The Indian Panorama

Tag: Amardeep Singh

  • Indian-origin Sikh writer and filmmaker Amardeep Singh honored with Hofstra University’s Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize

    Amardeep Singh with the Guru Nanak Interfaith Award. From L to R: Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, Businessman and Philanthropist Tejinder Singh Bindra, Honoree, Amardeep Singh, President of Hofstra University Dr Susan Poser, Dean Daniel Seabold.

    NEW YORK (TIP): An author, researcher and filmmaker who has focused his work on the history and legacy of Sikhism was awarded Hofstra University’s 2022 Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize at a banquet Nov. 14 at the Crest Hollow Country Club. Amardeep Singh, co-managing director and co-founder of Lost Heritage Productions in Singapore, recently completed a 24-episode documentary series retracing the 16th century travels of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion. The series, “Allegory: A Tapestry of Guru Nanak’s Travels” was filmed at more than 150 multi-faith sites in nine countries.

    Singh has written several books, including “Lost Heritage: The Sikh Legacy In Pakistan” and “The Quest Continues: Lost Heritage – The Sikh Legacy” and produced two documentaries based on his experiences traveling in Pakistan, “Peering Warrior” and “Peering Soul”.  The $50,000 Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize is bestowed every two years to recognize significant work to increase interfaith understanding. “Hofstra University is pleased to present the 2022 Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize to Amardeep Singh, for his work exploring and preserving Sikh heritage and culture,” Hofstra President Susan Poser said during the award ceremony. “As an author and independent filmmaker, Mr. Singh demonstrates a deep commitment to the values that Guru Nanak embodied and to the principles of religious understanding.” Before the banquet, Singh and his wife, Vininder Kaur, who directed and wrote the Guru Nanak docuseries, discussed the project at Hofstra University. “Having the Guru Nanak prize at Hofstra provides our College of Liberal Arts & Sciences faculty and students with an extraordinary opportunity, and one that aligns with our mission as an educational institution,” President Poser said. A committee of faculty and administrators unanimously chose Singh from among 18 nominees, said Daniel Seabold, acting dean of Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “The committee was greatly impressed by Amardeep Singh’s examination of Guru Nanak’s interest in seeking universal fellowship among people of diverse faiths,” Seabold said. Members “considered several worthy organizations whose work is larger in scale but decided that an award to Mr. Singh would be more impactful.”

    His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso was the first winner of the Guru Nanak Prize in 2008. Since then, eight individuals and organizations have been recognized with the prize, including 2020 co-honorees author and scholar Dr. Karen Armstrong and her global Charter for Compassion movement, and the Interfaith Center of New York. “To receive the Guru Nanak Prize from Hofstra University is a humbling recognition of our belief that the essence of existence is love for togetherness,” Singh said. “His message of unity in diversity was, is and will remain a ray of hope for a united world.” 

    The Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize was established in 2006 by Sardar Ishar Singh Bindra and family and named for the founder of the Sikh religion. It is meant to encourage understanding of various religions, and foster collaboration between faith communities. Guru Nanak believed that all humans are equal, regardless of color, ethnicity, nationality, or gender identity.

    The Bindra family in 2000 endowed the Sardarni Kuljit Kaur Bindra Chair in Sikh Studies to honor its matriarch.  Speaking on behalf of the Bindra family, businessman, philanthropist, and former member of Hofstra’s Board of Trustees Sardar Tejinder Singh Bindra said: “Guru Nanak spoke about love for humanity as well as respect for every religion. With that in mind, my parents established the Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize as a way to recognize as well as support the efforts of individuals/organizations that work to advance dialogue between religions to help minimize religious conflict, which all the recipients have strived to achieve, from the very first recipient, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, to the current recipient, Amardeep Singh. We are pleased that the award is being given this year a week after Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s birthday as honor to his vision and teachings.”

  • Singapore-based Researcher, Writer, and Documentary Filmmaker Amardeep Singh to Receive 2022 Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize

    Singapore-based Researcher, Writer, and Documentary Filmmaker Amardeep Singh to Receive 2022 Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize

    NEW YORK (TIP): Amardeep Singh, a Singapore-based researcher, writer, and documentary filmmaker is the recipient of ‘The Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize’ for the year 2022. The ceremony will be hosted on Monday, November 14, 6 PM onwards at Crest Hollow Country Club Emerald Room, Woodbury, New York.

    The Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize recognizes and supports the efforts of those individuals and organizations that work to advance the vision of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, who taught that we discover our oneness with humanity by exploring our differences.

