Several thousand Ravidassia Sikhs marched through London on Sunday in protest against the killing of Sant Ramanand by fundamentalist SIkhs in VIenna last month. Although this provoked riots in India, the protest in London was peaceful, and as well as condeming the attack called of an end to caste discrimination by Sikhs which underlies the attack.
Pictures Copyright (C) 2009 Peter Marshall
Pictures Copyright (C) 2009 Peter Marshall
Several thousand Sikhs from the Ravidassia Community around the country (and a group from France) marched through central London on Sunday 13 June, 2009 to the Indian High Commission, calling for an end to all caste-based discrimination.
The Sikh religion has as one of its central tenets that all human beings are equal, made by God from the same clay, and rejects all discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, or gender. One of the earliest expressions of this came from Shri Guru Ravidas Ji, one of a number of Indian holy men whose thoughts were incorporated into the Sikh Holy scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, along with the writings of seven of the ten Sikh living Gurus. The rejection of caste was emphasized in the formation of the Khalsa, where three of the five Panj Piyare came from the so-called 'lower castes'.
Despite the teaching of the Guru Ganth Sahib, caste-awareness has remained strong among many Sikhs, and with it caste discrimination by those who consider themselves higher caste. It remains powerful despite being illegal in modern India, where the former 'lower castes' generally refer to themselves as 'Dalit' but are officially known as 'Scheduled Caste.'
This discrimination within Sikhism meant that many Sikhs were barred from taking part in the running of Gurdwara and were not encouraged to adopt Sikh names or follow some of the Sikh practices. Instead they founded separate Gurdwaras, in what is known as the Ravidassian community. In many towns in the UK you can find both Singh Sabha and Shri Guru Ravidass Gurdwaras (often called Bhawan by the Ravidassia) and many in both consider the other as a separate - if strongly related - sect or religion. There are thought to be around 175,000 Ravidassians in the UK, where there are 21 temples.
But for a few fundamentalist high-caste Sikhs, followers of the Ravidassian tradition are viewed as heretics who commit sacrilege against the Guru Granth Sahib. On Sunday 24 May, a small group of bearded and turbaned men went to the worship at the Sri Guru Ravidass Temple in Vienna, Austria and attacked the two preachers who were visiting from India, Sant Nirajnan Das and Sant Ramanand as well as the other Sikhs in the congregation who leapt to their defence. There were a number of gun shots, wounding both of the preachers. Sant Ramanand, who was the deputy head of the Guru Ravidass Singh Sabha, died a few hours later.
The killing led to violent protests in India, particularly around Jalandhar, where many Dalit Sikhs live, in which a number of people were killed and injured in battles between protesters and police.
In Britain the march in London was a peaceful one, but there was no mistaking the anger that was felt by many at the continuing discrimination. Placards carried by the marchers called for Human Rights, Freedom of Speech and Justice, as well as condemning the assassination of Sant Ramanand and calling for the murderers to be hanged as well as demanding equal rights to worship. Others carried small black pennants in mourning and people signed petitions.
The marchers marched to the Indian High Commission with a petition demanding a full enquiry into the affair and its possible backers in India by the Indian government; they demanded that the killers be extradited to India and face trial there.
The police stopped traffic for the march and encouraged them to keep moving. One man who was handing out leaflets to marchers was led away for questioning and I think searched.
On the Ravidassia UK web site it says "Sat Guru has chosen our generation to bear this burden of freeing our people, so let’s hold our shoulders high and March, in peace but also in protest at this unjustified attack."
A few more pictures on Demotix
http://www.demotix.com/news/sikhs-march-london-against-discrimination
More on My London DIary shortly:
http://mylondondiary.co.uk/2009/06/jun.htm#caste
The Sikh religion has as one of its central tenets that all human beings are equal, made by God from the same clay, and rejects all discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, or gender. One of the earliest expressions of this came from Shri Guru Ravidas Ji, one of a number of Indian holy men whose thoughts were incorporated into the Sikh Holy scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, along with the writings of seven of the ten Sikh living Gurus. The rejection of caste was emphasized in the formation of the Khalsa, where three of the five Panj Piyare came from the so-called 'lower castes'.
Despite the teaching of the Guru Ganth Sahib, caste-awareness has remained strong among many Sikhs, and with it caste discrimination by those who consider themselves higher caste. It remains powerful despite being illegal in modern India, where the former 'lower castes' generally refer to themselves as 'Dalit' but are officially known as 'Scheduled Caste.'
