'Everybody is equal'

Culture, community and country celebrated at Stockton's Sikh festival

Members of the California Gatka Dal perform a demonstration of the Sikh martial art of Gatka during Sunday’s annual Sikh parade in Stockton. CLIFFORD OTO/The Record

April 16, 2012: STOCKTON - The bed of a pickup was filled with cold drinks and enough ice to sink the Titanic. A semitrailer displayed a variety of signs bearing messages such as "Proud to be an American Sikh" and "Knowledge is the only jewel nobody can steal from you."

The aroma of curry was in the air, pakoras fried in woks filled with sizzling oil, and the sensorial banquet was rounded out by the brightly colored turbans on the heads of the men, the vivid Punjabi suits worn by the women, and the music that blared throughout the south Stockton neighborhood.

Stockton's annual Sikh festival and the four-mile parade to downtown are always a special event, but perhaps just a bit more so this year.

After all, there's a movement afoot to rename a 3,000-foot portion of Grant Street in honor of the oldest Sikh Temple in North America. The stretch that begins at Grant and Fifth streets and heads south soon may be renamed "Sikh Temple Street." At least as significantly, this year marks the 100th anniversary of Stockton's Sikh Temple.

"The Titanic overshadowed this by a little bit," 22-year-old Sonia Dhaliwal joked.

Maybe elsewhere in the world. But not for the roughly 10,000 members of the Sikh community from Stockton, the Central Valley and the Bay Area who turned out for Sunday's festivities.

The Sri Dasmesh Malaysian Sikh Band marches and performs at Sunday?s Sikh festival and parade in Stockton. CLIFFORD OTO/The Record

"We are part and parcel of the American community," said Sonia's father, festival organizer Sonny Dhaliwal, a Lathrop City Council member. "The Sikh people have done a lot of work toward the progress of the city, state and country. It's an honor for us to be part of America."

Nearby, men and women, young and old, sat on rugs placed outdoors, eating vegetarian delicacies. The food at the festival is free, said another Dhaliwal - 25-year-old Kamaljit - because "it's the nature of our religion."

"Charity is a very big part of it," she added.

There is imagery, too, in the ground-level dining.

"The symbolism is that everybody is equal," Kamaljit said. "That's why everybody is sitting on the rugs. At the end of the day, we're all equal."

This year's revelry is just beginning. A huge celebration is scheduled for October.

"Our elders came here a long time ago looking for a better place," Sonny Dhaliwal said. "Now we are here, and we love this country."

Contact reporter Roger Phillips at (209) 546-8299 or [email protected]. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/phillipsblog.