Pioneering Gurudwara Celebrates Forty Years of Building a Community

By Jawahar Malhotra
HOUSTON: The grainy black and white video clip and pictures showed a few young men discussing plans, cutting up lumber and a building slowly taking shape as they sought to build a home for the community’s small Sikh faithful. “ We were just about seven to ten Sikh families back then in 1971 when we decided to build this Gurudwara”, shared Dr. Kanwaljit Singh as he stood by the podium.

Forty years later this past week, he still stands by the temple, with which he has become synonymous, with loyalty and devotion. “Uncle has been a cornerstone for our community”, said Manpreet Kaur, the emcee for the celebratory services and proceedings last Sunday, December 15 at the Sikh Center on 8819 Prairie in northwest Houston. “It was not easy being different in school”, she said, “but the Sikh Center made us feels safe and will always be home”. The event included devotional shabads and a lecture on the importance of mulmantra and adhering to the eight-fold path to a righteous life by Prof. Gurcharan Singh. Two young boys kept accurate and energetic pace on the small cymbals with the singers and the table. Monique Kaur Gill also spoke of her own personal experience at the Center.

The Sikh community has grown multi-fold since then, with a cluster of Gurdwaras around the Sikh Center, including the large one being built off the Beltway, and one on the southwest side. “This was the first Gurudwara in the whole Gulf Coast”, recalled Bobby Singh, a consulting engineer whose parents and extended family are among the ardent supporters of the Sikh Center. “From this, as the community’s needs arose, other Gurdwaras were formed”.

The Sikh Center has evolved in the property it owns at the end of the street which still has a rural and open feel to it. The sanctuary is located above a langar hall and kitchen and a couple of smaller buildings house the Sunday School and other offices. On this Sunday, as on most others, it was a hubbub of activity with a large crowd listening to the kirtan and gurbanis and a steady stream of people walking down the center aisle lined with blazing red wrapped pots of poinsettias to prostate themselves before the Guru Granth Sahib, even as the chief guest Harris County Commissioner’s Court Judge Ed Emmett spoke at the podium.
Bobby Singh had invited Emmett to speak and present awards to several honorees and spoke about the Judge’s long-abiding relationship with India. “Judge Emmett has been to Indian many times and has a son who lives there”, he said, referring to Joseph who is a devotee of the Swami Parthasarathy of the Vedanta Academy outside of Pune (see IAN dated Feb. 1, 2013). “Judge Emmett has opened the doors to his office and offered a seat at the table”, added Bobby about the inclusiveness that Emmett has forged with the Sikh community. He appreciated that Emmett juggled his schedule around in order to attend the celebrations.
Emmett harkened back to his childhood in the little East Texas town of New London “where most people were Protestants with no Catholics and certainly not a Sikh. But I was fascinated by things foreign”, he said at the podium, his head covered by a white handkerchief in the tradition of entering Gurdwaras. “The Sikh community is not about a building”, he said, “It is about a people, about ancestors who built this and those to come”. His message to the congregation was one of inclusiveness, diversity and tolerance and to live in a truthful way. “I come here to celebrate a people’s work”, he added, and then read from a County proclamation marking December 15 as Sikh Center Day, handing it over to Dr. Kanwaljit Singh.
Manpreet Kaur then recognized the co-founders – Dr. Sukhmander Singh; J. P. Singh; Sarwan Singh Purewal ; Jasbir Singh Sethi; Dr. Surjit Singh Grewal; Sadhu Singh; Gurdarshan Singh Brar; Dr. H S Hayre and Dr. Kanwaljeet Singh – among the congregation who had worked hard to make the Sikh Center flourish and as they came to the podium, Emmett presented them with framed awards. Kanwaljit Singh thanked Emmett for attending and then gave a timeline on the growth of the Center and its activities, while downplaying his own role. “I’m just a guy from a little hill station in India”, he chuckled. He presented Emmett a plaque and a set of two books – a total of 1,700 pages – “outlining our struggle for independence to put in the County Library” and noted that “the annual Blood Drives since 1985 were to honor the victims of the Indian Army attack in 1988”.
The Center has an impressive list of firsts along the years among its achievements – Sunday School since 1980, support for the Star of Hope, an annual Blood Drive, a Gurbani radio program, a Doctor’s Clinic, Punjabi Cultural Program, National and International Sikh programs, participation in city events, Interfaith Ministries Dialogues, support for Meals on Wheels and others. The Center draws from families all across the city and its language and religion classes have drawn praise across the country for developing several youngsters who have won first place in national competitions. Those who grew up in it, like Manpreet and Monique Kaur have taken on more responsibilities even as their own kids and the next generation of Sikh Americans continue to participate in the Center’s events.