The Day - Sikh Art Gallery serves as educational tool for local community - News from southeastern Connecticut theday.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theday.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Norwich – Indianapolis might be about 900 miles from Connecticut, but local Sikh community leader Swaranjit Singh Khalsa said he has received phone calls from Sikhs across the state asking: “Is it safe for me to go to work today? Was this a hate crime?”
Khalsa, president of the Sikh Sewak Society International, USA, and director of the new Sikh Art Gallery in Norwich, said Monday the question is jolting, even though authorities in Indianapolis have said the investigation thus far has revealed no motive in Thursday night’s deadly mass shooting of eight FedEx employees there.
Four of the eight people killed were members of the Sikh community. One was a family member of Khalsa’s friend, a fellow member of the Sikh Parliament, who lives in Indiana. Khalsa said about 10,000 Sikhs live in Indiana.
The Day - Local Sikhs mourn and worry for their safety, community leader says - News from southeastern Connecticut theday.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theday.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
April 10, 2021 |
Connecticut, USA: US Congressman Joe Courtney has said that “excessive response” to farmers protest in India by the government of India was “worth of condemnation”. While responding to concerns raised by Swaranjit Singh Khalsa, directory of Sikh Art Gallery, Joe Courteny said: “protests by many within India’s agricultural community have drawn worldwide attention after India’s Parliament enacted major legislation last November that sought to bring structural change to the country’s agricultural sector. In the time since, mass protests have ensued out of concern that the new law allows for an exploitation of farmers within the industry by larger firms, and that there was an overall lack of consensus built before the new law was enacted”.
NORWICH – Every inch of wall space in a one-story building on Clinic Drive is covered in colorful portraits of famed Sikh leaders and framed recognitions; a cozy place of inclusion.
The Sikh Art Gallery sits a short drive from Backus Hospital, created during the middle of the pandemic in November 2020 in the cultural soul of one of the most diverse cities in eastern Connecticut.
“Art is one of the languages which can connect people’s hearts,” Swaranjit Singh Khalsa, the gallery’s owner and creative director, said,” and we hope to bring unity in this community.”
Khalsa, who also owns a gas station in Norwichtown, has made it his mission since he came to Norwich more than 11 years ago to help residents explore different cultures, including his own. Since the Black Lives Matter movement has put the spotlight on diversity, equity and inclusion, Khalsa’s message has never been more important.