In the News…

Howard Koplowitz, March 15, 2007

QMA SHOW TRACKS BORO SIKH ELECTIONS

The journey taken by five Sikh men last year that led them to become the first from their culture to win elected office in the city is now on display this month through a series of 20 photographs at the Queens Museum of Art.

The exhibit, entitled "Fighting Prejudice With Votes: Sikhs in New York," documents the campaigns of Mohinder Singh, Harjinder Singh Duggal, Harpreet Wahan, Gurmej Singh and Dhan Singh of Richmond Hill in their effort to be elected to the Queens County Democratic Committee, where members participate in state Democratic Party conventions and get to choose the party's nominees for statewide office. Committeemen also design campaigns and adopt platforms for the Queens organization.

On display until the end of the month, the photographs also introduce the Sikh culture and beliefs to those who are uninformed about the religion. Adherents of the world's fifth-largest religion have faced prejudice in the city and across the country due to the common misconception that they are Muslim or terrorists because they wear turbans.

Documentary photographer Sarah Tew said she was contacted by the Grassroots Initiative, a nonprofit organization that assists first-time candidates for public office, about the Sikh men near the beginning of their 2006 campaign and was interested. Tew, 28, said she was a religion major in college but the Sikh faith was not really discussed.

"This is a group that has been experiencing so much prejudice and misunderstanding," Tew said in a telephone interview Monday, noting she hopes the public will get to know Sikhs better through the exhibit. "These people are here because they want to be Americans."

Mohinder Singh said there may be "uninformed people who don't understand" his religion, but there are also "some very nice people, too" who he encountered knocking on doors during the campaign.

He said only 12 votes were recorded for the committee seat he was running for and he received 11 of them. The district only encompassed about two or three streets, he said.

While maintaining their own identity, Sikhs have assimilated into American culture, as evidenced by two contrasting pictures at the exhibit that show teenagers playing basketball and another of men competing in Kabbadi Ð the state game of the Punjab region of India.

Another picture shows Amardeep Singh of the Sikh Coalition in his office wearing a turban and a liberty bell sits on his desk.

"To have something like that on your desk, it shows how seriously you take the American dream," Tew said.