373.The Man in Blue – A Visit to the burnt down Sikh Sangat Gurdwara

On Sunday the 17^th of May I paid a visit to the Sikh Sangat Gurdwara, Harley Grove, Bow, which recently was set fire to by ‘person or persons unknown’. In this column I will not discuss the possible motives behind this.

After getting up, taking a shower and doing my ‘nitnem’ I did some work related to ‘fbfe’, updated my weblog and added some pictures to my flickr account. Like I do every morning I had Panjabi style tea with cloves, cardamom and fennel and a Dutch style breakfast with different types of bread, peanut butter, marmalade and cheese.

I then went out to Elthorne (Hanwell) to deliver Lib Dem leaflets encouraging people to vote Lib Dems at the European election. We might be reasonably successful, as voters are less unhappy with our lot than with the Conservatives and New Labour. Our voters are also more motivated to vote in a European election, as Lib Dems do not suffer from Europhobia.

At about 13.00 I took a bus to Ealing Broadway and went from there by train and underground to Bow.

Sadh Sangat was having langar in the street in front of the Gurdwara and I was invited to take part. I was recognised by a Singh who studies at Walthamstow College, and talked to him and to another Singh who has a stall in the Roman Road street market.

After langar I helped with removing, cleaning and stacking the tables and chairs, which gave me the chance to have a good look at the damage done to the Gurdwara. The back of the building with the langar and the kitchen is intact, the front where the beautiful divan hall and the ‘sach khand’ were is in an awful state. The outer walls are standing but this part of the building is an empty shell with a caved in roof.

I enjoyed being with sangat, I liked the langar in the street and the divan in a tent on the green across the road from the Gurdwara, but seeing the damage done made me feel sad over the loss inflicted on the community and over the lost ‘birs’ of the Guru Granth Sahib.

This building symbolises the rich and diverse history of the area, first a church, then a synagogue and finally a Gurdwara. It should be restored to its original state, respecting the faith traditions that it housed. Whoever the arsonist was, whatever his motives, regardless whether he acted on his own or not, he should not be allowed to win.

We should all contribute to a restoration fund that has both local and outside Gursikhs as trustees, making sure that this monument for the rich social and religious history of East London is preserved.

364.The Man in Blue – Gurdwara Sikh Sangat, Bow, London, UK

It is not good news to hear that a Gurdwara has been set fire to, and that the fire was started from the sach khand, destroying birs of the Guru Granth Sahib and doing very serious damage to the building. 

Even so, a building, even a building that has been a Church, a Synagogue and then a Gurdwara, is at the end of the day only ‘bricks and mortar’. The burning of birs of the Guru Granth Sahib is very sad and very regrettable, but the arsonist has burnt paper, cardboard and bookbinding, not the Shabad, not the word of God, which is eternal and indestructible.

 

The Indian media have widely reported the fire as a racist attack. Apparently Sikhs in Hyderabad burnt the UK flag during a protest. In reality we do not know the motives of the arsonist. Some of the rumours doing the round suggest a worse possibility than a racist attack.

 

I heard from three different sources (who might all have heard it from one source) that there is a conflict between committee members and within the sangat over a possible sale of the present building. Some are very strongly in favour of selling and building a new Gurdwara elsewhere, others are very strongly against it.

 

Apparently a very acrimonious debate on this issue took place the day before the fire. I know that conflicts in Gurdwaré are often taken to extremes, and I know that in the past crimes have been committed as part of Gurdwara conflicts. You never know of course, but I would think or sincerely hope that Sikhs, however misguided, would not set fire to a Gurdwara, would not set fire to the sach khand.

 

It is of course possible that there is a racist or ‘religious’ motive behind the attack. But here too there are doubts : which non-Sikh group or individual would know the meaning of the sach khand and know where it is located ?

 

If the arsonist is an individual acting on his own, and if he does not start talking about it to family and friends, it is going to be difficult for the police to find the culprit. If he is part of a right-wing racist group or a Taliban or RSS type outfit, it should be easier for the police to track him down.

 

The police might know far more than even Harmander Singh, and surprise us all by arresting a criminal who does not fit any of the speculations that are doing the rounds.

 

Once we know why the arsonist set fire to the Gurdwara, we should not burn flags or hate all people of the same background as the criminal. Sikhs should at all times seriously try to practice the teachings of the Guru Granth Sahib, as per the hukam of Guru Gobind Singh.