1629 Manservant to a ship’s captain, although he was probably a sailir (Lascar, seaman) marched in Parade in Massachusetts, Dr. La Brack

Except for the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (and perhaps the quasi-statutory "Gentlemen’s Agreement" of 1908 with Japan) the United States had no immigration laws directed against specific national or racial populations. But its immigration laws did spell out a number of physical, psychological, economic and philosophical characteristics, which rendered individuals as individuals unwelcome in this country. - Sidney Kansas, US immigration, Exclusion, and Deportation, New York: Washington Pub. Co., 1928, 5-14

Most of the Sikhs started life in America as farm laborers ; many of them finally became landowners and successful farmers.

Early Sikh immigrants had to face legal, social, economic and even physical barriers to material success. They were not allowed to bring their spouses from Punjab, and if they married an American citizen, she would (lose) her citizenship by such marriage and that was actually controlled by Sikh husbands was in the names of their wives and/or children. Without that loop hole it would have been impossible for them to lease or own land at certain periods.. The Aliens ineligible for citizenship could not buy, own, or lease agriculture land. A majority of the early arrivals were young men who immigrated with the hopes of earning a better living or acquiring an education and then returning home. Some of these sojourners stayed on and tried to send for their wives and families. Although a few men in the Sacramento Valley were able to bring wives from India before 1923, restrictive laws blocked further immigration. Many men remained single until they were well into middle-age, while others married American women of Mexican descent. They battled for citizenship and lost. Men and women applying to the county clerk for marriage licenses had to be of the same race, had to look alike, and most often it was Hispanic women who satisfied that requirement. Their offshoots were called Mexican-Hindus.

04/06/1899 San Francisco Chronicle Documented Sikhs Landing. There are four Sikhs who arrived on the Nippon Maru the other day were permitted yesterday to land by the immigration officials. The quartet formed the most picturesque group that has been seen on the Pacific Mall dock for many a day. One of them, Bakkshlled [sic] Singh, speaks English with fluency, the others just a little. They are all fine-looking men, Bakkshlled Singh in particular being a marvel of physical beauty. He stands 6 feet 2 inches and is built in proportion. His companions-Bood [sic] Singh, Variam [sic] Singh and Sohava Singh-are not quite so big. All of them have been soldiers and policemen in China. They were in the Royal Artillery, and the tall one with the unpronounceable name was a police sergeant in Hong Kong prior to coming to this country. They hope to make their fortunes here and return to their homes in the Lahore district, which they left some twenty years ago.-San Francisco Chronicle April 6, 1899, p.10

Official records of arrivals from India were sketchy until the close of the 19th century. In 1899, a small but sustained immigration began when 17 Indians entered the United States. Angel Island: The Ellis Island of the West

According to the Report of the Population of the United States at the Eleventh Census – 1890, 2000 "Foreign born person" claimed India as their place of birth. Pre- 1907 most of the immigrants were urban, educated Hindus from India.

1906 Dhana Singh Poonian came to California in 1906. He eventually settled in Loomis, California, where he established the Poonian Nursery in 1911. In 1923 Poonian returned to India to marry Raj Kaur, his brother's widow. He brought her and her two sons back to California. Raj Kaur Poonian's son Paritem married Janie Diwan, the daughter of a successful Arizona farmer, Diwan Singh.
Diwan Singh immigrated to America in 1906 and by the 1940s, farmed large tracts of farmland in Arizona. "Arizona has many large cotton farms. But many of the farmers started on a small scale. Diwan Singh was one of the more colorful pioneers. Born in India, he immigrated to America in 1906. Singh was a common laborer when he drifted into Casa Grande in 1924. He wanted to farm but was penniless. The only land he could get had hard, alkali soil. But with a horse and a mule he plowed 80 acres and planted cotton. Singh did well. In 1932 he was able to buy the first Caterpillar tractor in the Casa Grande area. By the 1940s he was farming 9,000 acres of land." (Arizona's Heritage (high school textbook), 1983.)

