Entering the Sikh temple or Gurdwara (meaning ‘door to the guru’) on Queensdale Road is stepping into a charmed place of calm and kindness. Pritpal Singh and Verdatta Singh (right, below) welcomed us and talked with us about the Sikh religion. About how central kindness is to the religion, how important it is to nurture and help other people.

Explaining the basis of the religion, Gurpreet Singh Anand, Gurdwara president (above) says: “Our primary belief is that God is one, is everywhere throughout the world, that humanity is one. God is in all, not just in Sikhs, but in everyone, all creatures, blades of grass and rocks, [and we aim] to be very open and helpful to everyone. We don’t believe we have the franchise on God. People must worship God in their own way, practice their own [beliefs], as long as it is not doing harm. Sikh worship is egalitarian, understanding the human condition and world around us. We learn to have a familiarity to other world faiths. It is unique in that we are open, in terms of Good over all.”

So performing Seva (selfless service) is a basic tenet of Sikhism, and Sikhs are also expected to share at least 10% of their earnings with those less fortunate and for good causes (Dasvandh). Every day up to 450 hot meals are cooked in the Gurdwara and distributed to food banks and homeless shelters. Regardless of who they are, the food is given to anyone who needs it, and even anyone who doesn’t need it, so generous is this religion. Also, with the current Covid-19 crisis in India, Singh Anand and his team have made an arrangement to ship medical grade oxygen concentrators, with the Punjab government, to help the hospitals there, which will go to any patient who needs it, not just Sikh’s. “We see God in all of humanity, so we don’t discriminate, whatever we do,” repeats Singh Anand, “Just as Covid doesn’t discriminate."

Chanting in the Gurdwara Photo: Mary-Lu Bakker

Sikhi as a faith started in India’s north western Punjab region, and as Singh Anand says: “Sikhi is a baby compared with Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It began as a religion in 1469, so it is all quite recent.”

The Gurdwara has been at it's current location since 1969, and people from all faiths are welcome. This temple is especially important as it is London’s main Gurdwara and is the oldest established Sikh place of worship in Europe. Group Sikh worship in the UK started off in 1908 in Putney, moved to West Kensington and then in 1969, as the group grew and raised more money, the Khalsa Jatha (London Sikh group) bought it’s current building, originally called the Norland Castle and a Salvation Army Citadel in Queensdale Road. The dramatic domes were added in the early 1990s.

The Khalsa Jatha British Isles, was formed to promote religious and social activities among the Sikhs who had settled in the UK. Maharaja Duleep Singh was the first British Sikh resident, arriving in Kensington in 1860. Britain had been at war with the young Maharaja until the fall of the Sikh Dynasty in 1849, and soon afterwards more Sikh’s migrated from the Punjab, up to 700,000 Sikh’s fought with the British in WW1 and the UK population grew again after WW2.

There is a long history of connection with the UK. In WW1, Punjabi nobleman Hardit Singh Malik was the first Sikh pilot in RAF. Known as the Flying Sikh of Biggin Hill he battled the Red Baron, he had been sent age 14 to board at Eastbourne College and later studied history at Oxford University, eventually serving as the President of the Gurdwara after WW1. As Singh Anand explains, “We like to jump into action.” Which is exactly what the community is doing now in the face of the Covid crisis.