amandeepm

the diamond (now cut down to about half its size) is in the crown of the Queen Mother. This crown is on display in London. It is highly liekly to be the crown worn by Camilla after Charles becomes King for formal state occasions. there was an excellent exact Zirconium model made by one of the worlds experts on diaonds of the original kohinoor and this was on display recently at the "Diamond" exh at the Natural History Museum.

No its off Pall Mall between the Mall and St James. Right next to the Institute of Directors building. The road is waterloo place (as you can see in pic 1)

the words at the bottom of this statue were constantly being defaced in the 1980s (particulalry "Ruler of the Punjaub" This seems to have stopped after they trained cctv camers on it having spent quite a bit on restoration

I love this picture its the kind of imagery that sikhs in the uk shoudl have in their homes rather than those sickly sobha sikhs or those ghastly kirapl singh paintings or this new trend of having garish village scenes such as a women spinnig cotton or making lasi - yuck. Having said that I have always wanted a painting of one of those classic fleshy beauties from the front cover of Des Pardes above my desk in my office at work ! In case anyone hasnt spotted the 2nd child in this picture - there is a littel white rummaled joora just to the lef of the father's arm - he's just like me . . . .able to sleep through an air raid ! Aman

From today's Guardian An immediate answer to yesterday's G2 front page teaser: has Britain lost its sense of humour? The answer is a clear no, at least judging from the new T-shirts being worn by young Asians on the underground, which display the slogan: "Don't freak, I'm a Sikh". We'll give top marks to the joke writer for that one and (for some obscure reason) the tale has also prompted a very loosely connected thought: does anybody know what happened to the Guardian Angels? Unlike funny Sikhs, you don't see too many on the tube these days. Surely they're missing a fantastic marketing opportunity? Amandeep www.punjabarchive.org www.sicques.com

thanks for your comments. the site was designed and impeemnted technically by a really talented company called Macrojuice. They've done a rea;;y brilliant job on this site, using innovative web technology to allow users to zoom right into a page and read the smallest text and view images but not allow people to "grab" images and thus contravene copyright laws - a brilliant piece of work by Macrojuice. thanks again for your comments

How would you like to have access to almost 100 years of illustrated newspaper articles about Punjabis in the Press? The United Kingdom Punjab Heritage Association’s new website http://www.punjabarchive.org brings you closer to that ultimate on line reference source. The new website has been described by BBC Television’s South Asia Correspondent, Navdip Dhariwal as “a fascinating window into Punjab's history. . . great journalism from the past coupled with innovative technology makes punjabarchive.org a fascinating, informative and fun experience " This is the first step taken to create an electronic web-based archive highlighting the extensive body of material relating to the Punjab as reported in illustrated and non illustrated Victorian newspapers. The material graphically illustrates the shared heritage and contribution of Punjabis in world history, especially in relation to the building of the British Empire in the second half of the 19th century. Nearly all of the newspapers are profusely illustrated with evocative woodblock engravings and photographs, and cover a range of events and characters, many significant, some curious but nearly all little known. Highlights of the important events between Punjabi Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs with the British include: The land and people of the Punjab ruled by Maharaja Ranjit Singh The two Anglo-Sikh wars (1845-6, 1848-9) and subsequent annexation of the Punjab to British India in 1849 Maharaja Duleep Singh – the first Sikh known to have settled in England in 1854. The Punjabi contribution to the development of the British Empire in military campaigns in Asia, Africa and Europe (1860s - 1900s) The largely unheralded role of Punjabis in World War I and II The material represented in this website is from a private collection. We are grateful to the owner for their permission to access their valuable archive. UKPHA The UK Punjab Heritage Association (“UKPHAâ€) is a non-profit voluntary organisation based in Greater London. The Association was founded in 2001 to foster the appreciation of the Punjabi heritage in Britain and encourage the preservation of endangered items of the Punjabi material heritage. If you have a query, require assistance with your own projects or would like to support us, please contact us on sicques@gmail.com

There is a great device called a USB bridge by Delkin it lets you squirt the contents of your memory card into an MP3 player or portable hard sikh wihtout the need for a PC. It doesnt cost a huge amount and I used it extensivly in Pakisatn where I had 512MB cards and an iRiver MP3 player - it works a treat and you dont have to go around looking for places to burn CDs Amandeep

Can you explain the source please? is it a book? who by? publisher etc. Many thanks.

