SASKAAR / CREMATION: 8 January 2019 (Tuesday) at 2.30pm at Florey Chapel, Centennial Park Crematorium, 760, Goodwood Road,  Pasedena, SA 5042 (Followed by cha-pani at Adelaide Gurdwara Sahib (10 Mt. Barker Road, Glen Osmond, SA 5064) | Australia

HARMINDER KAUR W/O SURGVASI GIANI HARCHAND SINGH ‘BASSIAN’

Daughter: Surgvasi Sarandeep Kaur

Sons: Pr. Gurmukh Singh OBE (UK)

           S. Baldev Singh Dhaliwal (Australia)

           Ragi Dya Singh  (Australia)

and families request your presence to celebrate Bebay Ji’s life.

Cremation: 8 January 2019 (Tuesday) at 2.30pm at Florey Chapel, Centennial Park Crematorium, 760, Goodwood Road,  Pasedena, SA 5042 (Followed by cha-pani at Adelaide Gurdwara Sahib, 10 Mt. Barker Road, Glen Osmond, SA 5064)

Paath Bhog and Antim Ardaas: 12 January 2019 (Saturday) at (Adelaide Gurdwara Sahib,  Glen Osmond.

The Bhog shall be completed first from 10am. Followed by kirtan by Ragi Dya Singh Ji with Patti Bibian dha Jatha from Taran Taaran.

By Manpreet K. Singh | HOUSTON CHRONICLE | OPINION |

Members of the Houston Sikh community responded to Hurricane Harvey last year with trucks filled with supplies from all across the nation. The Sikh tradition teaches that service to humanity is a core part of being a good person.

Members of the Houston Sikh community responded to Hurricane Harvey last year with trucks filled with supplies from all across the nation. The Sikh tradition teaches that service to humanity is a core part of … more

On Saturday, nearly 30 million Sikhs around the world will celebrate Vaisakhi, one of the most important Sikh occasions. Vaisakhi historically marks the harvest festival in Punjab, and for Sikhs it has special significance as the day that much of the Sikh religion was formally institutionalized in the way we know it today. For the past 320 years, Sikhs mark this day by gathering in our communities, reflecting on our values and recommitting to our core principles of service and justice.

I have been thinking about service a lot this year, especially given recent events in my native city of Houston.

When Hurricane Harvey struck the region, it was heartening to see people around our city rush to help those in need. The Sikh community of Houston played a particularly noticeable role in relief efforts, which is remarkable given that there are only approximately 5,000 Sikhs in the Greater Houston area. For those who know Sikhs and their commitment and commandment to service, this was not a surprise.

The Sikh tradition teaches that service to humanity is a core part of being a good person. From a young age, Sikhs are taught that God is present in everything and everyone. As we say in our scriptures, “The Creator is in the creation and the creation is in the Creator.” As Sikhs, we believe that the best way to serve God is to serve the world around us. The specific term Sikhs use — seva — has no direct English translation. My interpretation of the term seva is a selfless service inspired by love and a sense of community.

SEE ALSO: Start by doing service locally, urges Khalsa Aid founder

The founders of Sikhism, who we refer to as our gurus (teachers), give us beautiful examples of what seva looks like in our communities. One of the first stories I shared with my own kids was that of Guru Nanak, who famously took all the money his father gave him to invest in a business and instead donated it to the needy. When his father chastised him, Guru Nanak simply replied by asking: “What better investment is there than giving to those who need it?”

My parents taught me similar lessons while raising me here in Houston. There were not many Sikhs here when I was growing up, but there were plenty of opportunities to serve. We started from a young age volunteering at Star of Hope, a shelter in downtown, participating in community cleanups and donating whatever we could to those who needed it more than we did. It was the Sikh tradition of seva that inspired me to become a lawyer and help protect people’s dignity, and it’s also why I continue to remain involved in my community.

My Sikh faith teaches me that being a good person means serving the world around us and confronting any injustices and inequities we encounter. No matter how difficult it might be, we are always expected to do this work as a labor of love.

I am reminded of our values every morning as I tie turbans on my boys, Gahven and Mahnek, before sending them to school. I reflect on these values every time I look at my kara, a steel bracelet that makes up one of the five articles of faith that Sikhs wear. And on Sundays, when our family goes to our gurdwara (Sikh house of worship), I look around and marvel at how resiliently my community deals with discrimination, and how deeply committed they remain to the ideals of service and justice.

As we live in this world today, it’s difficult to overlook the deep fractures and divisions that are ripping our communities apart. Religious minorities and communities of color are being denigrated, and people I know and care about have been physically attacked because they are seen as different.

The Sikh idea of seva is a helpful model for addressing these challenges. Its premise of oneness helps us go beyond the mentalities that divide us and helps us to see how we are all interconnected. Its focus on justice also compels us to take these theoretical ideas and put them into action. Yes, we believe that all people should be treated with dignity, but it’s not enough to just believe that. We have to make this a reality.

In response to Hurricane Harvey, the Sikh community mobilized and came with massive trucks filled with supplies from all across the nation. They delivered the supplies to our gurdwara where our community members bridged the gaps of additional supplies. These supplies were delivered not just to Greater Houston, but more importantly to the outlying areas like Richmond, Crosby and Beaumont, places where many people had never seen a Sikh man wearing a beard and a turban, which are some of the other Sikh articles of faith that represent our commitment to justice and equality for all.

Finally, the concept of seva ensures that we are reimagining and rebuilding our society on the foundations of unity and love. Doing so is the only way we can ensure that our broken and inequitable systems are replaced with more just and sustainable models.

In the Sikh tradition, there is no room for complacency; to be religiously committed is to be socially engaged and devoted to justice. I have seen in my own life how this practice has made my hometown of Houston a better place, and I promise that our community will continue to do this here, and wherever else we may be because this is who we are. We invite you to join us, in whatever capacity you might be able, to change the world we live in.

The article first appeared at Houston Chronicle on April 8, 2018. Manpreet K. Singh is a board member of US-based Sikh Coalition

EVENT LISTING | SINGAPORE: Sri Guru Singh Sabha (SGSS) Singapore will be holding a Youth Tea Session to kickstart our Youth Engagement Project. This project aims to bring the youth back to the Gurdwara, through various events and activities. During the tea session, we hope to hear from the youth themselves on ways we can help and provide for them as a Gurdwara.

The event details are as follows: Sunday, 6th January 2019 | 2pm to 4.30pm | SGSS Hall B (adjacent to langar hall)

To register, click here.

Leadership and human resource (HR) Heera Singh consultant has released a definitive HR guide book for Malaysian companies.

Human Resources Documentation is the third book by the retired Malaysian army officer.

Lt-Col (Rtd) Heera is also the author of Simple Steps to Leadership Excellence and Inspiring Anecdotes on Management.

The 600-page book is designed as a one-stop human resource management (HRM) guide.

Dealing with people issues have always been a challenge for human resource (HR) practitioners and having relevant documentation to address them is another, the author said in a statement emailed to the Asia Samachar.

The book contains HR templates, sample documents and tools to assist not only the HR department but line managers as well.

It covers all functional areas of HRM and tackles various HR scenarios that an employer needs to deal with, at the workplace.

