In the ranks of the Khalsa, all were equal, the lowest with the highest, in race as in creed, in political rights as in religious hopes…The Sarbat Khalsa, or the whole people, met once at the Akal Takht, Amritsar the highest seat of Panthic authority… and felt that they were one.
– Teja Singh, An Outline of Sikh Doctrines
The Sikh Research Institute (SikhRI) will host a one-day Saneha workshop, Reviving the Sarbat Khalsa, where attendees spend the day working together to explore and recreate the historical Sikh model for consensus building and collective decision-making. The workshop will be held on Saturday, July 21 2012 at the World Fair Marina in Flushing, NY.
SikhRI is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing relevant and meaningful educational resources to Sikhs around the world that inspire Sikh values, create global awareness of Sikhi and offer strategic solutions to key challenges faced by the Sikh community.
Workshop coordinator Gurpreet Kaur explained, “This will be the fourth Sarbat Khalsa workshop that SikhRI has hosted in three countries in three months. We are consistently impressed with the level of thought and engagement that attendees bring to the event, and the energy and enthusiasm that is generated during the day. We are so looking forward to sharing this in the Tri State area.”
SikhRI hopes to build on recent initiatives by various Sikh organizations to address the need for an inclusive framework which considers the common needs and concerns of a globally diverse Sikh community. SikhRI expects that the New York workshop will stimulate further dialogue and strengthen valuable networking and collaborative opportunities for Sikhs.
By exploring the Sarbat Khalsa, attendees will have the opportunity to integrate diverse perspectives in the effort to find common ground. “Sikhs are a global presence but lack a structure for Panthic decision making. This workshop provides an opportunity for the community to come together and draw on a consensus-building framework like Sarbat Khalsa to create a strong, collective voice when meeting the many contemporary challenges,” said Ravinder Singh, Executive Director of SikhRI.
SikhRI invites all Sikhs to attend. This is an open invitation to all religious, civic, cultural, and political Sikh organizations to make their collaborative presence felt by sending at least two representatives to take part in the workshop and help build this process.
The workshop will be facilitated by: Gurpreet Kaur, Inderpreet Singh, Harinder Singh, and IJ Singh.
You are cordially invited to attend and actively lend your voice in this collaborative effort to re-shape and revive the Sikh Panth’s historical model for consensus building and collective decision-making.
History tells us that the Sarbat Khalsa was a system that brought Sikhs together to make effective and unified decisions for the Panth - even in the face of diverse and conflicting opinions and views.
Sikhs face a multitude of contemporary challenges but lack a common framework to address our mutual concerns. We need to re-visit our history and the institution of Sarbat Khalsa to leverage it for the benefit of a Sikh community that is now global in its reach and presence.
The one-day event aims to initiate a discussion and dialogue within the Sikh community with a view to understanding the Sarbat Khalsa and its potential in shaping the future of our community.
The Sikh Research Institute is reaching out to all Sikh organizations in the Tri-State area and nationally with the purpose of bringing community leaders together for this event. We are counting on you to be part of the leadership that can begin to make a real difference in how we move forward as a community in North America and the world.
We would appreciate a response and letting us know how many representatives will be attending from your organization.
To register, please visit: www.revivingsarbatkhalsa.com