Â鶹Éç

Available for over a year

Good morning. We're currently in the midst of Black History Month, and even though it's been marked in the UK in some respect over the last 33 years, never has it felt more relevant than in 2020. In a year which has seen the tragic killing of George Floyd, sparking protests around the country, and the wholesale re-evaluation of our collective past as a nation, it certainly seems like the ethos of the Month has finally come into the mainstream. It's also probably no coincidence that this has happened against the backdrop of the pandemic. When social and health inequalities have shown up the stark differences between different groups and communities, it isn't surprising that some of the groups most affected are trying to change the narratives and ensure that their authentic voices are being heard. When lockdown hit at the end of March, the Sikh community was gearing up for its biggest religious festival of the year, Vaisakhi. With the gurdwaras closed, there was an obvious need for Sikhs to engage with their heritage and identity in creative and innovative ways. One of the best examples of this was the emergence of a weekly virtual bookclub run by the UK Punjab Heritage Association. The bookclub has run for the last 6 months and has been hugely popular within the community, with renowned historians and writers such as Shashi Tharoor, William Dalrymple and Radio 4's very own Anita Anand shining a light on the hidden histories of Sikhs, the Subcontinent and the impact of the Mughal, Sikh and British Empires on Sikh and Punjabi identity. At the same time, one of the leading Sikh epics from the 19th century, the Suraj Prakash, is being painstakingly summarised into English and broadcast as a podcast series. A history of the lives of the Sikh gurus, it was previously dismissed by western White historians as being the work of an uneducated man and littered with untruths, but it has since been reclaimed by Sikhs as an authentic connection with the oral histories of the past and a precious source material. The very first verse of the Sikh scriptures describes the attributes of the Almighty and includes the phrase "without fear and without hate". In my view, that also encapsulates how, by looking to our past, we are ultimately able to improve our knowledge about ourselves for the future. Without fear of the unknown, without hate for those who have hated us. The circumstances of this year have clearly unleashed a desire amongst people to look beyond themselves, to go beyond boundaries and to explore identity and history once again. There's a real feeling of a renaissance, a rebirth in how we view ourselves and others. 2020 has undoubtedly been a tough year with many challenges ahead, but I think that it's also a year of hope.