There are according to our vantage point many different views of the health or otherwise of the U.K. Sikh community. If for example one were to go to the Central Gurdwara at Shepherds Bush in London on a Sunday evening the overwhelming impression would be one of well-being. A beautiful Gurdwara filled with well-dressed gursikhs listening attentively to melodious kirtan. A closer examination of the congregation however would reveal a near total absence of Sikh teenagers particularly boys. We have to ask where and why the missing generation?
Southall probably has greater concentration of Sikhs than any other part of Britain. One school at which I was asked to speak had about 95% of its pupils from Sikh families yet there was hardly a turban in sight. Similarly visitors to many of our Gurdwara’s throughout the country will see not only many in the congregation without turbans and beards but also members of the managing committee without any visible symbol of Sikh identity.
The slide from Sikh values is illustrated by another example. Asked to contribute an article to a Gurdwara magazine found my contribution sandwiched between adverts for alcohol and tobacco!
Would-be political leaders of the community are also contributing to a general moving away from Sikh values by using the cruel suffering of our brothers and sisters in Punjab at the hands of police and paramilitary to further their own petty ambitions. As a result many Gurdwara’s are racked in debilitating in-fighting to the total neglect of their duty to their congregation and to the wider Sikh community both here and abroad.
To complete the picture of a community moving further and further from the Guru’s teachings many other Gurdwara’s are virtually in the hands of ‘sants’ so called holy men who prey on the naive with claims of special insights denied to ordinary mortals. Rituals derived from Hinduism and un-Sikh like practices are peddled as short cuts to the Guru’s teachings.
An overview of this drift from the Guru’s teachings shows that though many Sikhs remain true to the message of Sikhism many more are merely floating in a tide of Sikh or Punjabi culture without any real understanding of our commitment to Sikh ideals quite oblivious to the currents of compromise and fashion than carrying them and worse their children even further from Sikh teachings.
This gloomy scenario becomes even more disturbing when viewed through the eyes of young Sikhs. They see a distorted picture of Sikhism that is far removed from the Guru’s teachings; a picture that is a reflection of lack of commitment and lifestyle dedicated almost exclusively to the pursuit of material happiness with just a touch of the trappings of Sikhism thrown in for ‘balance’. Adolescence is a time when the young question the values of their parents and assert their own individuality. Quick to see the inadequacy of this distorted reflection of their faith they are reluctant to go to the Gurdwara and move even further from the Sikh way of life.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 8, 1991
