The UN aint gonna do nothing!

Gur Piarey jio,

Ignoring the double negatives, the words above may sound pessimistic or be painful to hear for those seeking this route as a way of getting justice or freedom. However the time to speak the truth is here and has been ever since Akaal Purakh graced planet earth to feel the charan of Guru Nanak Dev ji.

As more and more of us end up with “petition overdose” and become the sort of inactive activists that can hardly spare five mouse clicks, lets do ourselves one favour and start to use our critical thinking.

The UN is not the place for us to seek any sort of justice or redress for the Indian state massacring Sikhs in June and November 1984 (or since then). Yet, every year, without fail, we end up with petitions targeting the UN. Here are some sobre facts to consider.

• North Korea has concentration camps: The UN released a report upon them, condemns them and has continued to do so. Many more than all our shaheeds of 1984 have dies at these camps and yet, they continue to exist. The UN and its (borrowed) army has done nothing about them. The UN continues to pass resolutions and people continue to die.
• Syria and ISIS: This is a much bigger crisis that 1984. Millions of people have been displaced, 10s of thousands killed and the main culprit, Assad, is now unfortunately safe whilst he continues to fight against the new bogeymen, ISIS. The barbarity shown by IS is well known to the Sikhs but has brought about horror in the West. The genocide of the Yazidis is occurring and yet, apart for making recommendations to the Americans, the UN blue helmeted army is nowhere to be seen.
• Boko Haram just killed 5000 people and hardly any news of it came in our western media. Their brazen murders, kidnaps and rape continue and whilst the people talk openly about how the government has failed them, the UN still remains impotent.

Given the world and the crises going on, it is an insult to our own intelligence for us to go around thinking that the UN might actually do something about what happened to a politically divided people 30 years ago. Then why do we buy this false dream?

Firstly, it seems as if we prefer not to think. We’re like those people who come home from work and switch on the TV, in order to switch off their brains. We don’t want to face the facts of the situation as that would mean completely changing our whole strategy.

Secondly, there is an element of us being trained to think this way. Ever since 1850, we have been getting the “white man” to solve our problems. They are the authority figure and we are the humble petitioners. We pride ourselves in our ‘peaceful and reasonable’ behaviour as we bend at the knee and present our case, backing it up with as many signatures as we could emotionally blackmail out of our people. We want to believe the “boss man” cares and if only we presented it in the right way, he’d give us our justice.

Frankly, as a diaspora community we don’t really have a clue what to do if the UN really doesn’t care.   But the fact is that the UN really doesn’t care.

So what now? Surely by recognising our worst fears are totally true, we can then go about formulating a strategy that actually works. Instead of sitting around thinking, “Well, you know, what can we do?” we could actually get up and say, “hey man, lets make a list, of actually what we can do and lets do that!”.

Obviously, that would require us to think and then to act. Are we ready for that?

Well, yes and no. If we are to be prepared for that, we have to set a few ground rules.

(1) What is agreement? When we come together to decide what to do, the one thing we cannot do is make a list of “What we want”. That list should never be made. The list that we need to make is, “What is realistic for us to achieve and how”.

Whenever we come together, we end up behaving like a group of siblings who don’t get along too well and decide one year to make a united wish list. They write down everything that each child desires into a unified list. Now, they stand united and proudly present their list to their parents. What does the parent do?

Well, a really truthful parent would burst out laughing and remind the kids about things like budgeting and being realistic. However, the parent we face, ie politicians, are masters of deceipt. So they solemnly accept our “unified lists of demands” and tell us that they will consider them in detail. We get appeased and head abck home patting each other on the back for how well we came together. No one bothers to follow up as what will happen next since deep down, we know that “no one is going to do anything”.

Lets break that pattern. Unity is not achieved in this way. A realistic plan of action, based upon achievable goals (SMART) is what we need. This is true agreement, when we sit down and thrash out our real priorities and assess them in the light of what’s happening in the real world. Compromises will have to be made and not everyone can be pleased. Its harder, it requires maturity and an attitude of “no matter what, we need to come up with a plan” but ultimately, it means that we cease to be a laughing stock and get taken seriously.

Moreover, there need to be specific people who are given the job of carrying out the tasks that we decide need to be done. We can’t just say, “we need to do these things” and then no one is responsible for it. This is what we currently do and that’s why we are currently failing. We need deadlines and pressure, we need disciple and detailed planning, we need ‘doers” and not talkers. These people need to be held publically accountable regarding their seva. If they do well, then they are kept on and if they do not, then more dedicated, resourceful and capable people need to be put in place instead.

When we start every meeting with “What can we realistically achieve here and how will we do this and who specifically will be getting on with the main jobs” then we might be able to get somewhere.

Success in small tasks will build our shattered self-confidence. We will take our destiny back into our hands. This is what they tried to prevent and this what they fear. The top 1% don’t not want the Khalsa to be what Guruji intended. The other 99% however, they need the Khalsa to be exactly what Guruji wanted.

Vaheguru

Should the Sikhs feel betrayed by the British Government? Part 1

Guru Piarey Jio,

Our 6th King, Sri Guru Hargobind Sahib ji positioned the Akaal Takht in such a way that from the window of the Political Throne of Akaal Takht, they could look out and see the Spiritual Throne of Harimandar Sahib but not vice versa, i.e., in politics we must continually remind ourselves of our Gurus’ spiritual teachings. Have our current political leaders done the same?

The revelations and the report about the British Government’s involvement in the June 1984 attack upon Golden Temple Complex, is one of the first times that young Sikhs have found a ‘sikh’ story to become mainstream news. Its our view that in their excitement, maybe they have applied the old maxim of “act first, think later”. This flies in the face of Gurbani saying that knowledge must first be contemplated upon before we can help others.

Given the last 30 years have been a case of running on the spot (mostly due to not thinking things through) its to be expected that such bad habits have become ingrained in the older generation. However, if progress is to come, it’s not going to come from repeating the same mistakes. Here is our analysis of typical responses.

(1) “I’m so shocked that they hid this from us”

Unfortunately, this person has never given much thought to politics or how the world works. Most governments are involved in extremely shady dealings that they hide by imposing limits of what can be published and what is an official ‘secret’. Of course they would hide this! The documents themselves admit that they wouldn’t wish for this secret to be known.
As our 10th King ordered us, we should study politics. Even a novice student of politics would have be introduced to realpolitics, where “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” is often accompanied by “let’s just keep all this backscratching to ourselves”. When we read in Japji Sahib daily that there are countless sinners, liars, thieves and murderers, why did we expect that the British Government would behave any different? Are they enlightened beings living without ego? This brings us to the next point.

(2) “I cant believe that the British would backstab us like this”

Again, political naivety but also a lack of historical knowledge. Yes, the Sikhs have been loyal soldiers in WW1 and WW2 and won accolades for their bravery. Yet this does not mean the Sikhs and the British have been the best of friends. The Sikhs first encountered the British in the early 1800s, when the Sikh Kingdom of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was one of the most prosperous and advanced Kingdoms in India. Through bribery, treachery and warfare, the British destroyed the Sikh Kingdom and took its rightful heir away to the UK. They subsequently ordered that the Khalsa be disarmed or shot. They pushed Christian Missionaries into Punjab and even tried to auction off the very same Golden Temple at the centre of the current controversy. Having killed or pushed out the majority of independent minded Sikhs, they then proceeded to establish controls over Sikh gurdwaras and ensure they were run by people who supported the British Raj. In line with ‘divide and conquer”, they then recruited Sikhs into the British Indian Army and used them to supress the native independence struggles, e.g., the Bengal Mutiny. Was there any loyalty towards the Sikhs during these times?

During 1900-1939, the British clashed with Sikhs a number of times.
• British India worked to crush Ghadar independence movement (started by young Sikhs from America and Canada)
• British policemen mercilessly beat peaceful protestors in the “Gurdwara Reform Movement” as they worked to free Gurdwaras from British control.
• Finally, in the Indian Independence movement, it was the Sikhs who overwhelmingly sacrificed to free India from British colonial rule. The Sikhs did not have a cordial relationship with the British at this time.

