The topic of discrimination is something close to my heart, and many issues related to it are very much open for discussion.
Some barriers still exist that need to be dealt with to make societies freer of discrimination.
Born and raised in Canada. I didn’t experience a lot of discrimination in my childhood.
For the most part the tolerance level of people was generally high.
Most people made an effort to look beyond skin colour and appreciate others for who they are.
There were occasional incidents of racial slurs, and turning the other cheek was the best solution to avoid confrontation.
Now you’re probably thinking here he goes again, writing about how Caucasians discriminate against Indo-Canadians.
Well you’re wrong. This is not the case. As our multicultural community grows, this strength of diversity we see around us is creating barriers and we need to break these down.
Clusters of communities are being created not in small but in large numbers, affecting how we communicate. Do Indo-Canadians discriminate? I am hearing of more and more incidents every year. What happened to our multicultural mosaic?
The Sikh community must step up to the plate and show that we have a high level of tolerance for others.
The majority of Indo-Canadians in Canada are Sikhs and have done great work in building Canada over the last century.
The early Sikh pioneers (pre-1960) who came to Canada had a different attitude adjusting to their new home. Newcomers who arrive in Canada today have many resources, with the large Sikh population often isolating them from the mainstream Canadian society.
In this process of settling here, some settle back to their old cultural roots.
As Sikhs immigrate to Canada, they should be reminded that many sacrifices have been made in their religion to prevent discrimination.
The Sikh religion was born more than 500 years ago to prevent discrimination from happening in India.
The Sikh religion is living proof that discrimination should not tolerated in our society and if it is, we and the Sikh religion have failed.
Living in Canada doesn’t mean we should forget our moral principles on how we should live.
When I hear of stories of Caucasian people moving from Indo-Canadian neighbourhoods because they don’t want to mix with them or Indo-Canadians discriminating against Indo-Canadians because of different castes, these are all unacceptable ways of living, according to the Sikh religion.
It is no different if someone calls himself a Christian and doesn’t practice what the Bible states.
You can call yourself anything you want, but are you practising what you preach? As Sikh people we have to rise up and not let the materialistic world around us deflect us from being examples to others on how to live a non-discriminatory lifestyle.
It doesn’t matter what car you drive or how big your home is or what you do for a living. These identities have no room in the Sikh religion and if people are practising this, they are hurting themselves and their Sikh principles.
No one is perfect, but we should all try to become that better person. We need to raise the bar to the next level of thinking to something higher and greater than ourselves, as Guru Nanak, the first guru and founder of the Sikh religion, states clearly in his teachings.
This new religion, called Sikhism, was based on one God and on the equality of all human beings. Nanak traveled far and wide to teach about the new religion.
The Sikh faith started as Guru Nanak realized that people were losing sight of God in their lives, because of greed and superstition. He set out a list of new rules to bring people closer to God.
These were based on the fact that there is only one God, responsible for all and that all people are equal and should have equal opportunities.
We should all reflect on Guru Nanak’s powerful message and remind ourselves there is only one way to live. Sikh kids who are involved in gangs and drugs should also reflect on this message to change their destructive path. Being Sikh is a full-time commitment.
Source: Abbotsford News
Ken Herar is a columnist with the Abbotsford News.
KenHerar@yahoo.ca
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