:dateline:A Northern California congressman on Tuesday honored the state�s longstanding Sikh community by formally acknowledging the Stockton temple�s 100-year anniversary in the Congressional Record.
In his statement, Rep Tom McClintock (R-Granite Bay) compared members of the world�s fifth-largest religion to the Pilgrims who crossed the Atlantic Ocean on the Mayflower in 1620 �seeking a better future in a free land for their descendants.
�It is the very same story of pilgrims like Baba Vasakha Singh and Baba Jawala Singh Thathian who founded the Stockton Gurdwara Sahib a century ago, and all those who have followed since,� the statement said.
Sikhism was founded in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent more than 500 years ago on the tenets of monotheism, equality — of gender, class and faith — and community service.
The earliest Sikh immigrants to North America settled in the Central Valley, establishing the Stockton temple, or Gurdwara, in 1912. They launched the country�s first Punjabi-language newspaper and formed the Ghadar Party, influencing India�s campaign for independence from Britain.
Of the 650,000 or so Sikhs now in the U.S., about 250,000 are in the Golden State.� A conservative Christian, McClintock represents a district east of Sacramento with a sizable Sikh population.
His statement read Tuesday into the Congressional Record says there is �no religion more attuned to the principles of the American Declaration of Independence than the Sikh religion.�
McClintock�s gesture comes as Sikhs in the U.S. press for greater understanding as they battle misconceptions that have made them targets of hate crimes since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
�It bodes well for all in America,� said Bhajan Singh Bhinder, who coordinated the Stockton Gurdwara�s centennial celebration.
A state legislative resolution approved in September also recognized the Gurdwara�s centennial and detailed its historic significance.
The Sikh American community, that resolution said, �continues to peacefully overcome attacks on its identity and practices � whether in the form of school harassment, employment discrimination, or murder,� including those of six Sikhs at an Oak Creek, Wis., temple shot to death in August by a man with white supremacist ties.
