Alistair Darling and the Sikhs

" Really?"

I was waiting for today’s Pre-Budget Report to see how we can develop this programme for our collective consideration. How can the Sikh and other Asian communities respond to the economic challenges facing our country?

One more time: what do we mean by ‘new heritage’? By our country, I mean Britain, in case that needs to be clarified. I also go back to an earlier comment about who are the people who represent the ‘new heritage’? The answer is that we are addressing the new heritage of all immigrants as well as the British Nationals who have been coming home, as I did from Uganda in 1972 following the expulsion. However, my message is addressed to the Asian community only because I have had access to the Sikh, Muslim and Hindu societies in the UK. I understand the community representational systems in the ‘South Asian’ community better than any other community. I have a very good understanding of the Sikh community, its structures, leadership and the funding mechanisms which have led to the development of the ‘new heritage infrastructure’ which I estimate is worth £3 billion today and another £1 billion could be the size of the ‘working budget’ that the community may be dealing with every year at market prices. What this means is that the Sikh community has an inbuilt mechanism of volunteering, or ‘kar sewa’ or, the contribution of time voluntarily to achieve community objectives. In determining the new economic heritage, we have to remember that much of the £1 billion is in the form of volunteering time, but not entirely.


What did Alistair Darling say to the Sikhs?
Well, nothing directly! Putting Party politics aside, the Chancellor talked about the struggle before we can get out of the recession but that things should get better by 2011, with the next year helping to make a sure but important start. We have to deal with the major debt of the country as a priority, which means that the cutbacks in public services and the search for more efficient ways of doing things will be the key challenge facing everyone, including the voluntary sector of which all Sikh charities are also a key part. The Hindu, Gujarati and Muslim community organisations are also important ‘players’ in this sector.

Focus on critical debate
Alistair Darling did not address the Sikhs during the budget statement but it is abundantly clear that they can make a positive contribution in the following ways:


1. Ensure that the religious agenda is successfully managed by people who are most suitable for the delivery of the religious services, the diwans, paths, kirtans and community events; the weddings, birth and death ceremonies for all members of the various temples.
2. Release resources from the community to critically assess and plan the challenge for providing community services covering health, welfare, education, community development, leisure and cultural development by utilising the vast assets that the community has at its disposal. There are rooms, halls, offices and open spaces at each Sikh temple awaiting better utilisation.
3. Release skills, knowledge and professional expertise which is present in the congregations. Every Sikh temple has access to a vast number of people who can make an immediate contribution. Indeed there are people waiting to be asked. There are young people who want to be engaged in community development but do see a formal participation in the religious programmes as they only way they can make a contribution. They see themselves as participants in the religious life but not as leaders, activists or volunteers. They want to get involved in the mainstream issues affecting the community as well as the larger community. They want to be involved as visionaries and active community developers. They need access to resources and physical space which can be used to develop new community programmes and projects.
4. Create new forms of leadership to take this part of the agenda forward. Many of the current ‘quasi’ religious leaders may not be too pleased to hear this. But they are not being asked to step aside; only that they empower other people to plan and deliver ‘the community development part’ of the Community Programme, covering youth leadership, women’s projects and programmes for the elderly. Successful leaders know how to get other people to deliver the various parts of the community plan; they cannot deliver everything on their own.
5. Recognise that the wider community programme is a joint responsibility. When talking to Sikh leaders who are hard-pressed even to run the pastoral or religious side of the agenda, I sometimes hear the following statements:

- ‘What you are saying about programmes for the elderly and mental health for women are the responsibility of the city council and the government’.

- ‘Our youngsters will only go to the modern sports centres built by the council’

- ‘Our young men and women do not want to work for the community. They are too modernised and westernised’.

- ‘Professional people such as doctors, dentists, accountants and engineers will not contribute their time to the community’.

- ‘We have tried but we do not have the funds’.

- ‘The funders will never fund our projects’.

- ‘Our council is only interested in collecting the rates. They will not support us’.


To all these statements, I have one response -“Really?” More to follow on this later. But, is this not a good time for many people who are reading this now to come forward and to take part in the debate? Good, well managed debate should lead to positive action. Now, I can hear you say “Really?”