In the Sikhs in the San Joaquin panel on Oct.8 the speakers covered the inverse topics on the Punjabi people. They highlighted the history they have in Kern County, and what Sikh religion really is.
Many confuse Punjabi culture as Hinduism, Buddhism, or Muslim but Punjabis religion is something of its own called Sikh. This panel is a fight for recognition and cultural awareness for the Punjabi people. This event was an effort to recognize and educate the people about who the Punjabi people are and how relevant they are to the San Joaquin Valley.
They started the presentation with a short film “Roots in the Sand” by Jayasri Majumdar Hart, the film recognized the Punjabi men who migrated to Southern Californias Imperial Valley. In the 1900s Punjabi men began to migrate to San Joaquin valley and worked in agriculture, the film highlights the history the Punjabi men carrying the agriculture field. The film also spoke on how Punjabi men married Mexican women field workers because they were unable to bring women from their country.
The Punjabi people usually practice the Sikh religion that was founded by Guru Nanak Dev-ji. Although the Sikh religion is significantly different many of us still confuse or assume that all people from India practice Hinduism or Buddhism. Panelist Raji Kaur Brar who is a Punjabi Sikh follower, spoke on her experience of being taunted by the word “Hindu”, as it was used as a slur and now feels enlightened to be part of a panel made to learn about the differences in the Indian religions.
During the panel with Teipaul Bainiwal, Raji Kaur Brar, Monique Dhaliwal, and Manpreet Kaur they were asked about what challenges Punjabis face as a community, Bainiwal said he had to constantly defend his Asian identity because most of the time; “Punjabi isn’t given a seat at the table.”
Answering the same question Dhaliwal spoke on the past bullying she experienced at school, with having to find pencil shavings on her desk as “jokes” by her classmates created barriers with accepting her Punjabi side, “That day I split myself from being Punjabi and being American.”
Brar answered with speaking about her experience in feeling embarrassed of her culture in her early childhood and turning it into her “secret identity” because all she wanted was to fit in. Later in college after growing up she finally started to embrace what she called her “secret identity.”
Later in the panel an audience member asked “how can we support?” Bainiwal responded “Solidarity… and understanding the common struggles and differences” then he clarified with “educating yourself.”
Bringing awareness was a huge part of this event it was the motive and the strength and it was also the goal for panelist Preet , “My goal for the audience really was to be more informative and to help showcase what a community is all about; a community that we find belonging in,” said Preet.
In this event most of the attendees were there to represent and feel represented by their community so when asked about Raji’s goal of the night she said “My goal is I want everyone who attended tonight just to get to know more about their neighbor their fellow classmate to understand about the community and overall, the whole point of it is that to learn to accept one another; so this how you do it, by learning about each other.” Said Brar.
From this attendee’s point of view, the event was a success in making the young generation of the Kern County Punjabi community feel seen and represented. “For me the biggest take away was just being able to see people who look like us who are able to represent us” said student Amariun Tyiksa who is half Punjabi himself.
