394.The Man in Blue – St Truiden en Ieper I

Harnam Singh
Sikh Sepoy in the ‘Great War’ of 1914 till 1918

I am busy preparing for interfaith week, for which many of the FE Colleges I work with want my advice and assistance. I am also preparing for the London Regional Forum of the 24^th of November, where London FE Colleges learn about new developments in interfaith work and get some training.

To restrict my time even more I went to Coventry on November 7 to meet my friend Balwant Singh and to visit all the Coventry Gurdwaré and I am writing this during a four-day visit to Belgium to attend the 11/11 Armistice Day commemoration in Ieper.

Saturday 14/11 I will be at an all day Lib Dem London Region conference where I will speak about my work with FE Colleges, Tuesday 17/11 I will be in Birmingham for the Association of Colleges conference and on Friday 20/11 again in Birmingham to discuss the status of the Sikh 5 Ks and turban.

I am not complaining or bragging, just explaining that the interesting and rewarding life that I have been blessed with sometimes gets too interesting.

On 10/11 I went to Belgium by Eurostar and got my kirpan through without too much trouble. From Brussel Zuid station I took a train to Landen and a connecting bus to the Sikh Sangat Gurdwara, Halmaal, St Truiden.

The bad news from St Truiden is that my brother Mohinder Singh, the Gurdwara pradhan, has recently been attacked by some white thugs. The good news is that the Gurdwara held its second Nagar Kirtan where this time the Panj Piaré were allowed to carry their traditional talwar. 

On the afternoon after my arrival I went with Manpreet (Louke) Kaur and Granthi Kewal Singh to an event in the adult education centre where the Flemish equivalent of ESOL classes are given. I spoke with the burgemeester (mayor) about the cultural and religious communities in St Truiden.

The political situation in St Truiden is complicated. I hope that if the mayor loses his job the good work he is doing with the diverse communities of the town will continue.

November 11 is a national holiday in Belgium, and as per usual we went from the Gurdwara by coach to Ieper. The grey sky did not look to threatening, but it also did not really promise sunshine. 

We left late and arrived in Ieper late, we missed the actual parade but were on time for the ceremony at the Menen Gate.

This report on my visit to Belgium will be continued next week. Pictures will appear both on this blog and on my flickr account.

393.Man in Blue – Brahminical Practices

Although the Guru Granth Sahib makes it perfectly clear that Brahminical practices are a waste of effort, many of our fellow Sikhs seem to know better than Guru. There are persistent misconceptions around food that are not supported by the Guru Granth Sahib or the Rehat Maryada. 

The Guru Granth Sahib pokes fun at the Pandits, who think that by creating a cooking square, by drawing a line around them, by cooking everything themselves and keeping others out, they can keep ‘pollution’ out, while from the air all kind of stuff falls on them. 

There is only one thing that I can understand. I do prefer eating food cooked lovingly at home, in the Gurdwara or at a small family run restaurant. Also, I have been a vegetarian much longer than I have been a Sikh. 

But the idea that eating meat is a sin, that I can only eat stuff that has been cooked by fellow Sikhs, the idea that I would be polluted by going into a meat shop, that somebody’s hand over my food pollutes my food, all this makes no sense, it serves no purpose and it is not Sikhí. 

Sikhí is about making an honest living, Sikhí is about always thinking about God, Sikhí is about sharing. Sikhí is about learning to love God and creation, Sikhí is about learning to experience God’s love for us. Sikhí is about giving a positive direction to your lust, anger, greed, attachment and ego. 

Ethical behaviour, making a positive contribution to society, defending the defenceless, fighting injustice are part of Sikhí. In ‘Vár Malár Ki’ Guru Nanak writes about meat and he looks at both sides of the argument. Guru does not tell us to be a vegetarian, Guru does not tell us not to be a vegetarian. 

It is clear that a pandit type lifestyle is not what Guru expects from us. 

I knew this family in Panjab where the son and the mother were Amritdhari and the father and two daughters were not. The son was of the Taksali way of thinking and insisted that only his mother could do the cooking and the cooking preparation, otherwise he could not eat with his family. 

As a result the daughters were sitting around being idle, while their mother who did not have very great health was working away in the kitchen. Our brave Amritdhari boy might help in the langar kitchen, but of course would not give his mother a hand. Is this Sikhi ? NO ! 

In Amritsar, before I took Amrit, I could never share the overgenerous helpings of Karah Prasád, that sevadars gave me, with my friends, many of whom were followers of the Taksal or AKJ. They would not accept any food from me. Is this Sikhí ? NO !