Knowledge of the above would amuse a contortionist when observing the Sikhs remind the British of how loyal Sikhs were, and in the next breath, reminding the Indians that they loyally fought the British for Indian Independence.

Yes, but what about from 1939-45? Surely the Sikhs were extremely loyal during WW2? It is true that Sikhs were heavily over-represented in the largest ever volunteer army raised for WW2 (only 2% of India’s population was Sikh. It’s also true that huge sacrifices were made and acts of great bravery were carried out by Sikhs. However the bravery and sacrifices stemmed less from loyalty to the British and more from the Sikh martial culture as inculcated by the Gurus. The numbers of Sikhs that enlisted was also due to the British promising Independence to India if it helped during WW2. Sikhs delivered the brunt of the Indian part of this trade-off.

What is conveniently forgotten is that whilst Field Marshall Slim was praising the bravery of the Sikh soldiers in Burma, the Japanese and German governments had actually sponsored and set up an Indian National Army to fight the British Indian forces. Sikhs made up the majority of the INA and its first commanding officers was Captain Mohan Singh. Complicated? Yes. Brave? Yes.
Bond of Loyalty? On a personal level, Yes, but overall, No.

The problem for Sikhs really came in summer 1947, when the Radcliffe line divided their beloved Punjab in two, with half in the newly created and majority Muslim Pakistan. 60 years later, Sikhs still speak of those dark times of bloodshed and some animosity towards Muslims remains. But what of the fact that Britain chose a civil servant (Radcliffe) who had never been to India before, told him to draw his line in 5 weeks, most of which he spent in his air conditioned office? What of the fact that his pen strokes were responsible for making 40% of all Sikhs into refugees? A million people died. Was this loyalty?

How many of us turn around and say, You betrayed us in 1849, you betrayed us in 1919 and you betrayed us in 1947, and dammit, we should have expected you’d betray us again in 1984. Why are we the ones who are surprised? Why didn’t we expect this?

(3) We’ve been such loyal citizens, we feel betrayed

When working for the British Empire, Sikhs were loyal. Even now, we are the most integrated and law-abiding immigrant community in the UK. But how much of this is because of a ‘special relationship’ with the British? Not much.

It’s more likely because we are generally ‘the good guys’. We’ve been taught by our Gurus to work hard, be honest, share and stand up for others rights. Sikhs make great citizens. It’s more likely that the British recognised this and grudgingly gave into Sikhs demands to wear a turban and carry a kirpan. By doing this, they were able to retain the goodwill of such a valuable immigrant community.

Its not our style to do wrong anyway, and yet instead of seeing ourselves as a valuable community and organising ourselves to take advantage of our value, until the recent scandal, we were still mostly thanking the British for the ‘concessions’ towards the 5ks. Even now, we turn to them with distraught puppy dog eyes betraying our naivety.

Part 2 will deal with the common reactions of
(4) We need to unite and get our demands met.
(5) This is our chance to get out truth about 1984.
And what we could have done..

May those true of faith in the Divine Guru and his Teachings forever be blessed to walk his path on the edge of the sword of Truth

Vaheguru

Going nowhere fast

Guru Piarey jio,

Globally the Panth reacts to the Indian government’s Vaisakhi gift to us, i.e., planned hanging of Professor Bhullar. But are we going about it in the right way??

Currently thousands of Sikhs are gathering in London to join those who have been on a three-day vigil outside 10 Downing Street and together they will be marching to the Indian Embassy. In total, we’d estimate that around 100,000 hours of time and effort of Sikhs has been expended in this initiative.  And do we expect it to get any results?

Let’s establish some facts. Firstly, the protest at 10 Downing Street took place at a time when the Prime Minister David Cameron was in Germany with his family.  He wasn’t even there.  Secondly, David Cameron was recently in India in order to  beg India to not just leave Britain by the wayside as it establishes a ‘strategic partnership’ with America.  Whilst in India, never did he raise the question of Sikhs on death row. Frankly, we don’t think he cares too much about appeasing British Sikhs, at least not enough to let it interfere with wooing Indian business. Thirdly, the British Parliament doesn’t care. The Kesri Lehar, even after getting over 100,000 signatures, only managed to get about 12 MPs to listen to its tabled debate, around 10 of those were planning to speak on the issue in any case, i.e., 10 people who know about an issue ‘raising’ awareness to 2 people who might also have known about it.  

Is there any part of the above that makes you want to scream out and ask “Why are we trying to get Britain (who doesn’t care) to put pressure on India (cares even less) to then order its independent judiciary, i.e., the Supreme Court, to change its entire policies and make a mockery of its previous judgements?

Here’s our considered perspective. All of this is simply a scam. We are being ‘made to’ use up all our energies on totally unrealistic projects. 

Why? Well lets look at what happens when we spend so much of our time this way.

(1) We continue thinking of ourselves as the victims. We keep begging for justice. This victim mentality is not the Khalsa mentality and so mentally we are kept as slaves.

(2) We are not inviting any kirpa by Guruji. Guruji never once begged anyone for justice and nor did the Singhs of old. So why would Guruji be impressed with this current display and bless us?? This is actually a disrespect to his royal and sovereign form. We need kirpa to succeed but kirpa only comes when he is pleased with us.

(3) The young and passionate youth, who are prepared to stay up all night, organize etc, this is actually killing their spirit. They will slowly start to see that there are no results and once they are burnt out, they will end up going home and thinking, “Its all useless.”  They will never get to experience the joy of actually working on a project that has a chance of success, and then seeing that to fruition, which in turn would fuel them to greater and more successful projects. Success breeds success, but dejections breeds dejected youth.

So who gains from this? Our enemies do of course! They want us to spend all spare time running around being very busy but actually, we’re running on the spot and going nowhere.  This ensures that we remain where they want to keep us.

Lets imagine a scenario.  There is fire in our house in London, and also a fire our Parents house in India. Now, all our family is running around scared about this fire in our house here and actually the water to put the fire out is just two houses away. But some of our family members here in the UK (the vocal ones) gather us all around and say, listen, our Parents are being burnt right now in India and the Indian Fire Service is not responding. We all need to come together and get the UK fire service to call up the Indian Fire Service to go put out the fire in our house in India. But crucially the phone is in our house, but we cant go inside our house as its burning, so lets all march up to the UK Fire service right now. 

Now what would most of us say to the above idea? We personally would suggest that we deal with the fire close at hand, get the water and put it out. Then we use the phone in our house to call the fire services or perhaps even call some friends in India and arrange a personal firefighting team.  In any case, we’re going to be homeless and resource-less if we don’t first save our house here.

The maxim is this – pick your battles wisely and fight things that you can win and as you do that, you’ll get strong and more used to winning and then you might be able to fight other bigger battles.

In the words of Stephen Covey (Seven Habits), we have two spheres, a sphere of concern which is very big and a sphere of influence which is much smaller. If we operate within our sphere of Influence, then we will grow that sphere. Operate within the Sphere of concern and we will not be effective.

So what is our home? What battles can we fight and win? What will make us stronger and more confident about achieving bigger things?

The Gurdwara. That’s our root, that our shared home. That’s our community rallying centre, community organizing centre and spiritual guidance centre.  what is the situation with our Gurdwaras? Are they on fire?

Sikhi is not being taught there. Gurbani is being sold as a ritual ‘earn karma’. People are reading words they don’t understand to people who understand even less. Kids are being bored to death in Punjabi classes. Food is not fit for Sant Sipahis and is more of a show-off than to feed the needy. Granthees are treated like slaves but come and go anonymously. Committees are full of non-sevadaars., to whom you wouldn’t even entrust your child. There are no professional educational courses in Sikhi. Financial and organizational mis-management is endemic. Youth are rarely involved. Sevadaars are being turned away and dis-illusioned. Money wasted on bigger Gurdwaras with less community spirit.  All of this and much much more is commonplace across the world.

But just imagine how many people and the total sum of financial resources that sit in the hands of the UK Sikhs alone. 500,000 people, mostly middle class, with hundreds of buildings and more. We’re sure it’s close to, if not beyond, £1bn sterling. Why is then that we are so dis-organised? Why are we unable to take the problems above and make our Gurudwaras the havens of Sikhi. We’ve already published a post called “Gurudwara Experience”. Why cant the Gurdwaras be more like those than how they are currently?

