= My mutual aid senses are tingling. TIL Sikh temples have community kitchens and the tradition of hosting a free meal after service open to all. =





 Sikh Golden Temple (in India) feeds 50k-100k people DAILY for FREE regardless of religion/caste/social status. 



I've eaten at a Sikh temple. I wasn't like on the point of starvation or anything, but it was at a moment when I could really use the help. You tend to remember those moments, and who lent you a hand; it sticks with you

When I was a broke college student I wouldat the Sikh temple almost daily. It all started when my card got declined at a restaurant and the man behind me was Sikh and offered to pay for my meal and then told me to come to the temple the next day. When I got there he had a prepackaged meal waiting for me in case I wanted toat home but invited me to join him and a couple other Sikhs for lunch. It then turned into a daily thing and they’re the nicest people I’ve ever met and a huge influence on my politics and ideas of Mutual aid now
There is restaurant owned by a Sikh family in my neighbourhood that gave away free meals to anyone who couldn't afford food during the pandemic

The Sikhs actually hold themselves to the values all other religions have on paper but don't follow

Sikhism seems like a cool religion, everytime I hear something new about Sikhs, it's always good
I saw an interview where a Sikh was talking about how they started getting a lot ofafter 9/11 frompeople who don’t know the difference between Sikh and Muslim. The interviewer asked why he didn’t just tell people he’s not Muslim

He responded by saying it’s just not right to throw people under the bus to save your own skin and if they’re suffering, we stand with them

Religion gone right. Nothing to add

Yup. You can easily go into any Gurudwara and you will be given free and absolutely delicious food no matter your class, caste, race, gender,etc. Mutual aid is a very central aspect of Sikhism, I'd say. And has been for thousands of years

I think anarchist ideals have always existed within South Asian communities, be it within Theravada Buddhism, Sikhism, the poems and songs of Kabir, Sufis, Bauls and Fakirs

And has been for thousands of years

Sikhism is one of the world's youngest religions at 553 years old


Rosa Luxumebeg covers a lot of material on what she calls primitive agrarian communism in
*Introduction to Political Economy*. Apparently, it it was a social arrangement found in Germanic, Slavic, Indian, African and Amerindian societies so it was really more of a globally-scoped system, and from what I'm reading, hierarchy is absent so calling them anarchistic would be accurate

Unfortunately casteism has spread to all religions in India, even Sikhism. Only in 1920 did "lower caste" Sikhs start being allowed entry into the Golden Temple

I think us Anarchists (and really any kind person who want to help others) should definitely help out our local Sikh temples when they do this, I feel like it’s only right, A N D it’s mutual aid
Everytime I hear anything about sikhism I want to stop cutting my hair and change my name to singh
Same- I seriously contemplated converting a few years back, but decided against it in the end… nothing but respect for Sikh people and their faith
Friendly reminder that others people culture are not to be appropriated without knowing anything about them. I'll tell you right now that stopping the cut of your hair and body hair doesn't give you the right to call yourself Singh or Kaur. Sikhism isn't an excruciating religion to abide to, but it still asks a little of you

You should ask your local Sikhs if you want to inform yourself about their religion and culture

In this moment I would like nothing more than to be there, chopping stuff with them

I mean Sikhism is not even really a religion to begin with with it's more an early version of Indian socialism dressed up to look like a religion they are very revolutionary look up why they have sword shaped necklaces
look up why they have sword shaped necklaces
And they only have those because the state frowns upon the
*actual* swords they're supposed to wear for that purpose

The buddhist community I used to live at would do something like this sometimes as well. Though they needed a lot of outside help in order to feed more people because the monks were mostly very elderly and couldn't do a lot of work

Not all religions are so bad and being classified as "religion" doesnt automatically mean we believe in sky people and damnation for sinning
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