Sikh heritage sites in India, Pak facing ruin, says scholar

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 24

The rich Sikh heritage sites in Pakistan as well as India are being mindlessly destroyed thanks to the lack of will on the part of the authorities concerned to preserve them. There is also an urgent need to educate the young minds in the two countries about the necessity to preserve the historic sites belonging to the era of Maharaja Ranjit Singh which are being destroyed by vested interests.

Pointing this out, Bobby Singh Bansal, a British national who visited these areas in Pakistan and researched about the Sikh heritage structures on the verge of ruin, urged the governments of the two countries to preserve them as both the nations share a common heritage. He said the preservation of these structures can boost Pakistan’s economy by helping develop the tourism industry there.

He also urged the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to play a pivotal role in conserving the Sikh heritage sites in Punjab as well as in Jammu and Kashmir.

Bobby Bansal was here to launch his book, “Remnants of the Sikh Empire – Historical Sikh Monuments in India and Pakistan”, at a special programme held at Guru Granth Sahib Bhawan in Guru Nanak Dev University here.

Speaking to The Tribune, Bobby Bansal said around 90 per cent of the Sikh heritage sites associated with Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his great generals were located in Pakistan while only 10 per cent of them are in India. He said he had identified over 100 such structures in Lahore, Peshawar, Gujranwala, Multan and other parts of Pakistan which he extensively visited for research.

“I have scratched the crust and visited only the major towns in Pakistan. There must be many more monuments in the villages and small towns besides the western part of Pakistan which are yet to be traced and preserved,” Bansal pointed out.

He said the main aim of the book was to prepare a catalogue of such Sikh monuments and initiate steps for their preservation by involving various agencies concerned.

“We have founded the Sehkar Khalsa Foundation in 2003 with the aim of preserving the legacy of Sikhs in Pakistan in collaboration with a Pakistani NGO there,” Bansal said. SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar, who was also present on the occasion, appreciated Bansal’s research and said it was up to the government to initiate the process to help preserve Sikh monuments in Pakistan. The SGPC would look into it and do what it can at its own level, he added.