Viewpoint: Why Sikhs celebrate kindness

Founded some 500 years ago in what is now India's Punjab region, Sikhism is the world's fifth-largest religion. But what makes its members habitual do-gooders? Author Jasreen Mayal Khanna writes on the tradition of selfless service ingrained in the community.

Think of any scene of disaster and you'll find Sikh volunteers rallying to the site, feeding migrants, helping riot victims, and rebuilding homes after earthquakes.

From the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar to the Paris terror attacks, the farmers' marches in India to the protests in America against George Floyd's killing, people from this 30 million-strong community worldwide have made it a tradition to help complete strangers in their darkest moments.

Through the pandemic, they reached new heights.

In Maharashtra in western India, a gurdwara (the Sikh place of worship) fed two million people in 10 weeks last year. Other gurdwaras in India melted the gold they had collected over the last 50 years to set up hospitals and medical colleges. Sikh NGOs set up "oxygen langars" - langars are the community kitchens in the gurdwaras - providing free oxygen to people as India gasped and reeled through its deadly second wave of coronavirus.