The Sikh Bulletin
m` Gr-poh 536
November-December 2004
The Sikh Center Roseville, 201 Berkeley Ave, Roseville, CA. 956782
In His book ‘Nanak, An Introduction’, Purushottam Nijhaawan writes, “In the 15
th
century, Indian society was adisturbing picture of rank ritualism, superstition, bigotry andsocial decay. The birth of Nanak in 1469 in the little villageof Talwandi near Lahore, however, came as a miracle. Thedeteriorating Indian society had now found a redeemer”.How is the situation different today? Have we discardedritualism, superstition, bigotry and stemmed social decay?Sikhism, meant to be a way of truthful living, has beenshackled by ritualism much the same way as Hinduism andIslam of Guru Nanak’s period. We are told that when Nanak came back after his disappearance into or beyond the river the first words he uttered for his listeners were, “Na MaiHindu Na Mussalman”. If he were to appear again todaywould he rephrase himself, “Na Mai Hindu, Na Mussalman, Na Mai Sikh”?He lectured Pandits on the real significance of Janaeu and tothe Qazis on real significance of Namaaz five times a day.Would he not today lecture Sikh Priests (High and Low),who are not even supposed to exist in Guru Nanak’s schemeof things, on the real significance of Gatra and five Baanis?Would he even be allowed to speak his mind at Darbar Sahiband Akal Takhat Sahib as, apparently, Hindu priests andMuslim Qazis allowed him to speak at their Holy Places?What would Guru Nanak say to the Sikh ‘High Priests’ for the treatment they mete out to those few brave Gursikhs whodare to question the anti gurmat practices and pronouncements of the so called guardians of Guru’smessage.Just as Nanak proclaimed Ram of Hindus and Rahim of Muslims to be one and the same, today he would say thesame thing about Allah of Muslims and Lord of Christians.That is the relevance of Guru Nanak’s universal messagetoday, that is the uniqueness of Guru Nanak’s God.
Hardev Singh Shergill
*****
SIKHS AND THE GLOBAL VILLAGE
A Report on Singh Sabha International- World SikhConferences, Sep. – Oct. 2004
In the year 2001 when I traveled back to Panjab after anabsence of a quarter of a century, I found myself in a rather unfamiliar environment. This was not the ‘des’ I knew. In theessay in the Sikh Bulletin under the heading ‘Des’ I bemoaned the loss of what was familiar to me during the firstquarter century of my life. ‘Des’ to me were the districts of Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur, the home districts of my parents.Ganganagar district of Rajasthan, which we called home, was‘pardes’.Professor Gurtej Singh and I have traveled around the worldduring the last two months visiting the Diaspora Sikhcommunities. On six weekends we participated in six major conferences sponsored by Singh Sabha International onissues facing Sikhs in as many countries
, Melaka,Malaysia; Sydney, Australia; Toronto, Canada;Philadelphia, U.S.A.; London, U.K.; and Chandigarh,India; and five mini week day conferences in KualaLumpur, Malaysia; Bangkok, Thailand; Abbotsford(B.C.) and Calgary (Alberta), Canada; and Richmond(Virginia), U.S.A.
One thing that was most obvious in all the countries wevisited was that wherever Sikh families have chosen to settleit is ‘Des’ for them and they are fully and actively involvednot only in the economic life of their adopted homelands butalso in their political processes. No where is it moreapparent than in Canada where eight Sikhs are members of Parliament and two are Cabinet Ministers. Sikhs constitute2% of Canada’s population, same as in India. Canada is alsoa bilingual country, English and French, but in case of British Columbia Panjabi is the second language after English. It remains to be seen if the new generation of Sikhsin B.C. is taking full advantage of this opportunity.Australian government is also very generous in terms of supporting multiculturalism. It allows free use of publictelevision proportional to the numbers of the minoritycommunity. But, sadly, many Sikh families write English(not Panjabi) as their mother tongue on their census formsthus adversely impacting the entire Sikh community.In the Sikh psyche the difference between ‘des’ and ‘pardes’has disappeared. Truly we have become citizens of theGlobal village. In the words of Mr. Stepan Kerkyasharian,Community Relations Commissioner, who addressed theconference in Sydney Australia,
“I want to say inconclusion that the fundamental Sikh values of
equality,charity
and
compassion
are very much similar to the fundamental principles of multiculturalism; accepting thediversity and respecting the diversity of each other. So Sikhsare
at home
in multicultural New South Wales. I wish you avery productive and successful conference”.
Referring tothe challenges faced by Australian Sikhs in the post 9/11 erahe commented,
“The government has very well established protocols and procedures in place, which are ready to deal with any racial or religious abuse or harassment. It isimportant, he said, to have a Council like the one you haveto deal with such unfortunate circumstances. Hecongratulated the Sikh Council of Australia for establishing itself in the first place and putting New South Wales on themap internationally with the Sikh world community byhosting the World Sikh Conference here in New SouthWales”.
We are happy to report that not only has The SikhCouncil of Australia established a Singh Sabha Chapter buthas also been recognized as the official spokes-body for Australian Sikhs by the governments of Australia and NewSouth Wales as a direct consequence of this conference.For information of the Diaspora community we state below
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