Frequently Asked Questions  FAQ’s

 

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Nanak’s Way

 What is “Nanak’s Way”?

“Nanak’s Way” is USI’s shorthand for a practical approach to communal and civic life, inspired by the teachings and institutional innovations associated with Guru Nanak ji. Rather than treating spirituality as solely a matter of private belief, this tradition places significant emphasis on how people actually live together and treat one another in practice(orthopraxy, not orthodoxy).

For USI, Nanak’s Way emphasizes equality, honest work, sharing, service, community, humility, compassion, empathy, questioning inherited authority, rejecting social hierarchy, and direct engagement with the everyday problems of ordinary people. It functions, in USI’s usage, as a way of living and organizing community life — not merely a set of theological propositions to be affirmed.

 

2. What is Sangat?

Sangat broadly refers to a community or fellowship of people who come together for a shared spiritual, social, and communal life. For USI, Sangat also provides a useful model for democratic community organization: people meet and act as members of a community rather than as isolated individuals. The underlying principle is simple — people become stronger when they listen, learn, and work together — and USI seeks to apply it directly to citizen journalism and civic participation in the interest of oppressed Indians.

 

3. What is Langar?

Langar is the community-kitchen tradition associated with Sikh institutions, in which people from every social background eat together at a shared table. Its significance extends well beyond the provision of food: langar deliberately challenges social hierarchy by creating a shared space in which distinctions of status, wealth, and social position are consciously reduced or set aside. For USI, langar represents a broader principle worth generalizing: a genuinely democratic community must actively create spaces in which people can meet one another as equals, rather than assuming such spaces will emerge on their own. There is a need to dismantle centuries-old Savaran apartheid to establish a just society full of compassion and empathy.

 

4. What does USI mean by “Nanak’s orthopraxy,” as distinct from orthodoxy of organized religions?

Orthodoxy generally emphasizes correct belief or doctrine. Orthopraxy emphasizes correct or ethical practice. USI uses the phrase “Nanak’s orthopraxy” (or Nanak’s way) to foreground the practical dimension of the Nanak tradition: what matters, on this reading, is not simply what a person claims to believe, but how that person actually behaves toward others. Principles such as equality, honest work, sharing, service, and community are understood in this framework as externalities to be demonstrated through conduct rather than through the profession of belief alone. We use the concept to ask, “What does your philosophy or faith make you actually do?” rather than only, “What do you claim to believe?” This interpretation is offered explicitly as USI’s own interpretive framework, and should not be taken as a claim that all Sikh scholars or all strands of Sikh tradition define Guru Nanak’s teachings in precisely these terms; other readings exist within the tradition because Guru Nanak does not belong to Sikhs alone.

 

5. Does USI reject religion?

No. USI does not ask anyone to abandon their religious faith as a condition of participation. USI’s interest lies specifically in developing a pluralistic public sphere in which religious communities can all participate fully, without any single religious identity becoming a prerequisite for full citizenship or belonging. USI draws a clear distinction between religious faith, which it respects, and political domination and hegemonistic caste practices pursued in the name of religion, which it does not.

 

Sikh Tradition, Resistance, and Militancy

 

6. How can the Sikh tradition be described as militant without being described as terrorist?

The relevant distinction is between militancy understood as organized resistance to oppression with the agenda of establishing a just and compassionate society, and terrorism is understood as the deliberate targeting of civilians for political or ideological ends for the power elite or as part of identity politics or power grab.

 

The Sikh historical tradition includes periods of armed resistance, particularly under conditions of severe political and religious persecution. Describing an entire religious tradition as uniformly “militant” or “terrorist,” however, collapses this distinction and is historically and analytically inadequate to that history’s actual complexity.

 

USI uses the concept of ethical resistance to distinguish legitimate resistance to oppression from indiscriminate violence directed at civilians. The governing principle here is that courage and resistance do not, and historically have not, require hatred of another community as such.

 

Everyone, irrespective of caste and creed, was free to participate in Guru Nanak’s Sangat, contribute to and serve in the langar according to ability, and consume according to need. Here, the concept of the other, the defining characteristic of Savaran caste apartheid, is alien to Nanak’s tradition, in contrast to terrorism that creates enemies and the other and unleashes violence against them. Instead, Nanak’s tradition unites us in a just and compassionate society.

