Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee which manages the historical Gurdwara Rakab Ganj reopens the issue of the shrine's land illegally usurped by the British Colonials in 1912
Indian leaders if they have any pride MUST return Gurdwara Rakab Ganj land in New Delhi after destroying Colonial British-built illegal structures on the shrine's property on Raisina Hill and elsewhere
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - It is about time we Sikhs stood up on behalf of the Sikh nation, to demand return of non-negotiable gurdwara lands (eg. Raisana village with its gardens and ochards which were historically a part of Gurdwara Rakab Ganj) usurped unjustly by the Colonial British administration in 1912, when it decided to build New Delhi after King George V had declared, on December 12, 1911 - during his state visit to his Indian colony - that Dilli would henceforth be the capital of British India. Reports from New Delhi, India, indicate that Sikhs of that city have indeed stood up on this issue. Bravo! Better late than never!We commend our Sikh brothers and sisters of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) who are reported to have taken up the gauntlet, according to a small news item hidden away under NCR stories - National Capital Region section - in the Chandigarh English language newspaper THE TRIBUNE of January 16, 2004: (www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20040116/ncr1.htm#4)
to resolve the nearly 90-years-old dispute about non-transferable (and non-negotiable) Gurdwara lands in New Delhi, which were usurped illegally by the Colonial British in 1912 under an unequal arrangement enforced by viceregal writ by Lord Hardinge, the then British Viceroy, not known for his affection for the natives.
The January 16, 2004, Tribune, in a New Delhi-datelined dispatch, reports that the President of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), Mr. Prehlad Singh Chandok, has urged the National Commission for Minorities Chief, Mr Tarlochan Singh, to take up with the Central government the 90-years-old dispute about Gurdwara Rakab Ganj lands in New Delhi usurped by the government in 1912. The report goes on to say that, "Prime gurdwara land was then acquired by the British Government to build Parliament and the Secretariat, when the latter shifted the Capital from Calcutta. At that time, the entire area was a village (Raisina) housing Gurdwara Rakab Ganj." DSGMC President Sirdar Prehlad Singh Chandok was reported to have said that the Sikh community wants the Indian government to, "review the compensation order and make a fresh award, providing them with the land in Delhi." Sirdar Prehlad Singh Chandok has made it very clear that, if the Central BJP coalition government did not heed the Sikh community's very reasonable request, it would hold morchas (protests) to press for the demand.
According to other media (UNI) reports, the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) President, Sirdar Prehlad Singh Chandok, convened a special meeting on January 14, 2004, which was widely attended by Sikh community leaders - which cut across all political lines - and included many Sikh entrepeneurs and NRIs (Non-resident-Sikhs from the diaspora) to discuss the grave issue of Gurdawara Rakab Ganj non-transferable and non-negotiable lands (Village Raisina and numerous orchards and gardens which were located between and around the two Delhi Gurdwaras Rakab Ganj and Bangla Sahib) illegally usurped by the Colonial British in 1912 when they decided to build New Delhi. Although we have an opinion of our own about the stolen lands of Gurdwara Rakab Ganj which we will mention later but we do commend Sirdar Prehlad Singh Chandok, members of the DSGMC committee and other compatriots who attended the historic January 14 meeting, a week ago in New Delhi, for their Sikhi spirit and their initiative. The three million strong Sikh diaspora, we are sure, will support this worthy cause of reclaiming property belonging to Gurdwara Rakab Ganj, New Delhi, with all their might.
Before we comment on the subject under discussion - Gurdwara Rakab Ganj and its usurped lands and orchards which belong to the Gurdwara in perpetuity - we consider it important, for the benefit of non-Sikh readers of this column, that we retell the glorious history of Gurdwara Rakab Gunj. This historical New Delhi Gurdwara Rakab Ganj, is located, in what remains of the historical Raisina village, opposite to the round British-built Council House - designed by British architect Sir Herbert Baker - now the Indian Parliament building. It shares a common boundary wall with the imposing British-built Viceregal Lodge, now India's Presidential palace or Rashtarpati Bhavan. Gurdwara Rakab Ganj's noble history is etched in every Sikh's heart since November 1675 AD - November 24, 1675, as per the new Nanakshahi calendar. It is on that day that Bhai Lakhi Shah Wanjara secretly cremated the headless body of Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib (by setting his own house on fire to hide the cremation from the authorities who were searching for the headless corpse having martyred the Guru Sahib by beheading, a day earlier, on the orders of the cruel Mogul ruler, Aurangzeb, in the Chandni Chawk Kotwali where the majestic Gurdwara Sis Ganj now stands.
