As the Sikh world con­tin­ues to be per­turbed over the pro­posed de­mo­li­tion of Mangu Mutt, Pun­jabi Mutt and a por­tion of the Baoli Sahib Mutt and Gur­d­wara ad­ja­cent to the Lord Ja­gan­nath Tem­ple in Puri, a four-mem­ber del­e­ga­tion com­pris­ing Prof. Jag­mo­han Singh -Hu­man Rights Ac­tivist and ed­i­tor, WSN from Lud­hi­ana, Anil Dhir Con­ser­va­tion­ist, his­to­rian, Sukhvin­der Kaur, Ad­vo­cate and So­cial Ac­tivist, from Bhubanesh­war and Gurmeet Singh, So­cial Ac­tivist from Ranchi met the Odisha Gov­er­nor Prof. Ganeshi Lal and pre­sented him a mem­o­ran­dum seek­ing im­me­di­ate in­ter­ven­tion. The ac­tivists have sought the for­ma­tion of a Guru Nanak Cor­ri­dor in and around Odisha. 

A JOINT DEL­E­GA­TION OF AC­TIVISTS ap­prised the Gov­er­nor of Odisha that while the Sikh world is re­ver­ber­at­ing with re­li­gious func­tions, sem­i­nars, Na­gar Keer­tans and unique func­tions and pro­grammes to mark the 550 years of the birth of Guru Nanak Sahib on 12 No­vem­ber 2019, it would be hugely em­bar­rass­ing for the Odisha gov­ern­ment and deeply hurt the sen­ti­ments of the Sikh com­mu­nity.

Af­ter an ex­ten­sive first-hand tour of the tem­ple site in Puri, the ac­tivists told the Gov­er­nor that it is com­fort­ing that the de­mo­li­tions have stopped but also said that there is lurk­ing fear and stress in the minds of the Sikhs that the gov­ern­ment of Odisha will act post-haste and de­stroy this his­toric, re­li­gious and cul­tural her­itage.

“There will be an ab­ject loss of her­itage due to the de­mo­li­tions be­ing un­der­taken, and pleaded that many of the old struc­tures can be re­stored with proper con­ser­va­tion. Beau­ti­fi­ca­tion does not mean only de­mo­li­tion.

Tak­ing a broader view of things, the ac­tivists sought the open­ing of a Guru Nanak Cor­ri­dor trac­ing the foot­steps of Guru Nanak in Odisha and the re­gion.

 

Ap­pris­ing the gov­er­nor of his eu­logy about the vast cul­tural im­por­tance and sig­nif­i­cance of Odisha in the world, the ac­tivists from Pun­jab and Odisha asked the Gov­er­nor to take new ini­tia­tives to cel­e­brate the 550^th year birth an­niver­sary of Guru Nanak.

The ac­tivists em­pha­sized that it is the duty of the Gov­ern­ment of Odisha to pre­serve and pro­tect such her­itage and re­li­gious in­sti­tu­tions and safe­guards the spir­i­tual and emo­tional val­ues at­tached to them.

The full text of the Mem­o­ran­dum is as fol­lows:

Mem­o­ran­dum to

Hon’ble Prof. Ganeshi Lal
Gov­er­nor of Odisha

By Hu­man rights, So­cial and Con­ser­va­tion ac­tivists

Urg­ing the stop­page of the pro­posed de­mo­li­tion by the Gov­ern­ment of Odisha

of re­li­gious cen­tres bear­ing the foot­steps of Guru Nanak,

Other Mutts and struc­tures
around the Lord Ja­gan­nath Tem­ple, Puri

Fol­low­ing the foot­steps of Guru Nanak Sahib -the founder of Sikhism, we have taken stock of the three ma­jor cen­tres of Guru Sahib’s visit to Puri in the fif­teenth cen­tury and we are of the firm be­lief that it would be a trav­esty of his­tory if the his­toric and re­li­gious Mutts -hos­pices, namely the Mangu Mutt, Pun­jabi Mutt (ear­lier called Guru Nanak Mutt) and a por­tion of Bauli Mutt and Gur­d­wara Sahib, which stand tes­ti­mony to Guru Nanak Sahib’s visit are de­mol­ished in a rather ill-con­ceived beau­ti­fi­ca­tion and ex­pan­sion pro­gramme to cre­ate a cor­ri­dor around the Lord Ja­gan­nath Tem­ple in Puri.

While the Sikh world is re­ver­ber­at­ing with re­li­gious func­tions, sem­i­nars, Na­gar Keer­tans and unique func­tions and pro­grammes to mark 550 years of the birth of Guru Nanak Sahib on 12 No­vem­ber 2019, it would be hugely em­bar­rass­ing for the Odisha gov­ern­ment and deeply hurt the sen­ti­ments of the Sikh com­mu­nity if such a de­mo­li­tion takes place.

