Sikhs in In­done­sia or­gan­ise an In­ter­na­tional Sikh Con­fer­ence early next month to cel­e­brate 25 years of the main Gur­d­wara Guru Nanak in Jakarta and to take stock of the so­cial, re­li­gious and eco­nomic life of In­done­sian Sikh res­i­dents in the is­land na­tion invit­ing re­li­gious and so­cial ac­tivists from Am­rit­sar and across the world.

Cel­e­brat­ing 25 years of the foun­da­tion of the main Gur­d­wara Guru Nanak aka Gur­d­wara Sahib Yayasan Sosial Guru Nanak in Jakarta and tak­ing cog­nizance of the need for pre­serv­ing Pun­jabi cul­ture and Sikh spirit amongst Sikh youth in the pro­fess­edly Mus­lim is­land na­tion In­done­sia, where Sikhs set­tled nearly a cen­tury ago, the Gur­d­wara man­age­ment in as­so­ci­a­tion with the Global Sikh Coun­cil is or­ga­niz­ing an In­ter­na­tional Sikh Con­fer­ence in Jakarta which will see the par­tic­i­pa­tion of mis­sion­ar­ies, lead­ers and ac­tivists not only from the home coun­try but from var­i­ous parts of the world in the first week of De­cem­ber 2017. 

Speak­ing ex­clu­sively to World Sikh News, Bal­want Singh Ra­hal, one of the found­ing mem­bers of the Gur­d­wara, In­done­sian rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Global Sikh Coun­cil and sheet an­chor of the pro­gramme said, “The In­ter­na­tional Sikh Con­fer­ence to be held from 1-3 De­cem­ber 2017 is a hum­ble at­tempt by the Gur­d­wara Sahib, Jakarta Gur­mat School, Sikh Nau­jawan Sabha In­done­sia and the Sadh San­gat to bring the more  than ten thou­sand strong In­done­sian Sikh com­mu­nity closer to its roots in Pun­jab. We be­lieve that there is an ur­gent need to bring the young gen­er­a­tion back into the Sikh fold as it com­bats var­i­ous chal­lenges of iden­tity and ca­reer ad­vance­ment.”

“The In­ter­na­tional Sikh Con­fer­ence to be held from 1-3 De­cem­ber 2017 is a hum­ble at­tempt to bring the more than ten thou­sand strong In­done­sian Sikh com­mu­nity closer to its roots in Pun­jab.”

Bal­want Singh Re­hal, Chief Or­gan­iser, ISC

Ac­tivist leader Bal­want Singh fur­ther said, “The par­tic­i­pa­tion of ac­tivists from across the globe will be to make In­done­sian Sikh youth aware of the pris­tine glory of Sikhs and the event will har­bin­ger new pos­i­tive changes in our so­ci­ety here. We es­pe­cially de­sire our Sikh youth to learn Pun­jabi lan­guage so that they can read Guru Granth Sahib first hand and un­der­stand the ideals of our Gu­rus.”

The Gur­d­wara Yayasan So­cial Guru Nanak has em­barked upon this pro­gramme to pre­serve Sikh cul­tural and tra­di­tional val­ues and her­itage amongst the In­done­sian Sikhs, Sind­his and oth­ers in the is­land coun­try.

Bal­want Singh told WSN that Kan­waljit Singh Bak­shi, Mem­ber Par­lia­ment from New Zealand and other Sikh stal­warts in­clud­ing Gurmel Singh from Hongkong, so­cial ac­tivist Bhupin­der Singh Kohli and Kul­want Singh from Mum­bai, promi­nent Sikh leader Kun­dan Singh Mum­bai, scholar Col Dr Dalvin­der Singh Gre­wal from Pun­jab, Prof. Ravjit Kaur from Chandi­garh, Har­cha­ran Singh from Sin­ga­pore, Dr. H. S. Dhillon from In­done­sia and Prof. Har­bant Singh from Malaysia have con­firmed their par­tic­i­pa­tion at the meet.

The Pres­i­dent of the Global Sikh Coun­cil Lady Dr. Kan­waljit Kaur OBE shall ad­dress the san­gat via Skype from Lon­don while se­nior mem­ber and one of the found­ing fa­thers of GSC -Gul­barg Singh Basi from the US and Gur­deep Singh Kun­dan Sec­re­tary of GSC and other mem­bers will con­tribute to ac­com­plish­ing the pri­mary ob­jec­tive of the meet. GSC is in fine-tun­ing the de­tails of the con­fer­ence to make it suc­cess­ful. It would be an in­ter­est­ing home­com­ing for the au­thor of this piece to par­tic­i­pate as a mem­ber of GSC, hav­ing spent a good span of my life in In­done­sia.

“The Gur­d­wara Yayasan So­cial Guru Nanak has em­barked upon this pro­gramme to pre­serve Sikh cul­tural and tra­di­tional val­ues and her­itage amongst the In­done­sian Sikhs, Sind­his and oth­ers in the is­land coun­try.”

“Go back to your roots” is the clar­ion call from In­done­sia and many other South­east Asian coun­tries which hereto­fore have re­mained at a dis­tance from home­land Pun­jab.  Though the coun­try of­fi­cially recog­nises only six main re­li­gions, namely Is­lam, Protes­tantism, Catholi­cism, Hin­duism, Bud­dhism and Con­fu­cian­ism. Sikhs are clubbed as Hin­dus and as In­done­sian Hin­dus are co­op­er­a­tive and ac­com­mo­dat­ing, as such, Sikhs are com­fort­able in their co-ex­is­tence with the Ba­li­nese Hin­dus. In fact since 2006, the In­done­sian Hindu Parishad has had a Sikh rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bal­want Singh Ra­hal.

Hav­ing lived in In­done­sia for quite some time, it is my sur­mise that Sikhs in In­done­sia have the in­fra­struc­ture to take care of their com­mu­nity. While they face many chal­lenges, they need to work on mak­ing the youth aware of their rich her­itage and the im­por­tance of the prac­ti­cal Sikh way of life.

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Jakarta needs to heed the call of the All In­dia Sikh Stu­dents Fed­er­a­tion. When­ever there are is­sues and prob­lems, “look to­wards Am­rit­sar”.