Police Breakup Disruption at Workshop
A few Sikhs in Northern California have sharply raised issue with parts of the Sikh Research Institute’s Khalsa-school curriculum, alleging differences in Ardas and Dohra among their concerns.

“They are saying that we have changed the Ardas (Sikh prayer); we don’t have the authority to do that,” said Jasmine Kaur, education director for the institute. “We have not changed a thing.”

As for Dohra (sung after the Ardas), “the curriculum presents two different cases of the Dohra stanzas,” she said. “And it includes articles on its meaning and on how it is sung.” Dohra is not a part of the Rehat Marayada and there are sangats using different versions, she said.

The group of dissidents mostly consists of some local Sikhs and a few students who recently examined the curriculum. At the core of their objections is the use of ‘Wahguru’ and ‘Phatah’ instead of ‘Waheguru’ and ‘Fateh’ throughout the curriculum, even in the Ardas. They also objected to dropping Nankana Sahib from the Ardas.

In Dohra, the group objected to the statement that the middle two stanzas are incorrect and that the correct version includes replacing ‘Guru Granth ji maanee-o…’ with ‘Guru Khalsa maanee-eh…’

No one person or organization has the authority to alter prevalent and accepted practices, several in the group said. They must have approval of the panth.

The tussle, which began about two weeks ago, ended with the group agreeing on Feb. 23 to submit its objections and recommendations in writing and the institute promising a formal review.

“Opinions are important,” Jasmine Kaur later said by phone. “We have to look at the panth as a whole. …We will definitely review and see the difference of opinion.”

The amicable agreement did not seem possible when the group first confronted the institute’s executive director, Harinder Singh, while he was teaching a workshop at the University of California, Berkeley. Bystanders trickled into its ‘Mark of Excellence’ workshop on Feb. 21 and began asking questions about the Ardas and Dohra.

Because their questions were not in line with the workshop that was underway, they were asked to wait for a break in the day-long class to discuss the matter, Harinder Singh said. But they did not agree.

“They became very disruptive,” he said. The organizers attempted to quiet the group and calm the 15 to 20 attendees, but the situation only escalated until Hardeep Kaur Dhillon, a member of the university’s Sikh Student Association, which organized the event, called the campus police.

Hardeep Kaur could not be reached for comment, but campus police said it responded to her call at 12:15 that Saturday. Officers asked the group of 15 individuals to step out of the room, said Sgt. Eric Tejada. They told the officers that they were “acting individually” and “voicing their opinion.”

The institute, based in San Antonio, Texas, holds many camps, workshops and Web-based seminars in North America. Its materials are drawn from a “Gurmat framework,” Jasmine Kaur said. “We have to look at it in the bani of the Guru Granth Sahib, the perspective of historical events and the lifestyle of the Gursikhs.”

One of the institute’s programs is the grade-school curriculum that is used by many Khalsa schools around the country. In a 2004 survey, it found that teachers wanted more engaging material for their students. “Everyone had concerns about the effectiveness of Sikhi education,” she said.

A committee of 14 scholars, linguists and teachers began the “groundbreaking endeavor” in 2005, she said. The elementary-school curriculum was released in June 2006 and the middle-school curriculum in June 2008. The high-school curriculum has not been released yet.

These first releases are considered “skeleton” or “draft” versions for schools to use and give feedback before finalizing the syllabus, she said.

Most of the feedback thus far, submitted in writing, had been complaints about the difficulty in its implementation. In response, the institute also holds workshops for Khalsa-school teachers on how to teach the curriculum. But none of the feedback had ever criticized the curriculum’s content, Jasmine Kaur said. This was the first time that one of the institute’s events was disrupted by surprise to voice a complaint.

“Surprise is a mild term,” Harinder Singh said. “It was more like shock.
“(Did they come) to seek a solution or create a problem?”

One of the dissidents, Harliv Singh, a senior studying pre-medicine at Berkeley, said he sought answers at the workshop because of his concern about the curriculum’s impact on kids.

“They are teaching a changed form (of Ardas) to kids,” he said. “They are setting them up for controversy later on, creating tensions and factions, and questioning its authenticity.”

The incident has already increased tensions among the Sikh student at Berkeley, said Randeep Singh, a senior studying philosophy at Berkeley. He feels at odds with the Sikh Student Association, which had him removed from the workshop. He said he had gone there because he wanted Harinder Singh to respond publically to the objections. It didn’t happen.

But the two sides did meet the following Monday. Prabhsharandeep Singh, of Fremont, spoke on the group’s behalf. He was not part of the workshop incident, but he was the first to raise the issues with the Fremont Gurdwara and its Khalsa school after reading the curriculum a few days earlier.

“There are many things that are not written, that are tradition,” he later said by phone. “Not even the Akal Takht jathedar can change (them). He can give a proposal to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee’s panel of scholars. There is a process.”

At the end of the nearly two-hour video-taped meeting, he agreed to send the objections and recommendations in writing. Harinder Singh said the institute would formally review them.



Note: >Top image courtesy Sikh Research Institute.
>None of the Singhs are related in this story. It is a common surname for Sikh men.
>Clarification, March 31, 2009: The sentence, "But none of the feedback had ever criticized the curriculum's content," was attributed to Jasmine Kaur.

By Anju Kaur
Sikh News Network staff journalist
anjukaur@sikhnn.com