Now it is the turn of their children, and their children’s children, to pursue a different dream, but still reflecting quintessential American values. Steadfast in their belief in participatory democracy, they say they have “seen the vision that so inspired our founding fathers.”

Fired by patriotism of a different kind, and marching to a drummer other than George W. Bush, young South Asian Americans of the second and third generation – America’s future intellectuals - claim to be waging peace. Their goal is to unplug the war machine at its roots.

This is the kind of activism that is empowering third generation Indian American Valarie Kaur Brar of Clovis, California, and second generation Pakistani American Shahid Buttar of Chicago; both graduating seniors at Stanford, both equally determined to wage peace through non-violent direct action and to dismantle the war apparatus that drives America.

They say they are “marching, speaking, writing, shouting, crying, dancing, singing, and resisting” America’s war machine so that America truly becomes the land of the free and the brave instead of inciting “wars of conquest and profit.” They say they are determined to expose the corporations and the politicians that profit from war.

In a series of email interviews, the students were proud to admit that their actions this year - during the peace march in San Francisco and the protests at Lockheed Martin Space and Strategic Missiles plant, have empowered them as never before.

Valarie Brar told Indolink: “ Media reports often convey the dramatic spectacles of dissenters rather than the solidarity and purpose kindling the fire of their resistance. I bore witness to this fire, and to my surprise, found deep connection and real empowerment. I have never felt more empowered in my life.” Brar is majoring in international relations and religious studies and has just completed a study of the impact of hate crimes on South Asian Americans, especially members of the Sikh faith.

Buttar, who is graduating this month with a degree in law, says he derives much of his inspiration from America’s founding fathers. “I get teary-eyed when I consider the abstract principles that this country claims to stand for: liberty, justice, democracy, opportunity, and peace. These quintessentially American values are my ultimate inspiration,” he explained to Indolink. Describing himself as a political theorist, with interests focusing on equality of opportunity and distributive justice, Buttar says that in the aftermath of the war in Iraq, his goal is to “help build a countercultural, profoundly peaceful political movement in this country.”

During the American invasion of Iraq, Brar reckoned she had two choices: stay inside and watch the sanitized version of the war on the television screen, or take to the streets. ”I choose the streets,” declares the 23-year-old, fervently. And, as a result of that decision, she says, “I have never felt more empowered in my life.” Taking her cue from Gandhi and Martin Luther King and the Vietnam protests of the 60s, she observes: “When people gave their hearts, minds, and bodies to the cause, they had power. Even though it took time for systemic change, they won because they cried for peace again and again. As the U.S. government wages war, we are waging peace.”

There were other, more important sources of inspiration – her Sikh faith which taught her: “Ek Onkar—God is One, God is for everyone.” Also, her grandfather. After the backlash of hate following 9/11 Valarie recalls, “my grandfather’s voice came to me, illuminating the heart of Sikhism, Naam Daan Isnaan, meaning that spiritual fulfillment comes from acting in the world. The message pushed me to act.”

She explains: “Before Iraq entered my daily life, I did not understand street protests. People waving signs, chanting in unison, and getting arrested frightened me. Even when I strongly opposed post-9/11 policies of the Bush administration, I shied away from the streets and expressed my politics through academic scholarship. I documented hate crimes and the loss of civil liberties and communicated my studies through formal speeches and papers written in my dorm room. But war drums grew louder and louder, shook the glass bubble around my elite university, and made me feel more and more disempowered. So I took a leap of faith. Together with other Stanford students, I entered the streets of San Francisco to support and witness civil disobedience.”

And last month Brar joined protesters who blocked three main intersections surrounding the Lockheed Martin Space and Strategic Missile facility putting a spotlight on the hypocrisy of the United States invading Iraq under the guise of searching for weapons of mass destruction when such weapons are being produced in America’s own backyard. Observes Brar,"Lockheed blatantly violates human rights by continuing to produce anti-personnel landmines and depleted uranium weapons which have been banned by international human rights law." Brar explains her reason for participating in the protest: “The war is not over; the second phase of war profiteering has begun; even President Bush said in his speech that the ‘war on terror’ continues, a name that masks his wars of conquest and profit.”