 

7. Does USI advocate violence?

No. USI’s citizen-media and civic activities are intended to operate exclusively through lawful democratic participation: journalism, public discussion, civic education, and community organization. Documenting injustice and challenging institutions through democratic and legal means is categorically different from advocating violence against individuals or communities, and USI does not do the latter. When it says it is against Savaran apartheid, that means it wants to dismantle it by bridging, establishing equality and a just society by promoting people-to-people communication and spreading the message of sikh traditions: koi nihen hay ghair ( there is no other)

 

The Nanak Media Fellowship Program

 

8. What is the Nanak Media Fellowship (NMF)?

The Nanak Media Fellowship is USI’s citizen-journalism training and community-media program. Its objective is to equip ordinary citizens with practical skills to document local events, interview people, record video, livestream, verify information, fact-check claims, write and edit reports, create subtitles, translate and dub content, provide voice-over, publish through social media, and report responsibly throughout. Our mission is to defeat corporate-owned media. The basic premise is straightforward: your community can be your newsroom, and your smartphone can be your first reporting tool. We want this to happen.

 

9. Who can become a Nanak Media Fellow?

The fellowship is designed to be accessible to people from diverse backgrounds. Generally, applicants must be 18 years or older, have access to a smartphone, be willing to learn, hold a genuine interest in their own community, be willing to undertake online training, and agree to follow responsible journalism standards. No formal educational qualification is required — a university degree is not a prerequisite for becoming a citizen journalist under this program. Applicants from the Northeast and marginalized groups will receive a free smartphone through donations to USI.

 

10. Do I need previous journalism experience to apply?

No. Previous experience in journalism, video production, or social media is helpful but not essential. The fellowship is specifically designed to train people who may never have worked in professional media before.

 

11. Do I need a large social-media following to apply?

No. A large existing following is not a requirement. A person with a modest audience but deep knowledge of their local community can make an excellent citizen journalist. USI is more interested in a combination of community connection, curiosity, reliability, and willingness to learn than in follower counts.

 

12. How do I apply for the Nanak Media Fellowship?

Applications are submitted via the Nanak Media Fellowship application (Google Forms). Applicants are generally asked for their name, age, state, district, languages spoken, smartphone details, existing digital skills, social-media profiles (if any), community interests, prior media experience (if any), and their reasons for wanting to become a Nanak Media Fellow. A full physical or home address is not required at the initial application stage.

 

13. What languages can Nanak Media Fellows report in?

The program actively encourages reporting in India’s own languages. A fellow can report primarily in the language most appropriate to their local community, and multilingual fellows can additionally contribute through translation, subtitling, dubbing, transcription, voice-over, and cross-language reporting more broadly. The underlying objective is to reduce the outsized role English currently plays as the gateway through which Indian communities become visible to one another.

 

14. What will Nanak Media Fellows actually learn during training?

Training may cover several linked areas: citizen journalism (identifying stories, interviewing, field reporting, source verification); mobile journalism (smartphone photography and videography, audio recording, livestreaming); digital journalism (writing headlines and scripts, editing, publishing); verification (identifying misinformation, checking photographs and video, verifying sources, distinguishing allegation from fact); multilingual media (translation, subtitling, dubbing, voice-over); and digital safety (account security, privacy practices, secure communications, and protecting sensitive sources).

 

Livelihood and Sustainability

 

15. As a full-time Nanak Media Fellow, how can I earn a livelihood?

USI’s long-term objective is to help develop a sustainable economic model for citizen journalism rather than one that is indefinitely dependent on donations. A full-time fellow may build several income streams, including YouTube monetization, social-media monetization where platforms make it available, approved local advertising, and sponsorships. We will provide affiliate marketing, digital products, commissioned media work, and other lawful digital media opportunities to our fellows so they can live decent lives. Actual income will depend on audience size, platform eligibility, local market conditions, and the individual fellow’s developed skills; USI cannot guarantee any specific income level but aims to help fellows build genuinely independent digital media livelihoods over time. Furthermore, we can vouch for selected fellows for foreign journalistic assignments, and they can get paid directly. We will also sell our newsfeed and video feed to media outlets worldwide on a very cheap subscription fee.

 

16. Can Nanak Media Fellows run their own YouTube channels or social-media accounts?

Yes. Fellows are encouraged to develop their own digital media identities and audiences and may operate their own YouTube channels, Facebook pages, Instagram accounts, and other appropriate platforms. The fellowship provides training and ongoing network support while actively encouraging fellows to build sustainable, individually owned media careers rather than remaining solely dependent on the USI platform itself.

 

17. Can I earn money from local advertising as a fellow?

Potentially, yes. Nanak Media Fellows may pursue appropriate approved local advertising and sponsorship opportunities, subject to USI’s applicable editorial guidelines. Any sponsored material must be clearly identified as such, and advertising relationships must never compromise journalistic integrity or independence.