392.Man in Blue – First Hounslow Youth Kirtan Darbar (YKD) Evening Programme

Friday October 30 was the first time that the YKD team was in charge of the early evening programme of Rahiras, Ardas, Kirtan & Katha. This will take place from 18.00 till 20.00 every last Friday of the month for the coming year. On every first Sunday of the month from 11.00 till 12.00 there is a further katha in English and kirtan programme.

This first time the Rahiras was read by Jaswinder Kaur and me, the ardás by me and the Vák by Jaswinder Kaur. This was followed by about 30 minutes of kirtan by the young kirtanis studying with Santokh Kaur Bhain-Ji and after that I did half an hour of simran and katha in English.

I did simran on Vahiguru, on the ‘Mul Mantr’ and on Gobinde, Mukande from Jáp Sahib. In my katha in English the main theme was the definition of a Sikh as found in the Rehat Maryada, followed by the leadership of the Sikhs by the Guru Granth Sahib.

Pritpal Singh looked after the projection of the shabads and Ardas on the screen, and Gurkamal Singh was in attendance of the Guru Granth Sahib.

We demonstrated that we are able to deliver the programme. Our challenge is to involve more and more young members of the sangat. We do have sufficient kirtan contacts, with the students of the kirtan class and older kirtanis who do kirtan in rág.

It should be easy to involve youngsters in the reciting of Rahiras, first sitting with us and later taking the lead. We are not worried about mistakes, but I do not want the sort of superfast recitation that you hear too often. Same goes for the ardás. There is no need to know the ardás by heart, we can read from my prepared sheets or from multi-lingual or Panjabi gutké.

For the vák we use the shabad that came up first thing in the morning, which makes it possible to become familiar with the text to be recited.

Finding people who are confident to do katha in English will be more difficult. I had a chance to ‘practice’ in the smaller Gurdwaré in Belgium and the Netherlands. I am gaining confidence in doing this, but it takes a lot of preparation to come to full understanding of any shabad.

In all this we try to stick to letter and spirit of the Rehat Maryada, which means that Rahiras starts with So Dar, as it does in the Guru Granth Sahib, and ends with Mundavani and the final slok.

This is a good chance for young Singhs and Kaurs to learn Sikh skills. We should be less dependent on granthis, ragis and kathakars, I think the Gurdwara should be run by the sangat under the guidance of the granthi.

391.Is my Sister equal to me ?

Harjinder Singh & his friend Robert Noorlander in Haarlem

Is my sister equal to me ?

My answer to this question, whether I look at it from my Dutch or my Sikh perspective, is a resounding YES ! From a sub-continental point of view the question is more challenging. The two main religions or dharms on the sub-continent have a rich tradition of treating women as second class, as creatures to be ruled by men.

Sikhí is firmly based on the unity of mankind, but I have seen inequality being practised by Sikhs in Panjab and to a lesser degree here in the UK. I also find that English society is less equal in many respects than what I am used to in the Netherlands. This does not mean that they get everything right in my country of origin !

Guru’s teachings are wonderful. It is obvious from Gurbaní that Guru sees all creation, all creatures as coming from God, and that therefore we should respect all creation. Judging by Gurbaní Sikhs are way ahead of Panjabi, western, Hindu or Ibrahimic ‘teachings’.

The other day I went to two interfaith meetings. At the first meeting I met a female Anglican priest, who was treated by her two male colleagues as an absolute equal. That same day in another meeting I met a female vicar of the United Reformed Church. Both ladies were better educated than the majority of our granthis and were very comfortable in the company of people of other faiths.

A few years ago I attended a meeting regarding the Muslim school in Slough. The committee that was to decide on the school could not come to a decision and the case for a Muslim school was brought before an adjudicator.

The hall was full, partly with the Muslim variety of our greybeards, but there was a good presence of young Muslim women, many of them in hijáb. The men did what South Asian men are good at, they disagreed and launched personal attacks on each other.

The young Muslim women spoke good English, and formulated their contributions well. If it had not been for them the case of the Slough Islamic School might have been lost. 

I am not saying that all Muslims and Christians are right and all Sikhs are wrong. In Sikhí we are on firm ground when we speak out for ‘One God, One Humanity’. But I am disappointed when I see that we are overtaken by Christians, Jews and Muslims when it comes to practising equality.

Please let us concentrate on getting our own house in order and let us practice equality between men and women, between all !