Hi tSingh, Thanks for this. Yes, it appeared in his syndicated column in The Telegraph. Khushwant Singh also very kindly wrote a jacket quote for us having read the first draft of the book and was very supportive when we did Warrior Saints. He's extremelly prolific and still very quick and an honour for us to have worked with him albeit very breifly. The full artcle is below: TRANSLATING GOD’S WORD This above all - Khushwant Singh Divine burden I t is a daunting task, translating the Adi Granth, with its nearly 6,000 hymns which would take a relay of reciters, reading non-stop, two days and nights to finish. For the Sikhs it is the word of god, told through six of their ten gurus and sants, both Hindu and Muslim. Many people have translated the more popular portions: Acharya Vinoba Bhave and Osho Rajnish did a commendable job rendering the morning prayer, Japji, in Hindi and English. The first to try his hand at translating the entire Adi Granth was the German scholar Trumpp. He gave up after a few pages. The task was taken up by M.A. Macaulliffe who had Sikh scholars to assist him. All his translations are incorporated in his six volumes on the Sikh religion. The translations, though literal, read poorly. The first Sikh to undertake the task was Manmohan Singh of Amritsar. He translated the scriptures into Punjabi and English prose. They were accurate but no attempts had been made to capture the melodic element in the hymns. Next came Gopal Singh Dardi who had undoubted ability to handle the task. He presented his translations to the pope, claimed to have been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature and persuaded Indira Gandhi to nominate him as a member of the Rajya Sabha and then the governor of Goa and Nagaland. Somehow I felt that anyone who could do that sort of thing could not have imbibed very much from the gurus’ teachings. I did not read his translation. The SGPC then commissioned Gurbachan Singh Talib, a professor of English, to do the translations and published them. They too are lacking in poetic content. Two years ago, G.S. Maken of Chandigarh published four volumes of his translations. I went through them, cover to cover, and learnt a lot about the faith I was born into without knowing much about it. Maken too did not try to capture the poetry of the original. The most recent translation is by Kartar Singh Duggal, published by Hemkunt Press in four volumes: The Holy Granth — Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Duggal has written scores of novels and collections of poetry, won many awards and been a member of the Rajya Sabha. He rightly describes his renderings as transcreations instead of translations, and has done his best to convey the meaning of the hymns in verse. His work is bound to be more acceptable to readers than any of the others. His volumes should find a place in every public library in the country and abroad, and hopefully in some private homes as well. References in context While examining old documents for writing The History of the Sikhs, I came across many Indian names and places which early European visitors had spelt out in English and which made amusing reading. For instance, Sikhs had six different spellings: Sikhs, Sicques, Sykes, Sicks and Seecks. Khalsa was Colsa or Colassa. Amritsar was Ambarsar, Amritsaria and Umraotisioux. And so on. Nevertheless, though not entirely reliable as source material, they provided reliable corroboration of events that took place in the 17th and 18th centuries. Father Jerome Xavier, a Jesuit priest, mentions the martyrdom of Guru Arjan in Lahore in 1606. References to the martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur in Delhi (1675), and the execution of Banda Bairagi and 700 of his followers in Delhi in 1716 were noted by agents of the East India Company as well as travellers financed by it. After the execution of Banda Bahadur, Sikhs reorganized themselves into several independent misls and ravaged the plains from the Ganges to the Indus, including Delhi and its suburbs. The sight of one Sikh on horse-back, with matchlock on his shoulder and kirpan dangling by his side, struck terror in the hearts of people: he was like a one-man army (sava lakh fauj). In 1768, Francis Xavier wrote, “Among 10,000 men there will be at least as many commanders and what is more each independent of the other.†In 1716, a Swiss national, Major Polier, sent a note of warning to the English about Sikh potential as “a snake with many headsâ€. He wrote, “As for the Seikhs, that formidable aristocratic republick, I may safely say, it is only so to a weak defence-less state, such as this is. It is properly the snake with many heads. Each Zamindar who from the Attock to Hansey Issar, and to the gates of Delhi lets his beard grow, cries wah gorow, eats pork, wears an iron bracelet, drinks bang, abominates the smoking of tobacco and can command from ten followers on horseback to upwards, set up immediately for a Seik Sardar, and as far as is in his power aggrandizes himself at the expense of his weaker neighbours; if Hindu or Mussulman so much the better; if not, even amongst his own fraternity will he seek to extend his influence and power; only with this difference in their intestine divisions, from what is seen everywhere else, that the husbandman (sic) and the labourer, in their own districts, are perfectly safe and unmolested, let what will happen around them.†It is hard to believe that when Baghel Singh of the Karorasinghia misl was invited by Emperor Shah Alam to take Delhi under his protection, all he asked for was land to build Delhi’s seven historic gurdwaras and collect a third of all octroi duties. He left only two Sikhs agents in Subzi Mandi to see the undertaking was fulfilled. You will find all this in the delightful compilation, Sicques, Tigers, or Thieves (1606-1809), edited by Amandeep Singh Madra and Parmjit Singh. Many of the characteristics of the Sikhs noted by foreign observers persist to this day. They are notorious for being unable to come together to work as a team. Everyone regards himself a jathedar (leader), even if he has no jatha (troop) to lead. The Sikhs themselves are well aware of the shortcomings in their character: Where there is one Sikh, there is one Sikh; Where there are two Sikhs, there is a Singh Sabha Where there are three Sikhs, there is rowla-rappa (rowdiness)

