It was not clear whether Tyrone McAllister, who was being held in the San Joaquin County Jail, or the other teenager, who was being held in the county’s juvenile detention center, had hired lawyers. Mr. McAllister was sentenced to three months in jail in April for misdemeanor assault and theft, according to court records.

While the Manteca police did not label the assault a hate crime, Sikhs in the United States have often been targets of discrimination, particularly after the Sept. 11 attacks. In some assaults, Sikh men have been wrongly assumed to be Muslims.

There are more than 25 million Sikhs worldwide, including about 500,000 in the United States, according to the Sikh Coalition in New York. Sikhism is about 500 years old, making it one of the youngest religions in the world, and was founded in the Indian state of Punjab. The monotheistic religion promotes self-reliance and individual responsibility. Worshipers follow the teachings of the 10 Sikh gurus.

The religion is full of symbolism. Sikh men wear distinctive turbans, which represent the courage to fight injustice, and keep their beards uncut, which signals an acceptance of God’s will.

Not long after the first Sikhs arrived in the United States in the late 1800s, they were victims in racist attacks. The most notable was in 1907 in Bellingham, Wash., where white workers accused South Asian immigrants of stealing their jobs in lumber mills and started to riot. They destroyed the immigrants’ property, stole their goods and forced them out of town.

There have been several high-profile episodes since 2001, including immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks. On Sept. 15 of that year, an Arizona man fatally shot the Sikh owner of a gas station in Mesa after mistaking him for an Arab.