LondonSingh

I do not wish to sound pedantic (regarding this matter), but have you noticed how families put pressure on the brothers to keep ther Kesh but not the sisters. This may only be an issue within circles that I know. I have questioned 'elders' about this. Their comments on the issue are very interesting (if somewhat inconclusive). I was told that as the girl will not live in 'her house' for all her life(i.e. after she gets married), she does not have to conform to her biological family's traditional rules. I know that answer is somewhat of a kop-out, but its the only one I have been given (so far). This does raise further questions regarding the future of Sikhi. Mothers (I consider) are best source of Sikhi for the next generation. But if their main concern is fashion rather than teaching their young children the sweetness and beauty of Sikhi, then its future in itself does not look very promising. Bhul Chuk Marf Karna

and it will go away soon because youth don't care about it. I have to strongly disagree! There are too many 'youths' or people of our generation who have strong ties with caste and recognise their own caste with immense pride

Has anyone seen the interview done by Bill Moyers with Bharati Mukherji? If not, here is an excerpt of her interview. She has set back Sikh relations across the world by about 15 years: Bill Moyers: "You and your husband spent over a year investigating that tragedy, and produced this book: The Sorrow and the Terror: The Haunting Legacy of the Air India Tragedy. I think of you, of course, as the novelist you are. And I've read some of your essays. I don't think of you, or Clark, your husband, as a investigative journalist. Why did you spend so much time on this?" --- Bharati Mukherjee: "I had no idea that the book would turn out to be a detective book about who actually financed the bombing and who were members of the five-member terrorist cell that actually pulled it off. But it was meant to be simply about the bereaved." --- Moyers: "The victims were mostly women, weren't they? I mean, you interviewed a lot of the widowers, and the survivors?" --- Mukherjee: "The widowers. Yes. This was the first plane that left for India after school closings for the summer. So, the plane was packed with women and children. The good immigrants, the good Canadians, who wanted to keep up relationship with their grandparents back in India, who wanted to, you know, take dance lessons with special teachers in Indian cities. And I might have been on that plane if I had not moved to the U.S. in 1980. I would very definitely have been on that plane. And a good friend of mine, a woman that I'd gone to college with in Calcutta, died on that plane. So, it was a very personal kind of grief for me." --- Moyers: "Who were these terrorists?" --- Mukherjee: "These were people of Sikh religion, who used militant tactics, terrorist tactics, in order to establish in Punjab, the state of Punjab in India, a religious theocratic state for the pure Sikhs, the re-baptized Sikhs. They didn't want anyone who was impure even within their religion. And they were very, very anti-Hindu, and anti-everyone else. They were called Khalistanis, called themselves Khalistanis. And they were able to, in temples, Gurdwaras, or later on with 9/11, I realized, in mosques, do fundraising at an enormous scale. Terrifying scale." --- Moyers: "It's uncanny how you wrote, even then, in the mid-1980's of airport security failures. Of political extremists, plotting under the guise of religion. I mean, this should have been a wake-up call for us." --- Mukherjee: "This should have been. But I think that the white establishment, at that time, in the late 1980's in Canada, after this happened in 1985, and throughout the 1990's in the United States, always assumed, quite wrongly, that these dark peoples with their homeland feuds will maybe raise funds here, but will take their terrorist activities back to their own countries and get their enemies back in their own countries. It never occurred to them that maybe every American, every Canadian, could also be caught up in these conspiracies." --- Moyers: "You and your husband, Clark Blaise, burrowed yourself into this world that created this act of terrorism. And you were threatened, weren't you? Several times? Didn't you receive death threats?" --- Mukherjee: "Yes. We were denounced from the Sikh temples in big cities in North America, and put under death threat. And I really thought for at least two years that I was going to die a violent death at the hands of these cells." --- Moyers: "These were sleeper cells in Canada?" --- Mukherjee: "Yes. We didn't even know the phrase . . ." --- Moyers: "No." --- Mukherjee: ". . . sleeper cells in those days. And actually, they had been in places like New York and New Jersey, and California, too. But . . ." --- Moyers: "Sikh cells?" --- Mukherjee: "Yes. Doing The Sorrow and the Terror, I discovered very rich ophthalmologists, for example, in American cities who would say, 'Six days of the week, I give to the U.S. government, and I earn a lot of money, and I pay my taxes if I have to. But one day a week I give to Khalistan.' We tracked the money and we zeroed in on the man who financed the bombing. And after, it's taken 15 years for that man to have been detained in a Canadian, a Vancouver jail. And I don't know when the lawsuit will actually be heard in court." --- Moyers: "What did you learn about the mentality of the terrorist?" --- Mukherjee: "Most importantly, I think it was about the fear of the religion in Diaspora. Modernization is what the group of terrorists and fundamentalists, religious fundamentalists, were afraid of. They were afraid that girls, Canadian Sikhs, American Sikhs girls in tight sweaters and boys in fast cars, would somehow not follow the rules that the religion had set, or the society, religious society had set. And that therefore, the religious leaders would lose control." --- Moyers: "That is . . . seems to be such a parallel between what we've learned about the terrorists who . . . the Muslim terrorists who brought down the World Trade Center, attacked the Pentagon, that it was the modernizing of their religion that they most despised the United States for encouraging." --- Mukherjee: "Right. I mean, I sat there in 9/11 watching the two planes hit . . . the second plane hit the World Trade Center buildings, and I said, 'My goodness, this is on a mega-scale, a replication of what we had witnessed, experienced, discovered in the Jun. 1985 terrorist bombing of Air India jet.' And it seems to me, though, that a lot of people don't understand that we have a very different kind of enemy with the fundamentalists than we did during the Cold War. That when the U.S. or the West was fighting the Soviet Union and it's buffer states, satellite states. They were talking the same kind of language. And that the culture of battle between opposition, battle between the West and the Soviet was on a very different plane than what we have with the Islamic fundamentalists, where in addition to this being a great marketing opportunity for the Islamic bosses, the people who believe in Jihad. It's a wholly different language." --- Moyers: "But you take for granted, don't you, because of your previous work, the presence of continuing sleeper cells in America?" --- Mukherjee: "Oh, absolutely, and I think that these sleeper cells are going to proliferate in number and that the hatred, unexamined hatred against Americans and America is going to increase a hundred-fold." --- Moyers: "What does all this do to the new immigrant experience?" --- Mukherjee: "It certainly makes it much harder for my students from Muslim countries at Berkeley for example to feel as though they belong. This is a tilt time in our culture. And it's, you know . . ." --- Moyers: "A tilt time?" --- Mukherjee: "Well, that we don't know what the rules are anymore. We don't know what is ahead of us. There's no pattern, no tradition that we can fall back comfortably on or to comfort us, that we can seize to comfort us. And so as we are improvising rules on how to behave . . ." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here is the link for the transcript for that particular show: http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_mukherjee.html

