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Documenting “Sikhs in
America”
WSN Network
 'Sikhs In
America', the half-hour documentary, has been produced by the US
Public Broadcasting System (PBS) on American Sikhs with an aim to
create awareness about the community traumatized by post 9/11 racial
attacks. Apart from the culture of the community, its spiritual
beliefs and social ceremonies, it also features Gatka, the game of
kabbadi and the Yuba City Sikh Parade. Although Sikhs have been in
the US
for over 100 years, few Americans know anything about them.
The man behind the documentary, Dr. David Hosley, emeritus President
and General Manager of PBS/KVIE Sacramento TV Channel 6, was
honoured on February 3 at the Sikh Temple Sacramento for his
services to the Sikh community.
Jasbir Singh
Kang, founder member of Yuba City Punjabi American Heritage Society
that mooted and partly funded the documentary, recalled how they
persuaded the PBS to do the documentary to raise awareness about
American Sikhs.
'We needed a
mainstream network to project us. Since PBS is a respected national
network, I made a presentation to Hosley four years ago. He agreed
to do this documentary on the basis of that presentation.'
Darshan Singh Mundy, Vice President (P.R.) welcomed Dr Hosley to the
gurdwara. Reverend Wadhwa Singh Gill honored him with a Siropa.
Chairman Farjit Singh Nagra, and President Balbir Singh Dhillon
jointly presented a plaque on behalf of the Sikh Community of
Greater Sacramento. Amrik Singh Dhugga, Vice President of the
Punjabi American Heritage Society of Yuba City, presented a plaque
on behalf of the PAHS.
Earlier, Prof. Onkar S. Bindra praised the outstanding, very
concise, 3-minute video, “Meet The Sikhs”, that Dr Hosley produced
in 2005 and which can now be seen on the internet at
www.YouTube.com or
www.aol.com Dr. Hosley’s statement, “Their (Sikh’s) story as
American immigrants is left out of most textbooks”, proved very
valuable in getting “Meet The Sikhs” on the list of state-approved
Supplemental Instructions Materials. Recently, Mr. Jack O’Connell,
State Superintendent of Public Instructions, wrote to County and
District Superintendents, “I encourage you to make use of this video
to inform students about the roles and contributions of Sikhs to the
history of
California.” Dr Jasbir Singh Kang thanked Dr. Hosley for producing
the new 26-minute video, “Sikhs In America”, and appreciated Mr. Ted
Sibia, a patron, for his valuable web sites,
www.sikhpioneers.org .
 In his response,
Dr Hosley thanked Prof. Bindra and Dr. Kang for
encouragement, suggestions and assistance. He mentioned that KVIE
has decided to put “Meet the Sikhs” and a bonus video,
“Understanding Sikhism” on the DVD entitled “Sikhs In America”,
making it a 3-in-1. He added that KVIE will supply the DVD free to
libraries, colleges, CSUS, UC Berkeley etc. He further added that
PBS will telecast the videos throughout the country.
Mohinder Singh
Sandhu, Secretary, requested the congregation to buy multiple copies
of the DVD and to loan these to their friends, their children’s
friends, neighbors, and colleagues at work so they can all view the
videos, and to finally gift the DVDs to school teachers.
The documentary
is a portrait of what it means to be a Sikh in the
US
today. Shot in Sacramento, Fremont, and Livingstone in northern
California, the documentary mostly centres on Yuba City, often
called a Punjabi village in America.
It follows the
life of Sikh families on an everyday basis – the prayers, the meals,
the Sunday sangat at the gurdwaras, the Yuba City Sikh Parade, the
interest in gatka and the wearing of turban. Of course, the
colourful Sikh wedding and and the boisterous sport of kabbadi also
feature.
But the
documentary does not shy away from underlining the evil of caste
system still prevailing in the Sikh religion despite the fact that
the religion negates the very basis of this menace and there are
many religious injunctions against it.
The documentary
was telecast Wednesday in northern
California by
PBS's local affiliate known as KVIE. Soon it will be telecast across
America by other PBS affiliates.
(This news
report was partially filed for WSN by Onkar S. Bindra; osbindra@yahoo.com)
6 February 2008
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