I am a proud turban wearing Sikh and yet there are times when others mistake me for being a Muslim. When this has happened,I have had racial slurs shouted at me and been told to “go back to where I come from”. They probably did not know that I was born and raised in London, or perhaps they did not even care. It is what I would describe as “othering” and assuming that everyone who looks different to them must be a threat. To them, someone with brown skin equals somebody who might be a danger to life and limb.
This experience encouraged me to continue working with Faiths Forums for London, who promote inter-faith cohesion, as their Vice Chair and help bring society together in unity rather than division.
We recently celebrated Interfaith Week, a time to increase awareness and understanding between religious and non-religious groups. During that week, I also celebrated Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary. Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, who encouraged respectful dialogue between the most diverse groups. Support for such sentiment remains strong today, with faith leaders across the world like the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope in Vatican City speaking about the Guru’s influence and emphasising the importance of interfaith discussions.
The Grand Trunk Project, which I founded in 2017, is the perfect example of people from different faith backgrounds, including non-faith coming together to combat hate. That year, I organised numerous events across the country for diverse communities to share memories and commemorate the 70th anniversary of the independence of India, creation of Pakistan and the Partition of Punjab and Bengal, a fundamental moment in history. Thousands of people attended events across the UK, and I believe that diverse projects like this challenge prejudice and discrimination in communities and shows us all that we can work together to push out hatred. That is also why the Grand Trunk Project and others are working hard in preparing for the inaugural South Asian Heritage Month next summer.
We can strengthen communities’ acceptance of various beliefs, as well as encourage more people to talk to others, regardless of any differences that we may have in our beliefs, our faiths, our languages or our ethnicities.
From my experience, many elements of division have their origins in misunderstanding and lack of interaction and dialogue between different groups in society, be they religious or non-religious, and we need to work together on improving this knowledge. We can be happy in our own beliefs and be respectful of the beliefs of others, even if we do not necessarily agree with them.
The UK is a diverse society with many different faiths and there is a strong minority ethnic presence, especially in London with 16% of the population being from a non-white background. I am proud to be a Sikh, it is an integral part of my identity, but I am also a lawyer and a millennial like many around the world.
By spending more time together, seeking to understand our commonalities and appreciate our differences, we can provide a united front against hatred. My work with the interfaith organisation Faiths Forum for London does this by bringing together diverse communities as too often, faith is abused as a basis to stoke fear, divide-and-rule, and justify violence.
Co-existence is what has made humanity such a formidable force for millennia and we should never underestimate the power of dialogue, just as Guru Nanak taught us over five centuries ago.
Jasvir Singh (OBE) is Vice Chair of Faiths Forum for London and Chair of City Sikhs