His­tory records that both these Mutts have as­so­ci­a­tional sig­nif­i­cance with Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s visit to Puri in 1506 C.E.  Af­ter Guru Nanak De­v’s visit, there was a steady stream of Sikh pil­grims from the North, who came to Puri, trav­el­ling more than 2000 kms by foot. For these mul­ti­tudes of Sikhs, the Nanak Pan­this built two Mutts, which in­clude the Mangu Mutt and the Pan­jabi Mutt.

The re­cent de­ci­sion of the Odisha gov­ern­ment to de­mol­ish many Mutts for the pro­posed de­vel­op­ment of the pe­riph­ery of Lord Ja­gan­nath’s Tem­ple at Puri has seen the de­struc­tion of three an­cient Mutts -the Bada Akhada Mutt, the Emar Mutt and the Lan­gudi Mutt. Within days, the his­toric Mutts which pro­vide abode, med­i­cine and food to wor­ship­pers has been re­duced to rub­ble and the whole area has been tiled to give it a mod­ern look, which, how­ever, looks uglier and mis­fits in the over­all re­li­gios­ity of the sa­cred place.

The pro­posed de­mo­li­tion of an­other 15 Mutts which are in the 75 me­tres ra­dius, in­clud­ing the Mangu Mutt and the Pun­jabi Mutt has un­der­stand­ably dis­turbed Sikhs world­wide.

His­tory records that both these Mutts have as­so­ci­a­tional sig­nif­i­cance with Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s visit to Puri in 1506 C.E.  Af­ter Guru Nanak De­v’s visit, there was a steady stream of Sikh pil­grims from the North, who came to Puri, trav­el­ling more than 2000 kms by foot. For these mul­ti­tudes of Sikhs, the Nanak Pan­this built two Mutts, which in­clude the Mangu Mutt and the Pan­jabi Mutt.

The Mangu Mutt and the area around it is the spot where Guru Nanak com­posed “Gagan Mein Thaal Rav Chand Deepak” which has come to be known as the Uni­ver­sal Aarti of God Almighty and also re­ferred to as the Sikh Aarti. The con­nec­tion be­tween Sikhism and the Ja­gan­nath tem­ple goes back to more than 500 years ago when Guru Nanak Dev Ji vis­ited the holy tem­ple to spread the mes­sage of Ek Onkar, mean­ing “one supreme re­al­ity.” It was here that the Holy Sikh Arti, which is en­shrined in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, was com­posed. Since then the as­so­ci­a­tion of Sikhs with the Puri came about and con­tin­ues till to­day.

It is widely be­lieved that the Mangu Mutt was set up by Bhai Al­mast, the Sikh preacher and head of the Udassi sect some­time in 1615 C.E.  The im­age of Baba Shri Chand, the son of Guru Nanak Dev Ji is kept in the shrine in­side the mutt. Even the ninth Sikh mas­ter -Guru Tegh Ba­hadur Ji chose to visit the place in 1670 CE.

For your kind pe­rusal and un­der­stand­ing of the depth of as­so­ci­a­tion of Sikhs with Odisha, we are at­tach­ing two well-re­searched and au­then­tic ar­ti­cles by the re­puted an­thro­pol­o­gist and his­to­rian Dr Hi­madri Ban­ner­jee, who has done ex­ten­sive re­search into Sikhism in Odisha.

The Mangu Mutt and the area around it is the spot where Guru Nanak com­posed “Gagan Mein Thaal Rav Chand Deepak” which has come to be known as the Uni­ver­sal Aarti of God Almighty and also re­ferred to as the Sikh Aarti. The con­nec­tion be­tween Sikhism and the Ja­gan­nath tem­ple goes back to more than 500 years ago when Guru Nanak Dev Ji vis­ited the holy tem­ple to spread the mes­sage of Ek Onkar, mean­ing “one supreme re­al­ity.” 

While del­e­ga­tions of Sikh bod­ies have pe­ti­tioned the ad­min­is­tra­tion, as ac­tivists con­cerned with the preser­va­tion and con­ser­va­tion of our rich cul­tural and re­li­gious legacy, con­sid­er­ing it our bound­ing duty, we ap­peal to you to ad­vise your gov­ern­ment not to ig­nore the de­mands of the Sikh com­mu­nity and to en­sure that the glo­ri­ous shared her­itage of Puri is pre­served to its fullest.

