The World Sikh News dwells on the genesis of the conflict in Gurdwara Richmond Hill which yesterday led to a physical fisticuff within the precincts of the Gurdwara Sahib.

Followers of the fifth largest religion in the world, one of the youngest -only 550 years old, are still to come to terms with managing their religious place of worship -the Gurdwara in modern times in a modern way. In the last hundred years or so, Sikhs have not evolved their own system of Gurdwara governance.

Over the years, the community has grown in size a little but has spread worldwide. Our fondness for bigness has resulted in huge Gurdwaras bought out of loans from banks. Earlier traditional methods of governance based on honesty, love and respect for the religious ethos has been replaced with electioneering, sometimes labelled as election and selection.

We had a happy two weeks for the Sikh world. Countries across the Americas -the US and Canada in many areas were observing Sikh National Days and heritage months. The National Sikh Campaign in the US is spending a whopping 1.2 million dollars on the #WeAreSikhs campaign to counter harassment and hate. Over-enthusiastic Sikh organisations are celebrating Turban Days by tying turbans on non-Sikh heads. Sikhs are going to go the whole log in organising mammoth Sikh Day parades in the US, Canada and UK, to display numbers, raise slogans irrelevant to the listeners, eat and waste tonnes of food.

The Gurdwara in Richmond Hill in New York serves the Sikhs living in the region and they congregate regularly on Sundays and Gurpurabs -birth anniversaries of Gurus. Yesterday, this biggest and the oldest Gurdwara in the US saw ugly fights within the congregational centre. This is not the first time that this has happened here. This Gurudwara has always been place for power struggle and the ruling party tries hard to keep the control after their tenure is complete. Typical, isn’t it!

How electioneering inflicts a deep-rooted malady can be gauged thus: in the first instance the congregation of an area is divided between members and non-members of the Gurdwara -so if you are not a member, you do not have a say at all. Furthermore, the member-Sangat divides itself into groups -slates or parties -owing allegiance to the leader and group and not to the Guru or the Gurdwara. The groups then spend thousands of dollars to “reach out” to the member-Sangat for votes, then corrupt themselves with Gurdwara funds, not satisfied with “sewa” of one term, they contest again and again with more funds and more zeal, if they do not win, they go to courts and embroil themselves and the Gurdwara funds in legal fees and related matters. If the police come to the Gurdwara to control them, they allege interference in Gurdwara affairs. All this leads to the Gur-Sangat -those who love the Guru to either shy away from the Gurdwara or minimal participation in the governance. Those who are aware are scared of the warring factions because ultimately it boils down to one faction versus the other, not what is good or less good in any proposal relating to the religion or its governance.

Each Gurdwara wants to outshine the other not in terms of contribution to the Sangat, but in terms of size of the building, the scale and variety of food in Nagar Kirtans and parades, ultimately leading to the Sikh youth -the next generation keeping away, becoming agnostics or atheists, becoming patits -apostates or putting a greater responsibility on concerned parents to instil Sikhi amongst their children or it leads to setting up organisations and groups to hold Gurmat camps, events to align children and youth to Sikhi and while doing so, these organisations do not talk well about the Gurdwara, confusing the young and distancing them from their elderly in a pernicious and systematic manner.

The facts emanating from New York make disturbing reading and Sikh Gurdwara administrators worldwide can easily identify with them. In 2010, former President Tehal Singh united all groups and decide to select next president to bring all groups together and save monies on election. Bhupinder Singh Boparai was president for a year, followed by Gurdev Singh Kang for another.

However, since 2010 there has never been fair elections. In 2012, then election commissioner who was supporting the President rejected most of the applications from the opposite party to ensure that the then President remains in power. In 2014 there were no elections as the ruling party filed court cases and kept on delaying the election. Finally, in 2016, the court ordered both parties to conduct elections.

An election company was hired to conduct elections. Isn’t that classic! Tehal Singh, Bhupinder Singh Boparai, Dhillon, Rajinder Singh and their team submitted nomination papers and elections were scheduled for 23 October 2016. Former president Gurdev Singh Kang and his group failed to file nominations till the very end and at the last minute, preponed the elections to 22 October and got themselves elected. So much for democratic functioning! The Tehal Singh group filed a complaint but court has not given any decision yet.

With this background, tension and tempers were running high. On 16 April, 2017 during the Sunday congregation, when everyone was listening to the Dhadis -the balladeers extolling Sikh virtues, an unvirtuous member of one of the groups started beating the other and then all hell broke loose. The fight started in the Gurdwara and both groups disgracefully removed each other’s turbans. What a contrast! Tying turbans on non-Sikhs on the streets of New York and removing turbans within the Gurdwara Sahib. Shameful! Speaking to the World Sikh News, a young Sikh from the area said, “I feel sad, very sad. I don’t understand when will our people learn.”

In his magnum opus -Mahan Kosh, Bhai Kahan Singh Nabha says that the Gurdwara is a solace centre for the seeker of truth and peace, a dispensary for the poor and an education centre for those who need to learn. This was the simplest way in which our Gurdwaras worked prior to the community becoming “rich”, the Gurdwaras becoming “big” and the caretakers becoming “power centre seekers”.

Still, there is no need to fret and fume. It is time to turn this on its head. Those who are concerned, let them join their heads -literally, learn from the teachings of Guru Granth Sahib “Gurmukh baiso safa bichaye…” …evolve alternative practical Sikhi-based systems of Gurdwara governance. Only blaming will not help. There is no hurry. Word hard and be part of the solution, not the problem.

Gurdwara administrators across the globe may read and imbibe the following from the Rehatnama -codes of conduct, of Bhai Chaupa Singh Ji -a contemporary of the Tenth Master, Guru Gobind Singh Ji. One of them reads, “In case a Sikh speaks ill of another, then he should regret and make up before night fall.” The next one fits “our leaders”. It reads, “Disputes amongst Sikhs are to be settled between themselves. In case a Sikh goes to the ruler (political or judicial), he is a tankhaiya – a person punishable for religious misconduct. Need we say more!