Dont just dissapear for two years start a blog of your travels. You have your ibook and a digi camera and you'll find internet everywhere in India and Pakistan. Aman

It's amazing isnt it. You can kill your own daughter and get away with it and the entire SGPC still rallies around you> But as soon as she is accused on nicking a few quid the SGPC (and its offices) get really upset and start to oust you. Is anyone surpised that the head of the SGPC scams money !? This is why I never put money into the golakhs of SGPC gurdwara

I never know whether Jasdev Rai is chronically paranoid or too stubborn to admit that he's talking balony. Either way the actions of him and his merry morons in UK and US gurdwaras who lobbied hard becuase of the "sovereignty" issue have shot the sikh community in the foot. They completely ignored UNESCO and its insistence that they were not about to take over the site. read UNESCOs clarification below and someone please explain why they continued to oppose the application: UNESCO clarifies on Harmandar Sahib status Varinder Walia Tribune News Service Amritsar, July 4 The Director, UNESCO, Prof M. Tawfik, has categorically stated that after granting the World Heritage Status (WHS), it becomes the responsibility of the organisation (UNESCO) to protect the site from any external aggression. Such security would have been provided to Harmandar Sahib, if it had received the WHS. This is part of the minutes of the meeting, held in the office of the Chairman National Commission for Minorities, copy of which has been given to The Tribune by the Chairman (NCM), Mr Tarlochan Singh, here today. He was here to preside over the installation ceremony of the president of the Rotary Club. Giving details of the meeting, the NCM Chairman informed that Mr Babu Rajeev, Director-General, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), had clarified that the inscription of Harmandar Sahib on the WHS would not in any way alter the management status of the shrine. The management of Harmandar Sahib would continue to remain with the SGPC even after the inscription of the shrine on the WHS. Neither in the nomination dossier nor in the site management plan, there was any proposal to replace the present management system. Therefore, the question of the new management system, after inscription on the WHS list does not arise. Much to the embarrassment of the SGPC executive committee which had recommended the withdrawal of the dossier, all three members who attended the meeting concluded that the apprehensions raised by the committee were unfounded. The ASI Director clarified that there was no proposal to interfere in the management of the core precinct (Darbar Sahib complex). UNESCO did not and would not impose any management directions on the WHS, he said. Any suggestion from UNESCO as an expert body would only be advisory in nature with regard to upholding and conserving the heritage value of a site. Full responsibility for protection as well as suggested conservation of the heritage property would be with the SGPC, he added. He said the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was only a nodal agency for such tangible heritage in India in so far as UNESCO was concerned. Therefore, the ASI reports to the World Heritage Committee on all matters of importance on WHS. Professor Tawfik, Director, UNESCO, however, clarified that the purpose of granting WHS to a particular historical monument was to preserve it for generations to come for record and for their posterity. He said the Director-General, ASI, had taken a wise decision by withdrawing the dossier. He urged the ASI to take the initiative of organising a discussion in the form of seminars or debates to discuss on the issue to appraise the apprehensions of the Sikh community. He said a country could send only one nomination for WHS every year, but India had lost the chance to send the nomination this year. “We have only withdrawn the nomination of Harmandar Sahib this year, but there is no bar on resubmitting the application next year.

