GURDWARA AND NEWSPAPERS

[GABROO KHALISTAN DAH]

is that the guru nanak temple by delta shoppers mall chamkilla?

[chamkila]

No this Gurdware is in London UK, and is very well know for this stuff they have been in and out of courts since I can remember.

[IWannaBeAGurSikh]

This might sound harsh but I feel in the UK we have an over abundance of Gurdwara Sahibs. This creates an unnecessary competitive environment, like a retail business environment. Places like Southall and Coventry have in the region of 5 to 7 Gurdwara's all of which are a stone throw away from each other. In some of these Gurdwara complexes you can literally see the nishan sahib of the other Gurdwara.

I understand we have a big sangat in the UK, but out of this sangat what % are really active Gurmukhs. Is it a real necessity to have a Singh Sabha, a Ramgharia, a Ravidassi, a 'Santa da Gurdwara' etc. in every Sikh populated town in the UK. Some small towns have about 20 Sikh families residing there and even they have at least 2 Gurdwara sahibs serving the sangat, probably within a mile radius of each other

We even see Gurdwara Sahibs arranging their own Nagar kirtans during different times of the year to compete with each other. Coventry used to do this, there would be one in Vasakhi, one on Guru Nanak Devji’s Gurpurb and one on Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s Gurpurb. Each nagar kirtan was organised by a separate Gurdwara committee. You could see that the sangat turnout was based on their affiliation to the Gurdwara that they attended and supported, not to the khalsa panth. This seemed to lead to smaller turnouts that what it would be if there was one annual Nagar Kirtan.

When you read Bhai Rama Singh’s autobiography, which shows a brief the history of Sikhi in the UK, you read and appreciate how much the sangat in the early days struggled to have diwans. Diwans and even Amrit Sanchars were sometimes held in peoples houses. There was an element of quality and

appreciation of Sikhi. People were prepared to travel for miles for the Guru’s darshan, to listen to Gurbani and to sit in the Sadh Sangat, something we seem to be slowly forgetting as today we take the existence Gurdwaras’ for granted.