World Sikh Council | Unite Sikhs. Serve Humanity.

What we are trying to do

Every Sikh child should grow up knowing who they are.

Ask a Sikh child in California to read Gurbani in its own script and most cannot. Ask their parents to navigate a report card, a school counsellor, or a financial aid form in English and many struggle. Both problems are solvable, and almost nobody is working on the second one.

The World Sikh Council teaches children their heritage and, in the same building at the same time, helps their parents understand the system their children are growing up inside. Everything else we do follows from that.

See the programme →

How we are led

Led by five. Owned by no one.

In 1699 Guru Gobind Singh Ji asked the sangat for a head. Five rose, one after another. The Guru then knelt and took amrit from them, placing the community's authority above his own person. That is the tradition this Council is built on.

5

Chosen servants decide together

$0

Paid in salary to any member

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Political parties involved

501(c)(3)

Registered US public charity

What we stand for

Six objectives, written into our constitution.

These are not a wish list. They are the objects the Council was founded on, and every programme we run has to answer to one of them.

1
Kirat karo, Naam japo, vand chhako
Earn honestly, remember the Name, and share what you have. The three that hold the rest up.
2
High character in our children
Raise children with good conduct and the sant-sipahi spirit: gentle in the sangat, unbending in the face of wrong.
3
Push young people into higher education
Encourage and support Sikh youth to go as far in school as they are able, and help their parents navigate a system they did not grow up in.
4
A drug-free, healthy community
Work openly against the addiction that is emptying our families, and build the habits that replace it.
5
Stand with families who are struggling
Help with the weddings of daughters in families that cannot afford them, and get rations to people hit by disaster.
6
An end to caste and discrimination
One pangat, one bowl. Guru Gobind Singh Ji settled this in 1699 and we are not reopening it.

Upcoming programmes

What we are building first.

We are a new organisation and we are starting deliberately small. One programme, run every month, documented properly. These are commitments, not history.

September 2026 · Stockton

Saturday School: Gurmukhi and Sikh history

Free, monthly, for children aged 9 to 13. Parents meet in the next room for guidance in Punjabi on schools, counsellors and financial aid.

Enrolling

October 2026 · Stockton

Dastaar and gatka workshop

A half-day where children learn to tie their own dastaar and take a first gatka lesson from trained instructors.

Planned

Winter 2026 · Punjab

Village teaching partnership

Contracted Gurmukhi teachers running weekly classes in Punjab villages, with attendance and photographs recorded for every session.

In preparation

Ongoing

Seva days with local families

Food distribution and school supplies for families who need them, in partnership with our local gurdwara sangat.

Open to volunteers

Education

Gurmukhi & heritage

Seva

Families in need

Youth

Drug-free futures

Heritage

Ten Gurus, two and a half centuries, one thread.

You cannot teach children who they are without teaching them where they come from. This is the short version of the story our classes begin with.

1469 – 1539

Guru Nanak Dev Ji

Founded the Sikh path. Settling at Kartarpur in 1522 he opened a kitchen of grain, free to anyone who came.

1504 – 1552

Guru Angad Dev Ji

Gave the community its own script and its schools, teaching from 1541 without regard to caste.

1479 – 1574

Guru Amar Das Ji

Ruled that everyone eats together in one pangat, and appointed twenty-two preachers, among them a Pathan horse-trader.

1534 – 1581

Guru Ram Das Ji

Founded the settlement of Guru ka Chak and dug the pool beside it. The pool was named Amritsar, and the city took its name from the water.

1563 – 1606

Guru Arjan Dev Ji

Laid the foundation of Harmandir Sahib in the middle of the pool, and in 1604 completed and installed the first volume of Sikh scripture.

1595 – 1644

Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji

Took up two swords, miri and piri. Leaving Gwalior fort he brought fifty-two imprisoned rajas out with him.

1630 – 1661

Guru Har Rai Sahib Ji

When the emperor's own heir lay poisoned and the medicine could not be found, he sent it from his treasury and asked nothing in return.

1656 – 1664

Guru Har Krishan Sahib Ji

Challenged by a proud scholar, the child Guru sent for the most unlettered man in the town and had him answer instead.