Our answer is two-fold.

(1) We’ve been made to look elsewhere for the solution. They want to keep us busy running on the spot so not only are we very busy but we never achieve anything.

(2) We ourselves are trying to hide our heads in the sand and not face up to our root problems. Its too difficult to change our Gurdwaras, its ‘Real’ work and involves constant sacrifice. Going on a rally and march is much more entertaining and we know our family and friends will come along.  

As a Panth, we’ve become emasculated and un-empowered. We don’t feel we can make a difference in our local gurdwara systems and we feel so frustrated by this that shouting at people who also don’t care actually sounds like a good idea.  The people who give us these good ideas like to be at the front on the camera exhorting us to come down in support of our brothers and sisters, a guilt trip that’s always guaranteed to work since we have so much collective guilt about our response to 1984. 

So, aren’t we just doing what they want us to do? Run on the spot, stay where we are and never fight the fire in our own house? Some people are fighting the right battle though and we need to learn from them.

Look at the youth in Vancouver, they have taken over their Gurudwaras, they are serving the sangat with true Sikhi. A nine year-old girl there recently finished her own sehat paat of Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji. Lots of people turned up for the Bhog ceremony.

Now think if we would do the same if a 9 year old girl in the UK read a 1430 page long English book. Of course not. Why not? Because apparently English is easy but Gurmukhi is hard. But when you teach kids to read Gurmukhi, its much easier for them to learn it as it’s a very phonetic language, as compared to English which is not. 

Well you can see our problems, a generations of passionate but un-informed youth, who cant read or understand what they bow down to, don’t know the family tree of the founders, do not have opportunity to do this at their Gurdwaras and are having to scrape by on learning using youtube, mp3s and google.

Where does the solution lie? Right at our very hands, in the places where we go weekly, where Sikhi is very rarely seen. Our Doors to Enlightenment. We need to reform these into spiritual and social educational centres where activism is not just encouraged but organized and delivered. When the fire in these homes gets put out, then we will be able to organize effectively to start fighting the bigger fires.

That’s not to say that we don’t support other organisations doing vital work. A good example of mis-directed resources is the recent “walk for Freedom” organized by Insaaf in both London and California. Here in London, we only had around 20 people turn up and yet as this article is being written, thousands upon thousands of Sikhs are marching to the Indian Embassy in London. Insaaf is actually working to collect data about the aftermath of 1984 in Punjab. It’s vital work shines with the legacy of Jaswant Singh Khalra.  How do we think they feel when only 20 UK Sikhs turned up to support them? Probably not great.

There is a sad prediction we can make. Those thousands of Sikhs marching right now will be back again in just 2 months to march at the 29^th anniversary of June 1984 and Insaaf and all the other organisations like Khalsa Aid, SOPW, United Sikhs, Seva84, PDL etc is still be woefully underfunded given the mountain they are trying to conquer.

Guru Piare jio, its not enough for us to want to wake up the youth, we need to keep the youth active in relevant and fulfilling seva. Effective Seva. Vital and needed Seva, the seva of reforming our houses, our Guru Ghars, putting out the flames of kaljug that are working to hide the Truth that was revealed to us about how to banish all dis-order and chaos and bring to the forefront something never seen before, an army of saint soldiers desiring only to serve and encourage others to chant the Name of their Creator.

May the King of Kings bless his children on this Vaisakhi that they get back to the sovereign ways he prescribed and start the real fight ahead. With each victory, may he bless his beloved army with more desire to chant his Name and fight the righteous battle ahead.

Vaheguru.

The Revolution will not be televised..

The Revolution will not be televised,

Not for armchair warriors, on the streets, LIVE,

Enuff of the censors and the prying eyes,

We here to talk some Real Shit, stuff we realized…

 

Culture of Hypocrisy has crept into the Pure,

Its institutional yo and we forgot the Cure,

Guru is Crystal clear, but we clouded like vapour,

 

On white paper with Black Ink,

Guruji gave us everthing!

 

He said, “I’ve come here to destroy the tyrants”

We chill in arm chairs, setting no precedents!

He said, Be a rebel, I’ll give you my cause,

Sacrifice my family for my Singhs and Kaurs”

 

Now we looking slick, Bana and Shashter,

Gurdwara run like a business, strength we cannot muster,

“Revolution is too big a word bros, maybe join a committee?”

“They made this Fucking system”…”it will break your Sikhi”

 

Maybe Sikhi is broken when Sikhs forget to read..

The words of our masters, chasing lust and greed,

“Don’t be so Harsh yo, these are the Good Guys.”

Aren’t we totally fucked then? Do we speak a Lie?

 

Old Greedy Pendu Bijnizzmen  run the Guru’s house…

They succeeded in their mission, we squeak like a Little Mouse,

Khalsa in Name, Sheep with a Lions Mane,

We just love protesting, IT DON’T WORK, lets do it again and again

That my friend, is the dictionary definition of the INSANE.

 

Sikh Anonymous is opening up now, the grenades start to fly,

No one’s getting spared, though we on the same side,

This is Peace Time, so here is where we train HARD,

The war…they will bring to us…we’ll see who’s a coward,

Like we said, It will not be televised,

You want some..? Gurprasaad is the Prize,

Be warned though, it comes at a price.

 Its not for you I think, take our advice,

Stick to your marches and petitions online,

Be Wise…you only got one Life…

 

Guruji watches you, shaheeds by his side,

Maybe you’ll die old, loved by kids and wife,

Guru ki Fauj’s heading out, lucky to get Five,

So few the Khalsa, Numbers are just lies..

SikhiLeaks – Post 1 – Southall Singh Sabha

Guru Piarey Jio,

We’ve had lots of messages recently regarding our post 6/6/12  Occupy our Gurdwaras. Most people have agreed that reform is required and also that more transparency is required.  As always in any situation, the suggestions have been varied but what did stand out was the concern that there are some good people in these committees too and why we remain anonymous.

To address the second concern first, as we’ve said to anyone who asked, we are the dogs of the Panth, we are simply barking and fighting outside,  we  DO NOT want people to follow us. If our ideas or barking resonates, please come outside to join us in the struggle. The other reason is that in this battle, we are fighting with enemies that have vastly more resources at their disposal, so in order to level the playing field, we have to fight smart. If we came out in the public, the internal and external enemies would have a clear target to fire upon.

Now, in terms of not sullying the names of the Good Guys in committees (along with all the bad and inept people), internally our debate led us to start by not immediately naming every single person in the committee, just the obvious ones. Without engaging in slander, surely no Gurdwara ‘should’ mind us sharing very basic information, most of which is available to the Sangat in any case.

(1)    The constitution of the Gurdwara

(2)    The election manifestos of the Gurdwara committee.

Within just these basic bits of info, we should be able to determine what the Gurdwara was intended to provide, what the present management committee promised, the resources available to them and finally what they achieved.  If there are good people on the committees, then this should be all the more reason for them to exercise their influence to get such promises delivered.

Take Singh Sabha Gurdwara in Southall for example. Its irrevelent where we live in the UK, this Gurdwara committee has within its control two of the most iconic gurdwaras in the UK.  Every year, we get our cars and drive down to the Nagar kirtans and witness the streets of Southall literally orange and blue. The Gurdwaras have a combined income of around £2.4 million per year, own two massive buildings, have a massive amount of influence in Sikh affairs in the UK and yet like of our Gurdware, they fail to even deliver what they promised.  Please find their constitution and the election manifesto of the current ‘Baaj Party’ attached. The main members of the Baaj Party are easily found on the Gurdwaras wikipedia entry or through any google search and actually they themselves publish a photo of each member around their ‘manifesto’. It makes for interesting reading.

Click to access southall-constitution.pdf

What are the main points that come out of this?

The committee promises to immediately deliver…

(1) Financial transparency – Monthly accounts

(2) Youth Stakeholder Group

(3) Dedicated Funding for educational and faith based purposes, including the Sojhi curriculum by Sikh Research Institute

(4) Working with homeless organisations, alcohol and drug rehabilitation and counselling/mediation

(5) Working to visit Sikh prisoners.