1906-1923: The majority of Punjabis arriving on the West Coast during this period, frequently referred to today as "old timers", were from agricultural or military backgrounds. Upon arrival they found jobs as laborers in the lumber mills and on the railroads in the Northwest. Many eventually traveled to the Sacramento Valley to find work on the Western-Pacific Railroad or on area sugar beet, fruit, and rice farms. Several settled in the area, where their descendants still live today. They were very few women among the early Punjabi immigrants. The few Indian women in the United States before the late 1940s arrived during this period of immigration. Perhaps half a dozen of these women lived in California.
" Most of the Americans, farmers, they always looked to us for irrigation...They knew that nobody could do a better job in irrigation than these Indians...I think we are ones who taught (them), in 1923, maybe, that if you water, water your land, it will not freeze, it will not destroy the crop. This is the biggest thing we have taught them."

1906-1922 "Hindu Alley" Men Were Peaceable (1906-1922)
For more than 15 years Astoria had a Hindu Alley, a block of houses on Birch Street near the old Hammond Mill in Alderbrook.
Contemporary photo of "Hindu Alley", Astoria (Photo by T.S.Sibia, 1999) Old-time Astorians estimate that there may have been nearly 100 Hindus from India among the 600 employees of different nationalities working for the mill, which burned Sept. 11, 1922, before the great Astoria fire in December of that year. There were also Greek, Japanese, and Arab workers. The Mohammedan Arabs and the Hindus were often confused. Mention the Hindus to an old-timer, and the immediate response is, "Yes, I remember them. They all wore white turbans. They were tall men. They were good wrestlers." But beyond that very little is commonly known about the Hindus, because, as most of the immigrant groups in the early days, they kept to themselves. No one could know exactly when the Hindus came to Astoria, but from piecing together the information from about 20 old-time Astorians interviewed, this reporter has concluded that they probably came in 1906. According to Cecil Moberg, who grew up in Alderbrook, there were 12 bunk houses along the waterfront between 51st and 52nd Streets on Birch where the most of Hindus lived. He said that about four men lived in each house. Hattie Spencer said that 12 Hindus lived in the house behind her home at 4777 Cedar, renting it for a dollar each for a month. For the "Hindu Alley," bunkhouses, there was a central cook house, said Chris Simonsen, where they ate Indian food. He remembers their making chupatti pancakes patting the dough between their hands. He also said that they would only buy live chickens, and only roosters, not hens. The other Hindus were all single men who came to work for the mill. Although most were single men, Mrs. Spencer remembers hearing that "at one time there were two Hindu women dressed as men who worked at the mill for quite a while with the men, until they were found out." But that was all she knew. There were four children in the Hindu family. Moberg said that the two older boys, Kapur and Budha Singh, attended school with him. "The boys had such beautiful white teeth," he remarked, recounting that one day the boys explained how they cared for their teeth: "They picked a willow twig from the swamp and used it to clean their teeth." Feared Hindus Many of the old-timers reported that as children, they were afraid of the Hindus. "We thought they were terrible coming with their turbans," said Mrs. Spencer. "We were afraid of them at first. But my dad said, "They have to make a living as the rest of us. We are foreigners, too." "As children, we were afraid of them because they were great big men," Moberg added. Chris Simonsen, who lived across from the bunkhouses, remembers as a child throwing snowballs at Hindus, trying to knock off their turbans, in about 1910. He also said that men would pick fights with the Hindus when they came home from town on the last street car in the evening. "For the most part, however, the Astoria community considered the Hindus "vastly interesting, and peaceable." "The Hindus kept to themselves and didn't interfere with the whites," said Mrs. Spencer. Agile Wrestlers The Hindus were most known for their prowess and agility in wrestling, back in the days when wrestling was "real honest-to-goodness wrestling," in Bill Wootton's words. They would hold wrestling bouts in Rosenberg Hall, about 11th and Exchange. "They were light-heavyweight champions," Wootton said. "They used scientific holds and used their science and ability to get in and out of the holds." Although many immigrant groups who came to the United States came because they would work for cheap wages, that was not true of the Hindus. Helmer Lindstrom of 4374 Cedar, remembers that the Hindus "never undercut wages" - they would never agree to work for less than the other employees. According to Peters, they worked 10 hours a day, six days a week for 128 a week - at least during the period after he arrived in 1916. For a discussion of the Gadar first meeting in Astoria in April, 1913, click. SOURCE: The Daily Astorian. Astoria, Oregon Centennial, 1873-1973 Edition. April 26, 1973: 9B.

