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Good morning. We may only be a few days into April, but the Vaisakhi celebrations are in full swing. Even though one of the most important festivals of the Sikh calendar isn’t actually until next weekend, the entire month sees festivities taking place across the country. In the words of one person on the Twitter-sphere, ‘April is the Sikh December’. It’s therefore fitting that this week saw the launch of the National Sikh Awareness and History Month. Launched simultaneously in the Houses of Parliament and the Scottish Parliament, it’s a much needed attempt at improving religious literacy about the faith within wider society as well as a means of celebrating Sikh identity. This desire to find out more about our history and heritage is a timely one, coming as it does so soon after the partial demolition of an historic Sikh structure near Amritsar in India. It also appears that the custodians of Punjab’s gurdwaras may have officially sanctioned the replacement of the 200-year-old structure. The destruction of old Sikh architecture and replacement with fresher looking buildings is nothing new. The last half century has seen wide-scale loss of Sikh heritage in India, much of it at the hands of seemingly well intentioned figures who feel it their duty to renovate historic buildings even if they have no expertise whatsoever. Some people may remember the botched restoration of the Spanish fresco of Jesus that ended up looking like a monkey from a few years ago to know how people with the best will in the world can get things drastically wrong. Sadly, some of the destruction of Sikh heritage has clearly been intentional. Ancient frescoes of Guru Nanak surrounded by Hindu deities, for example, have literally been whitewashed or replaced by more acceptable paintings of the Gurus in a contemporary style. Historic gurdwaras and religious sites have been demolished to make way for new bigger ones in the name of progress, and dozens of narrow alleyways and unique buildings from the height of the Sikh empire two centuries ago were pulled down in the construction of a new mock-historic road in the heart of Amritsar ironically called ‘Heritage Street’. History isn’t about being obsessed with relics from a bygone era. It’s about giving us context about who we are as a people, and it’s important for us to know our past in order to better understand ourselves in the present. Part of that involves the preservation of buildings and paintings, even if we feel uncomfortable about them in the modern day. Modernity is essential for progress in society, but we also need to aware of where we have come from. We cannot view the world through rose-tinted glasses, and we can’t resort to erasing history for the sake of convenience. Otherwise, I believe we will simply end up trying to rejoice in who we are now with just mere fragments of the past.