‘KEEPING THE FAITH ALIVE': TEACHING SIKH KIRTAN IN AMERICA

Abstract

Since the large influx of Sikhs to the USA beginning with immigration reform in the 1960s, Sikhism has continued to come into view as an American religion. Throughout the USA today, Sikhs are devoting vast amounts of time and effort toward keeping continued generations of Sikh Americans connected with Sikh communities, traditions, history, and ways of being and knowing. One of the primary ways that many communities are teaching younger generations how to be Sikh in America is through teaching the performance of the Sikh sacred musical tradition, Gurbani kirtan (musical performance of the Word of the Gurus and Bhagats of Sikhism found within the Guru Granth Sahib). This article will explore observations from my field research and interviews among people who are teaching the Gurbani kirtan tradition in the USA, and their students. I will discuss how those teaching the tradition fall into several groups: organized kirtan academies, well-known kirtaniyas (Sikh sacred musicians) who hold periodic workshops, professional music teachers, and volunteer instructors within gurdwara communities. I will present insights from my interviews conducted with interviewees from each group about their pedagogical methods, reasons for teaching, and hopes and concerns for the future. Finally, I will conclude with some observations on the role of Gurbani kirtan in the emergence of Sikhism as an American religion.

Acknowledgements

I would like to dedicate this article to the memory of Prof. Parminder Kaur (d. April 2014), beloved teacher of Gurbani kirtan and wife of Prof. Dalbir Singh, who was extremely kind in giving her time and hospitality to me during my research. I also wish to acknowledge the support of the Department of Religious Studies at University of California, Riverside in all the forms this has taken. I would especially like to thank Dr Pashaura Singh for his steadfast support of my work.

Notes

1 See: 89th Congress of the USA. 1965. H.R. 2580: An Act to Amend the Immigration and Nationality Act, and for Other Purposes (a.k.a. 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act; a.k.a. the Hart-Cellar Act) Pub.L. 89-236; 79 Stat. 911. 3 October 1965.

2 For further writings exploring religion and culture as ‘performance', see, for example: Goffman, 1959; Schechner and Appell, 1990; Myerhoff, 1995; and Orsi, 1985.

3 For my own more thorough discussions of Gurbani kirtan through performance studies and ‘lived religion' lenses, see two of my previous chapters: ‘Gurbani Kirtan and the Performance of Sikh Identity in California' (2011. In Sikhism in Global Context. Edited by Pashaura Singh); and ‘“Performance” and “Lived Religion” Approaches as New Ways of “Re-Imagining” Sikh Studies’ (2012. In Re-Imagining South Asian Religions: Essays in Honour of Professors Harold G. Coward and Ronald W. Neufeldt. Edited by Pashaura Singh and Michael Hawley).

4 Many of these interviews have taken place over the course of many meetings and sometimes they encompass many hours of recorded (and unrecorded) conversations. I have done my best in the space of this brief article to condense some essential points from these interviews. Any errors or omissions are my own. When not referenced individually, or otherwise noted, quoted material and biographical elements throughout this article are drawn from my personal interviews with the people who I am writing about.

5 For the purposes of this article, ‘first generation' refers to those Sikh Americans born outside of the USA who immigrated to the USA, ‘second generation' refers to their children who were born in the USA, and ‘third generation' refers to those born in the USA with US-born parents.

6 Jasjit Singh has already written a very informative chapter about the Sikh camping movement in the UK: (2011). ‘Sikh-ing Beliefs: British Sikh Camps in the UK’. In Sikhs in Europe: Migration, Identities, and Representations. Edited by Knut A. Jacobsen and Kristina Myrvold. Surrey, UK: Ashgate.

7 The few quotes in this paragraph are drawn both from my personal interviews with Professor Surinder Singh and the Raj Academy's website.

8 And this was echoed by Bhai Kultar Singh and some of my other interviewees.

9 This probably partly reflects the strong presence of – if not preference for – what some of my interviewees call an Akhand Kirtani Jatha-influenced ‘style' of kirtan in some northern and southern California gurdwaras, which emphasizes a simple musical structure that allows for congregational singing and Naam Simran in the form of chanting ‘Waheguru'.

10 Again, for a fuller exploration of ‘Lived Religion' approaches to studying Sikhism, see my ‘“Performance” and “Lived Religion” Approaches as New Ways of “Re-Imagining” Sikh Studies’ (full citation above). As a representative quote describing this stance among scholars of ‘Lived Religion', Robert Orsi writes: ‘Men and women do not merely inherit religious idioms, nor is religion a fixed dimension of one's being, permanent attainment or a stable self. People appropriate religious idioms as they need them, in response to particular circumstances. All religious ideas and impulses are of the moment, invented, taken, borrowed, and improvised at the intersections of life.  …  the central methodological commitment [of a ‘lived religion' approach] is to avoid conclusions that impose univocality on practices that are multifarious.' (1997, 8 and 11) In a similar vein, Meredith McGuire posits that ‘at the level of the individual, religion is not fixed, unitary, or even coherent. We should expect that all persons’ religious practices and stories with which they make sense of their lives are always changing, adapting, and growing.' (2008, 195)

11 I have not provided names or identifying information in discussing these volunteer teachers or some of my other interviewees (i.e. the students and teachers from within the Sikh communities where I conducted my fieldwork). Mostly this is because some of my interviewees have asked me to avoid using their real name because they are concerned about having their interview comments draw them into ‘gurdwara politics,' and because I was in agreement with my institution's (University of California, Riverside) Human Subjects Committee's concern early in my research that I should maintain the anonymity of my interviewees. The only people whose real names I have used within this article are people who can reasonably be called ‘public figures’ (well-known musicians and teachers frequently in the public eye) and/or those who expressly gave me permission to include identifying information in my writing during my interview/s with them.

12 There are other factors to complicate this, like Sikhism's ‘de jure' stance of having ‘no religious hierarchy' or ‘organized' religious leadership, despite ‘de facto' realities. Much of the religious leadership of US gurdwaras is currently carried out by large numbers of volunteers (sevadars), and, undoubtedly, this will continue. Yet, not all of these sevadars desire, or have the knowledge, to lead worship activities. So it remains to be seen how continued generations of Sikh Americans will shape gurdwara leadership in the future.