Also, the Gurdwara Constitution gives the Main Aims of the Gurdwara to be 8 things (current as from March 2010)

(i) Establish one or more centres for religious worship and associated  ancillary education and cultural activities including sports

(ii) Establish a library of books in English or Punjabi concerned with social religious or educational matters

(iii) Offer prizes, awards, scholarships and stipends in connection with Sikh religious studies

(iv) Sponsor and aid the publication of religious literature and the carrying our of religious instruction

(v) Establish nurseries and educational institutions having a connection with the Sikh religion.

(vi) Establish any other project that can aid the community ot promote the Sikh culture

(vii) Provide free board and lodgings to persons in necessitous circumstances provided they do not infringe the sanctity of the Gurdwaras.

(viii) Establish new and up to date facilities, e.g., ICT training (Information, communications and Technology) to promote the Sikh religion and Punjabi language.

Now, we can give our view on these, based on the conversations we’ve had with local sangat there, however, its not really our role to do this, its the sangat of the Gurdwara who must hold their ‘leaders’ to account.  Therefore, our only request must be to those good guys in the committee to give their response as to that they have done for each point and also for the sangat there to decide if enough has been done.

In fact, why is it that even a university student society will have elections for each seat where the voters are able to ask questions but ina multi-million pound community thats built around ‘sangat’ we still never get a chance to question our own ‘leaders’.

We would recommend the sangat to read our posts on spring cleaning 1 and spring cleaning, 3, especially 3, to see our view on what a gurdwara committee and the gurdwara experience could be like and what they have now.  The rest we leave to Vaheguru.

Vaheguru

Is it ever the right time for a revolution?

Guru Piarey Jio,

Saul Alinsky, in his book “Rules for Radicals” categorises society into two main spheres, the Haves and the Have-Nots. These two are diametrically opposed and it is here that the struggle lies. However a third group, called the Have-a-little want-mores, are where most of the revolutionaries come from. Middle class so to speak. This group is split into the Do-nothings and the Doers. The Do-nothings make a big show and even convince themselves they care about helping the Have-nothings overcome their struggle with the Haves, but ultimately, its never the right time or the right way. The Doers, come up with a plan, the best they can and get on with executing it. The Doers are the ones who make history.

Currently the criticism coming at us seems to have the same Do-Nothings air, ie not just now, not just this way. We are writing for the Doers. If you feel this reform movement is crucial, then get involved brothers and sisters. We are you and you are us.

A final note, we took a hukamnama from Guru sahib before publishing. The key lines that stood out were, “He himself does and himself inspires others to acts” and also “He himself establishes and himself dis-establishes”. Now the Do-Nothings will undoubtedly claim that this just means we should just wait around like the proverbial drowning man who spurns a life-raft cause he’s waiting for God to save him.  The Doers amongst us, will see this as Guru tellign us we should get on with it and leave the results in his hands. The Khalsa and the Panth work for Vaheguru and its Vaheguru’s victory, not ours. So leaving the feasibility aside, the need for thousands to join us aside, what each of us now has to think is, do I answer this call or not? If you are a Doer at heart, ask vaheguru to give you the strength to never shirk from righteous actions and DO.

(1) Print the leaflet and plaster the Gurdwaras and the committee rooms

(2) Join us on facebook and show your support. Share the posts and posters to all your friends.

(3) Find the data on your committee and gurdwara and send it to us via facebook. Tomorrow we will be printing the info regarding the Gurdwara first on the list.

Vaheguru

Occupy Sikhi, 6/6/12 Occupy our Gurdwaras

Guru Piarey Jio,

Just like Dhan Guru Hargobind Sahib ji, the destroyer of armies, the warrior Guru, the liberator, carried two swords signifying his total sovereignty over all spiritual and earthly matters, the next battle for our beloved Khalsa Panth will also have two forks. We have to fight the internal enemies and external enemies. These are not enemies we have chosen, (the Panth hates no one), but these people have chosen to be enemies and obstructions in the Khalsa’s mission. Our mission is simple, a Khalsa Raaj dedicated to providing freedom and access to basic provisions to every single person whilst spreading the beauty of our Jagat Guru.

Step one: Fight the current internal and external enemies.

Step two: Start doing the work of the Khalsa, thereby creating even more external enemies who will undoubtedly work to create internal enemies.

Verily did Dhan Guru Gobind Singh Patshah say that the Khalsa are those who will constantly do battle.

Step one then…well, our main external enemies are the 1% of India, who have conspired to subjugate and murder Sikhs in India, quite rightly seeing that the Khalsa will ultimately remove these elitist, nepotistic dynasties from power. What we need is to develop an independent mindset and recognise the real enemy. With that aim in mind and also taking note of the number of positive comments regarding the SICC, then we will do ardaas to Guru sahib to allow us the seva to help bring this to reality. We’ll be keeping you updated wit this.

On the internal side, our previous 3 posts under Spring Cleaning have made clear our views advocating serious reform of our gurdwaras. We must awaken as many of those who enter the Gurudwara and Guru sahib will make them agents for this upcoming Khalsa Raaj. These are not pipedreams, it is our birthright. Changing the Gurudwaras can be delivered now. It’s real change that is in our hands and achievable. And this change is achievable if we have clear rules for Unity and clear objectives. In our view, given the whole system is broken, instead of engaging in it, (ie Gurudwara politics) we need the Sangat, (all of us) to get involved and focus upon deliverables. To use an analogy all sevadaars would understand, we don’t need to argue about who goes on the langar committee, we need to start chopping veggies and making dough.

You’ve seen Occupy Wall Street and you’ve seen the Arab spring. How about a new global movement? So that in one year’s time we can say that we changed the face of the Panth. No more waiting for a better time, the time is now and the Panth is here, this is the time for the Khalsa Spring.

We need to take control of our Sikhi, not to have it led by clueless people. It’s time to Occupy Sikhi, time to Occupy our Gurudwaras. We need to unite as a Panth and get Sikhi, real Sikhi back into our Gurudwaras. We need to do this until as many of the following points on our suggested manifesto have been delivered.

If you believe that the time is now, that change has to come, we ask for your help. On the 6^th of June, one week from now, go to your Gurudwara with as many copies of the leaflets above. One side, gives the reality of what Gurudwaras have mostly become, the other side is the manifesto.  These should be the minimum demands for every major Gurudwara in our community. Lets put these up in every Gurudwara, give them out to each  committee member, tell them that this is what we want, and that they are on notice. Please download and print many copies. You can normally get online printing shops to do this very cheap and post back to you.

Now, before you start thinking “Yeah right, thats going to work”, we’d like to announce our new project to the sangat. We’ve all used WikiPedia and SikhiWiki, and we’ve also heard of WikiLeaks. Well we’d like to introduce the sangat to SikhiLeaks. The concept is very simple, the transparency and accountability we need about our Gurdwaras is unlikely to be given voluntarily and joyfully. So in the absence of a carrot to offer our ‘leaders’ (we don’t think that “the sangat is asking for it” is enough for these guys) we thought a big stick might be in order. On SikhiLeaks, what we will set up is a profile of each Gurudwara, a list of its committee, granthees and their photos, a brief bio if possible, then the constitution of the Gurudwara and its financial situation and finally the election manifesto of each party currently in charge. Then it will simply be a case of knowing who is to blame for the Gurudwara committee not following the constitution and their own election pledges. Now funnily enough, a lot of this information is freely available around election time and also available to monitoring bodies like the charities commission in the UK. Once this information database builds up for each Gurudwara, we think that the committee will no longer be the nice cosy seat that it is at present. Thats good! The harder that seat is and the more uncomfortable, the more likely we are to get real sevadaars. People who do what they say and who have nothing to hide.  Isn’t that the real thing at stake here, is what do these people have to hide?

Guru Piarey jio, with Guru’s grace, we will be building this website and working towards the SICC. The first Gurudwara we will tackle will be the biggest and most influential Gurudwara in the UK, where one committee controls two Gurdwaras! Can you guess who it is yet? We’ve got most of the information already but need your help.

