Singh Sabha plans to go to higher au­thor­i­ties and the Mi­nori­ties Com­mis­sion against the Mum­bai Mu­nic­i­pal Com­mis­sion­er’s or­der not al­low­ing the ad­di­tion of the word “Sikh” to cre­ma­to­ri­ums in Sikh ma­jor­ity ar­eas of the city. 

Singh Sabha Mum­bai plans to go to higher au­thor­i­ties and the Mi­nori­ties Com­mis­sion against the Mum­bai Mu­nic­i­pal Com­mis­sion­er’s or­der not al­low­ing the ad­di­tion of the word “Sikh” to cre­ma­to­ri­ums in Sikh ma­jor­ity ar­eas of the city.

In a bat­tle that has been go­ing on for a cou­ple of years, the Singh Sabha Mum­bai had nearly suc­ceeded in get­ting the word “Sikhs” at­tached to the names of at least 4 cre­ma­to­ri­ums around the Sikh ma­jor­ity pop­u­la­tion ar­eas in met­ro­pol­i­tan Mum­bai. How­ever, over­rul­ing all ju­nior of­fi­cers, as well as the sug­ges­tions made by the Ma­ha­rash­tra State Mi­nori­ties Cor­po­ra­tion, the Com­mis­sioner of Bom­bay Mu­nic­i­pal Com­mis­sion, re­jected the Sikh de­mand prompt­ing the Singh Sabha to de­clared to go to court on the sub­ject.

“Sikhs are Sikhs, they are a dis­tinct re­li­gion and and they have dif­fer­ent rites for birth, ini­ti­a­tion into the re­li­gion, mar­riage and death. So why should they not have a sep­a­rate cre­ma­tion ground for the mem­bers of their own com­mu­nity?” asks Kul­want Singh, Vice-Pres­i­dent of the Singh Sabha Mum­bai. Presently the Singh Sabha is seek­ing ad­di­tion of the name “Sikh” to the ex­ist­ing cre­ma­tion grounds in Sikh ma­jor­ity ar­eas. The cor­po­ra­tion pro­poses to add an­other 35 cre­ma­to­ri­ums to the ex­ist­ing 34 in the city.

“While the health de­part­ment, which has the pow­ers to add names was pos­i­tively con­sid­er­ing the ad­di­tion of the word Sikh to the Hindu cre­ma­to­ri­ums at Sion Hindu cre­ma­to­rium, Tagore Na­gar and Dat­ta­tray Road cre­ma­to­rium in Santa Cruz (W), the pro­posal was re­jected by the chief com­mis­sioner alone which was com­mu­ni­cated by the Health de­part­ment through a let­ter to the Singh Sabha on 22 June.”

“We have been writ­ing let­ters to the Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tion as well as to the State Mi­nori­ties Com­mis­sion and fail to un­der­stand the logic of the Com­mis­sioner in re­ject­ing our pro­posal. His de­ci­sion is un­con­sti­tu­tional and we will go to the Na­tional Com­mis­sion for Mi­nori­ties. We are one of the six com­mu­ni­ties recog­nised as a mi­nor­ity com­mu­nity un­der the Na­tional Com­mis­sion for Mi­nori­ties Act, 1992. Fur­ther­more, the Con­sti­tu­tion of In­dia recog­nises us a sep­a­rate re­li­gion”, said Man­mo­han Singh, while speak­ing to the World Sikh News.

While the health de­part­ment, which has the pow­ers to add names was pos­i­tively con­sid­er­ing the ad­di­tion of the word “Sikh” to the “Hindu” cre­ma­to­ri­ums at Sion Hindu cre­ma­to­rium, Tagore Na­gar and Dat­ta­tray Road cre­ma­to­rium in Santa Cruz (W), the pro­posal was re­jected by the chief com­mis­sioner alone which was com­mu­ni­cated by the Health de­part­ment through a let­ter to the Singh Sabha on 22 June.

Sikhs in Mum­bai are ag­i­tated over the de­ci­sion and they ask point blank, “all com­mu­ni­ties and even some groups have cre­ma­to­ri­ums with their name, so why not we too, what is wrong with the re­quest asks Man­mo­han Singh, Gen­eral Sec­re­tary of the Singh Sabha.