 

18. Can I become a part-time Nanak Media Fellow?

Yes. The program is designed to accommodate people who cannot immediately work as full-time citizen journalists. A part-time fellow may continue another job, continue studying, run a business, freelance, or perform community journalism during whatever time is available to them. The core requirements throughout remain commitment, completion of training, and responsible reporting — not any particular time commitment.

 

19. Can a part-time fellow eventually become full-time?

Yes. A part-time fellow who develops sufficient skills, experience, audience, and sustained commitment may transition toward full-time citizen journalism as opportunities and resources allow.

 

Citizen Journalism and Ethics

 

20. Is Nanak Media simply another political propaganda network?

It should not be, and that is an explicit design goal rather than an incidental hope. USI wants Nanak Media Fellows to develop genuinely independent reporting skills rather than simply reproduce USI’s own political opinions. A citizen journalist trained under this program should be able to distinguish fact from opinion, evidence from allegation, and reporting from propaganda in their own work. The credibility of Nanak Media ultimately depends entirely on the quality and integrity of its reporting, not on its alignment with any particular political position. However, some redlines cannot be crossed.

 

21. Can Nanak Media Fellows publicly criticize USI itself?

Yes — a healthy media organization must be able to tolerate and absorb criticism from within its own ranks. USI does not expect fellows to agree with every position the organization takes. Fellows are expected to follow journalistic and ethical standards; they are not expected to surrender their independent judgment as the price of participation. However, some redlines cannot be crossed.

 

22. What happens if a Nanak Media Fellow publishes false information?

USI expects fellows to correct significant errors promptly once identified. Depending on the seriousness and surrounding circumstances, violations of journalism standards may result in a requirement to correct, additional training, a temporary suspension, removal of content from USI platforms, or, in serious or repeated cases, termination of the fellowship. The underlying objective in every case is accuracy and accountability — not punishment for honest, good-faith mistakes made in the course of reporting.

 

23. Can Nanak Media Fellows report on protests and political events?

Yes. Political events, protests, and public demonstrations can be important and legitimate subjects of citizen journalism. Fellows covering such events are expected to observe appropriate safety and ethical standards, verify information carefully before publishing, and avoid unnecessarily putting themselves or others at risk in the course of reporting. Do not get personally involved in a protest. Be in touch with our legal team and seek their help in the event of an arrest.

24. Will USI provide reporting equipment to fellows?

USI intends, subject to available resources, to provide free or subsidized reporting equipment to selected fellows who need it. Priority may be given to applicants from the Northeast and women, as well as those who demonstrate strong community-media potential but currently lack adequate resources of their own. Equipment support is not automatically guaranteed to every fellow admitted to the program.

 

USI’s Broader Mission

 

25. What does USI mean by “epistemic freedom”?

Epistemic freedom means having the ability to participate directly in the production, verification, and circulation of knowledge about one’s own society, rather than depending entirely on outside interpretation of it. If a community can only ever be represented by outsiders, by powerful institutions, or by large media organizations, its ability to shape the public narrative about its own experience remains fundamentally limited. USI’s goal is for ordinary citizens to become genuine producers of credible public knowledge and to attain what we call “epistemic freedom”, rather than merely passive consumers of news produced elsewhere.

 

26. Why does USI place such emphasis on citizen journalism specifically?

Because a great many important events occur entirely outside the field of vision of professional media, a local road may remain damaged for years without ever making the news. A village school may lack teachers for an entire academic cycle. A community may quietly experience serious environmental harm. A local government decision may affect thousands of people without any outside coverage at all. A family may carry an important story that never reaches national television or the print media. Citizen journalism, distributed across thousands of local reporters, can build a far larger and more granular network of observation than any single professional newsroom could sustain on its own.

 

27. Is USI opposed to mainstream or corporate media as such?

USI is critical of media concentration and of conflicts of interest that can arise from it, but this does not amount to a claim that every professional journalist or every mainstream media organization is inherently untrustworthy — many are not. Professional journalism performs functions citizen journalism cannot fully replace. The objective of Nanak Media is to add a complementary layer of public reporting and community-based information alongside professional journalism. The goal is more eyes and ears in the system, not simply the substitution of one monopoly for another.

 

28. Why build a network of thousands of Nanak Media Fellows specifically?

A single journalist, however skilled, can only cover a limited geographic and social area. Thousands of trained citizen journalists, by contrast, can observe thousands of communities simultaneously, creating a genuinely distributed information system that moves from village to district to state to the national public sphere. The underlying objective is to make local realities visible on their own terms, without requiring every story to first pass through a centralized newsroom that may never reach that community at all.