How can you get involved? We urge you to rifle through all the papers and documents you have at home, on your email etc and leak them to us via our blog. We don’t want gossip or slander, merely the facts of the case and what these people themselves promised to deliver. We have faith in the sangat and in Vaheguru ji.  The power of the people is greater than the people in power. Guru Kirpa kare, this revolution is true to their teachings and that it happens. Dhan Guru Hargobind Sahib bless us with his warrior spirit and the sharpness of two swords.

In the time honoured tradition of warrior ballads, we’d like to introduce our own to Occupy Sikhi and the Khalsa Spring.  In Punjabi, Che is Six, and Barah is Twelve, so 6/6/12, is Che Che Barah, Occupy your Gurdwara,

Che Che Barah, Occupy your Gurdwara,

Che Che Barah, Occupy your Gurdwara,

Che Che Barah, Occupy your Gurdwara,

This is the Khalsa Spring,

Open the doors or we’re kicking them in,

The lines have been drawn, the battle has begun,

Sorry we didn’t tell you, We’ve already won.

You’ve got only one choice, Give in, this time you cant win,

This battle is not ours, we fight for the king of kings.

We’re just trying to be Sikhs, Students…wanting to learn more,

Its basic skills that we seek, And this is the Guru’s door.

Che Che Barah, Occupy your Gurdwara,

Che Che Barah, Occupy your Gurdwara,

 

Rule No 1,

We dont want your titles or a place on your committee,

That system is broken, or should I say shitty,

We won’t legitimise it or seek your approval,

We’ve got our legitimacy, we are the people.

Rule No 2,

We’re not terrorists or religious fanatics,

Nor misguided youth or crazy drug-addicts,

You will try to incite violence, divide and defame,

We are the sane, the calm, repeating Gods name.

Rule No 3

The Gurudwara is not a country, It doesn’t need a president!

Why are you in charge? You aint setting precedents,

You never taught katha, santhia no kirtan,

Never saw you washing dishes or doing simran,

Never been a punj piara but call yourself a leader,

Its Sardari you want, you aint here to do our seva.

Che Che Barah, Occupy your Gurdwara,

Che Che Barah, Occupy your Gurdwara,

This movement has started, you’re warned fair and square,

We’re going to expose you, you thought we wouldn’t dare,

The Sangat will speak up now, we know that you’re scared,

We’re everywhere now, not just those with a beard.

So come on now, lets unite as a Panth,

Occupy our Sikhi, follow the Guru Granth,

This battle has begun, we’ll fight but not revenge,

We’re in Guru’s hands, your time is at an end.

Che Che Barah, Occupy your Gurdwara,

Che Che Barah, Occupy your Gurdwara,

Vaheguru

The Gurudwara Experience – Spring Cleaning Part 3

Guru Piarey Jio,

When we look around at our local Gurdwaras, we ask ourselves this question, “What will change in one year?” Nothing…maybe a famous kirtani or two will come and go, a nagar kirtan or two, (crowded masses jostling for space feeling Gurpurbs have been ‘celebrated’.

One thing will have changed. The 10 year old is now off to secondary school, the 17 year old is now off to university. The 21 year old is now off to work. Basically, whole lives are changing but the western Gurdwaras continue failing to fulfil even the basics it’s supposed to provide, Sangat and Pangat.

Pangat: It’s food for the fed. Its not designed for the poor and homeless. You will not get offered a bed, nor a shower and clean clothes. If you have problems and want some counselling, you’re on your own.

Sangat: If you’re interested in Sikhi, there is no introductory course to learn the basics, no leaflets to take home, little or few regular Punjabi/santhya classes, no videos you can watch, no regular youth darbar with English katha (discourse). If you want to learn Kirtan, there are no full time teachers, no Raag ustaads, no tabla maestros, nothing to get you to become part of the renaissance in Sikh music happening around the world.

Sangat for the future (Youth):  Kirtan programmes (if they exist) are shunted to the periphery after the normal Sangat leaves. The Gurdwara committee will require all projectors, leaflets etc to be provided for by the youth, but insist that  all ‘bheta’ (donations) will go the Gurdwara fund.

Current Gurdwara experience

If you’re born into an average Punjabi Sikh family, this is roughly what your Gurdwara experience is like. Go in, Matha tek to something you’ve never read or looked at, listen to music you dont understand whilst sitting and eating tasty parshad and checking who else is in the Sangat that you know. Sit mainly still whilst texting, playing on the phone or whispering to your cousins until the parents decide they’ve sat for long enough and then it’s time to go to the Langar hall. This bit is fun, langar always tastes good plus depends who’s sponsored it this time. You long since learnt to ignore the paintings hanging around the langar hall as they seem brutal and no one ever explained them to you. Once you’ve had langar and enjoyed the sweet pudding of that day, you can chat to your cousins, play with nephews and nieces and wait until the parents decide enough time has been spent doing the family religious obligations and it’s to head home. During this time, if you’re lucky, you may have wondered, what is the music being sung or paat being read, and perhaps even about what is the philosophy of Sikhi, but mostly you’ve stopped asking that because no one answers those questions and as far as you know, just be a good person and be proud of your Punjabi warrior past.

We often wonder what Guru Nanak or Guru Arjan would think if they walked into a Gurudwara nowadays.  Most of all, I think they would be appalled that we never even had a vision of what the Gurudwara is meant to be. Here is our vision of what  Gurdwara could be like.

Gurudwara Vision and Ideas

Imagine a Gurudwara where before you even enter, outside the Gurdwara are some large posters with some beautifully presented quotes of gurbani translation, like “Why do you call woman low, from whom kings are born”, or “The best religion of all is pure actions and meditating on Gods name”, “Listen everyone one, I speak the truth, only those who love will get to God”.  Then when you go inside the Gurudwara, you see an information desk, where you can take a number of leaflets free of charge, you can ask for a tour of the gurudwara. If you wish, there is a TC and headphones to view a short video introduction to the Gurudwara and also to Sikhi. You’re already surprised, then you go upstairs to darbar hall and you hear beautiful raag kirtan, on stringed instruments with mesmerising tabla beats. The sound is so so amazing and the atmosphere so peaceful and blissful, you feel like you’re in a small part of heaven. The sangat is singing the words and you can see the translations above. The kirtanees don’t look like a professional jatha, just local sangat and you can see they are doing this purely from love. Then another layperson explains the deep meaning of the shabad in English and Punjabi, and then she says that today, right now, through this raag kirtan and sangat, you are meant to have a spiritual experience and awaken your soul. You feel excited and a little scared, but the music starts and you start singing with it and soon those glorious words of love begin to feel real and you can feel the love around you and there…the bliss and joy and love start pouring through you, you eyes start to weep, you feel so blessed, you feel like a huge part of you that you never knew existed has suddenly come to life and its so beautiful.  Then the kirtan ends and everyone does ardaas. The person leading the ardaas tells everyone that this is the time to ask for Guru’s guidance and that the hukamnama that will come after will contain Guruji’s answer. You beg for some guidance and wisdom in your life and then when they read out the hukamnama, its explained in English as well and you can see that your Guru heard your pleas and he blessed you. You feel full of tears and hopes and love and bliss. Suddenly Guru Granth Sahib ji feels like your Guru and it can respond to you. When you bow to Guru Granth sahib ji now, you feel so thankful, so blessed and when your forehead touches the ground, you feel a profound desire to throw yourself at your Guru’s feet, to give yourself to Guru. A relationship of servant and master, of teacher and disciples has just been born.

When you go downstairs to langar, you pop into the library and see lots of books on Sikh spirituality, and posters for courses in Punjabi, in kirtan, tabla, and also an introductory course in Sikhi. You sign up for those times that fit, wanting to learn more and then you’re told there is also a Sunday darbar and a longer monthly darbar where there will be such kirtan and katha. You borrow a book for the course. You then see that there is a big seva board up. You can see that there are langar runs to the homeless, an actual homeless shelter that the Gurdwara runs, drug counselling, a small medical centre, women’s shelter, volunteers places abroad with charities, education for people to improve IT and English skills, opportunities if you want to help kids study in evenings and also classes on self-defence at the Gurdwara gym where you can work out too. You can see so many people getting involved with the Gurdwara, doing seva of society. You can feel the buzz in the Gurdwara and it’s infectious, you can see so many non-punjabis who are involved in learning about Sikhi and doing Seva. You don’t know where you are, you feel like you’ve just been transported to planet SachKhand. Through the Guru’s door you walked, not knowing what joy you were to receive…..”

