Sikhs India - Online Sikh News Channel

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Kartarpur Sikh Pasage: Pak yes to corridor

Islamabad, Pakistan: Pakistan has offered to set up a special corridor for Sikh pilgrims to visit Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib, barely 3 km from the border, a senior official has said.

Pakistan is ready for talks with India to create such a special corridor for a safe passage for pilgrims, Syed Asif Hashmi, chief of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) that is responsible for maintaining shrines of minority communities in Pakistan, told reporters at Hasanabdal on Friday.

Organisations representing Punjabi Sikhs have been demanding the establishment of a passport and visa-free passage between Dera Baba Nanak on the Indian side and Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan’s Narowal district.

According to Sikh history, Guru Nanak Dev Ji spent 17 years at the site where Gurdwara Kartarpur is situated.

Hashmi also said the ETPB has spent more than Rs 400 million for the upkeep, maintenance and improvement of facilities at gurdwaras to make visits by Sikh pilgrims comfortable.

A 500-gallon water tank has been constructed at Nankana Sahib and 20 washrooms have been established at Dera Sahib, Kartarpur and Sacha Saoda.

Work on Dewan Hall in Kartarpura temple will begin during the next fiscal year, he said. More than 100 Indian Sikhs have arrived for a visit to Gurdwara Punja Sahib to participate in religious rituals. They are on a 10-day pilgrimage in connection with a function marking the death anniversary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

ETPB Deputy Secretary (Shrines) Syed Faraz Abbas said the Sikhs are being provided foolproof security during their stay in Pakistan.

with thanks : sikhsangat : link above.

1984 riot case: Sajjan's aide pleades innocence

New Delhi: A former MLA, facing trial along with Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case relating to killing of six persons in Delhi Cantonment area, on Friday claimed innocence before a city court saying it was a conspiracy to ruin his political career.

"I was not involved in the 1984 riots. It was a conspiracy to tarnish my image and political career," Mahender Yadav, who is an aide of Sajjan, told Additional Sessions Judge Sunita Gupta.

Yadav claimed he was not involved in any manner in the riots and he had already been acquitted by a city court earlier in another 1984 riot related case.

with thanks : IBNLive : link above.

The forgotten history of Sikh troops in China

Excerpts :

Sikh regiments made their way to the foreign quarter “crawling through the Imperial sewage canals”, undetected by the Boxers, and were the first troops to come to the aid of the besieged foreigners.

The lifting of the siege was one of only several key instances where Indian troops left an unlikely mark on the course of Chinese history in the early twentieth century.

On August 4, 1900, a relief force of more than 3000 soldiers from Sikh and Punjabi regiments left Tianjin, part of the larger eight-nation alliance that was dispatched to aid the besieged quarter, where 11 countries had set up legations. Sikh troops were also dispatched to guard churches and Christian missionaries, the targets of the Boxer uprisings.

Among the Indians, there was sympathy for the Boxers, Colonel Jaishankar said. Gaddhar Singh, a Rajput who was in Beijing in 1900-01, empathised with Chinese grievances in his accounts, arguing it was an entirely justified peasant rebellion.

The British also dispatched Indian regiments to China leading up towards the Opium War, which ended with the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 and the opening up of Chinese ports to the British.

The British deployed Sikh soldiers as law enforcement officers in ports like Shanghai, where their trading companies had set up a large presence by the early twentieth century. The Sikh soldiers were feared by the Chinese with their imposing figures, so much so that the British deemed that they did not even need guns when on duty, Colonel Jaishankar said, citing records from the time.

The history of Indian and Sikh troops in China is one that is ignored in Chinese accounts, and is likely a sensitive legacy considering they were often deployed against the Chinese.

with thanks : sikhsangat : link above

Sikh Gurudwara Attacked in Australia

Victoria, Australia (CHAKRA) - After a hate crime against a gurudwara in the state of Victoria in Australia, the Sikh community has appealed for security, fearing that further attacks will take place against the minority community in the area. Sikhs from Shepparton, Northern Victoria have appealed to the assailants, that their place of worship be left alone.

A local Sikh, Kuldeep Singh said that he thinks the vandalism could have partly been done due to racism but he does not know or understand why anyone would want to put the Sikh community to harm.

After various incidents of vandalism at the Gurudwara in addition to a car smashing into the fence surrounding it, security has been upgraded to surveil the area. The Sikh community is both surprised and hurt by these acts of vandalism and hope that their pleas for peace will not go unnoticed and ignored completely by other nearby dwellers.

Singh said that the Sikh community is hard working and very good to others around them. He further stated that his community’s belief in God should not be a reason for such consequences.

On another note, a Sikh boy, in Grade 11, attending a Christian school in Melbourne, was forced to shave off his beard if he wanted to continue attending the school, according to Harkirat Singh, a member of the Sikh Federation of Australia. The Indian community surrounding the school is outraged and greatly upset with the mockery of a symbol of the Sikh religion. They accused the school and board of institutionalized religious discrimination.

Over the last few years, in Australia, more than 100 incidents including those of hatred and racism have occurred. Various organizations have formed such as the National Council of Indian Australians, in response to the hate crimes. These groups hope to come together to raise awareness of the Indian religions so that incidents of such a nature disappear altogether.

with thanks : ChakraNews : link above.