Here is the article I promised regarding Makindu Gurdvara. It is a bit old and I am embarrased about my poor use of English in some places. Tell me what you think: The Sikh story of Makindu On the Mombassa Road, directly in between the cities of Nairobi and Mombassa lies a Gurdvara that not only is considered an oasis, but also inspires the mind. It has a deep-rooted history in the Sikh Sangat of East Africa (especially Kenya) and on many occasions has been compared to the Golden Temple itself in terms of its serenity. The Gurdvara itself (in a town called Makindu) is situated in a vast expanse, surrounded by nothingness. The story begins between 1897 and 1902 in Kenya. The East African Railway Company and the British (who at the time ruled over East Africa) needed skilled workers to build a railroad starting from Nairobi (at the time, one of the continents major City’s) to Mombassa (which was one the continents major sea-ports) and turned to the Punjabi’s. The Punjabi’s were well known for their excellent work ethic and high levels of skill. The British chose an equal proportion of Sikhs and Muslims and were taken from Punjab to East Africa to build this railroad. The track was to start from Nairobi, but needed a stop at regular intervals of 100 miles; this was due to the fact that contemporary steam engines needed re-fuelling at those specific intervals, also the engines need to be changed. These stops happened to be towns called Makindu and Voi and then on to the final destination of Mombassa. During the period of construction, both groups of workers approached the British Governor (through the East African Railway company) for some space, which could be used for personal prayer. So a piece of land was given to both the Muslims and the Sikhs for establishing a Mosque and a Gurdvara. Land in the town of Makindu was given to both parties’ so that buildings could be built for religious reasons. Both of these separate buildings initially were very humble constructions, consisting of just one room, which could either be used for Islamic prayer or for the prakash of Guru Granth Sahib Ji and daily prayer. Now it is important to add that, although Makindu is considered a town, at the time, it had literally only a handful of people living in it and only one shop. The addition of both the religious structures in Makindu increased the movement of people through it dramatically. After the construction of the railway line was completed, the majority of individuals moved and made their permanent homes in the capital city Nairobi. It was at that time that the Sikh Sangat of Kenya started to hire local African staff to maintain the small Gurdvara in Makindu. Here one particular story of a local worker is very famous. He was paid to clean the place regularly, but did not do so and was very lazy. This laziness continued for a long period of time up until one day. Whilst he was sleeping, he had a dream where Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji came to him and told him that he does not do his duty properly, the worker ignored the dream he had and went about still not completing his tasks properly. Then on a second occasion, he had a very similar dream which on this occasion scared him. On his waking he cleaned all of the Gurdvara and made sure it was absolutely clean. On a rare occasion when a Sikh family happened to be passing through Makindu, the worker approached them and related his story to them and pointed to a painting of Guru Gobind Singh Ji claiming that I have had ‘His Darshan’. When they heard what was said, the Sikh family decided to go to Baba Puran Singh Ji (in the town of Kericho), who they all knew would have answers to their questions. Baba Puran Singh Ji told the Sangat that the area of Kericho was very powerful place and that a Gurdvara had to be maintained there. Up until that point, the Gurdvara had pretty much laid empty. Normally, because of its locality (immediately in between the road running from Nairobi to Mombassa), families would only stop off at Makindu for a break then continue on their journey. It was then at this point that Bhai Basan Singh Ji started travelling to Makindu Gurdvara every week himself to do Sewa. From that point onwards, the Gurdvara itself started to get busier. More and more families would come from surrounding towns and cities to have their Akhand Paths (bringing with them their own rations). At this point there was still no modern conveniences (i.e. no electricity or running water), so people used to do their path by sitting next to lamps and water had to transported in by truck. Large quantities of people started to attend more programmes at the Gurdvara, for that reason, a permanent committee was set up. After that set up the Gurdvara expanded dramatically. As the Gurdvara expanded and grew so did the local farms and businesses too. Sikhs came in and manufactured an entire generator system in the Gurdvara complex, so that it could be supplied with a constant supply of electricity at any time. A well was dug also to allow constant access to clean water. The Gurdvara had become so extensive in its Sewa that it also partially funded a local hospital in Makindu too. The continuous maintenance work carried out on the paintwork and construction work was done by both Hari Singh Bansal and Bawa Singh Bansal respectively and even though it was Sewa, the design work on the main building was of a very intricate nature. Few things have changed in modern day Makindu. The area is still very tranquil, almost oasis like. The beauty of the surrounding areas is almost unmatched anywhere in the world. Its facilities open to the Sangat are very modern and advanced. It has been compared to a lot of the major hotels in Kenya. The main difference is that the Langar is cooked 24 hours a day and that (as in all Gurdvara’s) it is all free. All work done there is done totally by Sewa.