Guru Piarey jio, if the vision above inspired you, ask yourself why isn’t every Gurdwara like this? Our next post will be our most ambitious. May Vaheguru bless the panth and the panth sing of Vaheguru.

Vaheguru.

Should ‘Sikhs Want Justice’ for 1984?

Guru Piarey Jio,

Across the world next month, a lot of Sikhs will be getting together and marching, shouting slogans, making speeches and holding up Placards saying “Sikhs want Justice”, “India stop killing Sikhs” and “Freedom is our Birthright”.

Conversely, many young, educated, practising Sikhs born and brought up in the West who are leading lights in their communities will be shunning these same demonstrations and marches and will state “I don’t do rallies”.  What’s going wrong here?

This maxim applies here “If what you are doing is not working, Change what you’re doing”. Can we be honest about these rallies. They are not working. Don’t get us wrong, it’s a great day out, lovely to see all the sangat together, united in their pain. But let’s face it:

(1)    We are not achieving Justice.

(2)    We are not getting Freedom.

(3)    We’re not even spreading awareness.  Most of the people are Sikh Punjabis who already know what the march is about. The speeches are in Punjabi and even if we told a few hundred people, we would have been better off buying a double page spread in a national newspaper stating the facts of 1984.

(4)    In spite of knowing the above facts, we keep on spending time and money on doing these marches. We have no definition of what would be success.

(5)    The problem facing us is so big, we either run away from it, or stick to what is easy, i.e., demos. There are no large scale debates about what would be better. Becuase there is no definition of success to be achieved by a rally for 1984, then we cannot have an action plan that actually achieves that.

If we can just address the main point here, its that we are not thinking or approaching this in the right way. Let’s address the approach and then lets come up with a few better ideas.

Firstly, ‘Sikhs’ should never ‘Want’ Justice.  Can you just imagine Dhan Guru Gobind Singh ji, on his blue horse, with his plumed turban, weapons overflowing, saying that he ‘wants’ justice? No, we cannot. Justice is something that Guru ji would ‘Deliver’. To want is to be left wanting. Applying the principle of “Vand ke Shako” to Justice would be to give everyone else Justice and get it for yourself.  For the Khalsa to be walking around like beggars asking for justice is a shame, shame upon us that we think this is what the Guru’s own body should be doing. The Khalsa for which Sarbans Daani (the 10^th Master) sacrificed his mother, father and all four beautiful sons and he did so with a smile,  what is that Khalsa doing now walking around asking others to give it justice. We are the deliverers of justice, “Sri Sahib ji Sahae”, let the respected sword always remain by our side. Never ask for Justice O beloved Khalsa. Don’t be offended O Khalsa jio, please read on. We would kiss the feet of the Khalsa, drink the water after washing them, put our heads on the ground for it to walk upon, please let that Khalsa never bend its head to anyone else but to Vaheguru or Guruji.

Lets ask ourselves, What is this ‘Justice’ that we seek? Do we expect that the Western Governments, after putting pressure on India, and even if the Indian Government suddenly decided to prosecute those have killed, raped and destroyed Sikhs in 1984, do we honestly expect that at the end of those trials that we would get Justice? No, we won’t and we shouldn’t. It would not be the justice that we seek and at the end of that process, we would be marching again. The ‘Justice’ we seek should always be that of our own choosing and that which is done in line with the principles and actions of our Gurus and the Granth and Guru Panth.  True Justice can only be delivered by Vaheguru and since the Khalsa Panth is the form of Akaal Purakh (see Puratan Rehitname) upon the earth, then it should work out what would be justice and then work to deliver that justice.

If you read our post on ‘Why does India persecute Sikhs?’ you will see that it’s pointless to ask India to ‘stop killing Sikhs’. As long as Sikhs do what they are meant to do, the 1% that control India will always try to kill Sikhs. The real answer of ‘When will India stop killing Sikhs?’ can only ever be, ‘When the Sikhs are in charge of India’. When the Guru’s army itself sits on the throne of Delhi, then will India stop killing Sikhs and everyone be reconciled to the rule of the Khalsa.

It’s also pointless to say Freedom is our birthright. Freedom is our aim, it’s what we plan to deliver to the world, not just ourselves. The price of freedom has always been paid in blood. It’s not our birthright, its our ‘death cry’. We need to be the Braveheart crying out Freedom as they chop us from joint to join and saw us in half. Freedom needs to be lullaby we sing to our kids, the whispering chant in our head when we awake and the constant throbbing in our heart. Freedom. To be free of falsehood, to be free of Fear and Hate, to be free of the shackles on the mind, to be free of caring what others think, and to be free to do what is right and required and to that ourselves. Freedom. Fiercely Free and Fiercely independent. To Death. Even Death will not part us from Freedom.

What then of 1984? What would be the right approach?

Perhaps we should start by not moaning about all those that died? Who died and where did they go? The eternal soul, which migrates, doesn’t die. Why would a Sikh cry about death? We are wedded to death and it must consume us all, but very few live immortal lives. Lives such that Guruji himself comes for them at the end. As much as we ourselves have cried about the sorrows of 198 and after that, the fact is that this is simply our mind talking, not the Guru. Injustice needs to be destroyed but once someone is dead, we can do nothing for them. Our job is to serve the living, not to bemoan the dead. Celebrate the dead, the fact that they gave their life for Guru. They will all either come back into Sikhi or go onto Eternity.

So why cry for them and yet ignore all those who are living? Surely at every rally, we should be getting all the sangat to pledge big. A minimum amount of £100 each to up to £1000 each towards those loved ones that were left behind by the shaheeds and now need help. A multi-10’s of millions pound/dollar fund, supporting orphans, single mothers, old parents, through education and illness. Just like a Son, Daughter or Parent would want to themselves. That should be our first approach. If every person who gives a speech at an 84 rally starts off by first pulling out a £1000 wad of cash and says,” I pledge this money for the living victims of 1984 and I ask that you do too”, they would have said enough.  As they say, put your “money where your Mouth is” or also, ‘put your offerings to the Guru, in the mouth of the poor and needy’.  This would bring much respect to the Panth and would alleviate the guilt that is endemic in the Panth. The guilt that makes us turn away when we see the photos of these families suffering in India. The guilt that we are not doing what we should be doing. So let’s start.

Let’s turn to the right approach for Justice. As we said, let’s deliver justice, but how. Here is a proposal. Why dont we set up a Sikh International Criminal Court (SICC) and then set up trials of all those named as the perpetrators of 1984 and after. We have so much evidence readily available regarding the Nov 1984 killing sprees. Let’s prosecute Sajjan Kuman and Jagdish Tytler ourselves. With all the lawyers, solicitors and judges in our Panth, we are fully able to run such a trial. Put the evidence and trial on youtube and if these people are found guilty, let the Panth and Punj Piare judges give them a sentence. Such a sentence should only refer to Sikh history for precedents and not pay any heed to what the world may think about it.  If such a sentence is death, then the hukamnama (order) should be given that any Sikh, where they may be, has been commanded, that if they are able to kill those sentenced to death by the Panth, then they should do so straight away.

Before everyone starts with the “oh that just sounds nuts” let us cover some points.

(1)    Trials can be run in absentia. We assume that most of these will have to be since I doubt they will come willingly. Many governments run trial in absentia. The best example is that of Israel. They have held many Nazi War Criminal Trials and having examined the evidence in front of them, sentenced people to death. These deaths have been carried out by Mossad.