Nika Singh Gill (July 15, 1906- When World War began, Nika saw his opportunity. He enlisted and returned from the war with several medals and his U.S. citizenship.

Beginning 1907, most of the immigrants were Sikhs and Muslims from rural areas. - Some Demographic and Social Aspects of Early East Indian Life in the United States by Harold Jacoby

Except for the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (and perhaps the quasi-statutory "Gentlemen’s Agreement" of 1908 with Japan) the United States had no immigration laws directed against specific national or racial populations. But its immigration laws did spell out a number of physical, psychological, economic and philosophical characteristics, which rendered individuals as individuals unwelcome in this country. - Sidney Kansas, US immigration, Exclusion, and Deportation, New York: Washington Pub. Co., 1928, 5-14

Prior to 1907 rejection rate of applicants from East India was 10%

Harmon B. Singh was admitted to the United States on August 17, 1907 at San Francisco, California

1907 ANTI-HINDU RIOT BREAKS OUT
"On September 4, 1907, a mob of about 500 men assaulted boarding houses and mills, forcefully expelling Hindus from Bellingham (Washington) in what is now known as the Anti-Hindu Riot. It began as an attack on two East Indian workers on C Street and turned into a rock-throwing lynching, to 'scare them so badly that they will not crowd white labour out of the mills.' The small police force was overpowered. The next day about 300 Hindus fled Bellingham in fear. The press, some civic leaders and churches denounced the riots. Threats were later made to other groups, though no major riots occurred."

From 1907 –1914 inclusive rejections rate rose to 33%

1907- 1915 Racial Violence (Considered Sikhs subjects of British Colony) Sikh community complained and focused on educating people on Sikhs

In 1910, overwhelming majority of immigrants from India were Sikhs (nearly 90%) ; whereas in 1950 they were not much more than 50%

A New Problem for Uncle Sam
This racist cartoon shows how far the stereotype of Indian immigrants in 1910 differed from the reality. Most immigrants were Sikh, and those Sikhs who wore a turban usually wore a beard. It was almost unheard of for a turbaned Sikh to smoke.
And according to Dr. S. H. Lawson, ship surgeon of the Monteagle and the Tartar, they were "one hundred percent cleaner in their habits" than the European steerage passengers he encountered in his duties.
"The Sikhs impressed me as a clean, manly, honest race." From: San Francisco Call, 13 August 1910.

In early years of Indian immigration to America everyone was referred to as "Hindu," irrespective of their personal beliefs.

In the years 1909, 1911, and 1913 the rejection rate went up to 50% or higher.

Far from it being a secretly employed operation, the Bureau openly boasted of its methods and the high degree of success attained. In his annual report of 1910, for instance, the District Commissioner at Seattle reported: "A number of Hindus have applied for admission to the United States through this district during the year just passed. Every Hindu has been rejected by a board of special inquiry on the grounds of belief in polygamy, likely to become a public charge, doctor’s certificate, or as an assisted immigrant."

Although several bills designed to restrict Indian immigration were introduced into Congress after 1908, no immediate action was taken. The Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization found more subtle ways to reject would-be immigrants. By 1911 and 1915 more than half of the new arrivals from India were turned back at the U.S. port of entry. At first, health problems were cited as a major reason for their debarment. Later, applicants were rejected on the basis that they were "likely to become a public charge."

There were no organized societies of Sikhs in the United States until 1910. In 1911, Sardar Basakha Singh and Jawala Singh arranged for a meeting to take place in Holt, CA near Stockton, to form a Sikhs Unit. A committee was appointed to raise money for the construction of a temple.

1911 Ordinance in Los Angeles prevented Sikhs from renting housing units.

First Sikh Organization was The Pacific Coast Khalsa Diwan Society organized in the spring of 1912. Later in that year they purchased a house in Stockton to serve as a Gurdwara. A second Gurdwara was established in El Centro in 1948. They participated fully in the revolution to free India from British along with the Ghadar(Revolution) party.