While previous books on HR documentation have concentrated on disciplinary and domestic inquiry aspects, the scope of the book has been enlarged to include other HR functional areas such as employment matters, organizational surveys, performance management and recruitment.

The book contains 14 different HR topics with almost 350 sample documents and templates as a reference guide.

In the statement, Heera said the book aims to enable all Malaysian organisations to have a relevant HRM resource at their fingertips, to guide HR processes and hence save time and cost.

He believes that this in turn will reduce industrial relations issues while improving over all efficiency and productivity at the work place.

The book is priced at RM290 for Malaysia (free shipping). Click here to purchase.

RELATED STORY:

The story of a Malaysian Sikh family (Asia Samachar, 17 Sept 2017)

ASIA SAMACHAR is an online newspaper for Sikhs / Punjabis in Southeast Asia and beyond. Facebook | WhatsApp +6017-335-1399 | Email: editor@asiasamachar.com | Twitter | Instagram | Obituary announcements, click here |

Butterworth Sikhs are all set to welcome their spanking new gurwara building, the fourth for the local community whose gurdwara history trails back to the 1920s.

A three-day programme starting from Jan 19 (Saturday) has been prepared for the opening ceremony of the new home for Gurdwara Sahib Butterworth (GSB) at Lot 5702, Jalan Todak, Seberang Jaya, Seberang Perai Tengah in Penang.

Among the events outlined are kirtan darbar, akhand path, amrit sanchaar and dental checkup.

The programme will begin with an Asa Di Vaar at the present gurdwara building starting 4.30am on Jan 19. At 7am, a 4km nagar kirtan will be held the present building to the new building.

At 12.30pm on Jan 21 (Monday), GSB president Narinder Singh will unveil the commemorative plaque.

The gurdwara website has this to say on its history:

By the beginning of the 20th Century, there were a few Sikhs employed as watchmen by the Straits Trading Company Ltd. in Butterworth. These Sikhs and their families were provided with living, quarters in the ‘Sikh Lines’ near the vicinity of the company’s smelting works along what is now known as Jalan Pantai.

In the 1920’s, the British management of the company allowed one of its quarters in the Sikh Lines to be used by the Sikhs as a place of worship. This small Gurdwara Sahib was able to accommodate the Sikhs and their families during prayers. There were no regular Granthis, and as such, the Sikhs managed the Gurdwara Sahib by rendering voluntary service.

In 1934, a piece of land, was purchased along Chain Ferry Road. The Sikhs built a Gurdwara Sahib building, a single storey brick structure with a tiled roof, which was completed by the end of 1934. Gradually, the Sikh sangat started to grow and this Gurdwara Sahib could not accommodate everyone. Finally in 1968, this Gurdwara Sahib was demolished to make way for a new building.

In 1968, building plans were approved to construct a three-storey Gurdwara Sahib building. The foundation stone was laid by the then Chief Minister (Ketua Menteri) of Penang, Tan Sri Wong Pow Nee on 3rd October 1968.

On 12′ December 1971, the new Gurdwara Sahib building was officially declared open by the then Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister, Y.B. Datuk Patinggi Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud (presently the Chief Minister of the State of Sarawak). This Gurdwara Sahib is an imposing landmark for the Sikh community of Butterworth.

RELATED STORY:

Butterworth gurdwara hearse to serve Sikhs in Penang, Kedah (Asia Samachar, 20 Feb 2018)

ASIA SAMACHAR is an online newspaper for Sikhs / Punjabis in Southeast Asia and beyond. Facebook | WhatsApp +6017-335-1399 | Email: editor@asiasamachar.com | Twitter | Instagram | Obituary announcements, click here |

By Anwar Zeb | GEO TV | PAKISTAN |

The far-flung district of Buner in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is an oasis of interfaith harmony.

For years, Muslims in the area have been trusting Sikh businessmen and shopkeepers living in the area with their money and valuables.

“We are like mini banks for Muslim brothers with no interest or profit and no service charges”, said 50-year-old Santh Singh who has been dealing in fabrics for the last three decades in the middle of a bustling street of Peer Baba Bazaar. “Muslim brothers travel from villages of Buner to deposit cash with us,” he continued.

He explained, “We, Muslims and Sikhs, trust each other and that is the finest form of interfaith harmony.”

Singh’s ancestors were also businessmen and spent their entire lives in the area. Reminiscing about the past, Singh shared that when he was younger, Muslims would deposit money and other valuables with his Uncle Tirath Ram. When his uncle passed away and the closets where he kept the valuables were opened, people were surprised to find several rolls of money tied with colorful threads and nameplates.

“When banks first established in the district, people were reluctant to keep their valuables there, worrying about interest and other issues. It was easier to keep cash and other valuables with us,” the 50-year-old added.

Syed Wahid, who owns a general store in the same street as Singh shared that when he established his business he would entrust his money to Sikh shopkeepers. “There are two reasons why we would keep our valuables with the Sikhs. One is that they are businessmen and they keep cash handy and the second is that they are honest,” Wahid said.

He added that the custom of depositing money with Sikhs in Buner still exists today, with little changes since the practice started. Those who live abroad, send money to their families by transferring them into the bank accounts of Sikh businessmen.

Wahid, who has spent this entire life in Peer Baba, recalled that throughout his life there has only been one incident which shocked the entire district. In the aftermath of the Babri Masjid incident, some unknown people burnt a Gurdwara in Peer Baba. “But during that crucial time, the villagers provided shelter, food and security for their Sikh brothers,” he said.

“People designated their Hujras for them. Sikhs are like brothers to us and we share everything from grief to religious events and cultural events,” Wahid continued.

Jatinder Singh a pharmacist by profession who also belongs to Buner said that interfaith harmony is vital for a peaceful environment. “The trust created by our forefathers is exemplary. They were very careful about these things and never even changed currency notes and tried to keep the same ones that the owners gave,” he said.

“My grandfather Sobha Ram used to keep valuables of Muslim brothers and we still have notebooks where my grandfather had written down the names of those people who had deposited money with him,” he added.

According to a survey conducted by minority leaders in 2016, there are more than 3,000 Sikhs living in various villages of Buner. Most of them reside in Peer Baba, Sawari, Ghurghato and Diwana Baba.

To read full story – Buner — where Sikhs and Muslims live in harmony, GeoTV, 2 Jan 2019 – go here.

RELATED STORY:

Pakistan PM Khan lays foundation stone for long-awaited Kartarpur corridor (Asia Samachar, 28 Nov 2018)

ASIA SAMACHAR is an online newspaper for Sikhs / Punjabis in Southeast Asia and beyond. Facebook | WhatsApp +6017-335-1399 | Email: editor@asiasamachar.com | Twitter | Instagram | Obituary announcements, click here |

By Gurdip Thandi | BIRMINGHAM MAIL | UK |

A Sikh organisation – which has grown from feeding a handful of needy people in Walsall into a global service – fears it is being driven out of its home town.

The Midland Langar Seva Society serves hundreds of hot meals to homeless and poor people every day across the UK as well as India, Germany and Bangkok.

But Randhir Singh, one of the founders of the society, said they have been stunned by complaints from Walsall Council about the mess their evening town centre feeds leave behind.

Mr Singh said: “It is really sad that Walsall Council appear to be trying to stop the feeds we put on.

