Over 200 gurdwaras to be part of British heritage
LONDON: Over 200 gurdwaras across the United Kingdom will be seen as part of British heritage, according to an expert from Historic England, a body that advises the British government on such matters after a major doctoral project highlighted their architecture, growth and use.
LONDON: Over 200 gurdwaras across the United Kingdom will be seen as part of British heritage, according to an expert from Historic England, a body that advises the British government on such matters after a major doctoral project highlighted their architecture, growth and use.
The project completed at the University of Leicester by researcher Clare Canning means that experts in historic environment now have the knowledge and understanding in order to think about the future management and protection of gurdwaras in the country.
Linda Monckton from Historic England said: “The project came about because although we knew that many gurdwaras were re-used from existing, often historic, buildings, we needed to better understand the specific way in which gurdwaras are valued by the communities who use and look after them”.
Historic England is the apex adviser to the British government on the protection and management of the historic environment. It is a public body with the mandate to “champion and pro- tect historic places, helping people understand, value and care for them”.
“Little was previously known about gurdwaras in this way but Clare’s project explored the everyday value of Sikh religious spaces and their continuing potential for evolution and adaptation into the 21st century. We are now considering them as important historic places and thinking about their management and protection for the future,” Monckton added.
Announcing her research last week, Canning, who visited gurdwaras in several towns, said prior to the study, there was very little known about the development of gurdwaras outside the Sikh community, since the first Sikh place of worship was set up in 1908.
She said: “A key outcome of the project is that current heritage frameworks, where original purpose and aesthetic value are given importance, are not necessarily relevant in the assessment of the significance of gurdwaras”.
Sikh migration to Britain is largely considered a post-war story, sparked by a boom in industry and apparent shortage of labour in the reconstruction of post-war Britain, as well as the partition of India in 1947, and Africanisation programmes of Kenya and Uganda in the 1960s and 70s.
THE FIRST GURDWARA IN THE UK, THE KHALSA JATHA BRITISH ISLES, WAS FORMED IN 1908 BY SIKHS STUDYING AT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY