Gurdwara Sahib Stockton | |
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Religion | |
Affiliation | Sikhism |
Location | |
Location | 1930 S Sikh Temple St, Stockton, CA 95206 |
Geographic coordinates | 37°56′03″N 121°16′29″W / 37.93406°N 121.27475°W |
Architecture | |
Date established | October 24, 1912 |
Website | |
http://stocktongurdwara.org/ |
Gurdwara Sahib Stockton is a gurdwara located in the city of Stockton, California. It is notable for being the first Sikh house of worship in the United States. [1]
The Pacific Coast Khalsa Diwan Society founded the gurdwara in 1912.
Jawala Singh, a successful potato farmer in the San Joaquin Valley, leased a 500-acre ranch with business partner Wasakha Singh in Holtville, next to Stockton. Immigrating Punjabi Sikh farmers would perform prayers in a room on the farm with the Guru Granth Sahib. [1] Jawala and Wasakha would eventually found the gurdwara on South Grant Street in a house, but their ranch would become an important religious, social, and political center associated with the gurdwara. [2] [3]
Jawala went on to form the Ghadar Party, a revolutionary movement that called for diaspora Indians to end the British occupation of India. [3] The Stockton Gurdwara would serve as an important benefactor of the Ghadar Party, sponsoring the first Punjabi language newspaper in the United States, The Ghadar, among other support. [4]
Dalip Singh Saund, Democrat CA-29, the first Sikh American, the first Asian American, the first Indian American and the first member of a non- Abrahamic faith to be elected to Congress. His studies at University of California, Berkeley, were sponsored by the Stockton Gurdwara. [5]