When Sikhs Must Hide… Can this really be the Season to be Jolly?
Civitas, 23 December 2004
Can this really be the season to be jolly, given with each passing day some new nail is driven into the coffin of England’s traditional liberties?
Today’s depressing news concerns Sikh playwright, Guperpreet Kaur Bhatti. Her dramatised depiction of rape and murder in a Sikh temple or Gurdawara so offended some of her co-religionists that their violent protests forced the Birmingham theatre in which her play had been showing to full houses to terminate its run early.
If the forced early closure of her play was not bad enough, today’s papers report its author as having been forced into hiding on the advice of the police after receiving death threats from those apparently still not yet mollified.
Leaders of the Birmingham Sikh community are quick to dissociate themselves from violent protest, yet still find the play and its staging objectionable.
‘In a Sikh temple sexual abuse does not take place. Kissing and dancing don’t take place, rape doesn’t take place, homosexual activity doesn’t take place, murders do not take place’, so the chairman of the Sikh Gudawaras in Birmingham is reported as saying.
His sentiments are echoed by those expessed by a former co-chairman who is reported as having said, ‘Of course I condemn violence wherever it occurs and we are a peaceful and law-abiding community. But you should also consider who is provoking this violence – who is creating this anger but the author herself…. If this was set in a church or a mosque or any other place of worship there would be the same strong feelings.’
We have yet to see British Muslims out on the streets protesting at the sentencing yesterday of a British imam convicted of raping a twelve year old girl in his Bristol mosque while supposedly receiving religious instruction from him. Perhaps, the example of the Birmingham Sikh protesters will now embolden some of them to stage protests against the verdict, denying any such things could possibly happen in their places of worship.
Alternatively, as seems more likely, if British Muslims relucantly are forced to concede they can, so too, perhaps, should all religious communities. In that case, dramatised depictions of such incidents in their places of worship should be tolerated by all.
But even if it were inconceivable any such form of depravity could possibly occur in a Sikh temple, can it honestly be suggested, as apparently have some Birmingham Sikh leaders, that the fictitious depiction of any such an incident in one of their temples will bring their community into such disrepute in the eyes of the public as to warrant forcing the closure of any play which does? Surely, if anything is likely to, it will only be resort to muscle by some of that community to force any such play off the stage.
What makes this sorry tale so depressing is what it presages for the future of liberty in this country. Once any group, be it a minority or majority, is given license to impose its will by force, it marks the beginning of the end of the rule of law and the commencement of intolerant mob rule.
By way of consolation, perhaps, it is worth remembering that attempts to use force to suppress novel ways of thinking have a habit in the long run of grossly back-firing. One has only to think of Socrates, not to mention that figure whose birth his numerous followers are celebrating at this time of year.
Therefore, to all those who are: Merry Xmas!
I agree with the whole free speech, but this sounds like arrogance and shock-value play writing. To quote:
“Maybe this prodigal daughter gets to one day returns to my home”.
I’m sorry, but placing homosexuality, rape, murder, and disgrace in a place of humble worship is shallow and distasteful. Especially when such an incident has never been known to take place (or I might be wrong). Shock- value to gain success is distasteful and pathetic. I know many Sikhs and they agree violence is out of order, but young hot-blooded Sikhs were obviously enraged and reacted violently, but let’s be honest: rioting is new when people are enraged???
Gurprit Batti (spell?), if you’re reading this, you are not prodigal, you don’t deserve that self-given title. Why not try writing on real issues which might help someone and shed light on the plight or joy of this world, creating fiction in the sense of justice or truth? This is absolute shambles, but I do hope you’re not attacked, but I do feel your critical reviews might affect your title as a prodigal daughter.
hi, i’m a sikh, but i don’t feel sikhi in me. and i think i’ll probably grow up to not be a sikh, but instead be a persona like everyone else, in america….so i was wonderin….if you’re still a sikh, trying to follow all the rules and all, if u like someone alot and they like you back, is it ok to kiss them? before marriage that is, duh. anywaise plz post bak..bye
For me, as a Sikh, the main objectionable part of the play was the setting. It was objectionable for the following reasons. The Gurudwara is the place where for Sikhs the Living Guru, The Guru Granth Sahib resides. For Sikhs the Guru Granth Sahib is not just a book but a living breathing entity, from which we receive our teachings. If Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, were truly a Sikh she would know this and for that reason alone she would never have set her play in the presence of The Guru.
The setting of the play was discussed with the playwright and the promoters and it was requested that the setting be moved to a community centre, but these requests fell on deaf ears. Surely the playwright and promoters could see this was important to the people of the religion being depicted in the play. Would it have been too much to ask for the play’s setting to be moved?
However, to react with violence, the way a small minority of yobs did, was reprehensible, is inexcusable. However, I find that in this world most people only actually react when something they really believe in is being attacked. For example, you were moved to write your article, because for you the liberty to write, think, and say whatever you feel, about whatever you want, is very important. For many Sikhs, the most important thing is their religion. So, to see their Guru being defiled in such a way can cause any right-minded Sikh to lose some self-control. After all Sikhs are only human beings.
Most Sikhs are not small-minded enough to believe that the actions depicted in the play can only be fictitious. In this world we live in anything is possible, simply because we are all fallible human beings. Just because the human being in question happens to live his or her life in the guise of a Sikh is secondary to that.
I hope Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti is able to live her life in peace and without fearing for her life. If any Sikh was to cause her harm, this would in my view be the most potent Behzti for my religion. I don’t believe anybody on earth has the right to pass judgement on what she has written. She, as all of us, will be one day be judged.
Happy New Year!
You are quoted as saying: “what this may presage for the future of liberty in this country”. Unfortunately, this is probably the umpteenth time that such a doubt has been expressed!