India In December 1912, Nand, Kunda [his youngest brother] and lifelong friend Kakoo Singh, and other future residents of Imperial Valley boarded the S.S. Minnesota and landed in Seatttle, Washington in January 1913. After landing in Washington they joined other East Indians and worked as migrant laborers. On their second trip to Imperial Valley (1916) they settled here and began to farm.

1913 WRESTLING (March 1913) "Dodan Singh the Hindu and Eddie O'Connell will not meet in a wrestling match here on the evening of March 28. The lid was suddenly clamped on the proposition yesterday when Sheriff Burns notified the manager of the Hindu that O'Connell would not be permitted to wrestle in this city. The sheriff takes this stand because he thinks that the Portland wrestler is not on the square and while he does not object to a good clean wrestling match, his faith in O'Connell appears to be exceedingly limited."
SOURCE: The Daily Astorian. Column: "Water Under the Bridge" compiled by Bonnie Oathes of March 16, 1988 dated 75 years ago.
WRESTLING
"According to Bill Wootton, the Hindus were most known for their prowess and agility in wrestling, back in the days when wrestling was "real honest-to-goodness wrestling." They were light heavyweight champions. They used scientific holds and used their science and ability to get in and out of the holds."
SOURCE: The Daily Astorian. Oregon Centennial,1873-1973. April 26,1973. (p.913)

1913 Alien Land Law, State of California
This law, the first in California, prevented "aliens ineligible for citizenship" (Chinese and Japanese) from owning property in California. Though intended primarily to block Japanese immigrant farming. The law also affected immigrants from India.

1913 April 23, 1913 - Gadar Party first meeting. First Revolt Against the British to Free India
The first meeting of the party was held on April 23, 1913 in Astoria, Oregon, (U.S.A.) The meeting was held in the Finnish Socialist Hall.

(source of photos: Finnish American Historical Society of the West. The Theater Finns. Walter Mattila, editor. Portland, Oregon. Finnish American Historical Society of the West. Publication v. 7, no. 2, 1972, p. 2 and 7.)
(source: Liisa Penner, curator, Clatsop County Historial Society).
According to writer Khuswant Singh, this was the first revolt against the British to free India. He also noted that "although nine out of ten of the rank and file of the Ghadar Party were Sikhs and the centres of their activities were Sikh temples, since most of them, were illiterate, most of the leaders were educated Hindus or Muslims. This saved the Ghadar from becoming a militant Sikh movement. In fact, it contributed - not a little - to make the Ghadar the most powerful terrorist movement in the history of India's freedom movement as well as the first one to rise above communal considerations."
(Source: Singh, Khuswant. GHADAR 1915. India's first armed revolution. New Delhi: R&K Publishing House, 1966)

1915 1st Gurdwara Opens in Stockton, CA (The land was purchased on South Grant Street in September, 1912. The small frame house already standing on this lot was used as a Gurdwara (temple). Guru Granth Sahib was installed and Gurdwara started in 1912. Also in 1912 the Sikhs raised - Nishan Sahib hoisted for the first time. Baba Vasakha Singh and Baba Jawala Singh Thathian (Amritsar) were the first Granthies.) November 21, 1915 the first of two Gurdwara buildings was finished and dedicated on South Grant Street. Bhola Singh was the priest, Dharam Singh, President and B. S. Inder, Secretary. This original Stockton Temple - a two story wooden structure was the first Indian religious building in the United States. It was designed by W. B. Thomas of Stockton and built by A. J. McPhee for about $3,000. The original small house was not torn down, but has since been used by the residence of the Granthi. On the opening day one of the members, Nand Singh told the Stockton Record