by the time he was in Paris (after the ill-fated trip to Russia) he was a spent force and really on his last legs. It is very clear that the brits were pretty well fed up with him and there is no evidence to suggesttat the british poisened him. THere is some circumstantial evidence (again in Campbells book) that Duleep Singh's second wife, Ada, poisened him. Some of his children were reported to have accused her of poisening him in order to hasten his death so she coudl inherit his wealth. I doubt this very much indeed as it is clear that Ada enjoyed a good relatoinship with the kids from Duleep singh's first marriage after the death of the Maharajah and Ada was relient on DS to keep a social standing . After his passing, like most Victorian widows, she suffered social death.

At the end of his life he recanted and became Christian again (a fact overlooked by Duleep Singh-o-philes) this is quite clear in his will, apologies and his meeting with QV within which she records that he was "very bald and very grey " so he obviously wasnt wearing a turban. Peter Bances book is great as is Christy Campbell's The Maharajah's Box which is a much more scholalry bio ofthe man aman

is that one of those canadian same sex marriages ? you crazy canadians

They all knwo the issue and they all know what teh problem is (including MOhinder Singh). They need to make a public statement about what they did and why and also what they are going to do about the damp, the wall paintings taht were destroyed , the panels and their future plans. Lets all hear it. I'm fed up of them saying "come up to Soho Road for a chat with Mohinder Singh" - they knwo the problem and they need to make their position clear

This really bothers me. These panels are priceless, on the open market they are worth literally hundreds of thousands of pounds and they lie in a store room in Amritsar. I have been to the houses of SGPC people in the past and they revel in adorning their houses in minature paintings and even temple carvings from hindu temples (I have ven seen a a really ancient Ghandaran Statue being used as a door stop). They dont understand the value and they certainly dont understand conservation. I am seriously worried that slowly these panels will start to leach away as decortion pieces into teh houses of the corrupt SGPC officials. The maddening thing is that the right place for these panels in the Harimandir itself. Why on earth were they torn off? THey are not damaged beyond repair? Why were they kept in a store room while the GNNSJ stated that they were "cremated" and/or buried The gNNSJ are smart enoughto knwo the value of these panels but still chose to take them off, why? Is it true that the GNNSJ were actually planning to rebuild a replica harimandir sahib (using the original panels) in Birmingham? How many of the panels have gone missing? Are the stickers that have been on there for nearly 6 years eating into the original guilding and do they contain any acidic content that coudl irreversibly damage the copper underneath OR more liekly, were they bought mindlessely from "Vikrams Sticker shop" around teh corner and will they now cause even more damage? Do the GNNSJ actually give a crap or are they just moving onto the next monument ? aman

Baba Gurdial Singh was a NIhang from a village just a few miles from Chamkaur Sahib. That picture was take on 22 Dec 1963. I know this becuase it's from my mum and dad's wedding album and Baba Gurdial Singh did the Lavaan! aman