389.The Man in Blue – Moral politicians, Moral us ?

Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

Moral politicians, Moral us ?

I am not impressed by the present hysteria around MP’s expenses. If you have lived in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh you know what corruption is really like. What our MPs have been up to is ‘peanuts’ compared with sub-continental practices. 

Our MPs keep saying that what they did was within the law and approved by the relevant authorities. Apart from some MPs who really stretched the interpretation of the rules to the very limit, this seems to be true.

Mind you, changing the status of your first residence to second residence for financial gain and selling properties that have been bought with financial support of the taxpayers and pocketing the profits sounds like fraud.

The real problem is not that most of our MPs are particularly bad, but that they are a reflection of our society where ‘making money’ is the number one value and where many people think that they have a right to extraordinary large slices of the cake, because of the position they have in society.

People are not encouraged to judge on ethical grounds, but on ‘what you can get away with’, more or less within the rules.

Does an MP need a huge income ? Does an MP have to be on an equal footing with a captain of industry ? Do top bureaucrats need to earn £ 100.000 a year or more ? Are even our local councillors not overpaid ?

Many of us could easily do with less, fewer earthly goods, simpler food, simpler clothing. Urban poor often live on fast food and claim they cannot afford fresh food. But rice or roti with simple mixed vegetables is cheaper and healthier than the frozen or tinned foods from the supermarket !

We should all, in business, in politics, in government jobs or whatever look at the ethical side of our life first and foremost. Is it justified to earn 50.000 or more while people who do ‘simple’ but essential jobs like cleaning do not even get half of it ? Is it really justified claiming certain expenses, would you not have bought these things anyway, business trip or not ?

Imagine that you were to meet with any of our Gurus, could you look him straight into the eyes explaining your lifestyle, the unnecessary things that you spend your money on, the time and energy wasted on acquiring Maya ?

Our MPs would be happier with less, we all would be happier with less. Spending less, living a simpler life will make us richer than any millionaire, and will cure the ills western and eastern societies suffer from. Not just living for ‘me, me, me’ but sharing with others is the profitable way of life.

388.The Man in Blue – Have you been liberated ?

Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

Have you been liberated ?

This question is very relevant for Sikhs. In our view God is not the saviour, but the liberator. There are two ways in which we are looking for liberation. The first one is God who liberates us from the cycle of births and deaths and joins us with Him/Herself.

Secondly there are the important freedoms that Guru Gobind Singh offered us. Most of us refuse the gift of Kul Nash, we prefer to be bound by caste, race, clan and heritage.

I was born in the Netherlands, and I lived there for about 47 of my 62 years. Obviously this is an important part of who I am. But I should not accept all things Dutch as good and everything ‘un-Dutch’ as bad.

I used to attach too much importance to the family that my father came from, but I now realise that there is both good and bad in my family. I grew up in the sixties and believed in sexual liberation and used to drink alcohol and smoke ‘pot’. Befuddling your mind with drink and drugs is obviously not part of the Guru’s path, but the equality of Dutch society, without caste and with less class consciousness than in the UK does fit into Sikhí.  

I lived in Panjab for four years from 1996 till 2000 and have been in West London since then. When I lived in Panjab all my values were challenged, both by the Panjabi culture and by Guru’s teachings.

I have accepted the Guru’s teachings, although I am in no way perfect at living the Sikh way of life. But there are two ‘issues’ that come from the Panjabi heritage of many of my fellow Sikhs with which I struggle.

My Dutch culture emphasises equality, the Sikh Guru agrees with that but most people who I met in Panjab did not even know what being equal means. Even in the UK many Sikhs struggle to accept that all are equal, including women, young people and those with darker skins.

My other ‘issue’ is around sexuality. I am perfectly comfortable with the idea of ethical and honest sexual behaviour. I am a married man, and I do not want to have ‘adventures’ with other women. I have good female friends, but I am loyal and faithful to my wife.

Since we stopped thinking that a woman’s role is only to satisfy men’s desires, sexual relations have become more complicated but potentially much more rewarding. I would like to discuss sexuality, including homosexuality, without running into a concrete wall of pre-conceived ideas. Friendship with women and discussions about sexuality are not understood by many Sikhs. They are the prisoners of their heritage and do not understand that trying to come to a better understanding is not un-Sikh.

