Many readers know that I discovered the virtues of Sikhism only over the years of living outside India and Punjab.  So my views are somewhat skewed and don’t always jibe with what passes for the norm.

I understand that whatever the absolute truths that a religion espouses and teaches they are practiced (and come to life) in the culture and the times where they blossom forth.  And my cultural bias now is perhaps an odd mixture of Punjabi-Indian and North American; patience is often missing in action.

But I must have been granted a charmed existence. Somehow an interest in Sikhi took root while living in an almost entirely non-Sikh milieu — a miracle wouldn’t you agree?  That’s the only way I see it.  And today I find myself writing for and serving on the Editorial Boards of the two premier English language Sikh periodicals published anywhere in the world, the monthly Sikh Review (Kolkata) as well as the quarterly Nishaan (New Delhi).  My experience with these two publications has been uniquely satisfying and I must salute two friends who make it possible — the long standing, legendary Saran Singh who has led the Sikh Review for a generation and Pushpindar Singh, the Founder-Executive Editor of Nishaan-Nagaara.

Remember that both are published in India and my roots in India are shallow and shaky at best.  Both magazines provide great commentaries on Sikhi but they are like of different species – apples and oranges — with almost non-existent overlap in their readership. I suppose that speaks well of the large variety of Sikhs that exist and their variegated relationship to Sikhi. The overarching reality is that they are both India-based publications that thrive in the political and cultural ambiance of India that I have been away from for over 53 years – the dominant part of my life. I have little connection there and less feeling for it.

Since Sikhi comes to us from its over 500 years of grounding in Punjab, my writing for India-based periodicals and readers smacks a bit of the age old cliché that dates from the days of the British Raj and speaks of “carrying coals to Newcastle.”

I would be the first to admit that for many years I have been dismissive of Indian cultural attitudes and idiosyncrasies, whether on science, societal ethos and morality or religion. To me their convictions often appear, in the words of the Guru Granth (p 474) as if written in water that have no substance, “Paani under leek jio(n) jisdaa thaao(n) na thayhu.”

But my experience with The Sikh Review and Nishaan seems to be working its own merry magic.  It is making me more forgiving of human nature and more tolerant, even celebratory, of diversity in Sikhi.

We Sikhs have a longer history in the United Kingdom, East Africa, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore compared to our one-hundred-year old presence in North America.  Living away from India many of us recognize that the overwhelming historical connections to the Hindu culture have seriously influenced and impacted the pristine purity of the Sikh message and practice.

I also argue that we Sikhs need to realize another given: Just as Indian-Hindu culture of India influenced us over the centuries, the Judeo-Christian society in North America and Europe would impact our worldview and practices in the diaspora.  Forget not that if Sikhs are a mere drop in the ocean of Hindu society in India; similarly outside India we are an equally small drop in a Judeo-Christian ocean which surely affects our lifestyle and perspective. (Look a bit closely, it already does.)

Just look at the many religions of the world.  Christianity presents a very different face in Rome than it does in London, Paris, Cairo or Delhi.  I could make similar argument regarding any of the major world religions.  It follows then that the diaspora unmistakably will impact and affect Sikh culture, politics and practices; in other words, Sikh communities in Punjab and New York will diverge in fundamental ways, while each holds on to the essentials of the faith. Some divergence is already visible; it will only grow steadily wider with time.  Local language, socio-cultural, political and legal realities will continue to define, affect and shape each.

In the foreseeable future I see an evolutionary growth of self-reliant semi-autonomous Sikh communities that dot the globe with an infrastructure that connects them all in a collaborative and interacting whole.  In this conglomeration the India-based community will remain the largest, even the most influential, but just one of the global realities of Sikhi’s many voices.

As I see it, semi-autonomous means that communities will focus on local issues and local mechanisms to settle their differences and not run to India-based management models or ape their ways.  This would become necessarily so because even though Sikh communities across the world may think globally they will necessarily act locally because that’s where their self interests rest.

Look back in history and see: What I am talking about is not so dissimilar from the reality of the                                                    twelve Sikh Misls that defined our community so meaningfully in the post Guru Period.  The misls had their differences; they were at each other’s throats some days and yet were able to come together in a global collective when necessary.  The Misls functioned pretty autonomously and effectively until Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the legendary ruler of Greater Punjab consolidated his power and successfully undermined possible alternative centers of power in his own domain. (He certainly undermined both the Misl structure and the independent functioning of the Akaal Takht.) My take here, therefore, hearkens productively of a back to the future idea.

Here then is a shift in focus. Even though I harbor a dismissive cast to many Indian cultural habits, I am not really working both sides of the street against each other by living in America and writing for India-based publications. It is no longer just “carrying coals to Newcastle” with which I started this conversation today.  The idea here is not to overthrow the existing order, never mind how dysfunctional at times it may appear to many of us, but to regalvanize and reorient it.  Always keep the fundamentals in mind; they are sacrosanct and not dispensable.

The direction and purpose is to create a collaborative reality which will necessarily be noisy but, at the same time, chock full of the fertility of human ideas.

In today’s global world it is more like turning to each other and not turning on each other; not diminishing each other but learning to lean in and lean on each other to create a reality that is greater than the sum of the parts.

And that’s how my mind connects more than 50 years of twelve issues a year venerable monthly The Sikh Review with the fledgling quarterly Nishaan-Nagaara that is now just producing its 50th issue.

I am honored and enhanced by my association with both. It is a gift of grace.

(Originally published in Nishaan-Nagaara, Delhi, Issue II, 2013, as well as The Sikh Review, December 2013 – minor cosmetic changes made and photos contributed by Sikhpoint)