BANGALORE: Guru Nanak's birth anniversary marks the biggest celebrations of Gurupurab for Sikhs across the world. For devotees in Bangalore, Shri
Guru Singh Sabha (gurudwara) on Kensingston Road came alive on Monday with Sikhs offering prayers and meeting community members on this occasion.
The scores of devotees who thronged the gurdwara also included people from other communities. Guru Sabha is one of the biggest shrines in the state. For the last 15 days, early morning prayers were being offered with bhajans and free food -- langar khana -- apart from regular prayers on Wednesdays and Sundays.
Men in bright-coloured pagdis and women decked up like brides poured in throughout the day. For children and students from North India, this was a fun day and a welcome break from books, while the elderly listened to the chantings from the holy Guru Granth Sahib and bhajans sung by musicians from Amritsar. There were several such chanting sessions during the day in addition to lectures on moral behaviour, interspersed with kirtans.
Some devotees also offered shawls for the holy grave and engaged in community service. Holy books, posters of Guru Nanak, kara (swords) and kangra (bangles) were also sold outside the gurudwara.
Langar khana is a tradition where devotees are offered free food. The special delights this year were maa chole ka daal, kheer and halwa, which drew crowds from people across communities. The gurudwara offers this food for free to a good number of poor people.
The evenings were spent at community gatherings, and members had delicious meals at Punjabi restaurants across the city.
with thanks : source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/They-eat-love-and-pray-on-Guru-Nanaks-birthday/articleshow/5190706.cms
SikhsIndia
www.sohnijodi.com
www.sikhsindia.blogspot.com
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/sikhsindia
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Sikhs pay obeisance at Golden Temple
Several Sikhs on Monday paid obeisance in the sanctum sanctorum of Harmandhar Sahib, popularly known as Golden Temple, in Amritsar on the occasion of birth anniversary of founder of Sikhism Guru Nanak Dev.
Devotees queued up to pay obeisance in the sanctum sanctorum of the Golden Temple since morning and at Akal Takht (Highest Sikh Temporal Seat).
Before paying obeisance in the Golden Temple, the devotees took holy dip in the sacred tank of Temple at the marbled periphery with the belief that that holy dip would wash away their all-bad deeds of previous births.
According to the management of Golden Temple, a sum of Rs 1.5 crore has been counted in Amritsar on Monday, which was offered by the Sikh devotees while paying obeisance.
Special arrangements to facilitate the devotees were made by the management of the Golden Temple. Langar Community Kitchen) was cooked for nearly four lakhs devotees.
Heavy task force of Shiromani Gurdwara Pharbandhak Committee (SGPC) was deployed in the periphery of the Golden Temple to provide sense of security in the minds of the visiting devotees.
with thanks : source : http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/punjab/Sikhs-pay-obeisance-at-Golden-Temple/Article1-471941.aspx
SikhsIndia
www.sohnijodi.com
www.sikhsindia.blogspot.com
Devotees queued up to pay obeisance in the sanctum sanctorum of the Golden Temple since morning and at Akal Takht (Highest Sikh Temporal Seat).
Before paying obeisance in the Golden Temple, the devotees took holy dip in the sacred tank of Temple at the marbled periphery with the belief that that holy dip would wash away their all-bad deeds of previous births.
According to the management of Golden Temple, a sum of Rs 1.5 crore has been counted in Amritsar on Monday, which was offered by the Sikh devotees while paying obeisance.
Special arrangements to facilitate the devotees were made by the management of the Golden Temple. Langar Community Kitchen) was cooked for nearly four lakhs devotees.
Heavy task force of Shiromani Gurdwara Pharbandhak Committee (SGPC) was deployed in the periphery of the Golden Temple to provide sense of security in the minds of the visiting devotees.
with thanks : source : http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/punjab/Sikhs-pay-obeisance-at-Golden-Temple/Article1-471941.aspx
SikhsIndia
www.sohnijodi.com
www.sikhsindia.blogspot.com
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Nanak naam jahaz hai, charhe so utre paar
Nanak naam jahaz hai, charhe so utre paar,
Jo sharda kar sevde,gur paar utaran haar.
Aap ji nu, te aap de parivar nu Gurupurab
diyan, lakh lakh vadhaiyan hon ji.
Aap ji da
SikhsIndia
www.sohnijodi.com
www.sikhsindia.blogspot.com
Manmohan a balm, but anger still lingers in Sikhs
Anita Joshua
Twenty five years ago today, the streets of the capital were ablaze as well-armed mobs, with the evident backing of the police and ruling Congress party, exacted a bloody revenge on Delhi’s Sikh community for the assassination of Indira Gandhi by two of her bodyguards.
By the time the powers-that-be decided to restore order, some 4,000 innocent men, women and children had been hunted down and killed.
Two-and-a-half decades later, the system has been relatively generous in handing out cash as compensation for the victims’ families. But of the redemptive currency closest to the hearts of the country’s proud Sikh community -- justice -- there has been precious little.
While the rest of the country has moved on to newer tribulations and tragedies, the absence of justice for the victims of November 1984 has been like a raw wound for most Sikhs.
Unable to have closure the proper way, many in the community have grudgingly seen in the Congress party’s decision to pick Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister a symbolic making of amends. “As a signalling device, it was a useful one for the Congress to have Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister; whatever be the circumstances of his elevation to that office,” said editor of Seminar, Tejbir Singh.