1621 – 1675

Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib Ji

Kashmiri pandits asked him to protect a faith that was not his own. He gave his head for their right to keep it.

1666 – 1708

Guru Gobind Singh Ji

On Vaisakhi 1699 he asked for a head and five came forward, from five corners of the country and five castes. He passed the Guruship to the Granth and the Panth.

He carried water for the langar, day after day. When the fighting reached Anandpur he carried it onto the battlefield, gave it to wounded Sikhs, gave it to wounded Muslims, and dressed their wounds with the same hands. He did not sort the injured into ours and theirs.

Bhai Kanhaiya Ji, the standard we serve by

From our history

Three things worth telling a child.

Water for both armies

Ghanaiya Ram was a Khatri from Sodhra. He became a Sikh in the time of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji, and the work he took up was plain: carrying water for the langar, day after day. Years later, when the fighting reached Anandpur, he carried water onto the battlefield. He gave it to wounded Sikhs. He also gave it to wounded Muslims, and dressed their wounds with the same hands. The Guru was pleased with him, gave him his own handkerchief, and appointed him head of a following. That order still exists, and its whole rule is to live by honest work and to serve.

A death for someone else's faith

A group of pandits from Kashmir crossed the mountains and kept walking until they reached Anandpur. They had been ordered to accept Islam, and had bought themselves six months. They asked Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji to protect a faith that was not his own. He sat without speaking for a long time. Then he told them what to do: go to Delhi, put your case, and give the emperor a name. Say that if Guru Tegh Bahadur is converted, all of you will follow. He knew exactly what that sentence cost. He was executed at Chandni Chowk in November 1675. He was not a Hindu. He died for the right of Hindus to stay Hindu.

Five men, one bowl

On the first of Vaisakh, 1699, Guru Gobind Singh Ji stood before a huge gathering at Keshgarh, drew his sword, and asked for a head. Nobody moved. He asked again. One man stood up. Then a second, a third, a fourth, a fifth. When they came out they were asked their homes. The first came from Lahore. The others from Hastinapur, Dwarka, Bidar and Jagannath Puri, the four far corners of the country. Among them were a Jat, a calico-printer, a barber and a water-carrier. Then they all drank from the same bowl, and no distinction of caste remained. He called them the Beloved Five.

The state of the panth

The problems we exist to work on.

We would rather name these honestly than pretend they are not happening.

A generation losing the script

Children born in the diaspora speak some Punjabi but increasingly cannot read Gurmukhi. Without the script, Gurbani becomes something recited rather than understood.

Bullying that goes unreported

A 2024 national survey of Sikh students found that most experienced bullying, and nearly half never told anyone. Reaching the child is not enough. You have to reach the parent.

Punjab's addiction crisis

Drugs have taken a generation of young people in Punjab. Sport, mentorship and honest guidance are not a cure, but they are what a community can offer while it waits for one.

Day to day

What a month actually looks like.

No mystery, no committees for their own sake. This is the rhythm we hold ourselves to.

One class

One Saturday session every month, same room, same time, so families can plan around it.

Every session recorded

Attendance counted, five photographs taken, receipts filed. A session is not finished until it is documented.

Panj Piare review

The Five meet monthly. Accounts are inspected quarterly and audited once a year.

Published openly

What happened, how many came, what it cost. Posted where anyone can read it, in both languages.

ਦਸਵੰਧ

Your dasvandh becomes someone's tomorrow.

The World Sikh Council is a registered 501(c)(3) public charity, EIN 99-1948555. Nobody here takes a salary, so a gift goes to the work. Donations are tax-deductible in the United States.

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Other ways to give

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Sponsor one child's year of classes

Follow along

Watch the work as it happens.

Get in touch

Come and see for yourself.

Whether you want to enrol a child, teach a class, give an afternoon, or just ask what we are actually doing, write to us. Somebody real reads every message.

Phone
(916) 907-1313
Email
worldsikhcouncil1313@gmail.com
Post
5890 Stoneridge Drive, Suite 109
Pleasanton, CA 94588