1984 Rally - Improvements For 2012

[Paneer Monster 236]

vaheguru ji ka khalsa vaheguru ji ki fateh

the turnout this year was amazing in comparison to other years, I and others felt very proud of the Uk sangat... the sangat protesting from hyde park was huge... after trafalgar sq filled up, there was still sangat pouring in from piccadilly circus. there was tonnes of orange about - it really was an amazing sight.

below are simple things that can improve the quality and impact for 2012

- at hyde park sangat could be doing path whilst waiting for sangat and coaches to arrive

- during the march, it is great sangat are chanting "raj kare ga khalsa, "panth ki jeet, khalistan zindabad" etc but there should have been more slogans in English informing the public why we are there and what we are doing. there was some english slogans being shouted, but from my observations these were few and far apart.

-i think rather then chanting "indian gvt terrorists" and "never forget 84" Sikhs should spell it out a little more clearly... some good slogans being shouted were "India stop killing Sikhs" and "Sikhs want justice for 1984"… I think this spells out our message quite clearly.

- there seemed to be a very limited amount of banners and things for the sangat to hold

- at trafalgar square the some of the speakers (i have deliberately not mentioned any names) seemed bored, and there tone in general was very mono... this is not good when addressing crowds of thousands.

-the videos should have been more interactive. there should be more English speeches / or translators for some of the strong Punjabi speakers. This would educate the wider society and make them more likely to listen if they can understand

- there should be subtitles on the big screen whenever possible when punjabi is being spoken

I met a lot of amazing sangat today who had immense pyar for the quam and the movement. maximum respect to the organisers, all elders, sangat and any other persons who participated.

bhul chuk maaf

vaheguru ji ka khalsa vaheguru ji ki fateh

[Southall Youth 1]

Banners were quite weak this year ,we need to go more on the lines of those on the 25th anniversary ,and plan well in advance by laying them all out on the grass like we used to.Every Gurdwara has to make sure they all have back up coaches what happened in places like Southall and especially Slough was that people got late or either left behind or arrived half way through - planning needs to be improved - so we can leave on time from Hyde Park!

Recordings of every major speech made at this years rally should be uploaded to youtube so we can continue our campaign ,as of now we either have to use mobile phone footage or old footage of previous rallies - for promos and educational videos.Maybe an official DVD could be released by neverforget84.com of the rally speeches.

Some speakers did go off topic in the Square - ie of the Freedom and Remembrance issue - we should always make sure we relate the Gurbani to the event so its easily understood by newcomers to the rally.

All in all base it more on the 25th anniversary rally black flags coffins and so on,Nishan Sahibs looked brilliant need a sea of them as well next year!

[Balait_da_Sher 202]

You forgot the toilet issue, there needs to be better management with regards to access to toilets. It wasn't nice raiding toilets of commercial business.

[PunjabiPredator 2]

vaheguru ji ka khalsa vaheguru ji ki fateh

the turnout this year was amazing in comparison to other years, I and others felt very proud of the Uk sangat... the sangat protesting from hyde park was huge... after trafalgar sq filled up, there was still sangat pouring in from piccadilly circus. there was tonnes of orange about - it really was an amazing sight.

below are simple things that can improve the quality and impact for 2012

- at hyde park sangat could be doing path whilst waiting for sangat and coaches to arrive

- during the march, it is great sangat are chanting "raj kare ga khalsa, "panth ki jeet, khalistan zindabad" etc but there should have been more slogans in English informing the public why we are there and what we are doing. there was some english slogans being shouted, but from my observations these were few and far apart.

-i think rather then chanting "indian gvt terrorists" and "never forget 84" Sikhs should spell it out a little more clearly... some good slogans being shouted were "India stop killing Sikhs" and "Sikhs want justice for 1984"… I think this spells out our message quite clearly.

- there seemed to be a very limited amount of banners and things for the sangat to hold

- at trafalgar square the some of the speakers (i have deliberately not mentioned any names) seemed bored, and there tone in general was very mono... this is not good when addressing crowds of thousands.

-the videos should have been more interactive. there should be more English speeches / or translators for some of the strong Punjabi speakers. This would educate the wider society and make them more likely to listen if they can understand

- there should be subtitles on the big screen whenever possible when punjabi is being spoken

I met a lot of amazing sangat today who had immense pyar for the quam and the movement. maximum respect to the organisers, all elders, sangat and any other persons who participated.

bhul chuk maaf

vaheguru ji ka khalsa vaheguru ji ki fateh

My suggestion is get all the sikh channels in UK involved and get them to hype up the event before the rally and then have them at the event and show it on there channels. If we want to create awareness we need to do not just the event but a big publicity stunt. You are right as well you guys need more english translators or speakers. I live in USA and here we have on Vasakhi people telling what we are doing to people who don't know anything in English and letting them know and handing out refreshments and information. You guys should do the same in UK maybe hand out refreshments to non sikhs who seem interested to know whats going on that way people will take interest that are none sikh and will spread the word. Oh yeah and come out with some type of leaflets that will talk about what happened and give those to any people who do not know what we are protesting about.

[Sukhmanii 16]

Agreed... there need to be loud, clear speeches in English, and the chants need to be in English in order to inform those who don't know what's going on. I was asked by someone if we were having a celebration. Fair enough that the majority of people amongst our crowd understand Punjabi easily, but I thought the aim was to inform bystanders rather than to confuse them lol.