387.The Man in Blue – Sikh Mystics

Harjinder Singh
The Man in Blue

Sikh Mystics

Sikhs are to be mystics. Being a mystic does not involve dressing up in a dhoti or any other special outfit, it is perfectly possible to be a mystic in a pair of jeans, a kurta payama or a salwar kameez.

Being a mystic means to be in love with God and to feel God’s love for us. God is not just something or somebody the folks in the Gurdwara talk about, you can feel God, you can experience God in your life.

When I was in Amritsar I used to get up very early to join the jatha doing prakarma washing, then did my nitnem and helped carrying the palki to Harmandr Sahib. After the Vák and the Saviye I would be on a spiritual high, feeling very close to God and close to ‘sádh sangat’.

I think that this is essential Sikhí : feeling close to God should go together with, should be the same as feeling close to God’s creation. God’s creation includes all humanity, all the animate and inanimate world, and all the universe with the worlds upon worlds that Guru Nanak wrote about.

In the central area of Amritsar is Gurdwara Tahli Sahib with its own sizeable sarover called Santokhsar. Every Sunday the sevadars used to offer open air langar where most of those attending were not Sikhs, and many were not Panjabis either.

The sevadars did Vahiguru simran while serving, after explaining that this was not just for Sikhs but for all. They addressed this mixed bunch of sangat, some of whom were no doubt scoundrels, as sádh sangat.

These sevadars understood Sikhí and acted upon it. Everybody was not just welcome, everybody was made to feel part of what was going on there.  Everybody was asked to join in the simran, everybody was included in the ‘True Congregation’, there was no ‘Us’ and ‘Them’.

Spirituality in my understanding is not about us Sikhs sitting cozily together and excluding others, spirituality is about having a loving relation with God, feeling Oneness with God and with God’s creation.

In my work I come across people of all faiths and none who work in Further Education Colleges. I feel at one with all of them, regardless of their background, with whom I can work for the welfare of all the students.

Obviously not everybody is good, too many people are not even trying. Guru speaks out clearly against those who are wasting the chance of joining with God that this human life offers us, but Guru has compassion for those that seriously and honestly try. If we are to judge others we should judge on behaviour, not on labels like Sikh/Non-Sikh or Panjabi/Non-Panjabi.

386.The Man in Blue – Hounslow Singh Sabha Youth Programme

Flower market, Amsterdam : Take a right turn a couple of hundred yards from here and you are in a St Jorisstraat, where I used to live some thirty years ago. My cat loved the flowers, the stall holders did not love my cat.

Hounslow Singh Sabha Youth Programme

As part of the celebration of 300 years of the Guru Granth Sahib as Eternal Guru of the Sikhs, Hounslow Singh Sabha last year launched a year long programme of various activities highlighting our eternal Guru.

One of these activities was a monthly kirtan with kathá in English for and by the Gurdwara youth on Sunday afternoon, and on Sunday September 20 it was already the last one in the series (and one of the best !).

Recently we had a couple of meetings looking back on the last year and forward to the next. We concluded that we have a small group of volunteers who can run this type of programmes in the Gurdwara. Although one of them is a greybeard, the others are young enough to call him dada.

We have also found out that Sunday afternoon is not the best time to put on a programme. There was always some sangat coming in and going out, but it was in trickle and never a stream. 

The following ideas have been accepted by the committee. On the last Friday of the month the 6 pm Rahiras, Kirtan and Kathá programme will be organised by the volunteers, using as many naujawán as are able and willing. We will follow the Rehat Maryádá and we will also encourage sangat to take part in the reciting of the Rahiras and in the kirtan. 

We hope that the sangat will stay with us for the Sukhasan and accompany the Guru Granth Sahib on its way to the Sach Khand. 

On the first Sunday of each month the usual kirtan hour done by the children of the Gurdwara will be extended till 12.00. In that hour the more accomplished students of the kirtan classes and other non-professional kirtanis will come on stage.

In that hour there will also be a presentation on Sikh history, particularly on the lives of our Gurus, demonstrating points of gurmat. 

The katha in English on the evenings of the last Friday of the month will combine simran realising the meanings of words we meditate on, with simple explanations of sabads. We will link Guru’s teachings with life in the 21^st century in the UK.

All members of sangat, from toddlers to centenarians are welcome, all are encouraged to take part, all are encouraged to share their love for Guru. Sádh Sangat, the True Congregation, is where we will find the strength to continue on Guru’s way. Sikhí is not what you do on Sunday morning in the Gurdwara, Sikhí should be 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. (And you should have heard the kirtan on the 20^th of October !)