“They say we are leaving a lot of mess and they are getting complaints from market traders but we are only there for an hour and we have volunteers designated to clearing up any rubbish.

“We believe it is just an excuse. Perhaps they are embarrassed at how bad poverty and homelessness is in Walsall and that we are doing their job for them.

“We do this to follow the Sikh principle of ‘seva’ – serving humanity and helping those who are less fortunate than us. It is what our founder Guru Nanak Ji did.

“It is not just homeless people who come to us, it is people with a range of problems including mental health issues, poverty, families who are struggling to put food on the table.

“You also get professional people whose lives fell apart or those who were in the army. We try to help people get back on their feet. It is heartbreaking to see people cannot afford to buy food.”

As well as serving vegetarian meals, the society has distributed clothes, nappies, baby milk and toiletries.

To read the full story, ‘Sikh helpers fear being driven out of town by ’embarrassed’ council’ (Birmingham Mail, 3 Jan 2019), click here.

RELATED STORY:

Start by doing service locally, urges Khalsa Aid founder (Asia Samachar, 24 Dec 2018)

ASIA SAMACHAR is an online newspaper for Sikhs / Punjabis in Southeast Asia and beyond. Facebook | WhatsApp +6017-335-1399 | Email: editor@asiasamachar.com | Twitter | Instagram | Obituary announcements, click here |

To his knowledge, Simran Jeet Singh believes that he was the first Sikh hired to teach Islamic Studies at an American university.

“I loved my time at Trinity University and remain forever grateful to my friends and colleagues there for the opportunity.

“Here’s a reflection on my time teaching Islam in Texas, including some of the uncomfortable moments that I hadn’t anticipated,” he writes on Facebook when sharing an article he wrote for Religion News (see below).

Commenting on the sharing, Selena Suttner writes: “I loved your class as well as your patience. I has a hard semester when I took your class but you were so honest and accommodating, I genuinely appreciate it. Thank you!”

By Simran Jeet Singh | RELIGION NEWS | US |

(RNS) — As far as I know, I was the first Sikh hired to teach Islamic studies at an American university. I loved every minute of it, especially because my employer, Trinity University, was located in my beloved hometown of San Antonio, Texas.

My first real job also shed new light for me on what it’s like to be an underrepresented minority in this country. Most Americans, in short, don’t know who Sikhs are. Typically they presume we are Muslims, mostly as a result of Islam being racialized in the past few decades: It’s not just a faith, it’s also a look, and the resulting stereotypes square with the appearance of many Sikh men — brown skin, turban, beard. That’s me.

Of course I had long since learned what “looking Muslim” meant in post-9/11 America. I knew firsthand the violence that came with misguided understandings of Islam, and as a Sikh especially, I felt compelled to do something about it. It’s precisely what sent me down the path of studying religious communities and addressing the racism they experience. I decided to make allyship with Muslims and those affected by anti-Muslim hate a centerpiece of my life.

SEE ALSO: Simran Jeet Singh named Columbia’s first-ever Sikh religious adviser

Because my path seemed so obvious to me, I never considered my field of study to be odd. Only when I began interviewing for jobs did I realize that some might find it strange for a Sikh to teach Islam. “How can you teach a religion you don’t even practice?” people would ask, including the president of a university during a job interview.

I wanted to point out to the president that the scholars in his own religion department, like most of the religion scholars I knew, did not practice the faiths they taught. It’s considered normal for white scholars to be interested in traditions other than their own. I didn’t alert him to his bias — I wanted the job, after all. But ever since I’ve wished I could have asked why it was problematic for me to express the same interest — because I’m a person of color? Because I identify as a religious minority?

To read full article, go here.

RELATED STORY:

Sikhs and Muslims live in harmony in a far-flung Pakistan district (Asia Samachar, 4 Jan 2018)

Simran Jeet Singh named Columbia’s first-ever Sikh religious adviser (Asia Samachar, 8 Dec 2018)

ASIA SAMACHAR is an online newspaper for Sikhs / Punjabis in Southeast Asia and beyond. Facebook | WhatsApp +6017-335-1399 | Email: editor@asiasamachar.com | Twitter | Instagram | Obituary announcements, click here |

By Vishal J.Singh | GURDWARA DESIGN |

First and foremost, let me start my first article of the year by wishing all our wonderful readers a very Happy New Year. Indeed for many of us, the arrival of the New Year brings about a fresh resolve to accomplish new and exciting things in the coming future, in the hopes of bettering ourselves in the long run. However, being the mere mortals that we are, tainted by the essence of humanity, we occasionally falter behind our own hopes and dreams and our once steely determination to achieve targets we ambitiously set out occasionally remains unresolved and, over time, sadly forgotten.

However, being human, there are times we need not be too hard on ourselves and sometimes the very ones we need to be kind and compassionate to are in fact our very own selves, and realize perhaps that we can always try again and even let certain things remain unfinished.

I am reminded of a wise quote by the sage and poet Kahlil Gibran, in which he said he was told by God to “love your enemies” to which he obeyed and said he would start by loving himself (implying that we are our own worst enemies by being simply too hard on ourselves, and we need to show care and mercy to our own selves before we can be compassionate and merciful to others).

After all, we are, as Agent Smith from The Matrix once said, only human.

Reflecting on the notion that for so many of us, a good deal of our well intentioned new year resolutions remain unfulfilled over the course of the year, I began to contemplate on how occasionally things that are left incomplete or unfinished may not necessarily be bad thing.  A beautiful philosophical concept in Japanese art and poetry comes to mind, referred to as Wabi – Sabi, which loosely translates to finding ‘perfection in imperfection’ in all things you seek and do.

Based on this idea of finding ‘perfection in imperfection’, meaning to see how things or even objects left unfinished could appear beautiful in its own way, the concept for a design for a modern Gurdwara was born, simply entitled as “The Unfinished Gurdwara”.

It is to be noted that the word ‘unfinished’ in this context does not refer to unusable or unfit for human usage or occupancy, but refers to leaving the appearance of building materials as it is and not be superficially covered in anyway, so in this Gurdwara, brick walls are left unpainted, concrete walls are left unplastered and so forth.

As stated ‘The Unfinished Gurdwara’ is a Gurdwara complex that celebrates the idea that things that remain incomplete can be beautiful in its own way. In this Gurdwara, the appearance of the brick walls are left unpainted, as to expose the richness of colour and texture these bricks possess, and the concrete walls too are left unplastered to showcase the rawness of the material and the innate strength concrete projects by design.

Financially too, by leaving these materials as they are uncovered in any way, a good chunk of the construction budget set aside for painting can be saved and therefore this approach in design can provide valuable savings in building costs as well.

The front of the Gurdwara complex, where the main entrance to the Darbar Sahib on the first floor and the Langgar Hall on the ground floor are shown in the image above, are on the left and is covered by exposed bricks of multiple shades of red and decorative screens all around. The Nishan Sahib Plaza is covered with grass with a huge brick wall with both the Ek Ongkar and Khanda emblems incorporated onto its structure, creating a powerful visual marker for the sanggat.

The Darbar Sahib is accessible from the front through an open staircase situated on a pool of water, which can be approached from the main entrance from the right side, where a flat metal roof  is placed above, signifying a protected entrance point. Again all the brick walls are left exposed and the beautiful display of bricks creates a rich visual tapestry of red, maroon and vermilion to enjoy and appreciate.

