Pacific Coast Khalsa Diwan Society

The Pacific Coast Khalsa Diwan Society is the body that founded the Stockton Gurdwara in California, which describes itself as the first gurdwara in the United States. The UC Davis Punjabi and Sikh Diaspora Digital Archive says the first Sikh congregational prayer in the United States was held on 1 November 1911 at Sardar Nand Singh's camp near Stockton, and that the congregation formed the Society the following year with Sant Teja Singh as its president. California's Senate Concurrent Resolution 104 of 2012 says the gurdwara was founded by Teja Singh of the Society on 24 October 1912. UC Davis names Jawala Singh and Wasakha Singh as the gurdwara's founders and says Jawala Singh was its first granthi.

A second account of the founding: Gurdev Singh Sidhu, writing on the Holt Farm near Stockton, says the farm's managers proposed a gurdwara at a central, easily reached place, and that a meeting of Punjabis of California was fixed for 27 December 1911, Guru Gobind Singh's birthday. According to him the gathering agreed to build a gurdwara at Stockton, collected five thousand dollars and formed a committee of twelve, with Jawala Singh as president, Sant Tara Singh as secretary and Visakha Singh as treasurer. He does not name the committee the Pacific Coast Khalsa Diwan Society. Khushwant Singh calls the Stockton body the "Khalsa Diwan Society of the United States".

Key moments

• 1912: the Society is formed and the gurdwara founded, by the accounts above.
• 1915 and 1929: UC Davis says a wooden building on Grant Street was finished in 1915 and a brick building was completed in 1929.
• 1913 onwards: the Senate resolution says The Ghadar, the first Punjabi-language newspaper in the United States, was published on 1 November 1913 with financial support from the gurdwara. UC Davis says the gurdwara became the centre of activities of the Ghadar Party.
• Before 1947: UC Davis says the temple served Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus and the Catholic wives and American-born children of the Punjabi pioneers. Dalip Singh Saund, later the first Asian American in the US Congress, was its secretary.

Where it stands: The Society's website gives its address as 1930 Sikh Temple Street, Stockton, California, and says it is also known as Stockton Gurdwara, the first Gurdwara Sahib in the United States. UC Davis says the Ghadar press is kept there.