“Somewhere, the fact that a Sikh has become Prime Minister a far-fetched possibility given that the community accounts for only 1.9 per cent of the country’s population -- indicates that there is no underlying community discrimination.”
More so now than in 2004. That the Congress decided to project Dr. Singh as its prime ministerial candidate for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections is seen as an affirmation of confidence in his leadership.
“It has been like a balm on the community,” admits H.S. Phoolka, the lawyer who has been pursuing the carnage cases in court. At the same time, he points to the selective amnesia in the Congress on the issue of the party’s complicity in the Sikh carnage.
“The Congress wants us to forget it; view it as an aberration. When they made Manmohan Singh Prime Minister, they stepped up this rhetoric; saying, ‘forget it now at least we have apologised and now made your man the Prime Minister. Our answer has been that the apology came 21 years late and under the Indian legal system an apology is not a substitute for punishment for murder. We want justice.”
Ever in denial mode, the Congress insists the Sikhs have moved on since 1984 and made peace with the party; having elected it to power in Punjab in between. “We are sensitive to the sentiments of Sikhs which is why we dropped Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler when there were protests from within the community against their candidature for the Lok Sabha elections,” is the Congress refrain.
However, for Tejbir Singh, these protests particularly, the incident involving journalist Jarnail Singh throwing a shoe at Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram are evidence that the issue is easy to rekindle.
with thanks : source : http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article41569.ece
SikhsIndia
www.sohnijodi.com
www.sikhsindia.blogspot.com
Anti-Sikh riots: Court allows examination of Tytler CD
By IANS
October 31st, 2009
NEW DELHI - A city court Saturday allowed the counsel of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots victims to examine the CD in which Congress leader Jagdish Tytler has been shown standing next to the body of former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rakesh Pandit asked the counsel for the victims’ association to examine the eight CDs in the court Nov 16.
Said H.S. Phulka, counsel of the victim’s association: “The day and the time was not mentioned in all the CDs.”
The persons who were seen in the CD like R.K. Dhawan (Indira Gandhi’s secretary), Amitabh Bachchan (Bollywood star and close friend of the family) and some other senior political leaders were not examined by the investigation officer in the case. The entire CD looks fishy, Phulka told IANS.
In the morning, the 18-minute CD was shown in the chamber of the judge in the presence of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials, Phulka and his team of lawyers.
The court has now fixed the next hearing for further arguments Dec 1.
The CBI had, in the last hearing, said the witnesses, who deposed about the alleged role of Tytler in the anti-Sikh riots, were “not reliable”.
But recently another witness Jasbir Singh had said that Tytler, along with others, was involved in the attack at Gurdwara Pul Bangash in north Delhi and killed Thakur Singh and Badal Singh.
The probe agency will Saturday continue its argument on the version given by Jasbir Singh.
The CBI had last month during the hearing also placed before the court audiovisual evidence showing that Tytler was near the body of assassinated prime minister Indira Gandhi at the time the murders of Thakur Singh and Badal Singh are alleged to have taken place.
Over 3,000 Sikhs were killed in the riots in various cities following the assassination of Indira Gandhi Oct 31, 1984.
with thanks : source : http://blog.taragana.com/law/2009/10/31/anti-sikh-riots-court-allows-examination-of-tytler-cd-15719/
SikhsIndia
www.sohnijodi.com
www.sikhsindia.blogspot.com
October 31st, 2009
NEW DELHI - A city court Saturday allowed the counsel of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots victims to examine the CD in which Congress leader Jagdish Tytler has been shown standing next to the body of former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rakesh Pandit asked the counsel for the victims’ association to examine the eight CDs in the court Nov 16.
Said H.S. Phulka, counsel of the victim’s association: “The day and the time was not mentioned in all the CDs.”
The persons who were seen in the CD like R.K. Dhawan (Indira Gandhi’s secretary), Amitabh Bachchan (Bollywood star and close friend of the family) and some other senior political leaders were not examined by the investigation officer in the case. The entire CD looks fishy, Phulka told IANS.
In the morning, the 18-minute CD was shown in the chamber of the judge in the presence of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials, Phulka and his team of lawyers.
The court has now fixed the next hearing for further arguments Dec 1.
The CBI had, in the last hearing, said the witnesses, who deposed about the alleged role of Tytler in the anti-Sikh riots, were “not reliable”.
But recently another witness Jasbir Singh had said that Tytler, along with others, was involved in the attack at Gurdwara Pul Bangash in north Delhi and killed Thakur Singh and Badal Singh.
The probe agency will Saturday continue its argument on the version given by Jasbir Singh.
The CBI had last month during the hearing also placed before the court audiovisual evidence showing that Tytler was near the body of assassinated prime minister Indira Gandhi at the time the murders of Thakur Singh and Badal Singh are alleged to have taken place.
Over 3,000 Sikhs were killed in the riots in various cities following the assassination of Indira Gandhi Oct 31, 1984.
with thanks : source : http://blog.taragana.com/law/2009/10/31/anti-sikh-riots-court-allows-examination-of-tytler-cd-15719/
SikhsIndia
www.sohnijodi.com
www.sikhsindia.blogspot.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
