Akal Takht acting Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh, who of late
has been trying to rejuvenate this highest Sikh seat for prayer and politics,
has set up a 4-member panel to go into the controversy surrounding the statues
of dancers that are part of the so-called heritage street leading to the Darbar
Sahib (Golden Temple) from the Town Hall in Amritsar. This ‘heritage street’ in
effect is an attack on both the Sikh as well as the Amritsar heritage.
Heritage is not change but preservation. This heritage
street changed the very face of the area making it unrecognisable. Heritage is
preserving the identity. It is now dominated by Rajasthani architecture. It was
beautification project that damaged the Sikh heritage.
The statues of the dancers in front of the Dharam Singh
market in this street have to be seen in this context.
The project was the brain child of Shiromani Akali Dal
president and then Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal that was
completed months before the 2017 Assembly elections. The project had come under
criticism then on the issue of heritage.
It may be mentioned that the entire residential-cum-commercial
area around the Darbar Sahib complex represents the heritage of this city
founded by Guru Ram Das.
The area around the shrine that virtually was the foundation
of this city was systematically demolished under the so-called beatification
scheme that was labelled Galiara scheme as part of the design that was
unleashed after Operation Blackthunder in 1988. The controversial heritage street
is virtually the extension of that design.
The controversy relating to the installation of the dancers
in the street leading to the holiest of the holy Sikh shrine that has also been
witness to the rise of the community through struggles over the years is
essentially ideological. The heritage of the Sikhs is very rich and that
heritage is not of just of dancing and singing. The Sikh history is the history
of struggles.
Giani Harpreet Singh has
made timely intervention by asserting that the Sikh and the Punjabi culture are
different saying the Sikh culture is
distinct while the Punjabi culture covers all the communities residing in this
region that is Punjab. The Punjabi culture across the Radcliffe line is the
same.
This so-called heritage street should have represented the
Sikh culture and this was pointed out in the columns within days it was
inaugurated.
The Sikhs hoisted their flag on the ramparts of the Red Fort
and the man leading the troops was General Baghel Singh. Hundreds of Sikhs have
died while maintaining the sanctity of Darbar Sahib in history. The Sikh
generals subjugated Afghanistan. The list of the Sikh generals is long.
Ironically, the SGPC has maintained a stoic silence over the
controversy that has been triggered with the activists of several Sikh
organisations damaging the platform on which these statues of the dancers have
been installed.
One of the issues that have been overlooked is that the
Darbar sahib is not a tourist place but the most sacred shrine of the Sikhs. It
is sanctity of its history that should be maintained rather than
commercialising it as has happened during the last about a decade. This has
adversely impacted its ambiance. The issue is the devotees, not tourists.
The Darbar Sahib is the shrine that emanates the message of
universal brotherhood. It is witness to the struggles of the community.
These two vital aspects must be taken into account while
planning changes both within and outside the shrine complex. Use of the term ‘beautification’
for such plans would be an affront to the Darbar Sahib.
A part of the Golden Temple establishment has openly come
out against these statutes and in support of the Sikh activists who damaged the
platform and have been arrested by the police.
Such interventions must continue although the political
leadership in the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee has its own
compulsions.
However, this elected body hailed as the Parliament of the Sikhs along
with the Akal Takht is the custodian of the Sikh principles and heritage. These
two bodies must intervene when the same are violated or distorted, consciously
or unconsciously.
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