This discrimination within Sikhism meant that many Sikhs were barred from taking part in the running of Gurdwara and were not encouraged to adopt Sikh names or follow some of the Sikh practices. Instead they founded separate Gurdwaras, in what is known as the Ravidassian community. In many towns in the UK you can find both Singh Sabha and Shri Guru Ravidass Gurdwaras (often called Bhawan by the Ravidassia) and many in both consider the other as a separate - if strongly related - sect or religion. There are thought to be around 175,000 Ravidassians in the UK, where there are 21 temples.
But for a few fundamentalist high-caste Sikhs, followers of the Ravidassian tradition are viewed as heretics who commit sacrilege against the Guru Granth Sahib. On Sunday 24 May, a small group of bearded and turbaned men went to the worship at the Sri Guru Ravidass Temple in Vienna, Austria and attacked the two preachers who were visiting from India, Sant Nirajnan Das and Sant Ramanand as well as the other Sikhs in the congregation who leapt to their defence. There were a number of gun shots, wounding both of the preachers. Sant Ramanand, who was the deputy head of the Guru Ravidass Singh Sabha, died a few hours later.
The killing led to violent protests in India, particularly around Jalandhar, where many Dalit Sikhs live, in which a number of people were killed and injured in battles between protesters and police.
In Britain the march in London was a peaceful one, but there was no mistaking the anger that was felt by many at the continuing discrimination. Placards carried by the marchers called for Human Rights, Freedom of Speech and Justice, as well as condemning the assassination of Sant Ramanand and calling for the murderers to be hanged as well as demanding equal rights to worship. Others carried small black pennants in mourning and people signed petitions.
The marchers marched to the Indian High Commission with a petition demanding a full enquiry into the affair and its possible backers in India by the Indian government; they demanded that the killers be extradited to India and face trial there.
The police stopped traffic for the march and encouraged them to keep moving. One man who was handing out leaflets to marchers was led away for questioning and I think searched.
On the Ravidassia UK web site it says "Sat Guru has chosen our generation to bear this burden of freeing our people, so let’s hold our shoulders high and March, in peace but also in protest at this unjustified attack."
A few more pictures on Demotix
http://www.demotix.com/news/sikhs-march-london-against-discrimination More on My London DIary shortly:
http://mylondondiary.co.uk/2009/06/jun.htm#caste
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Two Factual Edits and some clarification
15.06.2009 16:28
And
"Sant Ramanand ji was the deputy head of Dera Sant Sarwan Dass ji, Ballan, Punjab, India, and not Singh Sabha."
Thanks to those who pointed these out. About Ravadasi and Sikhs:
Many Ravidasi describe themselves as Sikhs (including some I talked to on Sunday) and they use the Sikh scriptures. They are almost universally referred to as a Sikh sect - certainly in all the news articles I read on the Vienna assassination and its aftermath. Here's a quote from an article in 'World Latest News' which starts by describing them as a Sikh sect and later quotes "the head of the sect’s international chapter" Shangara Ram, president of the Shri Guru Ravi Dass Sabha (UK and Abroad) as having said:
"Britain was home to around 175,000 followers of Guru Ravi Dass Sabha, who worship the Sikh holy book - the Guru Granth Sahib - in 21 temples across the country.
The followers of Guru Ravi Dass are from lower castes and accuse the upper caste-dominated Sikh clergy of discriminating against them."
There is considerable information about Ravidasi and Sikhs on -line, not least on Wikipedia as well as on various Sikh and Ravidasi web sites which I consulted. What I wrote is generally in line with this and other independent sources, although BBC Radio 4 simply called them Sikhs in its Sunday morning news bulletins.
However several people have now mailed me to say:
"Ravidassias are not Sikhs but have a faith of their own. Ravidassism is a religion in its own right."
I read on one of the blogs that there is a campaign to establish them as a separate religion on the 2011 UK census returns, whereas I understand that on previous official returns they have always been counted as Sikhs.
I've certainly no wish to upset either Sikhs or Ravidassias and I hope the above clarification makes things as clear as is possible in the light of conflicting views and information.
Peter Marshall
e-mail:
petermarshall@cix.co.uk
Homepage:
http://mylondondiary.co.uk
observation
15.06.2009 18:07
interfearing in this matter is like bringing back the days of the evil british empire will only lead to bad things in the future
we should do more to highlight this fact
michelle
Ravidassias are Ad Dharamis
16.06.2009 12:51
Heera, London