The Nishan Sahib Plaza, where the Nishan Sahib soars high, is located in front of an adjacent structure to the Darbar Sahib and the Langgar Hall, where the offices are located on the ground floor and where the living quarters to house guests are located on the first floor. This adjacent structure is physically connected to the Darbar Sahib and the Langgar Hall through an elevated covered pedestrian bridge and follows the same look as the rest of the Gurdwara complex.

On the right elevation of the Gurdwara complex where the offices are located on the ground floor, the appearance of the brick walls left exposed continues throughout the structure of the building. Here however, on the first floor where the living quarters are located and where privacy is prioritized, the walls are left as bare concrete with imprinted alternating patters of lines and grooves, again to highlight the beautiful ‘unfinished’ quality of the building. The concrete walls create a powerful ‘fort-like” appearance, keeping the interior rooms secured and private for its guests.

The design strategy for the ‘Unfinished Gurdwara’ seeks to celebrate the beauty of materials left in its raw and unadorned state. Although savings in building costs can be attained through this strategy, one cannot deny that the rich visual delight projected by the striking mosaic of red bricks is truly a beautiful component in construction to showcase, and the concrete walls too project a powerful building element when looked as a uniquely designed singular complex. Indeed, some things could remain better if there were unfinished and incomplete, which even includes buildings, as leaving them as such reminds us human beings that as long as we breathe, we too are incomplete and should always yearn to do better to improve ourselves. And again, to remain incomplete and unfinished as we continuously strive to do better … well, that may not necessarily be such a bad thing.

We are, after all, only human.

Waheguru Bless.

The next Gurdwara design will explore the idea that a Gurdwara can also act as a cultural centre for the sanggat to enjoy and learn from. It will look into ideas of how art, language and music can be taught and propagated for the benefit of the public, especially the young, within a Gurdwara complex.

Vishal J.Singh, an aspiring architect, holds a Bachelor of Architecture Degree from Infrastructure University Kuala Lumpur and enjoys engaging in architecture and its theories as his first love.

* This is the opinion of the writer, organisation or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Asia Samachar.

The plight of a Scottish Sikh still languishing in Indian prison for some 14 months made the front page of the The Times Scotland today (5 Jan 2019).

The newspaper carried a story on a lawyer who fought for justice for the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six accusing the British government of ignoring evidence that Jagtar Singh Johal, a Scottish terrorism suspect, has been tortured in India.

Gareth Peirce claims that the British authorities are secretly colluding with India’s counterterrorism agency in the investigation into Jagtar, the Scottish Sikh who is being held in connection with the murder of Hindu nationalists in 2016 and 2017, reports The Times.

Ms Peirce’s previous clients include Gerry Conlon, who spent 15 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of the Guildford pub bombing. She is investigating how photographs of Sikh activists apparently seized by British police ended up in the hands of Indian interrogators, the report said.

The newspaper front-paged the case of Jaggi, as he is popularly known, in a report entitled ‘Britain is ‘ignoring torture of Scots Sikh’, with a subhead ‘Lawyer alleges secret collusion with India’.

Mr Johal, 31, from Dumbarton, was arrested, put in a hood and forced into an unmarked police vehicle in November 2017. He was held for six months without hearing the charges against him. Police broadcast a televised “confession” which Ms Peirce said was coerced and provably false. Mr Johal claims that police tortured him and threatened to burn him alive.

FOLLOW LATES ON ISSUE AT #FreeJaggiNow FACEBOOK PAGE 

The newspaper quoted the 78-year old human rights solicitor as saying: “Reports of a British citizen being taken hooded to court, the broadcast of a coerced, probably false ‘confession’ and marks of his injuries noted by a consular official should have generated exceptional and energetic activity by his own government.

“Do the clues to this inertia lie in the emerging evidence of close co-operation between the UK and the Indian authorities?

“In repeated cases and worldwide, it has been such covert collusion, belatedly acknowledged, that has accounted for the seeming impotence of official government expressions of concern.

“The urgent need is for Jagtar’s government to apply those lessons from this country’s recent past before it is too late.”

Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, is under pressure from opponents to bring the Hindu nationalists’ killers to justice. Mr Johal fears that he is being used as a political pawn in the forthcoming general election, the report added.

Peirce had also met Jagtar’s lawyer Jaspal Singh Manjhpur who was in the UK for a 10-day visit.

In a statement released by the Sikh Federation UK (SFUK), Jaspal said: “The latest twist is India’s National investigation Agency (NIA) worried about the lack of evidence and to delay matters further has appealed to the Supreme Court to transfer many of the cases to Delhi.”

“Apart from the inevitable delay this is causing they are also pushing for Jagtar to be transferred to a prison in Delhi making it difficult to regularly meet with me, his wife and her family who are based hundreds of miles away in Punjab.”

In the statement, it was mentioned that Jagtar also met with Martin Docherty-Hughes their SNP MP and Preet Kaur Gill MP, the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for British Sikhs to update them on the latest legal position in India and raised questions on whether the UK Government were doing enough for their citizen.

They agreed to work with the family and keep up pressure on the UK Government to exert appropriate political influence to secure Jagtar’s release, it added.

The statement added:

“Jagtar’s case has involved one gaffe after the other. The first mistake was the police abducted, tortured and threatened to kill a UK national and the second was the controversial Chief Minister of Punjab and the Director General of Police (DGP) politicised the case from the outset by holding a press conference and pre-empted court proceedings.

“Within 3 days of Jagtar’s abduction, torture and police threats of being burnt alive or shot dead at point blank range they made a fundamental error of holding a press conference. Sitting side by side they claimed that they had “solved” a series of high-profile “targeted killings” over the previous two years for which there was pressure on them from those in Delhi to secure arrests.

“The Chief Minister named Jagtar Singh Johal (or Jaggi) as one of those who was in police custody and would be charged. However, it took the police six months to file the 1,000+ page charge sheet after Jagtar’s abduction and torture. Given all the publicity the 1,000+ pages remarkably only had 12 lines that relate to Jagtar that his lawyer has clarified during his UK visit are inadmissible in court.

“The next major blunder came a month after Jagtar’s abduction. Indian police were so worried by the #FreeJaggiNow international campaign, strong political lobbying in the UK with over 250 MPs contacted and tough words of ‘extreme action’ by UK Foreign Office Minister, Rory Stewart on the floor of the House of Commons that they resorted to continue the trial by media.

“The Punjab police no doubt under pressure from their political masters released so-called police video confession tapes of Jagtar exclusively to an Indian TV station to try and ‘demonise’ and show him in a negative light knowing this could never be evidence that would be admissible in court.

“The 12 lines in the charge sheet that came five months later provided nothing more than what was shown to tens of millions on Indian TV and widely reported in the Indian press.

“The legal process in India is extremely slow at the best of times and more than 425 days after Jagtar’s imprisonment the courts have yet to examine the charge sheet and the information collected by the police to decide whether there is substantial material to start a trial against Jagtar. Only if the court is satisfied that the material is enough to start the trial will it frame charges and issue a summons order to start proceedings.”

