BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SCR 104|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SCR 104
Author: Wolk (D)
Amended: As introduced
Vote: 21
SUBJECT : Sikh American Community: 100th year
anniversary
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This resolution states that the Legislature
recognizes October 13, 2012, as the 100-year anniversary of
the Sikh American community, and would call upon the people
of California to commemorate the day with appropriate
celebrations.
ANALYSIS : This resolution provides a historical
background of the Sikhs that came to America as follows:
1. October 13, 2012, will be recognized as the 100-year
anniversary of the Sikh American community. Sikhs,
traveling from their homeland of Punjab, first arrived
in the United States through Angel Island Immigration
Station in San Francisco in 1899.
2. The Stockton Gurdwara Sahib, which was founded in
1912, is recognized as the first permanent Sikh
American settlement and gurdwara in the United States.
3. Baba Jawala Singh and Baba Wasakha Singh, founding
granthis of the Stockton Gurdwara Sahib, who first
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emigrated to the United States through Angel Island in
1908, recognized the supreme value of education by
starting the Sri Guru Govind Singh Educational
Scholarships for University of California, Berkeley,
students, and awarded the first scholarships on January
1, 1912, without regard for gender, ethnicity, or
religion, to a Christian, to a Sikh, to a Muslim, and
to three Hindus.
4. The Stockton Gurdwara Sahib was founded by Teja Singh
of the Pacific Coast Khalsa Diwan Society on October
24, 1912, with Baba Jawala Singh and Baba Wasakha Singh
in leadership. The Ghadar, the first Punjabi-language
newspaper in the United States, was published on
November 1, 1913, by Kartar Singh Sarabha, then 17
years of age, with financial support from the Stockton
Gurdwara Sahib.
5. Baba Jawala Singh and Baba Wasakha Singh organized
the Gadri Conclave in Sacramento on December 31, 1913,
to form the Ghadar Party. The Ghadar Party was the
first organized and sustained campaign of resistance to
the British empire's occupation of the Indian
subcontinent, and it sent 616 members to India, of whom
527 were Sikhs.
6. Kartar Singh Sarabha traveled to India to support the
independence movement, but at 19 years of age was
tragically arrested and hanged, along with young
Maratha Vishnu Ganesh Pingley and five other Sikh
Ghadris, by the British on November 16, 1915.
7. The Stockton Gurdwara Sahib, upon completion, was
dedicated on November 21, 1915, to Guru Nanak Dev Ji,
founder of the Sikh tradition, on the occasion of his
426th birth anniversary.
8. The gurdwara furnished provisions to the people of
Stockton, as reported by the Stockton Record on
November 22, 1915, which quoted the gurdwara's elected
leadership: "We do not permit our people to become
charges on public charity. If a man is hungry and out
of funds we feed him. Our dining room is open at all
hours of the day and is closed only for a few hours
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during the night. The unfortunate hungry American will
be as welcome as our own people".
9. The Stockton Gurdwara Sahib funded a delegation,
including Dr. Sudhindra Bose of Iowa University and Dr.
Bishan Singh of Pacific Coast Khalsa Diwan Society, to
attend a congressional hearing on February 13, 1914, in
Washington, D.C., to advocate for the citizenship
rights of Indian and Asian peoples.
10. Dr. Bhagat Singh Thind, then a student at University
of California, Berkeley, volunteered to serve in the
United States Army on July 22, 1918, at the height of
World War I, becoming the first Sikh to serve in the
United States military, and was honorably discharged
after attaining the rank of Acting Sergeant.
11. Thind persistently pursued United States citizenship,
receiving and losing it twice, and championed Asian
American citizenship rights all the way to the United
States Supreme Court in the landmark case of United
States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923) 261 U.S. 204,
before permanently obtaining citizenship in 1935.
12. The Stockton Gurdwara Sahib continued to support
higher education among the South Asian population by
establishing Guru Nanak Khalsa Hostel at University of
California, Berkeley, on February 13, 1921, to provide
free board and lodging for students from South Asia to
peacefully focus on their studies.
13. Dalip Singh Saund was general secretary of the
Stockton Gurdwara Sahib from 1948 to 1950, inclusive,
and a member of the executive committee until 1953, and
became the first Asian American, first Indian American,
and first Sikh to serve in the House of Representatives
when elected in 1956 to represent California's 29th
Congressional District until 1963.
14. Dr. Bruce La Brack of the University of the Pacific
describes the impact of the Stockton Gurdwara Sahib
thus: "The Stockton gurdwara gave a focal point to
Punjabi life on the West Coast; it served as a
combination church, dining hall, rest home, employment
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information center, meeting place, political forum, and
sanctuary where Punjabi culture and language were
understood. The Stockton facility was a hub of social,
religious, and political life for all Sikhs and many
other Punjabis in California between 1915 and the late
1970s".
15. The Sikh American community continues to make
significant contributions to the California and United
States economy and society through military service, as
business owners, transportation professionals, doctors,
attorneys, engineers, teachers, farmers, and in a great
many other notable capacities.
16. The Sikh American community has faced and continues
to peacefully overcome attacks on its identity and
practices since the September 11, 2001, attacks,
whether in the form of school harassment, employment
discrimination, or murder, including the murders of six
Sikhs during the Oak Creek Wisconsin Sikh Gurdwara
shooting on August 5, 2012, as well as the senseless
murders of Surinder Singh and Gurmej Atwal in
Sacramento on March 4, 2011.
FISCAL EFFECT : Fiscal Com.: No
DLW:n 8/21/12 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED
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