The killings of six worshipers at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin on Sunday, August 5, spurred a series of candlelight vigils, memorial services, and fundraising efforts across the nation. But in West Windsor, a longtime resident and member of the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals wants to deliver the message that American Sikhs are not at all afraid, as the support of friends, neighbors, and business associates has defined this incident more than the tragedy itself.
“Living in West Windsor and working in New York for so long, never have I felt any kind of fear or anything different. Everybody has always been nice and respectful, even in the 24 years I have traveled by train each day. But this was like a shock, and what to do?” says Gary Guleria of 8 Dey Farm Drive in West Windsor.
Guleria has served on West Windsor’s zoning board since 2006. He and his son Amit, a 2002 graduate of High School North, feel fortunate that discrimination has not defined any portion of their lives in West Windsor or beyond. Both men wear turbans and have beards, and they have heard accounts from friends living in the predominantly Sikh neighborhood of Richmond Hill, Queens, “where it’s more blue-collar,” about incidents that have happened since 9/11.
The first hate crime to occur in America after 9/11 was the murder of a Sikh in Mesa, Arizona. On September 15, 2001, Balbir Singh Sodhi was shot and killed by airline mechanic Frank Roque, who confessed to seeking revenge for the terrorist attack by “shooting some towel-heads.”
The West Windsor father and son are compelled to share their experiences as Sikh men — one who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1980s and one who grew up here — and turn the tragedy into a teaching moment. Gary Guleria attended the same college as West Windsor Council President Kamal Khanna — University College of Engineering at Punjab University, Patiala. Guleria came to the United States in 1987 at the age of 40. He is an electrical engineer and the head of A.G. Consulting Engineering in New York City, where Amit Guleria also works.
In India Gary Guleria earned degrees in both law and engineering. He worked as an electrical engineer before going to Baghdad in 1982. From Iraq, Guleria moved on to work in Kuwait for three years before coming to New York City. He lived in Hasbrouck Heights for six months before moving to East Windsor, where Guleria, his wife, and two young sons lived for four years. But drawn by the usual factors — the WW-P school district and the Princeton Junction train station — the Gulerias moved to West Windsor in 1991.
“From the moment we came to East Windsor we realized that my sons were growing up, and for high school we knew West Windsor would be good,” he says.
The Gulerias quickly established themselves in the local community. Gary Guleria was a founding member of the Central Jersey Sikh Association in Washington Township, having served as the Windsor Gurdwara Sahib’s president in 1993. Amit Guleria started in WW-P as a second grader at Maurice Hawk. He recalls that in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Windsor Gurdwara did not exist, and Sikh families would rent out halls and different locations to hold Sunday prayer services.
On Christmas Day, 1993, the Guleria family experienced a tragedy as Jesse Guleria, Amit’s older brother and Gary’s eldest son, died in a car accident. But their horrible circumstances gave the Guleria family great appreciation of West Windsor and its sense of community.
A soccer field and tennis courts at West Windsor Community Park were dedicated to Jesse. An outpouring of support from friends and neighbors comforted the family. To return the love, the Gulerias have awarded a scholarship to an outstanding WW-P high school student in each of the past 18 years.
Gary Guleria says in the past decade some friends told him that he should move because taxes are high and Amit had completed school. But he and his wife have no interest in leaving town.
“We don’t consider India as our home; West Windsor is our home,” says Amit Guleria.
As Amit’s senior year of high school began, tragedy struck again. This time America was attacked. In the aftermath of 9/11 Sikhs were persecuted by some who equated them with the Arabs responsible for the attack. But as a WW-P high school student, Amit Guleria was unaffected.
“In my entire time in West Windsor I never felt discriminated against or that there was bias put against me because I’m a Sikh and I wear a turban — before or after September 11, 2001. A lot of times Sikhs encounter something while walking around — people may call you a terrorist or Osama bin Laden — and that never happened to me,” he said.
His father echoed that feeling of acceptance.
“In West Windsor, not at all. In Manhattan, not at all. Never, ever have the cops even checked my bag at Penn Station due to racial profiling. There is random checking done, but nowhere have I felt differentiated or discriminated for being a Sikh,” said Gary Guleria.
Amit Guleria says at the most he has heard from some younger Sikh boys who wear patkas (small turbans) that referees would sometimes not allow them to play sports because of their headwear. There were no hate crimes he could recall.
In college at Penn State University, however, the student body was less accepting of diversity, though Guleria says he encountered only minor racist remarks.
“Every once in a while you see those things, but definitely there are Sikhs I know who have encountered much, much worse things than I have. Speaking for others, I think in a larger context Sikhs have experienced bias against them, whether it’s through softer crimes like name-calling or harder crimes like violence,” Amit Guleria says.