RELATED STORY:

Jagtar Singh Johal: Mastermind of killings or Punjab government’s NRI scapegoat? (Asia Samachar, 21 Nov 2017)

ASIA SAMACHAR is an online newspaper for Sikhs / Punjabis in Southeast Asia and beyond. Facebook | WhatsApp +6017-335-1399 | Email: editor@asiasamachar.com | Twitter | Instagram | Obituary announcements, click here |

Narender Singh Khalsa, son of the slained Afghanistan Sikh leader has secured a seat on behalf of Sikhs and Hindus community in the nation’s parliamentary elections.

His name was among the names announced so far by the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan (IEC), reports the Khaama Press News Agencys.

The parliamentary elections were conducted on 20 October 2018 but the commission has so far failed to fully announce the poll results, the report added.

IEC also said the initial poll results may change once the commission completes the review of complaints filed regarding the process.

A suicide bombing on 1 July in Jalalabad killed a dozen Sikhs and Hindus, including Narinder’s dad Atvar Singh Khalsa, the only Sikh candidate running in elections this year.

The incident happened when the Afghan Sikhs and Hindus community leaders were arriving to meet President Ashraf Ghani in Jalalabad, the capital city of eastern Nangarhar province.

RELATED STORY:

Canadian MPs call for special program to help persecuted Afghan minorities

(Asia Samachar, 29 Oct 2018)

Sikhs and Hindus Bear Brunt of Latest Afghanistan Suicide Attack – Report (Asia Samachar, 2 July 2017)

ASIA SAMACHAR is an online newspaper for Sikhs / Punjabis in Southeast Asia and beyond. Facebook | WhatsApp +6017-335-1399 | Email: editor@asiasamachar.com | Twitter | Instagram | Obituary announcements, click here |

By Doug Schmidt | WINDSOR STAR | US |

Three truckloads of food on Thursday were just part of the mountain of donations to Windsor’s Street Help Homeless Centre this week by the local Sikh community.

“They’re such a wonderful group of people with a wonderful spirit of giving,” Street Help administrator Christine Wilson-Furlonger said of the Windsor Sports & Culture Centre’s holiday donations. “We are very grateful — they show us so much love.”

In addition to filling up the homeless centre’s depleted pantry shelves, the WSCC, in its 14th year of giving to Street Help, also donated more than 75 sleeping bags, 70 blankets and comforters, 40 pairs of winter boots, hygiene products and a $1,000 cheque.

This week’s offerings to Street Help were the result of the WSCC’s winter holiday donation drive, said Sukhpal Banga, secretary of the social organization.

Sikhs don’t celebrate the religious meaning behind Christmas, but “we celebrate with our Christian friends,” said Banga. “The main thing is, we help the community through the Christmas holidays.”

Banga estimates there are about 1,000 Sikh families in the Windsor area. Additionally, he said, there are several thousand foreign students from the Indian subcontinent currently taking classes in Windsor, a large number of them enrolled at St. Clair College.

Windsor Sports & Culture Centre, established in 2005, organizes and participates in sports, education, culture and volunteer work across Windsor and Essex County. While heavily rooted in the Punjabi community, the club welcomes all members of the community to join and participate in its events and activities. According to the WSCC, sport is its passion and culture is its identity.

Read full story (Windstor Star, 28 Dec 2018), here. 

By Gurmukh Singh OBE | PANJAB TIMES |

Guru Gobind Singh ji completed the religio-social and political revolution started by Guru Nanak Sahib to reveal the Khalsa Panth as a sovereign nation.

Award winning historiographer, Dr J S Grewal, wrote, “By the beginning of the seventeenth century, the socio-religious community of Guru Nanak’s followers became a state within the state.” (The Sikhs of Punjab, p 42.) The Sikh right to nationhood was openly asserted over 400 years ago by Guru Hargobind Sahib when he formally sat on the temporal-spiritual (miri-piri) throne at Akal Bunga on 15 June 1606. Twice in history the Sikhs established their own sovereign state.

Following partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 and certain assurances by Indian leaders, the Sikhs voluntarily decided to remain in India, the secular state. They rejected siding with Pakistan, an Islamic religion state, and they will reject joining the Hindu Rashtra, the declared objective of one of the main political Indian parties.

Essentially, Guru Nanak Sahib made social activism in this world a precondition to achieving the main objective of human life. He was more concerned with here-and-now than hereafter in accordance with the Gurbani maxim: Wich dunyia sev kamayiay. Tan Dargeh baisan paayiay. (ਵਿਚਿ ਦੁਨੀਆ ਸੇਵ ਕਮਾਈਐ ॥ ਤਾ ਦਰਗਹ ਬੈਸਣੁ ਪਾਈਐ ॥ SGGS, 25).

So, unlike any other religion (mazhab), an Abrahamic concept, or an Eastern other-worldly sect, Guru Nanak Sahib’s revolutionary Panth had social, religious and political objectives from the outset. Guru Gobind Singh gave final shape to Sikh identity, decision-making processes and organisation in 1699.

On Saturday 29 December, 2018, the topic of Sikh Ik Vakhri Qaum Hai (Sikhs are a separate nation), was discussed at the Sikh Missionary Society UK to clarify the revolutionary nature of the Panth of Guru Nanak-Guru Gobind Singh. Sardar Gurmel Singh Kandola MBE (ex-Secretary General, the Sikh Council UK), Jathedar Mohinder Singh Khehra, S. Avtar Singh Journalist and S Amarjit Singh Khalra led the seminar.

Those who keep on insisting that Sikhi is a religion only need to study Sikh tradition more closely. As a colleague observed recently, “Sadly, some, otherwise well-educated Sikhs in UK are so highly Anglicised that they can only view the world from western Abrahamic paradigm. They wish to come across as progressive and objective liberals. It is not in their destiny to contribute positively to the aspirations of the Panth towards an independent and distinct people who are a force for good in the world.”

The Sikhs were created and organised as a nation, a distinct qaum: a community of people who share a common language, culture, descent, or history. In this definition, a nation has no physical borders (wikipedia.org/wiki/Qaum).They were given own independent ideological, social and political objectives and provided the resources by the Guru through the daswandh system, to sustain a prolonged campaign to achieve those objectives. The political objective of a just halemi raj in which no one inflicted pain on another, was also clear from the outset.

Today the Sikh Qaum is global and attracts many to their egalitarian religio-social values. All those who join, become members of the Khalsa Panth, the Sikh nation. They own and share the same history, tradition, literature, institutions and identity.

In the UK, the House of Lords too came to the same conclusion in 1983 in the famous Mandla case when deciding that, in addition to being a religion, the Sikhs are also an ethnic (non-biological social)  community just like Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis etc under the current community classification system.

Securing own Sikh qaumi (ethnicity) box in the Census 2021 classification, continues to be a high priority objective for British Sikhs.

Gurmukh Singh OBE, a retired UK senior civil servant, chairs the Advisory Board of The Sikh Missionary Society UK. Email: sewauk2005@yahoo.co.uk. The article first appeared at The Panjab Times, UK

* This is the opinion of the writer, organisation or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Asia Samachar.

PRESS RELEASE | | January 6, 2019 | US |

The American Sikh Council (ASC) is appalled at the threatening nature by which human rights activist Jagtar Singh Johal (aka Jaggi) a British born citizen who happens to be a Sikh has been targeted by the Indian government for continued illegal detention under the pretext of arresting a suspected terrorist. It has been over 14 months with no end in sight!

