avesle Yudha Di Nayika” (An Unsung War Heroine), that recently attracted a large audience at the Government College for Boys in Ludhiana.

Aulakh is a noted playwright, artist and winner of Sahitya Akademi Award. He has dedicated his life to theatre and generally works on issues and problems confronting the common man. [TOI]

This much-needed play had students riveted, incorporating Punjabi poetry.

The play highlighted the menace of drugs, delineating how a family loses everything to the evil. Jodha Singh, a villager landlord, is survived by his wife and two children. Satwant Kaur, wife of Jodha Singh, wants their kids to go to school and study, but owing to drugs, the family property is lost. The play portrays the consequent struggle. It depicts how she fights odds to enable her children to continue their studies. The play was performed by artists who are part of Lok Kala Manch and was supported beautifully by Punjabi poetry. [TOI]

The college auditorium was choc-a-bloc with students, who sat gripped as the plot unfolded. The characters, with their spellbinding performance, mesmerized students, who responded to every scene with applause… Happy, a student of Government College, said these days, students are keen on watching plays and that is the reason the college auditorium was jampacked. The artists’ performance had students captivated till the end. Happy added that staging of such plays in the college would definitely help spread a well-meaning message against social evils. [TOI]

The play’s success leaves gives reason for hope.  I hope it not only helps students to rethink their use of drugs, but also that it inspires other artists to take up social issues in their work.