Sikh Youth Alliance of North America (SYANA)

What it is: The Sikh Youth Alliance of North America (SYANA) is a volunteer-run organisation of Sikh youth programmes in the United States and Canada. Its own site traces it to 1968, when S. Kuldeep Singh and B. Arminder Kaur began running small Sikh youth programmes from their apartment in Windsor, Ontario. It says the first week-long Gurmat Camps were held in Michigan in the 1970s and that programmes grew in the 1990s to include the Speech Symposium and the Gurmat Retreat. SikhNet says Kuldeep Singh began the Gurmat Camps in 1973 from his home in Madison Heights, Michigan, and that the camps are kept rooted in the Sikh Rehat Maryada, not in any one dera or group.

Its leader: Kuldeep Singh (1939 to 2026), a chemist and a former Delhi president of the All India Sikh Students Federation (1960 to 1964), founded SYANA and was its national convener. He died on 27 May 2026 in an accident near his home in Tampa, Florida, days after leading a Sikh Youth Retreat in Detroit (SikhNet). The sources opened for this page do not name his successor.

The Symposium: The International Sikh Youth Symposium is open to children from 6 to 22 in five age groups. Groups 1 to 4 give prepared speeches of 6 to 7 minutes, and Group 5, ages 16 to 22, holds a debate. Each year a committee assigns a book to each group. Local contests lead to 13 regional contests across the US and Canada, and regional winners go to an international round each August. Wikipedia says judges give 60 per cent of the marks for content and 40 per cent for presentation. Sources differ on its age: SYANA's site dates the Speech Symposium to the 1990s, its national convener called it a tradition since 2000, and the earliest international edition Wikipedia lists is Detroit in 2002.

Its part in this history: Wikipedia records that the Group V book for 2009 dealt with the 1984 carnage and its aftermath, and the book for 2014 marked 30 years of the 1984 pogroms, so Group V competitors in those years read on 1984.

Key moments

• 1968: youth programmes begin in Windsor, Ontario.
• 1970s: first Gurmat Camps in Michigan.
• 1990s: Speech Symposium and Gurmat Retreat begin.
• 3 to 6 August 2017: international finals at Gurdwara Guru Nanak Darbar, Duncan, South Carolina.
• 2023: the edition in Charlotte, North Carolina, with 60 attendees.
• 27 May 2026: Kuldeep Singh dies.