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Abstract: 

This article locates itself in the broader, even existential, questions facing the anti-violence movement in the U.S.: how can community-based alternatives be supported to interrupt cycles of family violence and how can mainstream service providers operate from a place of cultural humility without replicating dynamics of control survivors of family violence seek to escape? We focus on the experience of the Sikh community in the U.S. as an instructive example. This community is too often lost under larger identity umbrellas and very seldom studied on its own. We draw from the experience of Sikh Family Center, which was created 15 years ago and remains the only U.S. organization focused on gender justice in the U.S. Sikh community. We explore the evidence-based grassroots methodology, the community data, the barriers, and the programming successes of the Center. We note that there are structural and systemic reasons for why the scope and context of pernicious violence faced by Sikhs is often overlooked, which then results in discussions of violent incidents in the Sikh community being stripped of context, nuance, and completeness. While violence exists, there is also resistance and strength in the collectivist Sikh culture. Only with this complete picture could attempts at “culturally-informed” services sufficiently reach the most vulnerable survivors and engage the broader community in change. (This article is being made available free of charge, courtesy of the Sikh Family Center.)

Keywords: Sikhs; domestic violence; sexual violence; community-based; culture; transformative justice

Affiliations:  1: Sikh Family Center; 2: UC Berkeley School of Law.