1917 Asiatic Barred Zone Act and Literacy Test
This zone, created by Congress on February 5, 1917, extended the Chinese Exclusion Act to all other Asians (with the exception of citizens of the Philippines and Guam, who were under American jurisdiction). The act also imposed a literacy test on immigrants, so that only those who could already read and write English would be admitted. The act passed over the veto of President Woodrow Wilson, which established a quota for immigrants. The measures were designed to maintain the nation’s ethnic balance. In addition, nearly all of Asia was designated a "barred zone ", which meant that immigration from the region would be prohibited. Japan was an exception to the rule, because procedures were bound by an agreement reached in 1908.
1917-1937 Sikhs treated badly not allowed in Restaurants

1920 Census Report show 7,000 Sikhs with 85,000 acres in Sacramento, San Joaquin Valley, and 30,000 acres in Imperial Valley- Some Demographic and Social Aspects of Early East Indian Life in the United States by Harold Jacoby Between 1920-1930 as many as 3000 Sikhs entered United States.

1920 Bhagat Singh Thind Veteran U.S Army fought for citizenship (U.S vs Bhagat Singh Thind 1923) - Lucer-Cellar Act (1946)

"Berkeley, August 15 [1921] - Members of the sophomore class of the University of California who engaged today in upholding the tradition of the university anent the hazing of freshmen, faced a real problem this afternoon in the form of three Hindu scholars. The three were captured and lined up for hazing, after which a consultation of sophomores was held.
Finally it was decided to make them take off their shoes and wade in chemistry pond, explaining to them that they were "bathing their feet turbans to solve the mystery of whin the university's sacred pool." Then it was decided to unwind their and might be underneath. To this, however, the Hindus objected and showed fight. The three finally freed themselves from their captors and ran frantically for the president's office with the intention of calling the office of the British consulate at San Francisco for protection. But they were overhauled by members of the senior class, who restored the peace. The three are said to be graduates of Oxford University and are here to take post-graduate work."
San Francisco Chronicle 8/16/21 6:2

In 1923 a Supreme Court decision held that people of Indian origin were ineligible for American citizenship, and in 1924 an immigration act was passed which was designed to exclude Asians in general from entering the country. Over the next twenty-three years the only new arrivals to the Sacramento Valley were students on temporary visas and immigrants who entered the United States illegally through Mexico.
1923 Justice Sutherland said that while Sikhs might be technically ‘white’ in the sense they (North Indians at any rate) were racially from Causasian racial stock, nevertheless they were not ‘white’ from the standpoint of the average citizen) but not in normal meaning/ Average hundred’s of Sikhs lost citizenship {Statesman}

1923: Toga Singh Sandhu. Heard that there were farming jobs available in Mexico and moved to Mexico in December 1923. He was lonely in Mexico. Nine months later he left Mexico and entered the United States. After working as a laborer for fifteen years he received his first paycheck and opened this first bank account. For the next eight years he worked in northern California at Willow, Yuba City Locke, the Sacramento Delta, and Ryde Island. During that time, he traveled with other Indian men in work crews going wherever there was work for agricultural laborers. Eventually he moved to Fresno, where a circus had come to town and was offering jobs. He became a member of a horse-riding troupe called the Bengal Lancers. He traveled the country performing with the troupe. The circus disbanded in Washington D. C. in 1939. That year he took his money and moved to Los Angeles. While in Los Angeles, he opened La India Café and operated this business until 1946. Toga Sing had a lot of friends in the Imperial Valley and they persuaded him to move to the valley and farm. He sold his business and purchased land in the Imperial Valley and started his farming career. Shortly after that he went back to India and married Bachan Kaur. Bachan Kaur came to the United States and the Sandhu family grew to include Charnjeet Kaur, Charn Singh, Kuldeep Singh, and Surinder Kaur. In 1953 Toga Sing became a U. S. citizen and he was very proud of that. Toga Singh was one of the founders of the El Centro Sikh Temple. It was the second Sikh Temple to be founded in California. He remained an active member of the Sikh Temple for over 50 years and held various positions on its committee. Through the years Toga Singh sponsored many family members so they could immigrate to the United States. His support was not limited to family; but was also given to many others.

1924 Sucha Singh Gill. His ship had to turn back and eventually landed in Manzanillo, Mexico in 1924. From there he headed north to Baja California. Over fifteen thousands acres were named Colonia Hindu because of him and other East Indian men who farmed there.

