By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times –
NEW DELHI — India reacted with grief and outrage Monday at the news that at least six Sikhs were killed when a gunman attacked them the day before in their Wisconsin temple as they prayed and prepared food.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, himself a Sikh, said in a statement that he was shocked and saddened by the news and extended his condolences to the families of the victims.
“India stands in solidarity with all the peace-loving Americans who have condemned this violence,” he said, adding that he hoped “such violent acts are not repeated in the future.”
On Sunday, a gunman later identified by American officials as a U.S. Army veteran opened fire on worshipers at a suburban Sikh gurdwara, or temple, in Oak Creek, Wis., before he was shot and killed by police. His motives were not clear, although local police labeled it a case of “domestic terrorism.” Initial reports were that he acted alone. The FBI has launched an investigation.
India has a growing problem with gun violence, and ranks second worldwide in absolute numbers of civilian guns at 40 million, according to gunpolicy.org, a website hosted by the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney in Australia. However, guns and ammunition are strictly regulated in India and their numbers and use pales beside America’s estimated 270 million firearms. India has fewer than four guns for every 100 people, compared with about 89 guns per 100 Americans, the world leaders.
“The gun culture in America is a bit disturbing,” said Rohan Sabharwal, 23, a Sikh dressed in an orange turban shopping in a Delhi market. “It’s a sad, regrettable thing to have this happen.”
At the Golden Temple in Amritsar near the Pakistan border, one of the Sikh religion’s most sacred shrines, officials said they were planning a three-day prayer vigil in honor of the victims. “We are still in shock after the incident,” Avtar Singh, the president of the trust that runs the temple, told local media.
Protesters Monday in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir blocked a highway and waved banners calling for stronger U.S. gun laws. And Sikh parties pledged to mount a peaceful demonstration in front of the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, as American Ambassador Nancy Powell visited New Delhi’s largest Sikh gurdwara in a show of solidarity over what she described as a “ghastly act of violence.”
As part of their religious heritage, Sikh male Indians wear long beards and turbans to cover their uncut hair. Since Sept. 11, 2001, Sikhs and other South Asians have been the victims of mistaken identity, starting just four days after the World Trade Center attack when a Sikh gas station owner in Mesa, Ariz., was taken for an Arab Muslim and killed.
Since then, according to the Sikh Coalition, a New York-based activist group, there have been some 700 cases of random violence, killings, vandalism, bullying, beatings and intimidation against the Sikh community in the U.S.
Arvinder Kaur, an English professor at Post-Graduate Government College for Girls in Chandigarh, said her American Sikh relatives don’t wear turbans so they are better able to blend in.
“But I’m concerned for them,” she said, although she’s not going to cancel a planned trip to the U.S. “We can’t be scared. We can’t let these people get away with this kind of discrimination.”
About 3,000 Sikh families live in southeastern Wisconsin, according to the local Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper, part of the estimated 250,000 to 500,000 living in the United States and 25 million worldwide. Sikhism, a monotheistic religion founded in the Punjab region of India in the 15th century, broke with Hinduism partly over the Sikhs’ opposition to the caste system. The first U.S. gurdwara was established in Stockton, Calif., in 1912.
