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A Dream in Doubt
Jagmohan Singh
 The
journey from
Punjab
to USA is
a long one. The journey from hate to hope and then hate and then
again hope is a painfully tiring and trying journey. This is a
journey the family of Rana Singh Sodhi has traveled in the last few
years losing two family members and one friend in the process. This
is the journey which the Sikhs as a people have traveled losing a
number of their community members during the course of the last five
centuries.
The exterior
form given by Guru Gobind Singh to his followers in 1699 has given
them a unique personality making them highly visible. Our journey
of recognition and honour started in Baisakhi that year soon after
the first baptism ceremony at Anandpur Sahib. This exterior form
comes with a lot of responsibility that has to take the form of
resistance to protect one’s honour and dignity, which comes through
courage of conviction.
When Rana Singh
Sodhi’s family decides to continue live in the
US
and carry on a mission to educate despite the heavy family toll, it
is a tribute to their courage of conviction. When the Sodhi family
did not press for death penalty for Sodhi's assailant, Frank Roque
and all that they wanted was a guilty verdict, in a very strong way,
they demonstrated the compassion of Sikhism.
 The
findings of the study by the Discrimination and National Security
Initiative (DNSI) released in 2006 says that “83% of Sikh
respondents said they or someone they knew personally had
experienced a hate crime or incident”, show the extent of the
malaise.
The founding
director of DNSI, Valarie Kaur has stated that "Many Americans
know that hate crimes took place after 9/11, but we, as a nation,
have yet to understood the ongoing impact of such violence, or how
it continues to divide us."
The report says
that bias motivates an unlawful act and it becomes a hate crime.
Race and religion inspire most hate crimes, but hate today wears
many faces. Bias incidents (eruptions of hate where no crime is
committed) also tear communities apart — and threaten to escalate
into actual crimes.
Hate and hate
crimes in the
US are not new,
but it is significant that right thinking people in many parts of
the US are fighting hate and promoting tolerance and inclusion.
The courage of conviction of one individual, Tami Yaeger has
resulted in a scholarly effort to fight hate and hate crime.
 “A
Dream in Doubt” will screened all across the US in the months of
April and May through the joint efforts of SALDEF, ITVS, the
American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and The Interfaith
Alliance including a national screening on PBS on 28th
May. The film has already won an honorable mention in January at
the Slamdance Film Festival and it is surely expected that the film
will clear the ground for a better understanding of what is
prejudice and how to fight stereotypes.
The film “is an
immigrant story in a world in which patriotism has morphed into
murder.” This intimate, hour-long documentary of one man’s odyssey
from persecution in
India to
embracing America as his homeland proves that courage and hope have
the power to overcome hate.
“A Dream in
Doubt” is an immigrant story of survival as a wave of deadly hate
crimes terrorizes the Sikh American community in
Phoenix,
Arizona. The film features Rana Singh Sodhi, an Indian immigrant
whose life is forever altered by the 9/11 terror attacks, because
Rana’s turban and beard—articles of his Sikh faith—now symbolize
America’s new enemy.
Rana’s eldest
brother Balbir Singh Sodhi—who also wore a turban and beard—was
America’s
first post-9/11 hate crime murder victim, gunned down at his gas
station by a man named Frank Roque, who claimed he was rooting out a
terrorist. “A Dream in Doubt” travels to Rana’s hometown to explore
post-9/11 America from his perspective, telling a personal story of
national tragedy, murder, family, community, and the American Dream.
 “A
Dream in Doubt” shows the daily horrors that Rana and the Sikh
community experience as misunderstood Americans. In August 2002,
Sukhpal Sodhi, Rana’s next-oldest brother, is murdered in mysterious
circumstances while driving a cab in
San Francisco.
Nine months later in May 2003, Rana’s friend, Avtar Chiera, is shot
by three men who yell, “Go back to where you came from!” Three weeks
after Avtar’s shooting, another friend, Inderjit Singh is physically
assaulted and threatened with death while working at a convenience
store.
The film follows
Rana as he seeks vindication for his brothers’ murders by working to
educate fellow Phoenix-area residents about hate crimes; acting as
the spokesman for his family and the Sikh community; running his gas
station to support his family; and, most importantly, attempting to
guard his own school-aged children—Rose, Satpreet and Navdeep—from
bullying and harassment. Rana endures these injustices through a
steadfast belief in the Sikh and American values of freedom,
self-reliance and equality.
Like all
Americans, the image of turban as a symbol of terror haunted the
film director, Tami Yeager too. What she imbibed from her father
who was a civil rights activist and a church minister enabled her to
ask questions and seek answers from fellow Americans. As she says,
“over the next two years, I watched as this phenomenon received no
national analysis or significant media coverage. Why wasn’t
America talking
about this hate?”
Her association
with the Sikh-American community for producing educational media
projects helped her cross the bridges and follow the Sodhi family
story.
 While
there have been other post-9/11 films about national security, civil
liberties, and honored heroes, “A Dream in Doubt” is the first to
explore hate crimes on a familial level. It offers a uniquely
personal perspective about life in post-9/11
America. And for
me, the Sodhi family’s story represents the country’s core values of
freedom, justice, and the American Dream.
Interestingly,
the producer of the documentary, Preetmohan Singh too escaped hate
in India
and emigrated to the US and the growing sense of danger there
prompted him to sit back and strategise the next step for his family
and his community. Having been asked to wear his patriotism on his
car, he thought a better way would be to tell America about his
origins and faith. Following the concept of “every Sikh is a
missionary”, the young producer activist went from school to school,
from town to town with his many associates to dispel doubts about
Sikhism and raise consciousness that the turban is the crowning
glory of human excellence and not of hate and criminality. Rana
Singh Sodhi’s desire like Preetmohan Singh to spend the whole of his
life to educate people is a tribute to his grit, self-respect and
commitment to society.
Relying on
interviews with the family and news footage of the events leading up
to the trial (including police videotape of the suspect's
interrogation), the movie reenacts the pain and hope saga of the
family without losing the nuances.
The death of the
Sodhi brothers has become the rallying point for the Sikhs to
demonstrate their faith. When ordinary Americans say that Sikhs are
different from Muslims and Hindus and that their religion teaches
tolerance, a sense of relief dawns on the Sodhi family.
Many countries
of the world would like to put the
USA on trial for
a variety of reasons. Those who come to the US with the hope of a
new life, those who leave their home and hearth in search of
survival and growth are worried at the new equations of hate. The
wounds of the Sodhi family and their fightback have already put
America on trial. What will be the eventual verdict, time will
tell.
2
April
2008
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