The proposed event by Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) on August 12th, that demands for a global referendum for Sikhs to create Khalistan, has divided the Sikh community in the UK.
While majority of the Sikhs are opposing 'Referendum 2020', the group supporting referendum has proposed to meet in Trafalgar square to launch this declaration. Many Sikh bodies in the UK, intellectuals and think tanks including National Council of Sikhs, Gurudwara Guru Nanak Bedford have reportedly joined hands to boycott the declaration. Some of them are also joining an event called 'We stand with India' on 12th August at Trafalgar Square from 11am-4pm, same time when 'Referendum 2020' will be launched.
On the other hand, the British Sikhs demanding for a separate ethnicity in the census 2021 were jubilant after a rumour of the status already ‘granted’ spread across the community on Monday morning. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) that is responsible for actually approving of the demanded status told Asian Voice that the public consultation they have opened last year, has not concluded as yet.
According to the consultation, Sikhism is under consideration as a separate ethnicity in the next UK census in 2021, following a long-drawn campaign by some British Sikh groups, who are believed to be the supporters of a Sikh state outside India ie. Khalistan.
An ONS spokesperson told the newsweekly, "Our recommendations for the 2021 Census will be included in a government White Paper later this year.” They had raised concerns over the issue of "public acceptability" and whether the move would have backing across Britain's 430,000-strong Sikh community, the PTI reported.
In the last census of 2011, an estimated 83,000 Sikhs, refused to tick the Indian box under ethnicity column, instead chose to identify themselves under "any other ethnic group,” which prompted the launch of this survey by ONS.
The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for British Sikhs, which is chaired by Preet Kaur Gill, the UK's first female Sikh MP, five months back, wrote to many UK Gurdwaras. She said, "Overwhelmingly they have said yes. Not a single Gurdwara has opposed it.”
However, there are others who are not entirely behind the campaign, with some groups pointing out that being Sikh is a choice, not something you belong to at birth or by DNA. The debate took an ugly turn on twitter, when the debaters divided into two camps, one for and the other against. Network of Sikh Organisations (NSO) wrote on twitter, saying, “We’ve heard some very confused arguments in the debate around the Sikh ‘ethnic’ tick box. Issue: Campaigners say it will help in addressing accurate hate crime reporting. Reality: Sikhs are already recorded by police as victims of racial hate crime.
“Issue: Sikhs will get better/targeted alcoholism rehab services. Reality: Sikhism prohibits alcohol consumption, this is an issue of Punjabi culture/pub culture, but campaigners are oddly not pushing for a Punjabi ‘ethnic’ tick box.
“...Guru Nanak was a founder of a great world religion, not an ethnic group. Moreover Sikhs can be of multiple ethnicities, but their faith is Sikhism.”
Journalist Sunny Hundal has also faced several backlashes on twitter when he tried to explain how he believed that Sikhism stood for a religion and not ethnicity. He said, “This claim that Sikhs are being 'forced' to tick Indian is untrue. They can tick 'other' - it makes no difference. Makes no difference to them being counted/legislation/govt resources - because they are already counted as Sikhs. Claiming otherwise is simply a lie and misleading.”
He also made reference to a letter sent by NSO to MPs, after a hundred of them signed a letter last year calling for Sikhism to be identified as a separate ethnicity in census 2021. The letter by NSO, signed by Lord Inderjeet Singh titled 'Guru Nanak was the founder of a world faith not an ethnic group', stated that people had misunderstood the law and their campaign would have a "negative effect" on practising Sikhs.
References were also made to Mandla V Dowell-Lee case where Balvinder Saund in 2002 campaigned for a separate ethnic identity through a tick box.