 

29. Is USI only for historically marginalized communities?

No. USI welcomes participants from all communities without exception. At the same time, USI recognizes that some communities have historically had far fewer opportunities to produce and control public narratives about their own lives. The fellowship therefore actively seeks to expand participation among communities that remain underrepresented in mainstream media, including Dalits, Adivasis, tribal communities, religious minorities, rural populations, and people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds — while remaining genuinely open to applicants from any background who share the program’s underlying commitments.

 

30. What does “United States” specifically mean in the name United States of India?

It does not mean that USI is proposing India adopt a federal structure modeled mechanically on the United States of America. The phrase is chosen instead to emphasize the concept of unity achieved through diversity: India can remain a single political community while fully recognizing that its states, regions, languages, and communities possess genuinely distinct identities and lived experiences that need not be flattened into uniformity for that unity to hold. The underlying challenge USI names with this phrase is to combine unity, diversity, equal citizenship, and constitutional democracy simultaneously, rather than treating any one of the four as sufficient to stand in for the others.

 

31. What is USI’s overall vision for India?

USI envisions an India that is democratic, pluralistic, multicultural, multilingual, socially inclusive, constitutionally governed, economically participatory, intellectually open, and capable of accommodating profound internal differences without reducing them to permanent enmity between communities.

 

About United States of India (USI)

 

32. What is United States of India (USI)?

United States of India (USI) is a civic, cultural, and citizen-media initiative built around the idea of a plural, democratic, and participatory India. It seeks to connect citizens across states, languages, communities, and social backgrounds through citizen journalism, community communication, democratic participation, and knowledge-sharing.

The name expresses an aspiration rather than a proposal to restructure India’s existing constitutional union. It reflects the idea that India is united not because its citizens are culturally identical, but because its diverse communities can share a common democratic and constitutional home through mutual respect, social justice, and equal citizenship. “United States of India” should not be read as a proposal to copy the federal structure of the United States of America; it is a name chosen to foreground diversity held together by shared democratic commitment, not a specific constitutional template.

 

33. What is the “Idea of India,” as USI uses the term?

The Idea of India, in USI’s usage, is the proposition that India can serve as a common political home for people of extraordinarily diverse religions, languages, castes, ethnicities, cultures, regions, and philosophical traditions. It is not, for USI, a single religious, cultural, or political identity. It is instead an ongoing civic project — never fully finished, always being renegotiated — built on pluralism, constitutional democracy, equality before the law, freedom of conscience, social justice, cultural diversity, individual dignity, federalism, and peaceful coexistence. On this understanding, the Idea of India belongs to all Indians equally; it is not the property of any single religion, caste, political party, or ideology.

 

34. Is USI a political party?

No. USI is conceived as a civic and citizen-media platform, not an electoral political party. Its purpose is to inform citizens, strengthen community communication, and encourage broader participation in democratic life. USI may discuss politics, public policy, elections, institutions, and social movements as part of its journalism and civic education work, but doing so does not, by itself, make USI a political party or align it with any single one.

 

13. Is USI a Sikh organization?

USI draws inspiration from aspects of the intellectual and social tradition associated with Guru Nanak — particularly sangat (community fellowship), langar (the shared community kitchen), service, equality, and the rejection of social hierarchy. It is intended, however, as a pluralistic platform rather than an organization exclusively for Sikhs. People of any religion, caste, ethnicity, or philosophical background are welcome to participate, and USI distinguishes between drawing ethical inspiration from a tradition and requiring membership in it.

 

Caste, Democracy, and Political Power in India

 

35. Why has India resisted conducting a comprehensive caste census, and what political interests does this resistance serve?

India’s reluctance has often been justified by concerns about social division, administrative complexity, and the risk of intensifying caste-based politics in already horizontally and vertically divided India on ethnic, caste, race, class, and religion. Critics argue, however, that the absence of reliable, comprehensive caste data also protects existing power structures by making inequality harder to measure and, therefore, harder to challenge. A comprehensive caste census could provide the evidence base needed for more precisely targeted policy on political representation, education, employment, and social welfare.

 

36. In what ways has the caste system adapted to and co-opted democratic institutions rather than being dismantled by them?

Democracy has weakened some traditional caste hierarchies in cities, but caste has also adapted itself to electoral politics rather than disappearing under it. Caste networks continue to influence candidate selection, voting blocs, party organization, access to resources, and local power. Rather than vanishing, caste has often transformed from a primarily social hierarchy into a powerful and durable form of political organization.

