‘Moderates’ ground down in BC temple vote

A Sikh community in Canada has voted peacefully to adhere to traditional practices in its temple – with gurdwara members breathing a sigh of relief that the election saw no repeat of violent behaviour which made national headlines in 1997.

Members of the Guru Nanak Gurdwara, in Surrey, British Columbia – the second largest Sikh temple in North America – voted by13,458 votes to 7,257 to install a new management team, which had campaigned as the Youth Slate.

They beat a collection of long-established ‘moderate’ community leaders who they criticised for tolerating changes such as allowing members to sit on chairs instead of the ground during temple meals.

The Youth Slate are thought by some to be out of step with the attitudes of many other second and third generation adults in Canada’s 300,000 strong Sikh community, but it was a resounding victory that probably did not surprise the previous management.

Curiously, the Youth Slate’s traditionalist outlook in certain areas of temple life does not make them easy to categorise as fundamentalist devotees.

They utilised internet chat rooms, and social networks Facebook and Twitter to reach out for support rather in the way that recent political campaigns have done in North America. And they have put forward progressive proposals to create community services for the elderly and for women victims of domestic abuse (see http://newfuture.ca/agenda/women), as well as pledging to introduce English into temple activities in a bid to attract disaffected young people who do not speak Punjabi.

The Youth Slate team, in their 30s, are reckoned to be 20 years younger on average than the moderates they ousted, but their promise to combat drug dealers and other criminal gangs in British Columbia clearly won over a great many of the older generation. Their methods, achievements or failures will be closely watched by other temple communities in Canada.

Conservative Sikhs nearly took over Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara last year, defeating the moderates by nearly 6,000 votes, but the province’s supreme court declared the results void because nomination forms were not correctly filled out.

Tensions between traditionalists and moderates caught the attention of the nation in 1997 when fighting broke out over whether members should be allowed to use chairs or made to sit on the ground for temple meals. Riot police, who were amazed to discover the cause of the violence, were summoned to restore order and police were also present as a precaution at the latest election.

The poll marked the end of 11 years as president for Balwant Singh Gill. He stepped down in October.