In a speech de­liv­ered through Skype to the par­tic­i­pants of the In­ter­na­tional Sikh Con­fer­ence in Jakarta, In­done­sia, on 1 De­cem­ber,  the Pres­i­dent of the Global Sikh Coun­cil, Lady Kan­waljit Kaur raises core is­sues of sov­er­eignty of Guru Granth Sahib, unique­ness of the Panth-adopted Sikh Re­hat Maryada and ex­horts the Sikh youth to fol­low core val­ues, fo­cussing on Sar­bat da Bhala and ig­nor­ing rit­u­als and un­nec­es­sary prac­tices.

We the Sikhs have a glo­ri­ous his­tory and are proud of our an­ces­try and we have to work hard so that our fu­ture gen­er­a­tions are proud of us. Fol­low­ing the teach­ings of Guru Granth Sahib, treat­ing all hu­man be­ings equally, with an ab­solutely big no to the caste sys­tem, re­spect for equal­ity of women and zero tol­er­ance for dowry and fe­male in­fan­ti­cide and foeti­cide, Sikhs are or­dained by God Almighty to work for Sar­bat da Bhala in a spirit of Chardikala. 

Global Sikh Coun­cil is priv­i­leged to play a cru­cial role in the In­ter­na­tional Sikh Con­fer­ence in Jakarta, In­done­sia, or­gan­ised by GSC mem­ber Bal­want Singh. The con­fer­ence will see the par­tic­i­pa­tion of mem­bers of the GSC play­ing a lead­ing role. GSC is com­mit­ted to help all en­gaged in spread­ing the mes­sage of our Gu­rus and to en­able Sikh San­gats and in­sti­tu­tions world­wide to re­solve prob­lems and dif­fi­cul­ties. 

The In­ter­na­tional Sikh Con­fer­ence is the con­flu­ence of Sikhs from dif­fer­ent coun­tries, es­pe­cially of South­east Asia to dis­cuss is­sues and evolve so­lu­tions thereto. We Sikhs wher­ever we are -Ja­han Ja­han Khalsa Ji Sahib -we strive for unity of thought and ac­tion on so­cial and cul­tural prac­tices as enun­ci­ated in the Guru Granth Sahib.

“The In­ter­na­tional Sikh Con­fer­ence is the con­flu­ence of Sikhs from dif­fer­ent coun­tries, es­pe­cially of South­east Asia to dis­cuss is­sues and evolve so­lu­tions thereto. We Sikhs wher­ever we are -Ja­han Ja­han Khalsa Ji Sahib -we strive for unity of thought and ac­tion on so­cial and cul­tural prac­tices as enun­ci­ated in the Guru Granth Sahib.”

Such gath­er­ings are a strong re­minder of our un­wa­ver­ing al­le­giance to our Guru Sahibs, a re­it­er­a­tion of our com­mit­ment to Guru Granth Sahib and a re­solve to fol­low the teach­ings con­tained in Guru Granth Sahib. We join heads to con­vey to all that the Sikh way of life is a life de­voted to Nam Japna, Ki­rat Karni and Vand Chhakna while keep­ing rit­u­als and su­per­sti­tions at bay.

GSC is a world­wide Sikh or­gan­i­sa­tion with mem­ber­ship of na­tional level Sikh or­gan­i­sa­tions from around the world. The Global Sikh Coun­cil -GSC was formed in 2014 in an en­deav­our to ad­dress se­ri­ous con­cerns of the Sikh Di­as­pora over mush­room­ing of de­ras run by sants and babas, who mis­lead gullible Sikhs to fol­low dis­torted ver­sions of our Gu­rus’ teach­ings. 

The Global Sikh Coun­cil is ded­i­cated to pro­mote the clear-cut fi­nal uni­fy­ing dik­tat of Guru Gob­ind Singh, ‘Sabh Sikhan ko hukam hai, Guru Manio Granth’ -all Sikhs are or­dained to fol­low only and only Guru Granth Sahib. GSC be­lieves that Guru Granth Sahib is the only Guru of the Sikhs. My mes­sage to the Sikh youth in In­done­sia is that they should read and un­der­stand the Guru Granth Sahib in any lan­guage that they are flu­ent in and live true to the teach­ings. Read and un­der­stand the Re­hat Maryada of 1945 and fol­low it for Sikh re­li­gious and so­cial prac­tices. Do not in­dulge in rit­u­als and su­per­sti­tions that are not part of the Sikh re­li­gion. Ig­nore the cul­ture that has made in­roads into your home and cre­ate a cul­ture based on Sikh teach­ings.