    The Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize was established with a gift from the family of the late Sardar Ishar Singh Bindra and Sardarni Kuljit Kaur Bindra, prominent Sikh Americans who lived in Brookville, New York. In September 2000, the Bindra family endowed the Sardarni Kuljit Kaur Bindra Chair in Sikh Studies at Hofstra University in honor of the family’s matriarch. The family’s company, Jeetish Group of Companies, based in New York City, is a major distributor of apparel, and the family has substantial interests in real estate as well. The Bindras are deeply involved in philanthropic activities that benefit both the Sikh and non-Sikh communities. The Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize is an expression of Sardar Ishar Singh Bindra’s longstanding dedication to interfaith harmony.

    Amardeep Singh after studying at the Doon School in Dehradun, India, went on to receive his degree at the Manipal Institute of Technology. He later obtained his MBA at the University of Chicago. He worked in the financial sector for over 25 years, serving as head of the Asian Pacific Region at American Express for Revenue Management. He authored two books, Lost Heritage, The Sikh Legacy in Pakistan and The Quest Continues. Lost Heritage, The Sikh Legacy in Pakistan describes the culture, history, and legacy of Sikh history. Amardeep has also produced two documentaries on the forgotten Sikh legacy remnants in the five states of Pakistan. He and his wife, Vininder Kaur, have produced and directed a 24-episode documentary series titled Allegory, A Tapestry of Guru Nanak’s Travels, which was filmed across nine different countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Tibet, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

    The past recipients of the award are:-
    His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso in 2008,
    Rabbi Arthur Schneider and Religions for Peace in 2010, Dr. Eboo Patel in 2012, Bhai Sahib Mohinder Singh Ahluwalia and The Rev. Dr. Katharine Rhodes Henderson in 2014, The Pluralism Project and Serve2Unite in 2016, Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding in 2018, and Karen Armstrong and The Interfaith Center of New York (ICNY) in 2020.

  • Indian-Origin Singapore based Sikh Couple to Release Docuseries on Guru Nanak 

    Indian-Origin Singapore based Sikh Couple to Release Docuseries on Guru Nanak 

    SINGAPORE (TIP): An Indian-origin Singaporean Sikh couple will be releasing online a 24-episode docuseries that chronicles the vast expanse of sites that were visited by Guru Nanak during his lifetime.

    Amardeep Singh and his wife Vininder Kaur will release the weekly episodes of the docuseries at no cost on the website TheGuruNanak.com, Mr Singh said on Friday, October 8. It will also be available for download.

    In the next phase, the docuseries, produced by ‘Lost Heritage Productions’ and ‘SikhLens Productions’, will be translated into Punjabi and Hindi. Over 550 years ago, Guru Nanak travelled across the distant lands of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Tibet, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka for over two decades on an altruistic pursuit to spread the message of the oneness of creation. To relate with people of diverse cultures and belief systems, Guru Nanak engaged in philosophical and social dialogue, and through the medium of words and music, he gracefully imparted experiential and spiritual insights, fearlessly challenged the binary constructs of society, and relentlessly opposed gender, religious, racial and class inequalities.

    In the 21st century, geopolitical restrictions and cultural mandates impose immense challenges to trace Guru Nanak’s extensive travels as approximately 70 per cent of the places he travelled to fall in geographies where filming is difficult.

    However, in January 2019, the Mr Singh and Ms Kaur led team embarked on a journey to retrace Guru Nanak’s footsteps.

    “This herculean task, extending far beyond personal ambition, is aimed with a passion to preserve Guru Nanak’s teachings that perceives no borders or human divisions,” said Mr Singh in a press release.

    Aided with the analytical study of the oldest ‘Janamsakhis’ (biographies of Guru Nanak) and supported by the allegorical messages in Guru Nanak’s verses, the team spent over three years filming all the geographies and multi-faith sites visited by Guru Nanak to present his life events in the form of a 24-episode docuseries.

    Undeterred by adversities, they travelled from the deserts of Mecca in Saudi Arabia to Mount Kailash in Tibet, explored remote regions of perilous Afghanistan, experienced the scorching heat in Iraq, scaled the arid Baluchi mountains in Pakistan, sailed across the waters of the Indian Ocean to disembark in Sri Lanka, blended with the Persian culture in Iran, crossed the delta region in Bangladesh and mapped all four directions in India.

    Commenting on the docuseries, Dr. Mohammad H. Qayoumi, President Emeritus, San Jose State University, said, “As a practicing Muslim, I have found this docuseries filled with symbolic spiritual messages of Guru Nanak which will be enjoyable for everyone who has a curious mind. I highly recommend them to all viewers.”

    For Amardeep and Vininder, every moment in Guru Nanak’s footsteps was philosophically liberating. It encouraged them to challenge their own conditioning, unlearn, relearn and assimilate the beauty of unity in diversity.

    “In a world that is so fragile and volatile, there has never been a better time to understand why Guru Nanak travelled for 22 years to share his experiential wisdom and propagate the oneness of humankind,” said Ms Singh.