It is not uncommon to be in Sikh gatherings these days and hear the word ‘Media’ come up in presentations, discussions and small talk. The events of September 11th have inadvertently accentuated the presence of media, which to begin with has been fairly ubiquitous in the pre-September days.
In so many more ways we, specially the Sikhs in Diaspora feel the presence, the sound, and the touch of the media around us much more since the fateful encounter of a mega-ton of metal with a mega-ton of concrete on September 11th that consumed thousands of innocent lives in the American northeast. It is all around us, the television screen, the radio, the Internet, the magazines and the newspapers are all vying for our attention.
One might wonder though, has someone consciously raised the media volume or the Sikh community has perked up its ears to the din of the media. Both reasons are true to a certain extent, but the latter seems to be the major contributing factor. An average Sikh in Diaspora finds his or her life directly affected in many ways by the events of September 11th, and is slowly coming to realize that the media has played an integral role in affecting his or her life.
In the real life drama unfolding on every television screen, on every issue of daily newspaper, in every popular magazine, the so-called ‘Enemy’, the source of terror is shown by images, which leave powerful imprints on millions of minds across the globe. These images with dark skinned, bearded and turbaned countenance as the defining features of the ‘Enemy’ might not capture a Sikh’s imagination, but for millions it is similar to an infant’s first view of a human countenance, so fresh, so exotic and one that will leave a lasting imprint.
Suddenly all eyes are on us, in the mall, on the road, in the subway, at school, at work just about everywhere. We know who we are, but our fellow humans don’t. They assume our identity based on the images they see.
Here lies the tragedy of the relationship between the Media juggernaught and the global Sikh community. The relative absence of Sikh presence in Western media has left open the possibility of global viewers confusing Sikhs for images flashing across the dusty fields of Afghanistan. On the other hand, the gross mis-representation of Sikh identity, owing to the lack of genuine Sikh voices in the Indian media has left open the possibility of millions of Indian viewers to create a distorted perception of the Sikh pathos.
One might point out that Sikh media does exist. There are Sikh owned or operated newspapers, magazines, television programs, radio programs and plethora of online resources. Indeed, all of the above resources do exist. But the game here is not necessarily one of numbers. The game involves the freedom of a point of view, and the ability to reach millions with your voice.
Media is a channel of communication, and just like any form of human communication it is based upon individual perception or that of a group. Behind every news-story there is a human being who is reporting a story based on his or her perception of ongoing events. Hundred people viewing an event will report hundred unique descriptions of it.
It is not enough that a Sikh news outlet is run by someone with the lastname ‘Singh’ or someone with a turban and a beard. The crucial issue is whether a genuine Sikh voice is heard. So although diverse Sikh media resources exist around the globe, their ability to represent the Sikh voice and reach millions of Sikhs worldwide, let alone millions of non-Sikhs, is non-existent at this point. This is the real challenge facing the community at the beginning of 21st century.
The diffused voice of the Sikh community is a direct result of rampant corruption, in thought and existence within many strands of its leadership. When reformers emerged to represent the Sikh interest, devious machinations of many so-called Sikh leaders sabotaged all efforts. Most media outlets with a mass public reach have substantial institutional and monetary support. The sad reality confronting the Sikh media is the fledgling institutional and financial support.
Today we stand at the doorstep of the 21st century and find ourselves pushed against the wall. Millions outside India do not know who we are and rely only on physical similarities they see in the media to extrapolate on the origins of Sikh people. Millions in India are being fed a regular media diet of a different story on the origins of the Sikh people.
For Diaspora Sikhs a monumental challenge is to correct and present the true image and utilize media to counter misinformation. We are witnessing the emergence of a class of academic scholars, Sikh and non-Sikh, who have prepared an academic outline of the Sikh identity. Many aspects of this academic Sikh identity (using western perspective) stands in stark contrast to the ideals of the Sikh faith and the Rehat Maryada. For Sikh media pioneers in the West, correction it will be their first challenge.
With the diverse tools at their disposal, the media in India is reconstructing a new Sikh. The sculptors of this re-construction present themselves as Sikhs to the unsuspecting public. Most Sikhs feign innocence or helplessness in dealing with the problem. Those who are aware of the process struggle to have their voices heard by a biased media.
The Sikh presence in the comical humor of Indian cinema is well known. These efforts have gathered pace in recent times. Another genre of Sikh contributions gaining recognition in the Indian cinema is the martial Sikh tradition. This latest effort is part of a larger projection of Sikhs as militant Hindus or Sikhs as followers of a sect of Hinduism sharing common ideals with the Hindu majority to fight the so called demons across the border and within the border, the unpatriotic Islamists.
In India history textbooks are being conveniently re-written and slowly slipped into millions of classrooms. Guru Teg Bahadur is projected as having given his life for Hindus, a common myth perpetuated even by millions of Sikhs as well, not realizing that Guru Teg Bahadur’s sacrifice was to protect the freedom of religious expression not just of the Hindus but all communities.
Copies of the Guru Granth Sahib are being re-printed with images from Hindu mythology gracing its pages. Guru Gobind Singh has been made the ultimate Hindu warrior not realizing the he fought two thirds of his battles with Hindu Hill Rajas and the rest with Mughal forces. In many cities statues of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, founder of the Sikh faith, are on sale alongside the statues of gods from the Hindu faith.
The list goes on and on and one might begin to wonder what does a statue or a history textbook has to do with media. All of the above evidence is a potential source of information, which already has and will continue to make its way into the minds of people across the country and beyond.
The problem being stated the obvious question is: How can Sikhs create an effective media with the ability to reach the masses worldwide?
First and foremost we must understand the intrinsic role the media plays in everyday life to shape human perception. Most Sikhs realize this fact if not consciously, but at-least at a subconscious level.
Sikhs should realize that their future and that of their children is deeply connected to the projection of the Sikh identity in the media today.
The media is a constant classroom that we all attend daily while learning new things. Unless we understand this reality we will continue to face an uphill task to get the world to accept us as a people with its own identity, a glorious past, and a spiritual ideology built on the foundation of love and compassion.
Only if we genuinely embrace this reality will our hearts and mind open to help us share our hard earned resources to create institutions that will support Sikh media. For a successful media a constant supply of monetary resources is required to effectively highlight stories from the ground up. Enormous amounts of human and technological resources are needed to connect viewers to issues that affect their lives and those of their neighbors.
One can go further into a deeper and compelling argument in support of the urgent need for Sikhs to have a lasting and professionally managed media. I will leave you with the wise words of an accomplished writer of our times:
The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster. A nation cannot cross a desert of organized forgetting. -- Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter & Forgetting (1977)