Hardly anything about Sikhism, the world’s fifth-largest organized religion, is taught in schools. Amit Guleria says that in his academic career in West Windsor-Plainsboro, he can recall one page of one history textbook in eighth grade mentioning Sikhism. He says the class spent just a few minutes on the subject, but for him he was simply excited to see even an acknowledgement of his culture in the classroom.
“I think if you were to do a survey of how many people in America know what a Sikh is — or if they saw a Sikh standing next to a Hindu, Muslim, or someone from the Middle East in a line, they would really not know which one is which,” Guleria says.
But in WW-P, many of his teachers gave Amit an opportunity to speak about his religion to the rest of the class “and do a little Q & A.” In the aftermath of the Wisconsin tragedy the opportunity for Sikhs to provide insight has come full circle. Amit Guleria says the onus is now on the Sikh community across the country to do a better job of informing their neighbors, friends, business associates, and classmates.
“After September 11 the media kept showing images of the World Trade Center collapsing followed by images of a person with a beard and turban (bin Laden). If anybody keeps seeing that, they would draw an association and say hey, these are the people that caused 9/11. That has been a problem,” Guleria said.
He recognizes that media coverage of 9/11 could have inadvertently contributed to violence against Sikhs — continuing to the present day.
“It’s sad to say, but a lot of these events — especially this one in Wisconsin — proves that portraying these images probably motivated the assassin to do what he did,” Guleria said.
Sunday, August 5, brought about the usual routine as Gary and his wife went to the Gurdwara Sikh Sabha in Lawrenceville that morning. Meanwhile Amit Guleria was visiting friends; a group of young Sikh men around his age living in Connecticut. Amit was first to know when he saw a TV report. He immediately texted his mother, but many other friends and relatives had contacted the family as well.
“The moment we came back home we started watching CNN and we got calls from all different friends. Everybody was shocked calling each other and saying ‘what can we do?’ It was a very tense situation because the media kept saying the police will present the full report (the next day),” Gary Guleria said.
The next morning he went to work and found messages from more American colleagues. Amit Guleria says many people in the township have called or approached the family to talk with them about what occurred.
“Even doing everyday things like going to the grocery store, people understood. They approached us and expressed similar concerns to what we felt about it, and they also felt very sorry about what happened in Wisconsin,” he says.
Prior to joining his father’s firm in 2009, Amit Guleria worked as an electrical engineer at two other firms; Cosentini Associates and Parsons Brinckerhoff. Guleria was part of High School North’s first graduating class in 2002 before heading to Penn State for his bachelor’s degree in engineering, which he earned in 2006. He decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and those of his uncles as well. Gary Guleria has two other brothers living in New Jersey. All three brothers graduated as electrical engineers from Punjab University-Patiala’s University College of Engineering.
“Every one of us is a professional engineer, licensed in America, but just like Kamal Khanna went into business they went into business. But now I am the only one doing engineering business,” he said.
Gary Guleria’s mother was a homemaker, and he says his father “was an educationist.” Amit’s grandfather was a professor in government commerce college in India, having retired as the college’s principal. He came to New Jersey in 1988 to live with Gary, Amit, and the family. He died in 2010.
Gary Guleria and his wife took part in a candlelight vigil at the Sikh Sabha Gurdwara in Lawrenceville on Wednesday, August 8. That same night, Amit Guleria attended a candlelight vigil with more than 1,000 others in New York’s Union Square. Guleria said it was easily double the crowd of New York City’s annual Sikh Day parade each April.
Amit Guleria said he contributed $500 to the website set up by the families of the victims of the Wisconsin shooting. “They are willing to accept any donations people would like to give, just to help pay for hospital bills and funeral costs. I believe the proceeds will also benefit police officers that were shot, including Brian Murphy,” he said.
Gary Guleria says the Lawrenceville Gurdwara is also collecting donations. “Those who lost their loved ones, as well as the kids those victims left behind, will need financial support. We will try to do what we can to raise money,” he said.
But the family sees bigger challenges to meet. Gun control was mentioned at some memorial services and Sen. Bob Menendez said at the Lawrence vigil that he would put his best efforts towards legislation for gun control.
His son sees welcoming others as a first step towards better awareness of the Sikh faith.
“We want to encourage everyone to go to a Gurdwara on a Sunday and learn about Sikhs. We offer free food to everybody (the langar meal, usually served at 1 p.m.) Everybody is welcome and invited, and we would love for people in the community to come see what we’re about.”
“This would be a great way for people to gain exposure –– to learn by seeing our culture firsthand. It would be an opportunity for them to get to know us better and we could know them better,” he said.
