Sikhs , Can We Do Anything?

[B4ND4]

we are all good with making posts here on the forum but how many of us are actually capabale of going there?? Its so easy to type a few motivational posts but are these posts having a positive impact on the writers, let alone inspire others.

Sacrifice folks..how many of us can??

[anhad]

When was Sikhism ever related to wealth?? No matter what ur income you can still do seva and serve god.. take Bhagat Puran Singh for instance!!

[dalsingh101]

I'm sure a few of us have land and money linked to our families back home. How much of that do you see used for anything really noble?

Plus, SGPC, isn't exactly short of a few bob. Last I heard some Scottish Sikhs were doing something to help these lot but what about the rich lot back home?

[Guest Dancing Warrior]

we are all good with making posts here on the forum but how many of us are actually capabale of going there?? Its so easy to type a few motivational posts but are these posts having a positive impact on the writers, let alone inspire others.

Sacrifice folks..how many of us can??

Exactly

B4nd4 hit the nail on the head, take each one of us and the way our lives are constructed, the way our thinking has developed ; we’re comfortable with our fat backsides with our mercs, and our detached houses. Detached from reality living the drama of illusion.

It takes just one conscious decision, just one, for one person no to status, caste, creed. To me a Sikh is some who despite all their hardship never gave up loyalty to their guru, these people are good and true. I would be honoured to know, sit, share and eat with such beautiful Sikhs of the Guru.

Its doesn’t take great scriptures, holy books, temples and churches. Just Humanity, Love and Commonsense.

[proactive]

A project by Sikhgiving would be a good idea. There are many Sikhs working in this area so the lack is not of volunteers by funds. Originally some work was done amongst these people by the Nankana Sahib estate prior to 1947. Scottish Sikh Council has been working with them recently and helped finance the building of Gurdwaras in their villages.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/avtar.singh53/

Local organisations working with them are Gurmat Mission, Karnataka Sikh Welfare Association etc.

Vanjaras and Sikligars are not the only communities out there that have a connection with Sikhism and need work to strengthen their links with the Sikh mainstream. Below is an articles that lists some of the other tribes.

==============

Pachhada Sikhs

There are about 400,000 Pachhadas inhabiting mostly the western districts of Uttar Pradesh. Their greatest numbers are in the Moradabad district where some 785 villages are mostly populated by them. They belong to the Jat caste and are differentiated from the Hindu Jats of western U.P. by their names 'Pachhade' ( from the west ) Jats as opposed to the Hindu Jats who are called Deswali ( of this land ) Jats. Their name is a clue to their origins. According to the author of the Gazetteer of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh ( present U.P ) writing in 1878 these tribes migrated about a hundred years ago into their present areas and settled there. The author also remarks that the language spoken by them is Punjabi and not Hindi. Although the Pachhadas claim that their ancestors came to U.P. during Banda Singh Bahadur's assault on the Mughal power at Saharanpur in 1711, it is possible that given the approximate date given by the Gazetteer that these Sikhs might have migrated during the great famine of 1783, the so-called Chalisa ( 1783 AD was 1840 in Bikrami calendar ). Whatever their date of settlement they are certainly the descendants of Sikhs. Although they do not keep the 5 K's, they like the Banjaras use the Guru Granth Sahib in their ceremonies. During the 1920's and 1930's there was a great desire amongst them to be accepted as Sikhs and between the 1921 and 1931 census the number of Sikhs in the Moradabad jumped from a mere 231 to 20631 due to the Pachhadas of moradabad registering themselves as Sikhs. Unfortunately these Pachhadas reverted back to Hinduism after 1947. Since the 1930's the U.P. Sikh Mission in active in these areas and there has been some success with regard to their reversion back to Sikhism.

The Agheri of Sesaram, Bihar

These Sikhs are the descendents of the sikh traders who moved from the punjab along the north indian trade routes into UP and bihar during the 1600's. They style themselves as Chacha Phaggu Mal ki sangat, after their ancestor Chacha Phaggu Mal who was the leader of the Sikh sangat at Sesaram during the visit of Guru Tegh Bahadur to the east. They number over a couple of thousands and although they seem to have adopted some hindu rituals and usages yet they are still distinguishable from the native biharis of sesaram.

