Ms. Pearl S. Buck, the eminent Nobel Laureate lamented that Sikhism is such a modern religion but world did not know about it. UNESCO declared Guru Granth Sahib, a heritage for the whole humanity.

Unfortunately, the main stream Sikh effort in India did not appreciate the full import of such observations. The Sikh Foundation for the last 35 years has undertaken the task of presenting the profound richness of Sikh Heritage to the western Academia and has been empowering the Sikh Youth of Diaspora. In brief these efforts included:

• Publication of a scholarly magazine “Sikh Sansar”.
• Propagating in presentable packaging, a library set and a set for children, of existing books on and about Sikhism in English.
• Holding Retreats for the Sikh Youth.
• Organizing and funding international lecture tours of Eminent Sikh Scholars.
• Organizing Academic Sikh Conferences at University of California Berkeley and other academic institutions.
• Initiating and funding a Punjabi Teaching Program at University of California, Berkeley.
• Punjabi Language Program at Stanford University, now in its 7th year was also started and being continuously supported and funded by the Sikh Foundation.
• A very  pleasant outcome of these efforts has been that now a number of Universities in North America are offering Punjabi Language Programs and the local Sikh communities are financially supporting these programs. Some of the Universities include: San Jose State University, Cal State University - Sacramento, McGill University, Montreal and York University, Toronto.
• Yet another surprising and laudable outcome has been that Stanford Sikh Students, on their own initiative, have started an accredited and very popular course in Sikhism.
• Finally recently, Punjabi has been recognized as a Court Language in the State of California because of these initiatives.

The Landmark Achievement: The Kapany, Chair of Sikh Studies

Kundan Kaur Kapany (1906-1984)

Prof. Gurinder S. Mann In 1998, The Sikh Foundation broke new ground in North America with the establishment of the First Chair in Sikh Studies. Dr. Narinder Singh Kapany, in the memory of his mother endowed The Kundan Kaur Kapany, Chair of Sikh Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). The first occupant of the chair is Dr. Gurinder Singh Mann. Dr. Mann is an eminent interdisciplinary scholar of Sikhism and interestingly holds a joint appointment in the Global and International Studies Program and Department of Religious Studies. Thus he brings in a global perspective to Sikh Studies. Please visit us again to learn more about immaculate record of achievement by Dr. Mann in the last 3 years and his future plans.

Multi Campus Sikh Studies Program

After having established and endowed the Sikh Studies Chair at UCSB, the Sikh Foundation undertook to expand it into a Multi-Campus Program. With persistent efforts, another Sikh Studies Chair at UC Riverside and a Fellowship at UC Irvine were finalized.

Dr. Jasbir Singh Saini The Sikh Foundation gratefully acknowledges the far-sighted vision and support of Mrs. Sharanjit Kaur Saini of Phoenix, Arizona and the Trustees of Late Dr. Jasbir Singh Saini, an eminent Gursikh Cardiologist. The chair at UC Riverside has been endowed in the memory of Dr. Jasbir Singh Saini. Local Sikh Community also supports.

Sarabjit Singh Aurora Similarly, the Sikh Foundation gratefully acknowledges the great visionary support of S. Hardit Singh, an eminent engineer and business entrepreneur in San Antonio, Texas. He has funded the Fellowship at U.C. Irvine in the memory of his son S. Sarabjit Singh Aurora, an eminent Computer Scientist and a very successful young business entrepreneur.

Grant Proposals

Recently in collaboration with University of California, Consortium of Language, Learning and Teaching (U.C. CLLT), The Sikh Foundation submitted a grant seeking proposal to the U.S. Dept. of Education for soliciting funds for the development of modern and technological tools for teaching of Punjabi Language. CLLT is a institution within the University of California that has developed similar tools for many other ethnic minorities. They believe that once these e-learning tools developed, any individual could learn to read, write and speak Punjabi language fluently within a period of one year, without a physical teacher. Several Punjabi Language Teachers and Sikh hi-tech professionals have endorsed this grant proposal by accepting to become consultants in this project. We hope to hear from the U.S. Dept. of Education in a couple of months.

Also another grant seeking proposal was submitted by the University of California, Humanities Research Institute in collaboration with The Sikh Foundation to a well renowned grant making foundation in the field of Science and Technology. If the grant is awarded, the U.C. HRI and The Sikh Foundation will undertake a program to electronically archive and document all the Sikh Art & Architecture available all over the globe.

Our Goals

Sikh Chairs
Our Goal for the next five years is to establish TWENTY Sikh Studies Chairs/Fellowships. 3 as described above plus 2 more, Total of 5 in California. 3 – in the East Coast 2 – in Canada 9 - in other parts of U.S.A, U.K. and South Asian countries with Sikh population like Singapore, Thailand etc. including Fellowships at some of the prestigious “Think Tanks”, such as Institute of Foreign Studies, Heritage Foundation, Brookings Institute.

Sikh School Project
We believe that we owe it to our posterity to give them finest education including thorough grounding in Sikh belief, to prepare them for their intended leadership role in various fields. To achieve this goal, we have to establish a private school for Sikh students. It will be an independent private high school teaching general studies, Sikhism and Punjabi language courses. This community-based school will also have boarding facilities. It will be egalitarian and pluralistic in approach aiming at producing future leaders.

This project is currently on the “drawing board” and its details are under development. Please visit us soon again to keep abreast of the developments on this project.