Un­der­stand­ably the ex­er­cise of ex­pan­sion and beau­ti­fi­ca­tion is be­ing taken up on the ba­sis of a Cul­tural Min­istry’s move for se­cu­rity and im­pro­vi­sa­tion of the Lord Ja­gan­nath Tem­ple, it is our be­lief that it is not in the in­ter­est of any gov­ern­ment or ad­min­is­tra­tion to de­stroy old re­li­gious places bear­ing a sa­cred sig­nif­i­cance and which are an in­te­gral part of the Ja­gan­nath cul­ture.

The Mutts of Puri, un­like those in the rest of the coun­try, are mon­u­ments which are rem­i­nis­cent of the golden pe­riod of Odis­han his­tory. The Mutts are the wit­nesses of our past glory and grandeur. They are the proven records of an­tiq­uity but have un­for­tu­nately fallen vic­tims to the ne­glect by own­ers and care­tak­ers.  All the gov­ern­ments of the past will have to ac­cept the re­spon­si­bil­ity for be­ing cal­lous and care­less and al­low­ing the de­te­ri­o­ra­tion of the sur­round­ings of the Lord Ja­gan­nath Tem­ple.

We re­quest that the ex­ist­ing pa­ra­me­ter of 75 me­tres may be re-ex­am­ined as it is not a sacro­sanct ref­er­ence point. This alone will en­sure the con­ser­va­tion of many of the build­ing and struc­tures of both the Sikh and Hindu faith.

Un­ques­tion­ably, the Sikh com­mu­nity, in­clud­ing the Orissa Sikh Pra­tinidhi Board, will rise to the oc­ca­sion and do every­thing it can, as they are do­ing world­wide to pro­tect the glory of places which bear the foot­steps of Guru Nanak Sahib and other Sikh his­tor­i­cal places. As promised by the Sikh apex body -the Shi­ro­mani Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee as well as by the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee, Sikhs will be more than will­ing to sup­port the gov­ern­ment of Odisha to en­sure the best im­ple­men­ta­tion of safe­guard­ing the rich her­itage of Puri and other his­toric places in the State.

The gov­ern­ment of Odisha may take up the de­vel­op­ment of a his­toric Guru Nanak Cor­ri­dor -the path taken by Guru Nanak Sahib dur­ing his visit to var­i­ous parts of Odisha.

While speak­ing at a re­cent func­tion, your good self has eu­lo­gised the vast cul­tural im­por­tance and sig­nif­i­cance of Odisha. In this 550^th year of the birth an­niver­sary of Guru Nanak, it is our re­quest that you may kindly:

1. Take up the mat­ter of the pro­posed de­mo­li­tion of Mangu Mutt, Pun­jabi Mutt and por­tions of Bauli Mutt with the gov­ern­ment of Odisha and en­sure that these vi­tal, his­tor­i­cal and her­itage sites or any part thereof, of the Sikh re­li­gion, are not oblit­er­ated.
2. The gov­ern­ment of Odisha may take up the de­vel­op­ment of a his­toric Guru Nanak Cor­ri­dor -the path taken by Guru Nanak Sahib dur­ing his visit to var­i­ous parts of Odisha.
3. As the Chan­cel­lor of the pres­ti­gious Utkal Uni­ver­sity, you may take up the pro­posal of set­ting up a Guru Nanak Chair for re­search into the hun­dreds of thou­sands of palm-leaf man­u­scripts re­lat­ing to Guru Nanak Sahib in Odisha.
4. Ask the gov­ern­ment of Odisha to ini­ti­ate and set up a panel of ex­pert lin­guists in the Odiya lan­guage to trans­late the Guru Granth Sahib into the Odiya lan­guage.

As a unique scholar and ad­min­is­tra­tor, we hope that you will take up the mat­ter of preser­va­tion of Sikh her­itage in right earnest and en­sure that the gov­ern­ment of Odisha takes ef­fec­tive and im­me­di­ate steps to pro­tect and pre­serve the glo­ri­ous past and not suc­cumb to the pres­sures of a mod­ern beau­ti­fi­ca­tion idea.

We will be more than happy to share more de­tails and doc­u­men­ta­tion with you and the gov­ern­ment of Odisha.

The bless­ings of Guru Nanak await us all.

Prof. Jag­mo­han Singh Hu­man Rights Ac­tivist and writer Lud­hi­ana, Pun­jab	Anil Dhir Con­ser­va­tion­ist, his­to­rian Bhubanesh­war, Odisha
Sukhvin­der Kaur Ad­vo­cate and So­cial Ac­tivist Bhubanesh­war, Odisha	Gurmeet Singh So­cial and Re­li­gious Ac­tivist Ranchi, Jhark­hand