385.The Man in Blue – Dutch Islamophobia (II)

Man in Blue at the Sikh Missionary Camp in Bristol

Pim Fortuyn was the first Dutch politician who made the minorities and their ‘alien’ cultures and/or religions his main campaigning point. He was killed by a left-wing green activist.

The event that was a real bonus to anti-immigrant politicians going for the popular vote was the killing of Theo van Gogh, a relative of the great Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh.

Theo van Gogh made a film called Submission about a Muslim woman forced into an arranged marriage, who is abused by her husband and raped by her uncle. A scene in the film showed an actress in see-through garments with a text from Al Qur’an written on her body, which also bore whip marks.

There is a parallel with the Bezhti case, where the playwright confused the ante-diluvium attitudes of many Panjabis with the teachings of the Guru Granth. In the case of Al Qur’an, whatever it teaches about the role of women, it cannot be blamed for the sort of behaviour depicted in the film.

The ‘Muslim’ who killed Theo van Gogh seems to follow Karl Marx’s Verelendung theory : if you make things worse for your community they will rise up and change the Netherlands into some kind of European Iran. Of course neither the majority of the Muslims nor of the other people living in the country want such a state, but that does not stop this kind of idiot.

Theo van Gogh had a good point, but made it badly. His killer had a valid argument against Theo van Gogh’s film, but by killing Theo van Gogh he made things worse for everybody in the Netherlands, and especially for the Muslims, who form about 5.5% of the population.

As a result Geert Wilders, ex member of the right wing ‘liberal’ VVD and now the Leader of the Partij voor de Vrijheid (Party for Freedom) scored about 30% of the vote in the recent European elections. Note that Geert Wilders’ party does not stand for freedom for all, like Guru Gobind Singh or the Dutch ‘Father of the Fatherland’ Willem the Silent, but only the freedom of those he sees as ‘proper’ Dutchmen.

The worst ‘sin’ of movements like this is that they force Muslims on a heap. They are asked to choose between ‘Dutch values’ and Osama Bin Laden, and of course they might not like either of these choices.  

Living together with people of different cultures and religions causes problems. These problems can be solved through dialogue and better understanding. Slogan shouting does no good and thinking that you can close your borders is an illusion in the world-village. Worldwide justice and better prices for commodities are the only viable anti-emigration policies.

384.The Man in Blue – Dutch Islamophobia (I)

Pip, an Amsterdam girl to be proud of

The Islamophobic Dutch MP Geert Wilders is obviously not quite right in the head. He cannot have read Al Qur’an, as its values are no more anti-western than those of the Old Testament of the Bible.

The story of the Netherlands and its minorities is rather sad. When I lived in the Netherlands (I left in 1996) there were three main groups of post 1945 immigrants : Moroccans, Turks and Afro-Caribbeans from Suriname (‘Dutch’ Guyana) and the 6 ‘Dutch’ Caribbean Islands.

For the purpose of this article the Moroccans and Turks and other more recent Muslim immigrants like the Somalis are the most relevant.

On the whole the Netherlands was a liberal and tolerant country, much more open minded than the UK. That liberalism included respect for homosexuals. Amsterdam was full of refugees from homophobic Britain, as especially in the western cities like Amsterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht and Rotterdam, you can be openly homosexual without there being a stigma.

What many Dutch people thought, including politicians and bureaucrats dealing with minorities, was that immigrants would gradually imbibe this wonderful liberal culture, and become like the rest of us. Many Dutch people, for the Netherlands is a very secular country, also thought that Muslims would gradually become less Muslim, just like Dutch Christians gradually became less Christian.

The man who started the Dutch Islamophobic movement was not some deeply conservative person from the Dutch ‘back-of-beyond’. Pim Fortuijn was a homosexual from the liberal urban west.

Of course the Dutch Islamophobes do not all oppose Islam because they are opposed to the discrimination of homosexuals. But it does demonstrate the clash between the liberal culture of many of the Dutch and the extreme conservatism of many of the Muslims in the Netherlands. Most Dutch people will far prefer the company of homosexuals of whatever ethnic background to that of conservative homophobes. 

Just like most Sikhs in the UK do not come from towns and cities but from Panjab villages, most Turks and Moroccans come from Turkish and Moroccan  villages.

The Dutch authorities for too long thought that the immigrants would go back home or spontaneously would absorb ‘Dutch values’. There was less engagement with the minorities, there was no CRE.

Next week I will further discuss the present situation and possible remedies.