Laws in India are very malleable and are used selectively depending on the religion, caste and then class of the person being targeted to be taught a lesson. Yes – a lesson! The application of the ‘law’ for all minorities of different faiths (Sikh, Muslim, Christian, etc) and/or ethnicities, especially those belonging to the lowest caste order among the Hindus, namely Shudras and especially the outcastes which consist of Dalits, Tribals and ‘Other Backward Classes’ (OBC) is very different than how the law is applied to the three upper caste Hindu groups, namely the Brahmins, Khatris and Vashiyas.

Jagar Singh Johal is being made an example by the Indian Hindutva forces to show the Sikh diaspora that they are not safe anywhere if they speak up for ‘human rights’ or ‘Sikh rights’ and will be persecuted and prosecuted for standing up for basic human dignity and liberty.

Adding to all this, the arcane laws of India can easily be used to obfuscate the target and everyone else. The central government enacted draconian laws to silence and snuff out legitimate dissent by the minorities, particularly targeting the Sikhs of Punjab, the Muslims of Kashmir, and several states in the North-East part of India starting in the 1980. There are so many comprehensive laws enacted, all in the name of national security as it is hard to keep track of them all!

Some of them are; Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) (1985–95), Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 (POTA), National Security Act (NSA), Special Public Protection Act (SPPA), Armed Forces (Special Powers) act 1958 (AFSPA), etc. Under some of these special laws, targets can be kept in incommunicado for up to three years. During this long time of illegal incarceration, most targets are brutally tortured, family members targeted separately till the target makes a false confession under duress and/or done away with permanently if required.

If Jagtar Singh Johal was ‘white – Christian’ the likelihood of action taken by the British government would be very different than their current lackadaisical attitude in his case and not to overlook the very cozy economic ties with India which Britain cannot afford to have disrupted.

FOLLOW LATEST AT #FreeJaggiNow FACEBOOK PAGE here

India must and will continue to beat on the ominous drum of ‘Khalistan’ till all reverberations and vestiges of self-determination by Sikhs are completely crushed and removed, because that is the way of the Hindutva juggernaut which does not acknowledge any constitutionally legal dissent, legitimate long-standing socio-economic grievances, especially by minorities like the Sikhs who have been hounded for generations because their ‘universal humanistic’ ideology is contradictory to the belief system of the Brahminical Hindu leaders at the helm in India.

According to Amnesty International as reported by Al Jazeera, “Three decades after the U.N. Convention against Torture imposed measures to eradicate the practice, torture still happens in 141 countries — many of which are signatories to that convention.” Medieval style torture is still used commonly in India, which includes electric shocks, mock executions, water torture, rape and sexual violence, crushing body parts, boiling, roasting and the pulling of teeth. With this level of cruelty any kind of confession can be extracted from anyone. India of course is not a signatory to this UN Convention against Torture, which is not surprising!

With the judiciary a slave of the legislature most of the time, corruption running rampant, cronyism the norm, with the new wave of Hindutva peer pressure to conform, so rare is the judge who can honestly say that he/she is completely unbiased to perform their duties and safe from the piercing eyes of the Hinduvta forces. In this kind of vitiated atmosphere even ‘God’ cannot get justice!

Jagtar Singh continues to get the judicial run around – Indian style! The judiciary for the most part is thoroughly corrupt and any semblance of justice can drag on for 15 years to culminate. Further, there is no system of a ‘jury’ rather a single judge decides the fate of the alleged suspect. With India being #81 on the global corruption scale out of 180, its little wonder the much touted democracy is more of a demon-cracy!

Mr. Johal’s crimes according to the Indian authorities reportedly include, ‘running a magazine’ in the UK of atrocities during the 1984 Sikh Genocide and ‘influencing the youth through social media’.

Mr.Johal the alleged owner of the www.neverforget84.com has a fairly comprehensive website outlining all the serious human rights abuses meted out to hundreds of thousands of Sikhs in Punjab and elsewhere. There is absolutely nothing on the website that can be construed as subversive or influencing anyone in any negative manner. There are many websites in the diaspora focused on the ‘Sustained Sikh Genocide 1984 -1998’ detailing the atrocities perpetrated by the Indian Government on the Sikh collective.

Conflating genuine concerns about these flagrant human right violations with alleged terrorism combined with a global disinformation campaign is something the Indian regime specializes in regularly, in order to brow beat the Sikhs into submission.

The Indian government and its leaders love ‘mainstreaming’ all and any disruptive minorities, so that they fall in line with ideology fascist Hindutva. This type of behavior by a government will only further alienate the common citizen, especially religious minorities rather than unifying people, but they do not seem to care!

The Indian Government must release Mr. Jagtar Singh immediately and the police officials, politicians and anyone else involved be taken to task for devising this degenerate plot against an innocent British-Sikh citizen.

According to Jaspal Singh Manjhpur, the lawyer representing Jagtar Singh, the Indian police have subjected him to third degree torture while in illegal custody. There is no merit and the Indian authorities have no real evidence in their 1,000 page concocted dossier, except a web of lies.

Attorney Manjhpur further stated, “The latest twist is India’s National investigation Agency (NIA) worried about the lack of evidence and to delay matters further has appealed to the Supreme Court to transfer many of the cases to Delhi.”

According to Mark McLaughlin of the Times newspaper January 5, 2018, “Gareth Peirce (a well-known human rights attorney) claims that the British authorities are secretly colluding with India’s counterterrorism agency in the investigation into Jagtar Singh Johal, a Scottish Sikh.”

Both lawyers also agreed the raids by anti-terror police in the UK on the family homes of five British-Sikh activists in the UK were conducted to appease the Indian authorities. The Indian establishment has become desperate to find anything to try and implicate Jagtar Singh and exert further pressure on him. The disclosure of personal details and photographs of the British-Sikh activists in Indian newspapers has uncovered further blunders by the British police for which there will be consequences.

No matter what, the Hindutva government of India will never let the Sikhs be at peace, unless and until they have been cowed down, ‘mainstreamed’ and brought to heel, underneath and at the bottom of the diabolical Brahminical Hindu caste system. According to Article 25(2)(b) in The Constitution Of India 1949, Explanation II, “In sub clause (b) of clause reference to Hindus shall be construed as including a reference to persons professing the Sikh, Jaina or Buddhist religion, and the reference to Hindu religious institutions shall be construed accordingly.” No wonder the Hindu government of India relentlessly continues to meddle in the internal affairs and refuses to acknowledge the ‘Sikh Faith’ as independent and distinct from Brahminical Hinduism.

Sikhs in the diaspora are keenly aware that weekly intelligence reports are generated on every gurdwara in the US, Canada, Australia, UK, Germany and other countries with large populations of Sikhs. Sikhs are tired of the incessant meddling by the Indian intelligence in the internal affairs of the Sikh Faith.

The American Sikh Council (ASC) reiterates its call to all gurdwaras across the diaspora to absolutely not allow any Indian government official(s) to speak from their platforms.

#####

The American Sikh Council is the umbrella organization representative of Sikhs in the United States. It is an elected body of Sikh Gurdwaras and institutions. Currently 74 Gurdwaras and other Sikh institutions across the nation are members of ASC. The major governing purpose of the organization is to represent the collective view of Sikhs in the United States. ASC works to promote Sikh interests at the national and international level focusing on issues of advocacy, education, and well-being of humankind.