1924 U.S Government ban on Asian immigration, which decreased Sikh numbers. Sikhs tried to move closer to other Sikhs to keep their sense of community.

Kehar Singh Sandhu was married to Regina Virgen who was from Mazatlan, Sinaloa Mexico on March 19, 1925 in San Diego. They lived in several different areas north of Brawley, eventually settling at the Best Canal site across the road from his brother Mota.

The Pahkar Singh Murders: A Punjabi Response to California's Alien Land Law-The year after the Alien Land Law took effect, a dramatic murder case in the Imperial Valley illustrated the difficulties this law posed for Punjabi and other Asian farmers. Headlines of 2 April 1925 announced "Hindu Murders 2 in Rage -- Attacks 3rd." The article told of how a fortune in lettuce grown by Pahkar Singh on a field he had leased by verbal agreement had been taken from him by two Anglo agents of a shipping company.
Karen Leonard... Amerasia. 11:1 (1984): 75-87.

California’s South Asian population was 1,873 in 1930 Census , 1,476 in 1940, 815 in 1950. Karen Leonard, Professor at University of California analyzed 378 couples. She found that 80.4% were married to Hispanic girls; 12.7% to American Whites; 4% to Blacks; 2.4% to Indians; and 0.5% to American Indians. i.e. Only 74 out of 378 wives were non-Hispanics. The first recorded marriage was in Imperial County in 1916; most Punjabi (or Sikh)-Hispanic marriages took place in 1920’s. The prevalence of the term ragheads led almost all of them to take off their turbans. Many wives preferred them to be turban-less (Sekhon 1983; Garewal 1982; Shine 1983). "Those Hindus learned – one of them stood there and talked Hindu to his brother, Mexican to his wife and English to me." No one used the term Sikh to describe them. They were known as Hindus.

From 1933-1945 only 17 East Indians were officially admitted to United States

1946 Luce-Cellar Act increased numbers opened citizenship rights to U.S- Sikhs

Census of 1950 identified 2649 East Indians living in the United States. In this act, passed on July 2, 1946, the right to become naturalized citizens was extended to Filipinos and Asian Indians. The immigration quota was set at 100 people per year.

1948: El Centro Gurdwara was established in 1948. It had originally been a Japanese temple. World War II dealt a deathblow to the Japanese community in the Imperial Valley, and shortly after the war the community leaders decided to sell the temple. The Sikh community bought the temple from the Japanese and converted it into a Gurdwara. The buying price, according to an informant, was 18,000 dollars. The framehouse had been used as a kitchen and dining hall also on these occasions until 1954, when a large dining hall was built at a cost of about 18,000 dollars.

1956 Dalip Singh Saund elected member of Congress.
Dalip Singh Saund was elected a member of the Congress from the 29th Congressional District in California in 1956, "the first Democrat to be elected from his district of Westmorland, California, and the first person of Asian extraction ever elected to Congress in the history of the United States." Saund, who had come to the United States as a student, received a doctorate in mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1924, but he could not get himself a job commensurate with this academic degree because of the prejudice and discrimination against Asians in California prevalent at the time. He wrote:
"I was aware of the considerable prejudice against the people of Asia in California and knew that few opportunities existed for me or people of my nationality in the state at the time. I was not a citizen and could not become one. The only way Indians in California could make a living was to join with others who had settled in various parts of the state as farmers. I had met a few Indians from Imperial Valley who had done very well, and so in the summer of 1925 I decided to go to the southern California desert valley and make my living as a farmer."
[Saund, D.S., Congressman from India (New York: E.P. Dutton & co., 1960) p45]
For the text of Congressman Saund's biography and photo, go to Dalip S. Saund, The First Asian in U.S. Congress.
1957-1963 Dalip Singh Saund – El Centro Imperial Valley was the first Sikh and three term Congressman. In 1956, Dalip Singh Saund became the first East Indian born person to be elected to the US House of Representatives (until Governor Bobby Jindal).

A number of Sikhs, who came in 1960’s , got higher education at various Universities in USA. Many of them are now Department Heads or Deans at various Universities. A number of Sikhs are physicians of high repute in almost all specialty fields of medicine. Hundreds of Sikhs hold managerial positions in engineering fields in various engineering firms including the technology and automobile industry.