Other than that, we should have constant chanting/ shouting through the whole crowd... I noticed there were some people shouting, and doing naam simran, while a fair few amount of people were just chatting as they walked along.

[Khalasthan86 138]

Personal Thoughts:

Discipline — This is very important: Loads of Sangat was walking on the pavement, whereas we are supposed to walk on the road,

this caused the pedestrians inconvience, as they had to wait, barge through the sangat.

Despite telling the sangat, in English and Panjabi, they still don't listen... Are we giving out a good image?

Coaches — Advise the coach driver to try to park the coach nearest e.g. If in the coach there is more Bibiya/children, try to park the coach

nearest. If there is Youth / Teenagers, we don't mind if you park the coach further for the elderly sangat to have ease of access to the coach.

Speak English — Our target audience is the average-English-speaking citizen. So do English slogans.

Distribute basic info leaflets — Distribute A5 leaflets about what injustices India inflicts upon the Sikhs.

[Paneer Monster 236]

more literature needs to be distributed.....

coaches need to be better organised... i didnt use any coaches to atend but the feedback i heard from sangat regarding coaches was pretty bad..... COACHES should BE AT HYDE PARK FOR 10AM.........sall sangat should be at HYDE PARK for 10am....

the punjabi speaches should be in hyde park addressing the sangat.... all speaches in trafalgar square should be in english or translated.

further.... coach seats should be pre booked in ALL GURDWARAE... instances where sangat reserved seats and then dont turn up should be followed up whenever possible. also sangat need to arive ontime to be picked up at their local gurdwara. perhaps sikh federation ukshould draw up a guidline detailing protocols gurdwaras may wish to follow regarding coaches.

another thought, dont know if sangat would agree... i think slogans like "intian government terrorist terrorrist" dont do sikhs much justice. it too <banned word filter activated> for tat.... we should really spell itout that india are killing sikhs... we need more slogans on the lines of "sikhs want justice for 84", "india prides on sikh genocides" "india stop killing sikhs" etc.

how can the presentations in trafalgar square be improved / made more interactive? in my opinion, a couple of the speaches lacked passion - (i could be wrong). if the speaker isnt going to feel passion for the movement, then neither are the sangat or public.

[Khalasthan86 138]

more literature needs to me distributed.....

coaches need to be better organised... i didnt use any coaches to atend but the feedback i heard from sangat regarding coaches was pretty bad..... COACHES should BE AT HYDE PARK FOR !0AM.........sall sangat should be at HYDE PARK for 10am....

the punjabi speaches should be in hyde park addressing the sangat.... all speaches in trafalgar square should be in english or translated.

further.... coach seats should be pre booked in ALL GURDWARAE... instances where sangat reserved seats and then dont turn up should be followed up whenever possible. also sangat need to arive ontime to be picked up at their local gurdwara. perhaps sikh federation ukshould draw up a guidline detailing protocols gurdwaras may wish to follow regarding coaches.

another thought, dont know if sangat would agree... i think slogans like "intian government terrorist terrorrist" dont do sikhs much justice. it too <banned word filter activated> for tat.... we should really spell itout that india are killing sikhs... we need more slogans on the lines of "sikhs want justice for 84", "india prides on sikh genocides" "india stop killing sikhs" etc.

how can the presentations in trafalgar square be improved / made more interactive? in my opinion, a couple of the speaches lacked passion - (i could be wrong). if the speaker isnt going to feel passion for the movement, then neither are the sangat or public.

I agree more literature should be distributed, with quality.

Every one should be on time, this is responsbility of the Gurughar Commiteea.

With the Trafalgar Square, try to keep everything to English, since that's our target audience.

[punjabking 3]

lol raiding commerical business. They should do India styleee in Hyde Park with a leaf in hand lol.

[Into the Light 149]

Definitely more English speaking in Trafalgar square.

The demographics of those attending is changing year on year with this year having the most amount of youth attendance...amny are new to Sikhi and don't always have a firm grasp of Panjabi. So while majority can speak alittle bit of Panjabi but not enough to grasp a detailed talk in Panjabi. I spoke to alot of the youth and they felt that they didn't really understand what was said but had come to the rally to learn about what happened.

So when thinking about reaching out to the non-Sikhs by having speeches in English...pls don't forget our own youth who too require English speeches and they too are coming to learn.

Overall...yesterday was amazing!!

[PAL 07 210]

everyone must wear kesri dastaar, dupatta, etc those that do not have these should be provided this from their local Gurdwara free of charge

[punjabking 3]

*Edited*

[Kharkooartsy 57]

veerji ignore comments you dont like. you dont have to pick a fight on every discussion. we dont know who has enough kirpa to fight for panth.. do you? do i? we dont know...!! there is nothing wrong with conversing in english and there is nothing wrong with being pendhu..

people that think they are too good for "fobs" are wrong and people that think they are better than those conversing in english are wrong as well!!

we need to be open mided and bring out issues that affect our panth and collectively DO something about those issues!! in order to collectively do something about those issues we need to stand together and i am sure thats not going to happen by fighting over small things..!!

[mundasingh123 9]

@punjabking Did u say something that was edited by the Mod

[mundasingh123 9]

*Edited*

You guys are hypocrites who walk about pretending to espouse values that recognize appreciation and understanding of other people (brethren is a forgotten word ) I wasnt there when you posted something .