 

37. How do caste-based political mobilizations affect social cohesion and national integration?

Caste mobilization can deepen social division when political competition encourages communities to see one another as permanent rivals for a fixed set of resources. At the same time, it can strengthen democracy when historically marginalized groups organize to demand representation and equality that would otherwise be denied them. The underlying challenge is to move caste-based mobilization away from competition for patronage and toward a broader, shared struggle for equal citizenship and social justice, upliftment of all rather than upliftment of a few.

 

39. What explains the persistence of caste consciousness among urban, educated populations?

Education and urbanization do not automatically eliminate caste consciousness. Caste can persist through family networks, marriage preference, professional connections, residential patterns, social organizations, and political affiliation. In many cases, modern institutions have simply provided new spaces through which caste identity is reproduced rather than erased — a dynamic explored at greater length elsewhere in this series on urban caste.

 

40. What is the relationship between caste identity and the rise of Hindu nationalist politics?

The relationship is genuinely complex rather than one-directional. Savaran Hindu nationalist politics seeks to construct a broader, cross-cutting Hindu political identity capable of transcending some caste divisions, even as caste identities remain deeply embedded in Indian society and electoral behavior. Savaran Hindu nationalism can therefore both challenge and accommodate caste hierarchy, depending on specific political circumstances and region. The open question is whether this religious unity ultimately weakens caste inequality in practice, or simply incorporates existing caste groups into a larger political coalition while leaving the underlying hierarchy intact.

 

41. Is India’s parliamentary democracy merely procedural rather than substantive?

India possesses genuine democratic procedures, including regular elections, universal adult suffrage, and functioning constitutional institutions. The live question is whether these procedures consistently produce substantive political equality in outcomes, not merely formal equality on paper. When economic inequality, unequal access to information, institutional weakness, and inherited social hierarchy limit citizens’ effective political power, a system can remain formally democratic while becoming substantively unequal in practice.

 

42. How does the functioning of the Indian Parliament reflect broader concerns about democratic dysfunction?

Commonly raised concerns include frequent legislative disruptions, declining time available for detailed scrutiny of bills, increased reliance on ordinances in place of full legislative debate, limited deliberation on complex legislation, and rising tension between executive authority and parliamentary oversight. These problems do not mean Parliament is inherently undemocratic as an institution. Still, they raise legitimate questions about whether it is currently fulfilling its constitutional role as a forum for deliberation and executive accountability.

 

43. How does the Indian political system serve elite interests rather than majority interests?

Political influence is not distributed equally among citizens. Wealthy individuals, corporations, organized interest groups, and socially powerful networks typically possess far greater access to political decision-makers, media platforms, and institutions than ordinary citizens do. This asymmetry can produce policies and political priorities that reflect concentrated interests more effectively and more consistently than they reflect the needs of economically and socially marginalized populations.

 

44. How has the politicization of the bureaucracy undermined democratic governance?

A politically dependent bureaucracy weakens institutional neutrality, discourages independent professional judgment, and can encourage officials to prioritize political loyalty over their constitutional duty. When transfers, promotions, or investigations are widely perceived as instruments of political control rather than of neutral administration, public trust in the state’s basic fairness correspondingly declines. A professional, impartial, and constitutionally accountable civil service is accordingly essential to substantive — not merely procedural — democracy.

 

 

Getting Involved

 

45. How can I support USI?

There are several ways to support USI’s work: become a Nanak Media Fellow; volunteer relevant skills; translate or subtitle existing content; help with video production; support working citizen journalists directly; donate equipment; contribute financially; share credible Nanak Media reports with your own networks; or help build local community networks in your own area. The most valuable contribution is not always financial — time, specialized knowledge, language ability, and community connections can matter just as much.

 

46. Can I volunteer with USI without becoming a full field-reporting Nanak Media Fellow?

Yes. USI needs people with a wide range of skills beyond field reporting, including translation, editing, journalism, video production, photography, graphic design, web development, programming, AI-assisted media production, voice-over, dubbing, subtitling, cybersecurity, research, social-media management, and training delivery. You can contribute meaningfully to USI’s mission without ever working as a field reporter yourself.

 

47. What is the ultimate purpose of USI?

At its broadest level, USI seeks to build a genuinely participatory public sphere in which ordinary Indians can speak directly to one another, combining community, media, technology, civic participation, and pluralism into a single sustained project. The long-term ambition, stated as simply as possible, is an India in which citizens are not merely the audience for powerful institutions, but active participants in producing the knowledge, conversations, and democratic culture that shape their own country’s future.