“This is our community.....These are our countrymen” - Khalsa Aid

Yesterday morning was quite windy and blustery in central London but despite the conditions I still took my regular walk around St James’s Park. In the space of 10 minutes one got a wonderful impression of London and pride in being English and British: a Guards band was parading, small children in dayglo from a nursery were excited to watch, a chocolate Labrador was being cocooned in its owner’s coat, and then the resplendent red-coated Horse Guards trotted up The Mall.

When I got back home I was glued to some of the coverage of the recent floods on the 24 hour news channels. It is somewhat of a shock when our own institutions cannot mobilise themselves to act quickly on behalf of its own citizens. But in the midst of this perhaps climate change precipitated carnage there have been some rays of sunshine.

On both BBC and Sky a splendid bearded and turbaned Sikh – whom I later learn is Ravi Singh – is interviewed outlining why his organisation, Khalsa Aid, is in the Somerset Levels, offering whatever help and assistance it can. In one interview I saw Singh had come from Slough with supplies for those distressed by the floods. Other filmed packages saw the group making and moving sandbags into position to try and hold off the water.

Not having heard of Khalsa Aid before I found, via their website, that it was founded in 1999 in Slough as an offshoot of the Gurdwara, the Sikh temple, originally offering aid to Kosovo and Albania, and then offering assistance in times of other overseas disasters. Its Roll of Honour now includes the Philippines, Haiti, the tsunami, as well as ongoing projects in India and Pakistan such as preventing drug abuse. There is also a focus on water, sanitation and anti-malaria projects.

My knowledge of Sikhs and Sikhism is to my chagrin very limited. You can, however, read about Sue’s visit to the gurdwara here http://www.indiainlondon.com/sikhism-and-a-visit-to-the-gurdwara/ . But I do know that Sikhs have a public service ethos that is second to none amongst groups in India. Sikhs have served with honour and distinction in both World Wars for the British Empire, as well as for post-Independence India. It appears that this public spiritedness has been maintained amongst the Sikh diaspora. It is an ethos that other groups from the Indian sub-continent could learn from.

In his interviews Singh seemed to decline any opportunities to laud his organisation merely suggesting that they felt it was the right thing to do with the country in crisis. He asked that more volunteers come and offer assistance. Singh commented “This is my community” nailing the lie of Mrs Thatcher’s statement “There’s no such thing as society”. Singh was also keen to stress that this was his country, “These are our countrymen” – there was no ambivalence there – and it was almost his civic duty to help in times such as these. Singh appeared to be proud of being British and of his Sikh heritage too. This country should be proud too.

http://www.khalsaaid.org/

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/claudia-tomlinson/khalsa-aids-humanitarian-_b_4762401.html?utm_hp_ref=tw