“GSC is a world­wide Sikh or­gan­i­sa­tion with mem­ber­ship of na­tional level Sikh or­gan­i­sa­tions from around the world. The Global Sikh Coun­cil -GSC was formed in 2014 in an en­deav­our to ad­dress se­ri­ous con­cerns of the Sikh Di­as­pora over mush­room­ing of de­ras run by sants and babas, who mis­lead gullible Sikhs to fol­low dis­torted ver­sions of our Gu­rus’ teach­ings.”

It us up to the young Sikh men and women to sep­a­rate the true Sikh prac­tices from the false ones, stick to these your­self and pro­mote them among oth­ers. It is im­per­a­tive to de­bate the is­sues that are wor­ry­ing you with Sikhs who have knowl­edge of Sikh re­li­gion -schol­ars, philoso­phers, and his­to­ri­ans. Get your Sikh fun­da­men­tals clear from the ed­u­cated one and do not give the Gur­d­wara stages to those who talk about mythol­ogy and sub­tly mix it with Sikhism. You should re­mem­ber that when you were hounded and made to leave home and hearth, the Sikhs of yore made jun­gles their homes, looked up to the sky in a pos­i­tive spirit and con­tin­ued their lives.

The Global Sikh Coun­cil un­am­bigu­ously en­dorses the Sikh Re­hat Maryada pub­lished in 1945 by the Shi­ro­mani Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee, which is the code of con­duct to be fol­lowed by Sikhs in their daily life. GSC stands com­mit­ted to safe­guard the sov­er­eignty of Guru Granth Sahib and pro­mo­tion of the Re­hat Maryada of 1945 that was passed by the Sikh Panth and is­sued by the SGPC.

Let me share that there are many prob­lems con­fronting the Sikh com­mu­nity -from within and with­out. There are more prob­lems fac­ing the Sikh com­mu­nity from var­i­ous de­ras, babas, and saints who dis­tort Sikh teach­ings to suit their own pur­poses, es­tab­lish their own san­gats to col­lect funds for their per­sonal ben­e­fit.  SGPC needs to over­haul its work­ing to be­come a true rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Sikhs and em­bark on an am­bi­tious pro­gram for prop­a­ga­tion of the Sikh faith. They also need to have a more de­mo­c­ra­tic mech­a­nism to re­solve Pan­thic dis­putes. 

Is­sues of Re­hat Maryada, Gurmeet Ram Rahim, use of ta­bles for Lan­gar, re­vert­ing of the Nanakshahi Cal­en­dar to Bikrami, cel­e­bra­tion of Parkash Purab of Guru Gob­ind Singh twice a year and dur­ing the mar­tyr­dom week of Sahibzade are a sam­ple of the mess that we are in to­day.  We need to de­velop ei­ther from Pun­jab or from the Di­as­pora a new set of in­di­vid­u­als who would pro­vide lead­er­ship on the un­der­stand­ing and pro­mo­tion of Sikh teach­ings and the unique Sikh iden­tity in the mod­ern world.

GSC is com­mit­ted to up­hold the su­premacy of Guru Granth Sahib and con­tend with these and many other is­sues in dif­fer­ent coun­tries through mem­ber or­gan­i­sa­tions and ac­tivist in­di­vid­u­als. We hope to in­crease our mem­ber­ship be­yond the pre­sent 20 in the months and years to come.

I be­lieve that East Asia Sikhs have  been rel­a­tively in­ac­tive in their re­la­tions with Pun­jab in the past. I think with ac­tive par­tic­i­pa­tion of the GSC, this is bound to change as there will be in­ter­ac­tion with Sikhs from many coun­tries.

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Some­times, com­ing to a new coun­try, we face new prob­lems and pres­sures, and take time to set­tle down. Now that the Sikhs in In­done­sia are pretty well set­tled, it is time to go to the next level and strengthen links with the Di­as­pora as well as Pun­jab. GSC has re­solved to work closely with Sikh In­done­sians.