{"id":70997,"date":"2026-02-10T21:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T02:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/wp\/articles\/rising-cultural-awareness-in-punjabi-youth\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T17:17:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T22:17:45","slug":"rising-cultural-awareness-in-punjabi-youth","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/wp\/articles\/rising-cultural-awareness-in-punjabi-youth\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising Cultural Awareness in Punjabi Youth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ranveer Singh Sahota <\/strong><\/p>\n

Having arrived in Hong Kong in early 1996, I was mesmerised by the vibrancy and energy of this bustling city. Until then, the city existed in my memories, only as home to Bruce Lee, Jacky Chan and for its notorious smuggling syndicates. Bollywood movies of mid eighties heavily influenced this image, as the villains in most movies were always shown to have some connection to Hong Kong. Thus, when I arrived in Hong Kong, I was pleasantly surprised to find the presence of a thriving Punjabi community in Hong Kong. The pleasantness in this surprise element was soon to evaporate, as I started out to carve out my place in the Hong Kong community.   <\/SPAN><\/p>\n

The economy of Hong Kong was at its zenith in 1996 and apart from some concerns on departing British administration and arrival of PLA forces, the economic spirit of Hong Kong was otherwise kicking in full swing. As I started to venture out from my flat in Kennedy Town, I noticed that I attracted lot more glances than a normal minority immigrant would have. I was told that my Turban attracted these glances and that the Chinese do not like a turbaned Indian. This theory was further strengthened as I started seeking employment in the town. That was, perhaps, the most difficult phase of my stay in Hong Kong. Never before, I was made to realise that your Identity matters more than your qualifications. Even basic service providers such as Taxi drivers, Mini Bus drivers routinely ignored my attempts to hire their services. I kept on pondering on these issues and concluded: probably it was ignorance on both sides that prevented mutually beneficial interactions. Meanwhile, I had managed to find employment as a teacher in a school catering to mainly South-Asian minorities. This was to be my first interaction with multilingual Punjabi (both Indian & Pakistani) teenagers, who would effortlessly switch between Punjabi, Cantonese and English in their daily conversations, gaining my envious admiration of their linguistics abilities. Inquisitive as they were, one of them asked a question that I remember to this date. The exact wordings of a 16 year old ‘Sikh’ girl: ‘Sir you are nice, English speaking educated person then why do you tie turban’. Although one girl asked the question, I could see the whole class eager to listen to my answer. I tried my best to give a response but it appeared to me that they clearly linked Turbans to stubbornness, backwardness and illiteracy.   <\/SPAN><\/p>\n

It was through these students of mine that I started to understand the various intricacies and functioning of the Punjabi community in Hong Kong. The strengths and weaknesses, the regional (Majha\/Malwa) divide, the caste\/religion division (Jatts\/Ghumiars\/Aroras, Sikh\/Hindu), Old immigrant\/New immigrant debate, Gurdwara committees selection acts- all of which added more flavour to the understanding of Punjabi community. The seemingly divided community however, would also unite at times of celebration of important religious days like Diwali, Baisakhi, Guru Nanak’s Birthday and Hockey. Those were the pre Zee\/Star TV days in Hong Kong and the only way to kept one informed of happenings in India was through internet, bollywood movies, newspapers and ‘rumours’. I missed Cricket coverage and could not relate myself to Hockey playing Punjabis. I remember renting recorded Cricket matches videos from Chung King mansions. My students would joke about how I was wasting my time watching, what in their opinion was basically a ‘throw and hit’ ball sport.   <\/SPAN><\/p>\n

I also noticed how elderly Punjabi ladies managed to negotiate a bargain in Cantonese at wet markets or how elderly Punjabi men would place their bet on shares and horse racing with Chinese newspapers in hands. Somehow, this generation had picked up enough Cantonese to get by their daily chores. Their children however, mastered near fluency in local language and entered the work force armed with confidence and knowledge of local mindset. It was this generation that I had come in contact with. Teaching them Maths at Gurdwara run tutorial classes in the evenings, I regularly came across teenagers who wanted to share their problems with some one who could listen, sympathise, and more importantly suggest a possible solution to their problems. To them an English speaking turbaned guy was one stop solution, perhaps they saw me as a bridge between them and their parents. This was by no means an easy expectation to cater to, considering that this generation openly defied age-old traditions that their parents held very dear. Although, I had studied juvenile psychology in my B.Ed. (Teacher Training), this presented a totally different context and a real life challenge. I was not a social worker but could also not simply refuse to listen and sympathise with these troubled boys and girls. At one point I had 18 such students who would, at the end of 1-hour maths lessons, insist on talking their personal problems to me. Many more who had not joined the Gurudwara Tutorials but heard about a supportive teacher contacted me through other channels. These tutorials were later put under the umbrella of Shri Guru Gobind Singh Ji (SGGS) Educational Trust. This Trust was the brainchild of Mr Inderbethal Thakral and I believe the community owes him a big appreciation.   <\/SPAN><\/p>\n

Clearly something needed to be done for these teenagers for otherwise we would have lost them forever. Looking to the community’s leadership at Gurdwara was natural but that did not help at all. They, it appeared, could only provide religious guidance. Moreover, the youth that I am referring to did not relate themselves at all to the old gentlemen at the helm of Gurudwara affairs. This was simply not their domain. Repeated requests to form a committee to look at cultural degradation amongst Punjabi youth were either turned down or could not materialise because of annual change of Gurudwara committees. I still believe that the Gurudwara management committees could learn from various Christian churches that regularly organise youth programmes with social and cultural aspects. The only visible activity organised by Gurudwara Leadership (in co-operation with Sahib Shri Guru Gobind Singh Ji Educational Trust-of which the author is also a part<\/em>) is the ‘poorly organised but well appreciated’ Summer Camp for children. The youth again is missing from this effort partly-because the objective of the camp is not aimed at youth.   <\/SPAN><\/p>\n

The constantly bickering and heavily politicised Gurdwara committees clearly failed to provide any suitable lead in this regard. Nor should we be seeking help from religious leadership knowing that they lack both the will and the expertise to be able to deal with these problems effectively. It should however be noted that there is a very fine line that distinguishes culture, social and religious boundaries. Culture degradation amongst Punjabi youth almost invariably invites the religious degradation.   <\/SPAN><\/p>\n

What kind of problems did my students discussed? What is culture degradation? Is there a text-book solution to social and cultural problems of Punjabi youth? I would love to have views from other sikh\/Punjabi migrants scattered all around world. I plan to discuss these issues in my next post. <\/SPAN><\/p>\n

  Ranveer Singh Sahota <\/SPAN><\/p>\n

Hong Kong <\/SPAN><\/p>\n

 <\/SPAN>jessieroni@hgcbroadband.com<\/U> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":70998,"template":"","language":[],"class_list":["post-70997","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/70997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=70997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}