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Golden Temple area represents history of Sikh struggle, not dance culture



Image result for images of dancers in golden temple heritage street"




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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