Four days after 9-11, on September 15th, 2001, S. Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh man with beard and turban was killed outside his gas station in Mesa, Arizona.
Since then every year on this day, the family and some members of the Sikh community have been gathering on the spot in front of gas station where he fell with fatal injuries after sustaining several bullets to his body. This senseless killing of Balbir Singh in retaliation of the events of 9-11 was felt to be an act of ignorance and hate. This was the first one in the series of violent crimes that took place against Sikhs in U.S and are still continuing. The Sikh Coalition, an advocacy group, has piled together the data about 300 incidences of violent hate crime since 9-11 in which several deaths and major injuries have been sustained by innocent Sikhs.
The latest among them has been the mass shooting in Gurudwara Sahib, Oak Creek in Wisconsin on August 5th of this year where six people were killed and several others were seriously injured.
49 years old Balbir Singh Sodhi was an innocent man who had nothing to do with the crime of 9-11. Having come from India several years earlier, he had recently started a business of a gas station. His wife was still in India. On that fateful day he was planting flowers in front of gas station when Frank Silva Roque decided to take his life claiming himself to be American and patriot.
The dilemma what Sikh people are going through has been well publicized by recent mass murders in Wisconsin. I have always been haunted with the thought as to what else could have been done by the Sikh community to thwart the tide of hateful behavior towards them? Just because they appear like people from mid East to the eyes of Westerners, given their open uncut beards and turbans, they have been made the scapegoats and targets for all the hate and revengeful attitude. To the people of East, on the other hand, it is no brainer about their being vertically apart in many ways since the very origin of the Sikh faith about 540 years ago. Their physiques, languages, cultural and religious behaviors as well as birth countries of their faiths are all miles apart.
Assembling every year and holding a candlelight vigil at the spot where Balbir Singh fell, the Sikh people have been trying to speak against hatred while keeping awareness about their identity alive.
While the hateful behavior of some individuals might not change anytime sooner but such initiatives do help in disseminating Sikh awareness in a humble yet an informative but not an aggressive way. Once again this year, as always, a few members of Sikh community along with local neighbors gathered at the location on the evening of September 15th. Rehras Sahib and Ardas was followed by couple of informative talks by the author, Rana Sodhi as well Anya Cordell, a Washington post column writer who specially arrived from Chicago for this reason.
This was followed by Candlelight vigil where everyone was able to light a candle and place on that fateful spot. In keeping with tradition of Sikh faith a full dinner in the form of Langar followed suit.
Dr. Jaswant Singh Sachdev, M.D.
Author of:
1. "Square Pegs, Round Holes" www.SquarePegsRoundHolesBook.com and
2. "Sikhism: Points to Ponder; Perspectives of a Sikh Living Abroad," as well as a recently published masterpiece about the cross-cultural dilemma of Indian subcontinent diaspora,
3. "One Coin, Two Sides," For details of the this new book, please visit http://inkwellproductions.com/one-coin-two-sides.htm