SIKH PROTEST LANGAR
For The New York Times; June 2020
One of the major tenets of Sikhism is langar: the practice of serving free meals to visitors at Sikh places of worship called gurdwaras. Gurdwaras are closed because of the pandemic, but the practice persists as Sikhs have been making meals and delivering them to New York communities vulnerable to the coronavirus. In the first two months of the pandemic, the Sikh Center of New York, in Queens Village, has made nearly 150,000 meals.
As the George Floyd protests brought thousands of people out into the public again, the World Sikh Parliament took to the streets to continue langar. In early June 2020 I spent a day with Himmat Singh and the other members of his gurdwara, as they made thousands of meals to deliver to a protest in Sunnyside, Queens.