American Sikh Council
P.O. Box 932, Voorhees, NJ 08043, USA
Phone: 607-269-7454
email: contact@americansikhcouncil.org
https://www.facebook.com/AmericanSikhCouncil/
www.AmericanSikhCouncil.org

RELATED STORY:

Jaggi’s plight makes front page news at The Times Scotland (Asia Samachar, 5 Jan 2018)

Jagtar Singh Johal: Mastermind of killings or Punjab government’s NRI scapegoat? (Asia Samachar, 21 Nov 2017)

ASIA SAMACHAR is an online newspaper for Sikhs / Punjabis in Southeast Asia and beyond. Facebook | WhatsApp +6017-335-1399 | Email: editor@asiasamachar.com | Twitter | Instagram | Obituary announcements, click here |

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By Asia Samachar Team | MALAYSIA |

The growing number of Sikh lawmakers globally should come together to bolster the community’s lobbying power, says a New Zealand long serving parliamentarian.

“We should forge links to boost our efforts to help the community,” Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi, the first Sikh MP in NZ, told Asia Samachar in Kuala Lumpur.

On Tuesday, the four-term MP from the National Party, who is on an official visit with two fellow MPs to Malaysia, paid a courtesy call on Minister of Communications and Multimedia Gobind Singh Deo, the country’s first Sikh to be made a minister.

“It was an absolute honour to meet Honourable Gobind Singh Deo Minister of Communication in Malaysia and his brother Ramkarpal Singh both sons of veteran Lawyer and MP Karpal Singh during my visit to Kuala Lumpur,” Kanwaljit shared on his Facebook page.

Over the last few years, there have been a growing number of Sikhs being elected as lawmakers, with Canada taking the lead.

In 2015, Canada made history when then newly elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed four Sikhs into his Cabinet, including Harjit Singh Sajjan as the national defence minister.

In the United States, while there are no elected Sikh lawmakers in the congress, but a number of Sikhs have been elected to key positions.

For example, Gurbir Singh Grewal became the 61st Attorney General of the State of New Jersey in January 2018.

Prior to his selection, Grewal served as Bergen County Prosecutor, the chief law enforcement officer of the most populous county in New Jersey and home to nearly 1 million residents living in 70 municipalities

The US also has a American Sikh Congressional Conference.

Formed by Representatives Judy Chu (D) and David Valadao (R) on 24 April 2013m, the caucus seeks to educate members of Congress and the general public about Sikh issues and support the American Sikh community.

The UK has two Sikh MPs in the House of Commons and a Sikh Lord.

In 2017, Preet Kaur Gill became the first Sikh woman MP and Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi became the first turban-wearing Sikh MP, boosting the presence of Indian-origin presence in the House of Commons to a record 12.

The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for British Sikhs is chaired by MP Preet Kaur Gill MP. Its two vice chairs are Conservative MP Dominic Grieve and Labour MP Pat McFadden, both former Ministers.

The latest to join the list of Sikh lawmakers globally is Narender Singh Khalsa, son of a slained Afghanistan Sikh leader, who seems to have secured a seat on behalf of Sikhs and Hindus community in the nation’s parliamentary elections, pending final confirmation.

RELATED STORY:

Afghan Sikh slain leader’s son secures seat in parliamentary elections (Asia Samachar, 6 Jan 2019)

ASIA SAMACHAR is an online newspaper for Sikhs / Punjabis in Southeast Asia and beyond. Facebook | WhatsApp +6017-335-1399 | Email: editor@asiasamachar.com | Twitter | Instagram | Obituary announcements, click here |

More than 500 students and parents across four British schools came together on different nights over the Christmas break and took part in a globally-televised sponsored sleep-out which has so far raised £40,000 for school resources and local charities, according to a SikhPA release.

Khalsa Secondary Academy in Stoke Poges, Atam Academy in Ilford, Khalsa Academy in Wolverhampton and the Seva School in Coventry took part in the five day TV telethon run by the Sikh Channel to commemorate Saka Sirhind, the term for the unique sacrifices made by the young sons and mother of the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh Ji Maharaj.

Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s youngest sons, aged five and seven, were bricked alive by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb for refusing to convert to Islam in the early 1700s. Guru Ji’s elder sons aged 14 and 18 along with 40 other Sikhs also sacrificed their lives whilst fighting in a famous battle during the same period.

Before their passing, Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s two youngest grandsons and mother were forcibly held day and night at the top of an open-air tower known for being extremely cold in the winter. This is why many Sikhs stop sleeping in beds and instead stay on the floor and hold outdoor events at this time of year, in memory of what their Guru’s family went through. These sacrifices are honoured during the month of December, the statement added.

The local charities chosen by each of the schools to receive funding were:

• Wexham Park Hospital Children’s Ward by Khalsa Secondary Academy, Stoke Poges
• Birmingham Children’s Hospital by Khalsa Academy, Wolverhampton
• Homeless Project Malachi, Atam Academy, Ilford
• University Hospital Children’s Ward by Seva School, Coventry

“This amazing event demonstrated the significance of the unique sacrifices made over 300 years ago whilst raising funds to support children’s wards in NHS hospitals and a homeless project across the country. One of the most important values that are taught at these schools is “Seva” which means to help those in need. We are immensely proud of all the students, parents and the wider, community and would like to thank them and the Sikh Channel who have made this amazing event possible”, said Nick Singh Kandola, CEO.

The fundraising is continuing until the 25th January. You can donate at https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/sakasirhand

ASIA SAMACHAR is an online newspaper for Sikhs / Punjabis in Southeast Asia and beyond. Facebook | WhatsApp +6017-335-1399 | Email: editor@asiasamachar.com | Twitter | Instagram | Obituary announcements, click here |

By GSPJ Tuition Team | MALAYSIA |

Gurdwaras are one of the core institutions for the Sikh way of life. From the day we are born, we become part of the Gurdwara community. In fact, it is where most of us learn about our faith and then begin to develop our relationship with our Guru, where we celebrate joyous and sometimes unfortunate events with our family and friends, where we learn to speak Punjabi and read Gurmukhi, and where there’s always a hot nutritious meal to feed our hunger. On certain occasions, there are mini camps (aka mini-samelans) that molds our leadership and people skills so we are better-prepared to face the real world. Gurdwaras play many functions in the community but ideally we feel there is still room for more.

In this article, we focus on the educational front of things.

Across Malaysia, children are returning to the classrooms this week. The harsh truth is their performance in the classroom is becoming increasingly important in setting their future path. Let’s face it in today’s world, a solid education has become a pre-requisite to a successful and comfortable life, more so if you come from poorer communities. However, if we can effectively focus on educating children since young, we can help to avoid the traps of poverty and joblessness.

As one of our core institution, Gurdwaras could and should play a part in this system. We already have the infrastructure (i.e. classrooms) in place, a strong pipeline of talent within the Sanggat and most importantly a sewa-focused mindset. We have done an amazing job in ensuring everyone is well-fed, we should be able to replicate this feat with free basic education for children.