Chakravorti drew this conclusion in his Ph.D. thesis in 1968: "Sikh community in El Centro is "dying" in cultural sense, since the hold of its ethnic subsystems is slipping from the second generation.”

In 1978 an American Sikh citizen accompanying his wife at her naturalization was ordered by the US District Court Judge to remove his turban or leave the court. - Columbus Dispatch, Columbus, Ohio Volume 108, No. 138, November 15, 1978, Page 1

1980’s Indian Government use of force to bring political situation under control prompted large scale flight of Sikhs

In 1982 an American Sikh was told by his employer to comply with a new safety policy by getting himself clean-shaven. - San Francisco Examiner, California, August 13, 1982

A common question at job interviews has been: “Are you prepared to adopt the American dress?"

The real question is: "Are you prepared to cut your hair?"

1986: U.S Army ended religious exemptions to uniform standards. The armed forces continue to expect a clean shaven appearance as a matter of unity and practicality (issue: Gas Mask, the Russians found a way around this for their servicemen)

In 1990 a Sikh child in Ohio was not allowed to play basketball in his middle school just because he wears a turban.

1994 California Republican Governor outlawed wearing of kirpans in schools

Dr. Narinder Singh Kapany is known as the father of fiber optics because of his exceptional research in this field. He also established a Kapany Chair of Sikh Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1998.

1998 Founding of First Sikh Preschool in Northern California opened a school to provide a multicultural education for their children, who were quickly assimilating into American society without learning the language, culture and history of their ancestors.

09/11/2001 Worst Day in U.S History terrorist attacks take place in the U.S and in the aftermath Sikhs across the country were targeted as people that looked like Muslims

2001: Sikh Leaders meet President Bush

At present Amarjit Singh Buttar is perhaps the only turbaned Sikh who holds elected public office. He got elected in December 2001 to the Vernon, Connecticut Board of Education for a four-year term. He has also been recently selected as the Chairman of the Board.

2003: First Indian in the US Army killed in Iraq Lt. General James Campbell attended funeral in Chandigarh

US Salutes Son of India:
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20031212/chd.htm
Sikhs remember first Indian to die in Iraq:
http://www.sikhmediawatch.org/news/newsdetail.asp?newisd=581
U.S. Army Specialist Uday SIngh, a Sikh American Soldier from Lake Forst Illinois, Died During Combat in Iraq:
http://www.punjabiamericanheritagesociety.com/news/2003/2003-12-01.htm

2004 "White House marks 400th anniversary of Guru Granth Sahib"