Banjaras of Northern India

This tribe is racially the same as the Vanjaras, or Lambadis or southern india and mainly inhabits the western districts of UP ( Rampur, Bijnor and Saharanpur ) and the eastern districts of Rajasthan ( Alwar and Bharatpur ). In uttar pradesh the UP Sikh mission at Hapur has been actively bringing a great number of these people back into mainstream Sikhism. Many banjaras now work as Granthis, Pathis and Ragis in Gurdwaras in their villages. Thorough the SGPC about 30 Gurdwaras have been built in their villages. The Delhi Gurdwara parbandhak committee has a missionary centre at Kishangarh in Alwar district which is also active amongst the Banjaras. The Banjaras of these parts were active in supplying the army of Banda Singh Bahadur during his campaigns in both punjab, haryana and in UP.

Sindhis

There was a time when to be a non-muslim sindhi was synonomous with being a sehajdhari sikh. During the first decades of this century the Chief Khalsa Diwan of Amritsar sent out missionary groups once a year to Sindh to work amongst the sehajdhari sindhis. Over a period of 30 years with scarce resources this missionary activity resulted in a increase from 1000 keshdhari sindhis in 1901 to over 39,000 in 1941. The bond of the sehajdhari sindhis with sikhism is legendary. Like the Sikhs in Punjab the sehajdhari sikhs of sindhi also left behind their homeland and are now dispersed all over india and abroad. There are about 1.9 million sindhis in Sindh province of pakistan and about 2.5 million in india. Their main pilgrimage centres are Nankana Sahib and Dehra Sahib in Pakistani punjab and Sadh Bela near sukkur in Sindh. Sadh Bela is an udasi shrine built in 1823.

Sikhs of tripura

There are about 150 families of sehajdhari sikhs in Tripura state of north eastern india. They are the descendents of 70 odd sikh soldiers sent by Guru Gobind Singh to accompany Raja Ratan Rai when he visited the Guru at Anandpur sahib.

Sikhs around delhi

In 1991 i read an interview of Giani Gurdit Singh of the Kendri Singh Sabha in the sabha's magazine Singh Sabha Patrika. He said that during the time of the sikh assault on delhi in 1781 many sikhs and their families settled in about 125 villages around delhi. He said that with the help of the Kendri Singh Sabha these sikhs are now becoming reacquainted with their sikh heritage and religion.

============

[Harmindersingh]

waheguru ji ka khalsa

waheguru ji ki fateh

Its great to see someone raise this topic here. They are certainly the most deserving of our daswandhs.

I have seen them from very close distance.I was in Bangalore for some time and there an organisation called Karnataka Sikh Welfare Society along with Nishkaam (Delhi) took up this issue and did lot of seva for these sikhs there.They are in southern indian cities like bangalore and elsewhere in karnataka(a south indian state),mysore and across many other places in india.This particular set of sikligars in bangalore were very poor,had kesh,had great respect for sikhi,earned their livelihood by making knifes and other metallic tools but were unaware of a lot of things about sikhi like nitnem,bani,keertan ,maryada etc. But with the great work of these organisations just a little help made their kids come to gurdwara regularly.Now they come to gurdwara every sunday there,do a lot of sewa,their kids do amazing keertan,some kids know lot of banis by heart,they come to attend gurmukhi classes and are catching up with sikhi with great enthusiasm.I saw their lives turning around. They were helped with better homes, some skills trainings etc. And these sikhs themselves offered to pay each rupee spent on them back by working hard as they didnt want to be living on charity.

Those interested in helping in these intiatives can explore on http://www.nishkam.org/sikligare.htm

waheguru ji ka khalsa

waheguru ji ki fateh

[BulldozerWarga$ingh]

The first time i head of Sikligars was like 4-5 years ago on TV - they used to make guns for Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji in the past, until the goverment moved them out of their own remote village (near Patana i think, which someone accidently discovered) into punjab somewhere...they had there home-made revolvers, pistols, rifles, knives, kanjars and everything but had to surrender them to the police...

they are very skillfull at metal work and blacksmithing

Maybe they could establish theyre own Shastr or Rifle factory or summin :nihungsmile: