London's Heritage Art Gallery Pays Homage to World War I Sikh Soldiers

ANIN NEWS

UNITED KINGDOM---The UK Punjab Heritage Association (UKPHA) paid homage to World War I Sikh soldiers through an art exhibition organized in London commemorating their remarkable but largely forgotten contribution. The story of Sikh soldiers volunteered in World War I (WWI) is being showcased through original artefacts that include unpublished photographs, drawings, newspapers, comics, postcards, stunning works of art, uniforms, gallantry medals, and folk songs sung by the wives left at home. The exhibition titled “Empire, Faith and War: The Sikhs and World War One” is being held at the Brunei Gallery in London. Project Historian of the UK Punjab Heritage Association, Parmjit Singh, said the exhibition puts together the tales of Sikhs soldiers who fought in Great War and the stories of families they left behind. [link]

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Sikh Heritage Reduced to a Lesson in History

HINDUSTAN TIMES
By Dr Madanjit Kaur

A beautiful view of the Golden Temple on a cloudy Friday morning in Amritsar. Sameer Sehgal/HT

INDIA---I still remember that day. July 30, 1984. Golden Temple had been opened for the first time after Operation Blue Star. I, along with my brother, had queued up to enter. I hid a camera in my dupatta. Debris and more debris. That was the first thing I noticed inside. “Everything has been destroyed!” my brother said. When we reached near Sri Akal Takht Sahib, we were shattered to see that all specimens of Sikh and Hindu art had been lost for posterity with the destruction of the old building. The building had been opened only after the central government had hastily got repaired the building on contract. However, the Sikh community rejected the gesture. As soon as the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) was given charge, the Sangat started demolishing it. With that demolition, the murals, gold work, woodwork, mahrakashi, wall paintings, gach work, jaratkari and tukri work, calligraphy, were all lost to history. [link]

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Canada's Sikh Community Celebrates Holyday of Vaisakhi

PRINCE GEORGE: THE CITIZEN
By Arhur Williams

Sikh demonstrates his skill with an urumi -a flexible whip-like sword 

CANADA---Prince George's Sikh community marked Vaisakhi on Saturday with a celebration of food, music, dance and a demonstration of traditional martial arts. The celebration began with a Nagar Kirtan - a traditional parade -from the Guru Nanak Darbar Sikh Temple on Davis Street to CN Centre. The Khalsa School Gatka Team from Surrey brought a demonstration of Gatka -a traditional Indian martial art often associated with Sikhism - to the event. "The Sikh community is a martial community," he said. "Always Sikhs, who were living in the Punjab [region of northern India] were like a wall to [invaders]. In the past this was how we always protected our community, our faith, our people." [link]

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Sikhs Buy Back Their History One Bid at a Time, But Say Museum Space is a Hard Sell

THE GLOBE & MAIL
By DAKSHANA BASCARAMURTY

The sword is believed to have been owned by Maharajah Ranjit Singh, the founder of the Sikh Empire in India.

CANADA---“In the last 10 to 20 years, there’s been a huge surge of what are classified as Sikh objects entering the market,” said Deepali Dewan, senior curator of South Asian Arts & Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum. “Because of the demand mostly coming from the Sikh community, the prices have skyrocketed … it has priced museums out of the market.” Although Canada’s Sikh population is large – 1.4 per cent of the population follows Sikhism (compared to 1.9 per cent in India) – none of the major galleries or museums has a sizable permanent collection devoted to Sikh history in India. Even internationally, representation of Sikh history in major museums is limited, Ms. Dewan says. [link]

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