Dear Khalsa Soulja Ji, I never shouted BRAHMINISM regarding Jhoot, what I did say was that it is now showing Brahminical tendencies. If you did take time to read my response properly, you would have read that the whole concept of Jhoot WAS started as a Brahminical ritual. All contemorary historical documents will show you that. Who on Vahigurus earth mentioned anything about sexual relations?! The word Jhoot literally translated means 'to share utensils'. Where does sex come into it?! What reasoning can you see? Because I am confused how that came up to begin with! And for the record, NO-WHERE in the Rahit Maryada is there anything written about Jhoot. I suggest all to look at Section 4, Chapter 6, Article 16 - Beliefs, Observances, Duties, Taboos and Ceremonies and Living in Consonance with Guru’s Tenets. Also, read Section Six, Chapter 13, Article 22 - Panthic (Corporate Sikh) Life and Facets of Corporate Sikh Life. Again, there is absolutely nothing mentioned anywhere in the Rahit Maryada and in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji about Jhoot. Please show me evidence, not opinions.

You should all read the book called 'The English Patient'. Its all based around a Sikh soldier

This concept of Jhoot is very strange as it has developed into its own phenomenom in recent years. Unfortunately, it has begun to show the signs of Brahminism of late. Historically jhoot was NOT about sharing food with a non-Amritdhari person. The original issue of jhoot is actually a ritual one, and it was this that the Guru's forbade all of their Sikhs from. Unfortunately, some Sikhs have hijacked the issue and made it manifest into something completely different. The original ritual was basically linked to caste. Historical documents (especially those by Qazi Noor Mohammed) show how a table was set at meal times, but only Brahmins (who supposedly were of high-caste) were alllowed to approach it and take food from it. When they were finished, they Kshaktriyas (who were supposedly second on the caste social stage) were allowed to approach the table for food. This continued until all food went down to the 'lowest caste'. This was done in the aid of Brahmins so their food would not be 'tarnished' by the lower castes. Again, this is what the Guru's in their infinate wisdom warned us against.

Gur Fateh people, did you all know that the British (whern building new battleships for the Second World War), wanted to name them after warrior races. Three ships were built in total, they were named HMS Zulu, HMS Sikh and HMS Punjab after the land in which they lived.

I have an article I wrote about Makindu Gurdvara a while back. If anyone wants a copy, just mail me and I will send you a copy.