Sikher Thanks for tha extract. Note how it says on every line "encourage" or "help". thaht is all that UNESCO can do they can assist and provide leverage. In a world where sikh conservationists and historians have very few allies against the hordes of kar seva babas and revisionists the WHS is a powerful tool to make sure that any seva that is doen is at least sympathetic to the buildings

I get my information from the WHS website whereas Jasdev Rai tends to pull information from out of his backside (remeber this was the man who made a complete fool of himslef during the Bezhti affair by desperalty trying to hog the media limelight and insterad looking very stupid while on Newsnight). Look on the WHS website you will see the centre of the Catholic Church (the Holy See ie the entire Vatican City listed) http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/286 Canterbury Cathedral ie the spiritual headquarters of teh Church of England (archbishop of Canterbury adn all that). In fact you will find 21 Cathedrals in 12 countries and a further 25 churches. You will also find Bhuddist, Hindu and Shinto temples and at least two mosques. aman

YES. Do you honestly think that UNESCO has any hand in running the British Houses of parliament at either a political or funding level ?? THey are experts that can be called on to look atteh FABRIC of the building. aman

Over the lasy couple of centruies we have seen: Every Bunga and traditional school of learning destroyed to make way for a parkarma Ancient Samadhs of great Sikh shaheeds torn down Appaling renovation work caried out on the Darbar sahib in the naem of sewa which will ultimately destry the structure No city planniing which means taht teh site is dominated by neon signs from adjoining hotels,guest houses and dhabas encroachment of the site by commerical businesses The tearing down of the ancient Akal Takht in the name of "beadbi" ancient trees chopped down The comic renovation of teh Rangharais Towers which now resemble a disneyland style view of a 18th century structure The utter debasement and destruction of the buildings during 1984 The plastering over of invaluable ancient wall paintings during teh 1999 gold seva the tearing off of the gold panels made by skilled craftesmen during Ranji singhs reign and replaced by shoddy copies. Its clear that the entire site needs soem kind of protection. Its clear taht the current custodians dont provide that protection. What UNESCO World Heritage Status provides is the abiolity for conservators and architectural historians to use UNESCO experts to intervene when any of these kinds of seva are planned. It also gives the same people leverage over city authorites to stop some of the encraochment. UNESCO WHS applies to the Vatican, Westminister Cathedral & Canterbury Cathedral - ie three major religious sites. It is also in polace for the Palace of Westminister a temporal site. WHS has no impact on the runnign or function ofthe buildings, it is simply there to assist conservators in protecting teh FABRIC ofthe buildings. This was vociferously opposed by a gang of politicos and khalistanis who shouted hysterically when it was clear that the application was ebing made. They whipped up all kinds of smoke screens and false arguments under the broader issue of "sovereignty" and forced teh SGPC hand to rescind the application. What they haev done is give free reign to the kar seva wallahs to ply their trade even further into the complex itself. Its a great shame that they took somethign (politically innocous and fundamentally positive and dragged it deep into their paranoid and murcky political and grimy world and forced it to be stopped.

It's crucial to understand when certain ingredients came into the Punjab (and indeed left it). As you say, tomatoes, potates, chillies and garlic are products of the "new world" and woudl ahve started to enter the punjabi diet in the 18th century. The diet of the Gurus woudl have been spiced with only ground black pepper, ginger and coriander. Much closer to the authentic Mughali cuisine. the Jat diet is alluded to in a few early texts (including Sicques, tigers or Thieves 'wink wink') where there are 18th C refs to coarse gram breads and simple dals. Some years ago I read KT Achaya Historical Companion to Indian Food and his excellent Historical Dictionary of Indian food. It inspired me to start to write still unfinished essay on what the Guru's ate. I'll dig it out and try to complete it Aman

arvind is navdeep older brother and Bruce Lung has done a really excellent job deconstructing the academic wankery that was that abstract and he even made me laugh . . .doom 3 excellent. I think we have a winner . . unless someone can do better