2004 Second Indian-American Elected to Congress

• INDIAN AMERICAN CANDIDATE ELECTION SUMMARY
  November 2, 2004 Bobby Jindal(R-Louisiana)
  U.S. House of Representatives, Louisiana 1st Congressional District WON
  with 78.3% (217,719) of the vote
  Swati Dandekar (D-Iowa)
  Iowa House of Representatives, District 36
  WON with 54.4% (9,772) of the vote
  Nikki Randhawa-Haley (R-South Carolina)
  South Carolina House of Representatives, District 87
  WON with 98.9% (14,420) of the vote
  Shinku Sharma(Calif.)
  Board Member, Saratoga Union School District (Santa Clara County) WON
  with 25.5% (1,895) of the vote
  Jagrup Sidhu(Calif.)
  Council Member, Kerman City Council (Fresno County)
  WON with 41.4% (937) of the vote
  Harry Sidhu (Calif.)
  Council Member, Anaheim City Council (Orange County)
  WON with 18.3% (17,846) of the vote
  Mital Gandhi(DC)
  Advisory Neighborhood Commission of Northwest Washington
  WON with 59.3% (303) of the vote
  Rajendra Ratnesar(Calif.)
  Member, Board of Directors, Eden Township Health Care District (Alameda County)
  WON with 35.8% (35,794) of the vote
  Sylvester Fernandez (R-New Jersey)
  U.S. House of Representatives, New Jersey 6th Congressional District
  Lost with 31.0% (69,389) of the vote
  Jay Rao(R-North Carolina)
  North Carolina Secretary of State
  Lost with 42.9% (1,327,265) of the vote
  Brian Jayakumar(D-New York)
  New York State Senate, District 47
  Lost with 31.5% (29,762) of the vote
  Sid Das (D-New Hampshire)
  New Hampshire House of Representatives, District 27 (Hillsboro County)
  Lost with 2.6% (5,204) of the vote
  Rano Singh(D-Arizona)
  Arizona House of Representatives, District 6
  Lost with 26.3% (19,195) of the vote (98.3% of Precincts Reporting)
  Eduardo Bhatia (PPD-Puerto Rico)
  Mayor of San Juan
  Lost with 46.3% (89,916) of the vote
  Lakhvir S. Ghag(Calif.)
  Council Member, Live Oak City Council (Sutter County)
  Lost with 23.5% (478) of the vote
  Kash Gill (Calif.)
  Council Member, City Council of Yuba City (Sutter County)
  Lost with 17.4% (4,421) of the vote
  George James(R- New Jersey)
  Council Member, Borough of Westwood Council
  Lost with 24.3% (2,245) of the vote (96% of Vote Reporting)
  Gyan Kalwani(Calif.)
  Council Member, Elk Grove City Council, District 5 (Sacramento County)
  Lost with 12.9% (3,494) of the vote
  Sheela Kini (Calif.)
  Supervisor, County of San Francisco, District 7
  Lost with 1.1% (249) of the vote
  Deepka Lalwani(Calif.)
  Council Member, Milpitas City Council (Santa Clara County)
  Lost with 18.7% (3,429) of the vote
  Tej Maan (Calif.)
  Council Member, City Council of Yuba City (Sutter County)
  Lost with 6.8% (1,730) of the vote
  Narinder K. Mann(Calif.)
  Council Member, Kerman City Council (Fresno County)
  Lost with 22.4% (507) of the vote
  Atul Mitra (Calif.)
  Board Member, New Haven Unified School District (Alameda County) Lost
  with 16.7% (5,452) of the vote
  Jay R. Shah (Calif.)
  Supervisor, County of San Francisco, District 2
  Lost with 4.0% (1,020) of the vote
  Shantu Shah (Oregon)
  Board of Director (Position 1), of the Proposed Washington County Public
  Utility District Lost with 13.2% (33,720) of the vote
  Rakesh Sharma (Calif.)
  Council Member, Fremont City Council (Alameda County)
  Lost with 13.5% (11,263) of the vote
  Paul Reuben Singh(Calif.)
  Council Member, Live Oak City Council (Sutter County)
  Lost with 16.2% (330) of the vote
  * Election results are courtesy of the Indian American Leadership Initiative (IALI) and the Indian American Center for Political Awareness (IACPA)
  (Source: Bicky Singh. November 2004.)
  

2009: The State of Oregon recently affirmed a law that was enacted in the 1920's by the Ku Klux Klan. The law effectively bars observant Sikhs, Catholics, Muslims, and Jews from teaching in public schools.

Aug 19, 2009 SCCC or Sikh Complete Count Committee holds 1st Ever historic State Convening Event. Sikhs Advocate being counted for 2010 Census Campaign

64 countries around the world where Sikhs are recognized as their own Ethnicity/Race except in the Free World

August 26, 2009 (Washington, DC) – Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) —the oldest Sikh American civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States—urged Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm to condemn a new rule authorizing Michigan judges to force witnesses to remove religious headcoverings in court.

Sep 2, 2009: California: In a landmark decision, a US legislature has passed the Kirpan Bill. It is the first bill of its kind in any state assembly in the US. According to the sources, California Legislature has approved Kirpan Bill, a move which can help Sikh community in the US to carry the Kirpan. According to the Bill, US security personnel will be trained about the Kirpan and its importance for the Sikh Community.The decision was taken after rising number of racial violence after 9/11 against Sikh community for carrying Kirpan. The bill will reduce the wasteful arrest of Sikh community. After this legislature, it will be mandatory for the Law enforcement officials to learn the importance of Sikh community.