On Saturday we went to the Vaisakhi parade in Surrey. Sunshine and over 100,000 visitors were expected, so we were very excited. Vaisakhi is a festival celebrating a day that marks both the New Year/ Harvest and the anniversary of one of Sikhism’s most important events, the establishment of Khalsa in 1699. I tried to find some information about the Khalsa and Vaisakhi in the internet and found on the BBC homepage about holy days the following information (cf. http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/sikhism/holydays/vaisakhi.shtml):
In 1699 the tenth guru, Guru Gobind Singh, chose Vaisakhi as the occasion to transform the Sikhs into a family of soldier saints, known as the Khalsa Panth. Guru Gobind Singh founded the Khalsa in front of thousands at Anandpur Sahib. During the Vaisakhi festival Guru Gobind Singh came out of a tent carrying a sword. He challenged any Sikh who was prepared to give his life to come into the tent. The Guru returned alone with his sword covered in blood. He then requested another volunteer and repeated the same action four times until five men disappeared into the tent. The crowd was very concerned until they saw five men return wearing turbans with the Guru. These five men became known as the Panj Piare, or 'Beloved Five'. The men were then baptised into the Khalsa by the Guru. He sprinkled them with Amrit and said prayers. This is the basis of the Sikh baptism ceremony.
Although it was a religious festival, I expected a great variety of people. I assumed that the parade would be like a celebration of multiculturalism and many people with different ethnic heritages would come together and celebrate this day. As we arrived, we realized that most of the people were of South Asian origin and that we were nearly the only visitors. Most of the women, old as well as young, wore saris or other traditional clothes. It was a really nice day and we were able to try lots of different Indian dishes for free, which was certainly not too bad for us students. The opportunity to celebrate Vaisakhi is a right given to a certain cultural group. This reminded me of an essay by Kymlicka (“Multiculturalism Odysseys: Navigating the New International Politics of Diversity”, 2007), with which we dealt in class here in Canada. He said that in a multicultural society, there are different groups who have different demands and distinguishes between three main groups: The treatment of Indigenous people, substate national groups and immigrant groups. These groups are highly targeted and certain generic minority rights are guaranteed to all groups, but there are also a number of targeted categories of minority rights elaborated (cf. ibid, 77). In multiculturalism, where the state should equally belong to all citizens, group differentiation is necessary because there are different needs and claims of different cultural groups. Some of them call for recognition of cultural rights and for example customary law, while others approach federal autonomy or allowing dual citizenship (cf. ibid, 67-73).
On the one hand, by celebrating such occasions the culture keeps alive and can be easier passed on to the next generation living in diaspora. Members of the cultural group feel probably more at home and familiar, because they are able to do actions they are used to. On the other hand, cultural differences are stressed and a feeling of separation and isolation for other society members can occur. Other cultural groups can feel discriminated against, because special claims or demands they have are not given to them. Multiculturalism has a difficult task to find a balance between allowing and denying cultural customs and needs. Another question which arise is why the government should have power about deciding how much culture is allowed in a country and which specific groups should have certain rights? It is a relationship of power which is unequal, because the cultural groups have to depend on the state but the state does not depend on the cultural groups. In my opinion these festivals are important and should be supported, because they give the opportunity to learn about different cultural habits and understand other ways of acting.
It was especially interesting for me to read this journal entry since I also attended the Vaisakhi festival in Surrey with some of our friends from school.
AntwortenLöschenJust as you I was surprised that we almost seemed to be the only non-Indian or non-Sikh visitors at the Vaisakhi because I had heard from several non-Sikh people about this festival and it therefore seemed to be an event that many different ethnic groups would attend. But contrary to what one might expect from being ethnically different and obviously not Indian or Sikh and therefore being of a noticeable otherness, we were welcomed like everyone else.
What also surprised me was that the whole festival seemed to be more of a cultural event than a religious one, since there were dancing performances, free food stands, and of course the big parade, which included again dancing or martial arts performances and even a group of motorcyclists from the Sikh Motorcycle Club. During the whole time at the festival I never felt unwelcome, despite the fact that there were not many other non-Indians around and since some of our friends, who came to the festival with us were Sikh, too, I did not feel as much out of place as I might have felt otherwise.
I am not quite sure how many people I expected to attend the Vaisakhi festival but I remember that I was already impressed by the numbers of people who were coming towards us and who were already leaving the festival. And when we arrived in the main area and street that the parade was going along, I realized how big the Sikh community in Vancouver, Surrey, and probably the whole area including the Fraser Valley actually was. I guess that even if they are not strictly practising Sikhs, they might feel obliged to attend the Vaisakhi festival or just attend it for pleasure.
To sum up, this experience was very unusual to me because I had never heard of this festival before in Germany. It was a unique way to see that their culture still plays an important role for the people of the Indian diaspora in Canada and I can imagine that there are similar parades taking place organized by other diasporas in Canada, such as a Chinese New Year parade in Chinatown or maybe in Richmond, where 45 % of the population is ethnic Chinese. Maybe this is only possible because Canada is a multicultural society, in which every culture is allowed to be practised, whereas in other countries, which favour assimilationist ideals, this would probably not be possible or practised to such an extent.