345.Southall Singh Sabha & the Sikh School

As a member of the Southall Singh Sabha I received a letter about the Khalsa School under construction in the grounds of the Norwood Hall in Southall, in the London Borough of Ealing.

 

Here follows the text of the English version of the letter :

Respected Sadh Sangat Ji,

 

Vahiguru Ji Ka Khalsa  Vahiguru Ji Ki Fateh

 

A new primary school ‘Sri Guru Singh Sabha Khalsa Primary School’ is under construction. The co-operation of all the Sikh Sangat is crucial. Learned scholars have stated that to expand a religion, it is very important encourage its language and culture. For these reasons the development of Khalsa Primary School was deemed necessary and has begun. In this institution, in addition to the standard school syllabus, religious education will be incorporated. Although we have received a governmental grant, contributions from the community are required to maximise the potential of this project. The administration would be extremely obliged to you for your co-operation if you would make your one tenth contribution towards the school building. If every Gursikh family contributes £ 5 a month, it generates £60 a year. 1,000 families making such donations will contribute £60,000 and 10,000 families will contribute £600,000. Let us get together and provide our next generations an excellent opportunity for a glorious future and a wonderful educational institution.

 

A direct debit form is provided. Please complete it to Sri Guru Singh Sabha office by post or deliver it the Sabha’s office.

 

Humble request by Sri Guru Singh Sabha sevadars

 

I like the letter, it is more ‘Sikh’ to raise small amounts of money from many than raising huge amounts from few (and then put their names on the wall). I also like the fact that the letter is not signed by the pradhan or general secretary, but by the team.

 

I do not like direct debit very much, I prefer to be in control, but I will make a contribution equivalent to £ 5 a month.

 

You will not be surprised, me being an awkward sort of person, that there are some questions that bother me. Can the humble sevadars please explain to me what they mean by ‘its language and culture’ ?    

 

I also hope/expect that the Prabandhak Committee will set up a governing body for the school which is controlled by parents, not by the Gurdwara.

344.Sikh Lobby Day on 1984 Delhi Pogroms

Some of you might think that we should by now give up dragging up these old stories from 24 years ago. India is shining, India is booming and the bad old days should be forgotten.

There were some young people at the 30 October meeting in the Jubilee Room of the Houses of Parliament who wanted to keep the issue alive, but who were asking why it was that nothing had been achieved, that nobody was punished in spite of 24 years of campaigning.

India is indeed shining, although the wide gap between the haves and the have-nots is widening even further. Real shine will depend on all sharing in the new found wealth, and on real democracy and real justice for all.

Real democracy requires people with a democratic mindset, and those are very rare in the Union of India. Real justice is still not happening in India, you do not have to dig very deep to find the serious flaws in the system. Justice in India comes, if at all, agonisingly slow. Justice in India is for sale.

A friend of mine intervened in a village dispute, arranged a settlement that everybody seemed to agree to, but then behind his back one of the parties involved bribed the police, had the settlement overturned and managed to hold my friend here in Southall as the Indian authorities revoked his perfectly valid visa.  

Another more recent example was the peaceful meeting arranged in Amritsar between Kashmiri and Sikh activists, when the authorities prevented the Kashmiris from travelling within their own country. Anybody in India who wants to campaign peacefully for autonomy or independence for her/his part of the Union will be thrown into prison repeatedly, and more than like be beaten up (or worse) in the process.

Back to the 1984 Pogrom in Delhi and in other cities in Congress ruled states. There are leading Congress politicians who were present at these events, who encouraged and led the attacks on the Sikhs and who have still not been prosecuted.

If India really wants to become a ‘shining’ country, these people should be punished. If this does not happen we can try to have them prosecuted when they come to visit the UK, or have them banned from visiting the UK.

No doubt the Sikh Federation will publish a report on the meeting, which I will post on this blog. But what we are talking about is cooperation between Human Rights activists in India, the Sikhs in the UK and in other European countries and British and international Human Rights organisations like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Redress.