How is it empowering to protest when the US government will wage war anyway? “We will wage peace even as the bombs drop and continue to wage peace after this round of bombing ends, because the war will continue in many guises in Iraq and beyond,” says Brar.

Ask her how all this breaking of the law and blocking traffic is democracy, and she will confront you coolly: “When the government fails to seriously recognize world opinion or national dissent, when the people cannot vote on a preemptive war and do not want an unjust war, democracy means speaking out and standing out. It means finding courage to stand for convictions. It is a civic duty.”

At the core of her activism, she admits, is the impact of her grandfather: “When I was twelve my grandfather taught me two profound lessons. He told me about religious and political turmoil and violence through his experience of the Partition of India; that history became a part of me. Later when close friends and teachers tried to convert me to Christianity, my grandfather gave me books on Sikhism; his insights opened up different ways of thinking. This perspective on life soon developed into a passion for researching, writing, and speaking about the experiences and ideas of marginalized people.”

What of the future for this young sikh? An academic career is what Brar has in mind. “In the future, I envision myself as a professor of Religious Studies who fills her position in academia to research, teach, and promote local and global community action. With this goal, I plan to enter a seven-year joint graduate program, earning a doctorate in Religious Studies (Ph.D.) and a Masters in International Affairs (MIA). The two blended research areas will support interdisciplinary research and help me become engaged with marginalized communities, like Sikhs in India and in the United States.”

She has already made a beginning. While in her sophomore year at Stanford, Brar initiated a class called “Sikhism in America,” the first of its kind at Stanford. The course is now being packaged and sent as a model to universities nation-wide. How can academic work affect the public good? “For four months during my junior year of college”, says Brar, I “was on the road, traveling to cities across the country, talking with people about their experiences after September 11th”. It was during this journey that she learned how to apply her Stanford liberal arts education for the public good. That was when she was able to combine her academic interests with the need to be relevant to the world around her. Brar’s present research involves documenting the experiences of Americans, particularly Sikhs, impacted by post-911 hate crimes and analyzing the socio-psychological causes and consequences of these hate crimes. She is working towards developing her interview material into a documentary film and monograph.

Second Generation Pakistani-American

Shahid Buttar’s parents migrated from Pakistan along with that post-1965 wave that came from South Asia. While growing up in Chicago he was focused on academics, never on activism. Today, all that has changed. He told Indolink: “ because Bush´s agenda calls into question core liberty concerns, I´ve largely set aside my distributive agenda in the interests of focusing on more urgent political causes. Because this administration has stepped so far beyond the line of democratic illegitimacy, I´ve had to respond by stepping out of the ivory tower and into the streets. In that capacity, Gandhiji and Martin Luther King, Jr. are my methodological role models. However, because the struggle they faced is different from my own, I find substantive inspiration in other figures, including our own founding fathers.”

He goes on to explain “I´ve found our greatest contribution to lie in our juxtaposition of the best facets of our respective cultural identities. For instance, the independence and self-reliance of American culture empowers us to act, while the communal orientation of eastern cultures compels us to act. The mix is profound, powerful, and influential, and I´ve seen our example get adopted by many of our white peers and classmates as a model to emulate.”

Convinced that America has strayed drastically from her founding principles, Buttar acknowledges: “I´m ultimately interested in putting an end not only to the American war machine, but the political process constraints that structurally buttress it, the class stratification precluding effective dissent, and racial inequality.” He is encouraged that Asian-Americans are among the most prolific leaders of the peace movement. “At Stanford, a core of 10-15 Asian-Americans (spanning the traditional South / East Asian divide) are the heart & soul of the activist community,” he observes.

Buttar himself was honored last month during the Fourth Annual Stanford Asian American Awards. According to an awards spokesperson, the awards are “given to celebrate passionate individuals who have taken that unique step beyond the call of duty . . . taken it upon themselves to challenge, address and redefine issues facing the Asian-American community.”

Getting arrested during the march in San Francisco, and later helping shut down Lockheed Martin’s nuclear missile factory, was an empowering experience for Buttar. “I´ve witnessed people of all races, places, interests, and convictions come together and recognize their shared humanity. I´ve stood on the other side of the continuing aspiration to participatory democracy, and seen the vision that so inspired our founding fathers.”