The first building of Gurdwara Rakab Ganj, which marks the exact spot where Guru Teg Bahadur was cremated, was built in the time of Guru Gobind Singh Sahib. Baba Baghel Singh, when he captured Delhi in 1783 AD, built a new building for Gurdwara Rakab Ganj. In the first half of the 19th century Maharajah Ranjit Singh granted the income from village Dosanjh near Jallundhar to Gurdwara Rakab Ganj. After the 1857 mutiny Maharajah Saroop Singh of Jind state rebuilt Gurdwara Rakab Ganj and Gurdwara Sis Ganj and purchased Raisina village and various gardens and orchards (located between Gurdwara Rakab Ganj and Gurdwara Bangla Sahib) which he bequethed to Gurdwara Rakab Ganj in perpetuity and other gurdwaras in Delhi for their maintainance and well being. Various other Sikh Rajas and laymen have also contributed to Gurdwara Rakab Ganj and other historic Delhi Gurdwaras.
On December 12, 1911, British King George V declared, during a state visit to the Indian colony, that the capital of British India would move from Fort William (near Calcutta in Bengal) to Delhi, which ancient city was occupied by the British in 1803 and annexed in 1857. Three days later, on December 15, 1911, the visiting King laid the foundation stone of New Delhi which the Voceroy, Lord Hardinge, declared would be located between Pahar Ganj and Safdar Ganj. According to the Mahan Kosh (Encyclopedia of Sikh Literature, compiled by the respected and renowned Sikh scholor, Bhai Kahan Singh Nabha (1861-1938) and published in 1930, Raisina village and eight acres of orchards and gardens held in perpetuity by Gurdwara Rakab Ganj were arbitrarily requisitioned by the Colonial British authorities although they did not touch the Gurdwara itself at that time. In a 'take it or leave it' haughty gesture in 1912 the Viceroy granted 375 acres (25 morabbas or squares) of agricultaral land in Western Punjab and Promissary notes for Rs. 32, 000 (Rs. thirty two thousand) to Gurdwara Rakab Ganj as compensation for its loss of Gurdwara property.
On January 14, 1914, British engineers building New Delhi, designed and planned by British architect Sir E. L. Lutyens, encroached on Gurdwara Rakab Ganj itself, as it was an eye sore for the British architects and they demolished its outer wall to test the reaction of the Sikhs who were already very agitated. When the angry Sikhs started an agitation and opened a 'Morcha', the British administration backed down and rebuilt the Gurdwara's boundary wall and saved face by saying that they were only trying to straighten out a road going into the Viceragal lodge.
We believe that any property or money or gift given to a historic gurdwara like Rakab Ganj is for ever - it remains Gurdwara property in perpetuity and nobody can dispose of it. Now that the members of the Delhi Gurdwara Management Committee are siezed of the problem and have become cognisant of the religious heritage of Gurdwara Rakab Ganj we Sikhs must demand the original property back in the shape it was when the British siezed it in 1912, as the farangi ruler - the British - have left and India is supposed to be a free country.
Indian leaders who still love to ape British traditions, uniforms and mentality (and strut around looking out of place like spindly-legged brown children of the white viceroys in the Viceregal lodge now called the President's House) should do what some leaders of free nations have done when they became free of Colonial rule. South Korea comes to mind. It suffered Japanese Colonial rule from 1910 to 1945 as the colony of Chosun. South Korea's leaders after 1948, when their country was liberated, did not consider their country as really free till they blew up with dynamite, in a solemn ceremony, the symbols of colonial rule in their capital city, Seoul - the beautiful residence and secretariat of the Japanese colonial Viceroy of South Korea.
We hope that the Indian leadership - which carries a thousand years baggage of slavish psychohistory - will get over its inferiority complex and follow the Korean example and blow up, a la South Korea, the obscene British-built structures on Raisana Hill like the Secretariat, the round Council House (Indian Parliament buidling) and the overbearing Vicregal lodge now called Rashtarpati Bhavan etc. - all built by the British Colonials on stolen land owned by Gurdwara Rakab Gunj in Raisina village. After the Indian government has removed the rubble we demand that it return the levelled land, illegally usurped, in 1912, by a bigotted British Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, to Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib.