By Manmakal Singh | Opinion | The Sikh Network |
Last week the world witnessed the Coronation of King Charles III. For Britain this was monumental and perhaps for the first time many got to see the religious aspect, with the King being made the ‘Defender of Faith’ as Head of the Church of England. King Charles has been a patron of diversity and faith, understanding that faiths represent different perspectives on truth, and that they can coexist whilst adding richness to society.
Although we see progressive and encompassing messaging from the new King, when it comes to the Government’s engagement with minority faiths, such as the Sikh community, it is very different.
A recent Government commissioned review of faith in modern Britain titled ‘Does Government Do God?’, which has come to be known as the ‘Bloom Review’, was published just before the Coronation. The review was presented as an ‘independent’ review into how government engages with faith.
Despite reference to various faiths, the Bloom Review dedicated 12 pages to what it termed ‘Sikh extremism’, this was not just a surprise to the Sikh community but was also described as ‘bizarre’ by both Sikh and non-Sikh commentators in the media.
The British Sikh community are an established and integrated minority faith group in the UK, making up less than 1% of the population in England and Wales. What is of huge concern to the Sikh community is the qualitative and opinion-based approach to this specific review as opposed to an expected quantitative and fact balance. This is coupled with a lack of confidence in the independence of the Conservative government’s decision making, which appears to be influenced by geopolitical foreign policy considerations. For minorities living in the UK, these are challenging times where public perception conflates even the most minor issues.
The Bloom Review boasts 21,000 respondents across all faith communities. However, no breakdown of the respondents is provided so it is difficult to ascertain the profile and representation from the Gurdwaras and Sikh Organisations. Considering Sikhs only make up less than 1% of the population in the UK, Sikh extremism makes up 8% of the review. It is worth noting that there is currently no individual in His Majesty’s Prisons on terrorism charges from the Sikh community nor are the community aware of any on-going investigations on terrorism related to the Sikh community.
The author of the review is Colin Bloom, a member of the Conservative Party and appointed by Boris Johnson in 2019 as the Faith Engagement Adviser at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). Bloom was a former councillor for Bromley Council and unsuccessfully stood in the 2010 general election to represent Erith and Thamesmead. He has previously served as executive director of the Conservative Christian Fellowship and director of Christians in Politics, which is a Parliamentary Christian Trust.
One can argue that Bloom wears his politics on his sleeve putting into question whether his politics influenced the independence of this review which was three and a half years in the making. In several TV interviews, Bloom has stated that the review is his own opinion. Given that he is not an expert on human rights, the Sikhs or on Indian history nor is he an expert on terrorism or counterterrorism, it is outrageous that he can make claims and counter claims against Sikh community engagement with politicians and political institutions based on his opinion.
Over the past decade the Conservative government have been alienating the Sikh community, especially the young and forcing people to question the previously accepted British part of their identity as well as engagement with political institutions.
British Sikhs continually raise concerns about better monitoring of public resources, the rise in anti-Sikh hate crime, legislation impacting the Sikh identity, human rights violations in India and the right to self-determination in the form of a Sikh state known as Khalistan. The latter being the most politically volatile as it challenges an allied state that the UK Government seeks not to antagonise, even though it is fully aware of the well documented situation with respect to minority rights within that country. However, much of this fails to enter the UK Government’s discussions with Sikh organisations.
We have a saying in the community now that ‘if the government wish to engage with the community, come to the community’. Labour must pitch itself as being more in touch with the grassroots faith and community organisation, whereas for are too long the Conservatives have pandered to aloof elites that are unrepresentative of the vast majority.
Labour should also be thinking about ethical foreign policy rather than short term-opportunism, to think about how Indian Government is using the British government to repress British citizens, Labour needs to restate the primacy of British citizens over the desires of foreign governments to silence dissent.
If Labour wish to differentiate themselves then greater engagement is key, listening to Gurdwaras and grassroots Sikh Organisations and their concerns. Not labelling them as extremists for exercising support for Khalistan, a Sikh state, which has typically become a Tory behaviour pandering to foreign governments for financial and political gain.
Recently the Archbishop of Canterbury was criticised by some for his courageous words calling the UK migration bill ‘impractical and morally unacceptable’. Critics believe faith and politics should remain distinctly separate. In Sikh thought, there is a concept known as ‘Miri-Piri’ where the temporal and spiritual are in continuous balance, one informs the other. The practical application of this philosophy removes the sort of short-sighted thinking that leads to believing that the ends justify the means, it removes the disparity that is often found between our stated values and our actual actions.
Sikhs believe that their faith should inform their politics, which are ultimately the ideology that governs human and state interactions and relationships. In the absence of such underpinning the difficulty for Sikhs as a stateless people is to navigate the contradictions of geopolitics that render them expendable to governments, leaving them unsupported and vulnerable to the sort of misrepresentations only too visible in this particular review.
Mankamal Singh is an experienced finance manager and has worked within organisations such as Capita, Man Group, Steinhoff, PwC and Mouchel. He is currently serving as the Sikh representative on the SACRE (Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education) Redbridge Committee and a Trustee of the Faith Forum. The Sikh Network is an open collective of Sikh Activists & Professionals who are responsible to monitoring progress and strategic direction of the Sikh Manifesto, a document to enable Sikhs around the UK to have a reference point when engaging politicians.
RELATED STORY:
The Sikh Manifesto 2015-2020 for UK (Asia Samachar, 11 May 2019)
History of Institutional Racism Against British Sikhs (Asia Samachar, 29 June 2021)
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