Based on this principle, we started the GSPJ Tuition initiative in 2018 to provide free tuition classes to form 1 students. Our initiative was well received. We sought qualified teachers to conduct the classes and were given full support by the Gurdwara Parbhandak to utilize the classrooms in PJ Gurdwara. Classes commenced in the second week of January 2018. Within weeks of the commencement, we received funding from the Malaysian Gurdwara Council (MGC) via grants from Socio Economic Development of the Indian Community Unit (SEDIC) under the Prime Minister’s department.

With the additional funding, we were able to add more subjects and forms within the year. By the end of 2018, we were providing tuition to circa 40 form 1 and 2 students, covering core subjects like English, Mathematics and Science. This would not have been possible without the continuous support from our tireless teachers and volunteers, parents and funders (i.e. PJ Gurdwara Parbhandak, MGC and SEDIC).

We are proud to announce that this initiative will continue in 2019. Experienced teachers and tutors have been recruited to teach English, Bahasa Malaysia, Mathematics and Science for form 1, 2 and 3 students. Tuitions are free of charge and it is open to all students regardless of race, faith and socio-economic backgrounds. If anyone would like to register, please get in touch with us immediately (Jagmeet: 0166877067 or Sarabmeet: 0124447463).

Unfortunately, funding remains uncertain at this stage. Regardless, this initiative will continue. To those who would like to support and donate to this initiative, do get in touch with us.

It is our hope that this would inspire more of such initiatives across other Gurdwaras in Malaysia. Together, we can transform our Gurdwaras to be an education hub open to everyone, on top of the many other functions it already serves.

(GSPJ Tuition Team: Sarabmeet, Jagmeet, Gurrajvin, Vinodini, Arvinder)

RELATED STORY:

Mr Surjit, favourite teacher for 50 years (Asia Samachar, 12 Aug 2015)

By Hernaikh Singh (On Behalf of Towner Boys) | SINGAPORE | IN MEMORY | 

I have been requested to write this eulogy on behalf of Towner Boys for the late Mr Harawant Singh. I am privileged and humbled by this honour, and I know that it is also a difficult responsibility. This is because Mr Harawant was part of so many beautiful experiences for the Towner Boys. Any attempt to speak about this great human being may fall short of reflecting what he really was.

I met Mr Harawant sometime in the late 1970s. Sikh Sewaks Singapore was informally established in 1978to serve the Sikh youth and sangat. Mr Harawant was one of the pioneers of the group. I was part of a group of impressionable youngsters back then. Many, if not all of us, came from not-well-to-do families. Our passion was football. Some of us attended Punjabi classes at the Singapore Khalsa Association every Saturday afternoon and the 20-minute recess was a time for us to play football in the field.Honestly, we looked forward to that more than the classes!

When Sikh Sewaks decided to start a football team, Mr Harawant took us under his wing. Of course, we were delighted for it provided another avenue for us to come together to play football. We represented Sikh Sewaks for a while. I recall Mr Harawant carrying a red pail with orange mix and ice to our trainings every week. Realising that we were committed and passionate, Mr Harawant then brought his younger brother, Mr Karpal Singh, as the coach of the team. Mr Hawarant also realised that football was a bond that could keep us away from mischief and trouble. It would also keep us together for a long time. There was a nice balance between the two brothers. Mr Karpal was a strict no-nonsense coach while Mr Harawant as the jovial, friendly and approachable manager

Soon, believing they could do more for us, Mr Harawant and Mr Karpal decided to make the team more professional. They decided to participate in football tournaments and in the league. We became Towner Sikh (since Central Sikh Temple where Sikh Sewaks Singapore was based was in Towner Road) and then Towner Sports Club since we could not participate in national-level competitions donning a religious name. We brought non-Sikhs into the team. Under Mr Harawant’s and Mr Karpal’s guidance, we became one of the more successful non-league teams and probably the only one with an official sponsor – Hummel.

1 of 5

Training was torturous at times but we kept coming back every week. Which teenager in the right frame of mind would wake up to train from 9.00am to 12.00nn every Sunday, sometimes without even touching the football during the session? We did! We were a family. Mr Harawant even arranged for us to travel to Malaysia for friendly matches. Our first trip was to Pontian and then Seremban. We stayed in the gurdwara. For us, these trips meant a lot since we could not afford to travel on our own. Our parents trusted us in Mr Harawant’s care. They knew he would look after us. On his part, Mr Hawarant made us feel wanted. He had a great personality. He never got angry and never scolded us. He was such a wonderful and caring mentor.

In all those growing up years, Mr Harawant looked after us like a father would his children. We certainly would have gone awry. There were so many distractions around us. He did not let that happen. He took real good care of us and made sure we did well.

We grew up, got married and became parents. He was present at our weddings. Now some of us are based overseas – in Australia and the United States. We would find occasions to meet when the overseas-based Towner Boys came back. Whenever we met with Mr Harawant, he would express his joy at how well we turned out. You could see the glow and happiness on his face.

In a conversation with one of the Towner Boys, Mr Harjinder Singh, which encapsulates his feeling for all of us, Mr Harawant said, “I am so happy for all of you. You guys are just like my children…See you guys grew up from all sorts of backgrounds…All grown up now with families of your own…All having good jobs and self-sustaining and not dependent on anybody. I cannot imagine I have so many small grandkids. Always meet with our fellow Towner Boys; make sure all of you keep in touch and remember the hard times you guys went through. Tell your kids and you grandchildren our stories…our outings…our games…our gatherings. Laugh about the good old days. Memories will always stay!

This wonderful person left us suddenly on 6 January 2019. Till today, all the Towner Boys are finding it so difficult to come to terms with our loss. We have known Mr Harawant for almost 40 years. When you lose someone you have known for so long, it is really tough. But when you lose someone like Mr Harawant, it is really hard to express the sadness and emptiness. It is said that good people don’t die; they become God’s angels. We know for certain that Mr Harawant is up there looking over all the Towner Boys and our families.

We will always cherish Mr Harawant’s time with us, and our time with him. He shall always remain in our hearts and he shall always be in our prayers.We will always miss him.

Hernaikh Singh, one of the Towner Boys, is the current president of Singapore Khalsa Association

By Asia Samachar Team | MALAYSIA |

Malaysia’s sole interfaith council paid a courtesy visit to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today (11 Jan 2019) in what was described by one of the participants as a ‘very open, frank, cordial and fruitful discussion’.

The Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) representatives had a one-hour meeting with Dr Mahathir in Kuala Lumpur.

This is the first face-to-face meeting between the interfaith council leaders and the comeback prime minister who now leads the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government which outsted Barisan National (BN) in the May 2018 general elections.

“We had discussed various issues of concern and an inclusive Malaysia. Tun M had heard all issues patiently and had said that he would personally look into the issues.

“Tun also affirmed the PH government would be inclusive and would be guided by the Federal Constitution and the rule of law,” MCCBCHST VP Jagir Singh, who had earlier served as the council’s president, told Asia Samachar in a text message.

The others in the delegation were Mohan Sham, Archbishop Julian Leow Beng Kim, Ven Sing Kang and Tan Ho Chieow.

In a statement at his acebook page, Dr Mahathir said: “This morning I received courtesy call from the members of Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism at my office in Kuala Lumpur. Despite our differences, this country has been more peaceful than other countries in terms of racial harmony and religious tolerance. This government will be very sensitive towards all religions and at the same time each and every one of us must obey the rule of law.”

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