We are not strangers to sexual abuse by kirtanias and granthis

By Jasleen Kaur (Sikhri) | UNITED STATES |

In the United States, 1 in 9 girls and 1 in 53 boys under the age of 18 have experienced sexual abuse or assault at an adult’s hands.i. As a community, we are not strangers to the sexual abuse of minors, especially by kirtanias (Sabad-Wisdom singers) and granthis (religious custodians at the Sikh place of learning Gurduara) we trust and respect. There are countless cases of abuse perpetrated by those who benefit from their status as religious leaders, and who enjoy a kind of immunity when it is revealed that they have committed abuse. Due to lack of precedent and skills on how to respond, more often than not, sangats (congregations) rush to support them, institutions rush to conceal abuse, and survivors are left with their trauma and the realization that their community chose to fail them.

We fail survivors again and again.

We have no adequate collective responses to these cases.

We have no adequate institutional responses to these cases.

When an anonymous blog surfaced this summer, reiterating the allegations related to one such case and providing links to articles and court documents, Gurdarshan Singh, the Granthi of the Guru Gobind Singh Foundation (GGSF) in Potomac, Maryland, began to hear rumblings from the broader community, asking for accountability.

Growing up in the DC area, I remember hearing the adults around me say things like, “we don’t go to that Gurduara,” referring to GGSF. This was in the late 1990s. I was too young to understand why, but a few years ago, I learned that the charges against Gurdashan Singh for sexual abuse of a child were well-known. The court documents stated that the abuse took place for more than a year, during kirtan (singing of Gurbani; Divine Praise) lessons. From 1989 until 1991, the abuse took place years before the court case came to light; the survivor was between 11 and 13 years of age.

Much to my horror, even though the court records were available to the public and these accusations were commonly known amongst the sangat, Gurdarshan Singh continued to sit on the stage at GGSF and sing sabads, deliver his kathas (explanatory talks), and benefit from the name he had made for himself as the charismatic Granthi who could do katha in English. He continued to be given access to children, and parents of children in the sangat continued to trust him with teaching their kids. I remember being horrified — I still am — at the notion that an entire sangat rallied around a man who pleaded guilty to abusing a child.

This past weekend, the parents of one survivor bravely came forward with their recollection of that time. In their interview, they describe how, in their words, the Board of the GGSF Gurduara, led by Dr. Rajwant Singh, decided to protect Gurdarshan Singh’s reputation and the reputation of their institution by smearing the reputation of the survivor. They made that decision twenty-five years ago, and the survivor and her family suffered for it.

To read the full article, ‘Circles of Influence, Circles of Abuse’ (SikhRi website, 1 Oct 2020), click here. Asia Samachar has reached out to Dr Rajwant Singh for his comments.

RELATED STORY:

Yogi Bhajan’s fall from grace. The ‘sexual abuse’ is just the just beginning (Asia Samachar, 20 Aug 2020)