(2)    This does not violate the sovereignty of India. These people being prosecuted are Criminals and Murderers. If the Indian political and judicial system is unable to deliver justice for Sikhs that are citizens of India, then the Sikhs have already been guaranteed their rights in the speeches of both Nehru and Gandhi (the founding fathers). We have the sword and we shall be using it. Killing criminals doesn’t change the politio-social democratic system of India, affect its economy or its education system. All it does is deliver Justice for Indians. In this way it is a force for good and one that acts against corruption. All Indian Independence fighters, now national heroes did the exact same thing. Even now we can look at the USA, launching missiles against Al-Qaeda leaders, no matter what country they are in. They do this, because they see these people as enemies of liberty everywhere. Why shouldn’t we Sikhs also see things this way?

(3)    Why do we need the permission of the SICC? Just get on with it. We know they are guilty so if you want to do it, just go and kill them. Indeed we are sure that some readers will claim that we should do it ourselves rather than writing about it. This approach misses the point somewhat. Look at the killing of Osama Bin Laden by the US Navy Seals.  The whole of the US and Obama administration are able to hold their heads up high that they killed Osama just like they said they would.  The Navy Seals carried out their job but the fact that it was ordered by the US president, acting with the authority given by the US people, means that its not just a lone bunch of Navy Seals that killed Osama, its bigger than them. If you wanted to launch an investigation into Bin Laden’s death, you would start from Obama, not from the Seals.

Effectively what we are saying is that if the SICC found Jagdish Tytler or Sajjan Kuman or KPS Gill or Sumeedh Saini guilty of crimes again humanity/Sikhs and sentenced them to death, then any Sikh who carries out that death sentence can simply point to the SICC and say, ‘I was just following the orders of the Panth’. Otherwise, that individual becomes a terrorist and criminal. If we do it through the SICC then that Sikh is a soldier of the Khalsa Panth, doing his duty as per the hukamnama of the punj piare. He/She will not need to be eloquent in their own defence rather they can point to the SICC trials as their main motivation for the killing. Effectively it would mean the Panth would be on trial, the evidence used in the SICC hearings would be on trial and the decision making process of the SICC would be trial. If the SICC was watertight in these, it would become a very interesting debate about sovereignty, justice and international law.

Plus, just imagine the media flurry that would happen if the Punja Piarey of the SICC were citizens of western Countries and thus were able to use those rights of citizenship.

(4)    This is tantamount to inciting terrorism or ordering murder: Not terrorism, this is merely Justice but yes, it may mean ordering Murder. But when Guru Gobind Singh ji put to death all the masands who were stealing the sangat’s money, what was that? When the Khalsa Panth gave Sukha Singh and Mehtab Singh the order to go bring back Massa Ranger’s head, what was that? The Khalsa has to administer its own justice. This is what all sovereign nations do and exactly what Obama did by making the killing of Osama Bin Laden one of his key priorities. You need a good justification of this, one that can stand up to scrutiny. I cant think of one much better than a bunch of educated, qualified Sikhs, critically examining the evidence and then passing judgement whilst giving the historical justification for that order. Especially when all the evidence and deliberations are on youtube.

(5)    The SICC judges will be arrested and prosecuted! What better seva that to get prosecuted for something so chardikala? Something that achieves both Justice and great awareness of the injustice in India. The Indian press are not going to print this stuff, so the western press will have to cover it. The SICC judges will get to defend themselves in Court. Again the debate will have to focus on their justification of judging an individual who has committed heinous crimes and walked scot free.  The funny thing is that Pandit Nehru himself was a lawyer who defended the Indian Liberation Army soldiers that were being prosecuted by the British. The arguments used to defend the ILA leaders were that they were not mercenaries, (or terrorists) but rather “bona fide soldiers” that did not recognise the British Sovereign. Therefore they were to be treated as political prisoners. Surely a Sikh that carries out the hukam of the Khalsa is also saying he recognises the Khalsa Panth as his Guru and can point to the historical precedents which back up his actions. He too is not a lone mercenary lunatic, but a soldier and the Panth itself should be tried in his defence.

(6)    No-one would put themselves up to be a SICC Judge –Khalsa jio, we respectfully state that IF, in our entire Panth, we can’t find 5 educated people able to serve judges, (plus prosecutors etc), then we should forget 1984 and go home. What’s the point of shouting slogans and thousands marching if we cant find five to actually do something. There is no more panth left saving then. We are no longer Nirale, or unique, we are the same as everyone else. It seems pertinent here to remember that the Khalsa needs to embrace death, forget about the consequences or dont bother taking amrit.  Pehla maran kabool, jeevan ki chad aas. “First accept death and leave the desire to live!”This is the requirement of being a Sikh and especially being a Khalsa. We need to be fearless as long as we are doing the right and honourable thing. Look at Bhai Rajoana, he is not scared come what may. We are being harsh now, but only because we know that the Five do exist and will come out. But how many people reading this article will then join our facebook page and like this post? How many will then say out loud, I support the establishment of the SICC? That’s what those Five will need, the feeling that the Panth is calling for this and therefore they will step forward. Yes, we are anonymous right now, but also there is a good reason for that, as what we plan to bring to the table is much bigger than just this and requires us to stay unknown for now. If the SICC is something you like, then join us in this movement and say so.

(7)    No one will carry out the Hukamnama of the SICC:  This is impossible Guru Piarey jio, just look at the shaheeds who gave their live for the Panth. Their spirits have come back to the Panth. Again, they look to serve the Guru Khalsa Panth. From Bhai Mehtab Singh and Sukha Singh, to Sukha and  Jinda to Bhai Dilawer Singh and Jathedar Balwant Singh Rajoana, they acted. But they acted in small groups without backing. Now the panth needs to unite and think big. And the Panth needs to believe that its own members will answer the call. Think of the thousands of ardaasa done every day for the chardikala of the panth. Think of the thousands and millions of chaupai sahibs that people do for the chardikala of the panth. After all this, do you think that the call of the Panth will go unanswered? No Khalsa jio, if the Guru Roop Khalsa in the SICC gave even 30 days for the order to be carried out, we have full faith that the Panth would deliver the justice we choose for ourselves. If it doesn’t then its because those people will go into hiding. Read below for other options too.

(8)    But this is the job of the Akaal Takht: We agree, but we also know the state of the Akaal Takht right now, its been hijacked by the 1% who hate Sikhi. So, we bow to the Akaal Takht, but when the Khalsa of old was on the move, then the Panth made decisions on the move. Guru Gobind Singh ji themselves never went to Harimandar Sahib or the Akaal Takht, even though they founded the Khalsa Panth. In any case, IF the Jathedaar of the Akaal Takht was free from all outside influence, even then, we would still need a SICC to examine the evidence and give its recommendation. It would be the job of the Akaal Takht Jathedaar to endorse it. So why don’t we focus on getting the SICC established? Why not unite and call for this to happen? Allow people to put their names forward to be the prosecutors, the judges and let’s get on with delivering Justice. So no longer do we remain ‘Wanting Justice’.

Here are some other proposals to how we may need to change our approach and action plan regarding 1984.

(1)    For those who do not wish to carry out the trial of certain people and believe them already guilty by the evidence seen, maybe we should open up a reward fund for anyone who kills or captures those responsible. Every year at the marches, people should openly pledge money into a fund and in doing so, openly violate the law and court arrest. A large fund would make it viable to hire a Private Military Company or Assassin to do this with minimum damage to other people. The US already have a reward for kill or capture on most people they want to catch or kill, and are avid users of para-military assassins for taking out their enemies, and we don’t mean for dinner.

(2)    Kaurs, please get involved.  Most men just seek to build their castle in their house, protect it and take responsibility for being the defender of their family. In doing this, first they look for the foundation stone, i.e. a woman. As Dhan Guru Nanak Dev ji writes, men are tied to women. It’s also the fact that Women have a role to play in the upcoming battle for the panth’s honour. Let’s spell it out. The Panth is dishonoured. Our women have been raped, our children killed and the perpetrators walk about free. What more dishonour could there be on a man, or on a Panth?

It’s the women who will need to get involved if the honour of the Panth is to get restored. Women need to give men both the impetus and the strength to sacrifice all.  It should no longer be the case that a man feels he has to choose between his responsibility to his family and his responsibility to the Panth. It should be that the women tells the man, fulfil your responsibility to the Panth or you’re not welcome in this family. That’s how we used to roll.

Where are the Mai Bhagos who tell the men to go back into battle and not return without their Guru? Where are the mothers who tell their sons to avenge the Panth’s honour or to marry the daughter of a shaheed? Where are the mothers who tell daughters to trust only the man who is willing to give his life for Sikhi? Who tells their daughters to marry a son of a Shaheed. Who encourage encourage their man to be a shaheed? Don’t think that we should shy away from the word Shaheed just because of a recent fanatical Islamic suicide bomber trend. Our shaheeds are different, we celebrate them even if they die to save someone else’s religion.  See Guru Tegh Bahadur, shaheedan de sirtaj Dhan Guru Arjan Dev ji, the four sons of Guru Gobind Singh, the Shaheedi jathas who held up cannons with their shoulders, each shot of the cannon burying one Singh into the ground only to have another willingly take his place. These are our shaheeds and we salute them, in every single Gurdwara, four to five times a day during our ardaas. Why do we salute shaheeds and let not encourage our family to become shaheed? What could be more beautiful to know that your child died in that glorious tradition and will come back to this earth even more blessed? Why do a nation of people who sing songs of “Purja Purja Kat marei, Kabhoon na chade khet”, “let me be cut into little little pieces but let me not leave the battleground”, why does this nation get scared of death? It’s because we have forgotten Guru’s promise, that death will not even touch one who is in his sanctuary. We fear death like the West fears death, as a great unknown. If we did Simran and Kirtan and experienced the divine one, felt ourselves dislocated from our body, we would realise that death is nothing and that Guru himself will come for those who die in his love. Wasn’t death what Guru Arjan and Guru Tegh Bahadur embraced? Isn’t Death what Guru Gobind Singh sent his sons towards? Isn’t death what we are asked to accept when stepping onto Guru’s path and playing this game of love? O Mothers, Daughters and Sisters of and in the Khalsa, teach us not to fear death but to feardishonour. Tell us how dishonoured you feel and then tell us to regain the honour of the Panth.

Where are the women who would refuse to share their husband’s beds until these monsters are killed? Why not set up a pledge website where Kaurs pledge that until and unless these criminals are brought to justice, they will not be sleeping with their husbands. Why does this scare the readers but not the fact that those men who raped our honour walk around another day scot-free. Make this a Kaurs’ solidarity issue. Look at the Colombian women who did exactly this just to get their men to fix a road. Just for a road! Here the honour of our beloved Panth is at stake. Why should men get their marital rights when the Panth doesn’t even have the men to hold its head up? You might wonder why this option has not being aired before, but guess which gender is doing most of the speeches at these rallies. This call cannot come from the men, it has to come from the united Kaurs.

The time has come for us to do things bigger, more globally and more connected. This is the Panthic way. For the Indian born Sikhs, let us give you the example of Draupadi, the wife of the Pandavas. When she is dishonoured, what does she do? She swears not to wash her hair until she washes that hair with the blood of the one who dishonoured her, Dusshsana. Bhima vows to do this for her and he carries it out. Where are those Sikh women who have such morals now? Why are our mothers and sisters looking for an easy life and conform rather than being fiercely independent and honoured Sikh warrior princesses? We don’t need every women in the panth to do this, even a hundred or a thousand would be enough if they take this pledge, openly and on social media. It would shame the Singhs into doing something about this dishonour that hangs over our head.

Finally, a point regarding the SICC. Obviously the initial trust in a SICC will only come when its orders are carried out. However once that does happen, it is vital that the vision of the Court does not remain just Punjabi Sikh orientated. It should look at cases such as Narendra Modi (buther of Gujrat) and other Indian politicians. It should not shy away from prosecuting “Sikhs” either. And it should look outside India as well. Perhaps every Gurdwara could one day have a top twenty most wanted list, ten people wanted for crimes against the Sikhs and also ten people wanted for crimes against humanity. The Khalsa Panth’s hukamnama should be issued,  to destroy each of these wanted individuals so we can show we care about other people and other atrocities. Put tyrants, despots, criminals on the list and say “We, the Sikhs, are going to get you!” Make a fund of money for this so we can put a reward next to each head. Once this SICC actually starts delivering the Justice that Sikhs are meant to, then perhaps we will once again have the situation as that existed in Guru Tegh Bahadurs time, when people approach the Sikhs and say, “O Khalsa of the house of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh, we ask you to give us Justice”. Then maybe our slogans will change to “Ask us for Justice” and we will be the strength of those who have no strength, the shelter for those who have no shelter and the honour of those who have no honour. We are not here to ask, we are here to give and the only thing we ask from our Guru is that he blesses us with both the right approach and the strength to carry out the right actions. In doing so, if we have to die a thousand deaths, we only ask that he sends us back a thousand times to carry on that mission that he was given.  And that each time, our Guru blesses us with that inner connection to our Creator, by which we know his Word to be true and what the world tells us to be less true. That is faith and that is justice. Dhan Guru Dhan Vaheguru.

Vaheguru.

Follow the Why..

Ask yourself why the Gurudwaras keeping making buildings and getting us in debt…

And now assume its not because they are stupid. So there must be a reason.

Here’s an idea…

If you are in debt, then all your money goes to pay off interest. Now, if you’re not in debt then by default, you are likely to be in surplus and have money to spend.  After some time, this will show up to a very big surplus. Why is this a problem.  Why do the committee not want to have money to spend? Because if you’re not making buildings, then you’re going to have to spend it somewhere.  It likely that people (sangat) just might start asking you to spend it on promoting Sikhi.

Why do the Gurudwaras not want to spend money on promoting Sikhi?

(1)    Why create a rod for your own back? If you educate the people about what Sikhi is, then they will soon be applying those Sikhi principles to the Gurudwara and to the committee and will realise that they are being hoodwinked. The committee just want an easy life with a grand title by their name. Doing Sikhi properly would be hard work, working to uplift society, become a centre for service, thats not what they want. So why create that situation?

(2)    Why create your own nemesis? Think about it, if you decide to spend money on teaching Sikhi, what will you need to do? You’ll have to find someone to teach a course. Now if the Gurudwara committee members are unable or unwilling to teach it themselves, which is very likely (you may as well ask why they haven’t done it already then), the next option is to get someone else to teach it. This person will either already have the knowledge or will have to go get educated and then teach. This person is either going to be teaching in a classroom (probably doesn’t exist) or more likely in the main divan hall. The problem is that this person is likely to become popular and then the committee have a double problem on their hand. An educated sangat and a popular potential “leader”.

So it all becomes a little clearer. This whole analysis took about five minutes and the crucial question to discover this was, “What are the intentions and incentives of the Gurudwara committee?”. These are to stay in power and therefore to keep the masses (aka the sangat) in the dark about true Sikhi and about what a poor job they are doing.

The sad part of this is that actually, a leader is not necessarily the one to do the teaching. If the Gurudwara committee were true Sikh leaders, they would actually welcome someone to come and do Sikhi Parchar. It is not necessary that this competition mentality needs to be there, an abundance mentality could also exist. Instead of the committee wallah spending their time trying to discredit, dishearten and dismiss any Sevadaar because of viewing that person as a potential thread to their kursi, ie position, the opposite could also work. The Sangat could be thanking and praising a committee that provided the kind of 21st century education and inspiration that is required.  For that to exist and actually be realised, we’re going to need a complete overhaul and re-think of what kind of incentives do we put into place in the Gurudwara.

Are we encouraging the right kind of people and discouraging the wrong kind or are we actually discouraging the right type and encouraging the wrong. We’d argue the current system rewards people who think as politicians, from a place of ego and in terms of competing for finite resources and influence. Gursikhs tend to avoid that arena as the system will bring you down before you bring the system down. So the good guys watch the bad guys prosper. Even our young kids can understand that scenario. And as our kids would say, “Lets get those bad guys!”

So lets unite, as the sangat to free ourselves from the shackles we have placed around our Sikhi. First, let’s imagine the way things should be, then lets brainstorm what checks and balances we need to ensure this vision comes to fruition. Then lets do ardaas and lets kick some badguy @$$! Akaal!
Part 3 of Spring Cleaning coming up soon.

Vaheguru