Sikhi For Kids

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Gurfateh !

One of the roots of my obssession with Sikhi related pictures etc is that when I was growing up in the England of the dark distant 1970s 80s I was always the only Singh at school - I lived in a town with a few Sikh families and 'Sikh resources' were very hard to get hold of . Our local library had only 4 books on Sikhi,one by Khushwant Singh, two by Piara Singh Sambhi / Owen Cole and my favourite - as I was about 7 and liked the pictures - was 'Pavan is a Sikh'. I grabbed as much information as I could wherever I could find it. On TV there were very few 'Sikh' faces - the dodgy comedy 'mind your language' type or the ' let's have a programme about racism type' - anyone remember 'Randhir Singh' and 'gripper' in 'Grange Hill' ? another distant memory is the BBC kids drama 'The Changes' - from the book 'The Devil's Children' by Peter Dickinson - it deals with a time when people have turned against machines and all aspects of modern civilisation - it featured lots of Sikhs and a story line where they are initially feared then become accepted and become heroes and saviours of a village. - The TV situation is not really much better today ! - but the Sikh 'resources' situation is better.

Nowadays most school children in England are taught about all faith communities and are encouraged to reflect on and consider religious and spiritual feelings, experiences and concepts such as worship, wonder, praise, thanks, concern, joy and sadness. This is a great step as in many parts of the world this is unheard of - while sometimes the teaching can be a little 'saris, steelbands and samosas' as it focuses on the surface symbols of dress, food and music - anyone who has tried to give a talk to younger school children will know that sometimes it is hard not to fall into that type of explanation. In the main the teaching is very heartening with emphasis on looking at similarities and personal experiences and asking questions - which can only lead to better understanding.

There are lots of resources available to teachers - many of these resources are also good for Sikh kids as they help discussion and understanding. I am posting some of the videos shown on 'schools' TV about Sikhi - while they are not perfect , they are presented in a child friendly way - I am also posting them as 2 of the 3 films focus on female Sikhs and their experiences - this is heartening as many resources on Sikhi focus exclusively on Male Sikhs.

have a look at the videos and see what you think - if you don't like them - you know what you can do - make one of your own !! - in these days of 'youtube' it's not that hard to reach a wide audience !

Harsimran Kaur - 'The Golden Temple - Sikhism (Channel 4 1996)

Click link to see ;

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=...71&hl=en-GB

Simranjit Kaur - 'God , Oneness and equality' - (BBC 2 1998)

Click link to see ;

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=...34&hl=en-GB

Sahib Singh Lall - 'Living as a Sikh - Vaisakhi ' (BBC 2 1998)

Click link to see ;

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=...34&hl=en-GB

These next pictures are of 3 'Sikh' books for kids published in the UK - they are out of print and hard to get hold of - 'Pavan is a Sikh' was published in 1977 - Pavan is probably about 40 now !. - While it is not a brillant book - with some strange comments which aren't exactly positive - it was one of the first books of its kind, and has some great 1970s pictures.

Rani and Jugnu Singh's 'Stories from the Sikh World' is a classic - it has wonderful illustrations by Jeroo Roy - published in 1987 - Rani and Jugnu used to have a travelling show which performed plays in schools of these stories.

The last book is 'Topsy and Tim meet new friends' - - a favourite because of 'Balraj' , perhaps one of the first books with a little boy with a 'jura and rumaal'

--- aw so sweet !

Pavan is a Sikh - Sean Lyle - A & C Black - 1977

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Stories from the Sikh World - Rani and Jugnu Singh - Macdonald - 1987

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Topsy and Tim meet new friends - Jean and Gareth Adamson - Blackie - 1992 edition

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SORRY for the mammoth post ! - hopefully those with children or nieces and nephews etc will find it useful .

(**If the copyright police are watching SORRY !!**)

Hope you enjoyed the movies and pictures

Pyar Bhari Sat Siri Akaal !

Ranjit Singh 'Freed'