LEAMINGTON SPA, UK—There has been an uproar over the plans of building a wedding and party hall near the Leamington Spa Gurdwara Sahib (UK) by it’s previous General Secretary. Over the past week, hundreds of social media messages have been posted against the committee members, urging them to halt their proposed plans. The ex-committee member plans to build a party hall on existing Gurdwara grounds.
Hundreds of Sikhs across the UK and globally reacted when the Warwick district council reported that the application notice was issued in May for the proposed party hall. The council has since also received complaints from local residents. Local Sikhs have also begun to express disappointment and have begun seeking legal advice to oppose the plans.
Even though it is becoming widely accepted that loud and boisterous parties upon Gurdwara owned property is contrary to the serene and peaceful atmosphere that a Gurdwara Sahib ought to emit, this Gurdwara Sahib’s executives appear to be going against the grain yet again.
The same committee have already sparked upsets twice before as they initially attempted to change the Gurdwara Sahib’s constitution to allow for a more dictatorial leadership approach. Later in 2014, they tried to convert part of their car park to a sports and leisure club (including an alcohol bar), which was immediately opposed by the locally residing sangat. This plan was again submitted in a different form in 2015.
On Twitter, two hashtags #SharabiKebabiCommittee #RemoveDodgyCommittee have been used widely against the committee members. “Learn a basic bit of Sikhi & Respect. Even in Holy city of Amritsar the @pizzahut is vegetarian,” tweeted Vikram Singh (@Vik_81). Another user with the handle @harsimrenjeetS posted about the urgency of the matter, “have no time to turn a blind eye. We need to stop beadbi in leminghton gurdwara.”
Similar messages were also seen posted on Facebook.
Sikh24 has learned from the Warwick district council that it has registered five complaints from local residents alone. It is understood that the local sangat is beginning to galvanize and the numbers of complaints will be rising sharply.
Leamington & Warwick Gurdwara has also come under scrutiny of the wider Sangat for conducting Anand Karajs of couples who do not profess the Sikh religion, despite going against the Sikh Rehat Maryada and Sandesh of Sri Akal Takht. As a consequence of the majority of Gurdwaras in UK complying to the edicts of Akal Takht Sahib and respecting the Sikh Rehat Maryada, some Gurdwara committees have started a black market for Sikh marriages of those who don’t believe or accept Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji as Guru and charging couples more than the usual rate for getting married in a Gurdwara.
Bhai Ji Jagdeesh Singh – great summing up of the UK Gurdwaras! My thoughts are exactly the same. I have just heard that someone inviting relatives after the baby’s birth for and called it a ‘pink ladoo paath’ I felt deeply hurt to hear this…………. what’s next?
The hard and harsh fact is that, these open and flagrant breaches of Sikhi ethics by gurdwara committees, similar to the notoriouis and infamous mahants of the past, has become mainstream and normalised behaviour by them. There is no democracy in gurdwara management. 80% of UK gurdwaras have long, simply become money making machines, and no more than social clubs for people to meet, eat, have a wedding, a party, etc. This is a tragic reflection and confirmation of the rot within our very community. As gurbani vividly states, they are the frogs who come without regard to the sikhi purpose and spirit of a gurdwara. After performing their ritualistic ‘book bowing worship’ and grabbing some sweet karah parshad, and lots of juicy langar, they go off back into their privatised lives – shopping, football, consumerism, online games, gossip, wedding glitz and glamour. For the few lotus flower spirits, the Guru Granth Sahib is not a book to worshipped in a religiousfied manner. The Guru Granth is a living, active word which exists and motivates and mobillies the few and far between to help the poor, help animals, care for the planet earth, help oppressed people, try and change the world into a better, progressive place. No UK gurdwara covers these real life issues, which are global issues affecting the planet and humanity. Instead, the gurdwara committees want only stale, Indianistic parcharaks, who give out their crude, irrelevant, convoluted diatribe about ‘sachkand’ and ‘karam’ and ‘naam japna’. Nothing relevant to living life in the thick of economic struggle, discrimination, poverty, animal cruelty, forced marriages, destruction and wasteful misuse of the planet. The Guru Granth Sahib and the connected lives of the Ten Gurus inspire and speak to us on each and more of these living topics. The apathetic and insidious committees, want us to simply feed their greedy ‘golaks’ with more and more heavy ‘donations’ which they can use and misuse as they please. The entire gurdwara establishment is becoming a more and more corruption ridden irrelevance to our daily, living lives. Like the churches, in another 2-3 generations in the UK, they will become financially unsustainable and will be on the brink of closure. Gurdwara committees are coming up with every more innovative ways of attracting money, from new forms of convoluted ‘paaths’ to having multiple ‘Guru Granth Sahibs’ placed side by side in darbaar halls, with a special, individualised ‘paath’ being done for every tom, dick and harry who is prepared to pay god for a special seat in sachkand. A total and utter sham!!!! Waheguru!!! As the Sikhs are stuck in their insular gurdwaras, the world is passing them by. Why are there not more Sikhs globally. Because Sikhs have acutely failed to reach out to the wider world with an active message of justice, equality and inclusion. Plain and simple! Communities who wish to live happily like frogs in a pond, are entitled to that self-existence! They should not then expect things to change for them around the world.
Disgraceful of the Committee – Leamington Spa Gurdwara Committee is known for such wrong doing and going against the Sikh Maryada. Marriage and all they should all be banned – surprisingly the Akal Takhat has not condemned such act. Respect to Sikh Sangat for raising their voice against such acts.