Back in time to bring Nanak’s teachings alive
Celebrations to begin from Sultanpur Lodhi tomorrow; Punjab plans Guru Nanak Marg to link places visited by Sikh founder; invitee list for gala event next November to include Pope and the Dalai Lama
Sultanpur Lodhi, where Sikh founder Guru Nanak Dev lived for 14 years, attained enlightenment and set off on his world travels more than five centuries ago, will soon come alive with his life and times.
The Punjab government is working overtime to launch the two-year celebrations from the town in Kapurthala district on Friday, a year ahead of the first Sikh master’s 550th birth anniversary next November. For the mega event in 2019, a 100-acre tent city will host religious heads from across the globe, including the Pope, the Dalai Lama and Shankaracharya, and an estimated crowd of nearly 35 lakh devotees from the country and abroad. A sprawling 200-acre eco-tourism village, Pind Babe Nanak Da, is being set up to depict Nanak’s philosophy, life and teachings.
As a tribute to the preacher and his love for travel, the state is also planning Sri Guru Nanak Dev Marg, a religious tourism circuit connecting towns and villages visited by him within Punjab.
Culture and tourism secretary Vivek Partap Singh said, “Guru Nanak was one of the most widely travelled persons of his times. The tourism circuit will be a befitting tribute. We will be inviting spiritual heads of other faiths to take his teachings and message of universal brotherhood to the world.” The state’s far more ambitious proposal is to seek the central government’s aid for a pilgrimage circuit to connect places visited by Nanak crisscrossing the length and breadth of the country from Punjab to Puri in Odisha, Haridwar in Uttarakhand to Bodh Gaya in Bihar.
Though the event will be held on the lines of the gala celebrations of the 350th birth anniversary celebrations of the 10th Sikh master, Guru Gobind Singh, by the Nitish Kumar government last January when three tent cities were built in Patna and a Guru circuit was developed connecting all places related to the guru in Bihar, the Captain Amarinder Singh government wants to outdo both Nitish and the tercentenary celebrations of setting up of the Khalsa panth by Guru Gobind, organised by his predecessor Parkash Singh Badal.
INFRASTRUCTURE BOOST ON ANVIL
Unlike Badal’s love for memorials, the government plans an infrastructure boost in 11 towns and 31 villages visited by Guru Nanak in Punjab. The towns will get new roads, bridges, water supply and sanitation projects. For villages, the plan is to upgrade schools, set up community centres and sports complexes.
Sultanpur Lodhi will get a makeover. “The town will get a 1,500-seat girls college dedicated to Guru Nanak’s sister Bebe Nanki, five high-level bridges, the state’s first Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), a bridge linking the Beas to cut-off villages, new approach roads, a renovated bus stand besides new sewerage and water supply lines. It will be a heritage and a smart city,” says Sultanpur Lodhi Congress MLA Navtej Singh Cheema, who is a part of the state organising committee.
Amarinder had bestowed the holy city status on November 30, 2006 during his previous stint. But the decision was never implemented. The notification had to be issued on April 1, 2007, after licences of liquor vends given under the excise policy expired on March 31. By then, a new government of the SAD-BJP alliance had taken over. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), controlled by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), is now seeking the holy city tag from the Congress government. Batala, where Nanak was married and Dera Baba Nanak, near Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan where he spent his last years, will also be developed as heritage towns.
CASH CRUNCH, CREDIT WAR
Ironically, the celebrations of the birth anniversary of the founder of Sikhism who preached universal brotherhood will see parallel shows on Friday by the government and the SGPC, which is sprucing up each gurdwara in Sultanpur Lodhi that commemorates an event of Nanak’s life. From Hatt Sahib, where he worked at a grain store, Guru Ka Bagh where he lived with his family, Kothri Sahib, the prison cell where he was imprisoned under false charges, and Ber Sahib, where he sat under a ber tree to meditate and gained enlightenment. The government has roped in the Sant Samaj, a conglomerate of religious organisations. Among them is Baba Sarabjot Singh Bedi, Guru Nanak’s 17th descendant.
Amarinder has invited former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the patron of the statelevel organising committee, to preside over the opening ceremony on Friday. The cashstrapped state may find it difficult to fund its ambition of mega celebrations. The spending on infrastructure projects over two years in towns and villages, tent city and a new pilgrimage circuit is expected to cost the state exchequer hundreds of crores.
On Wednesday, Amarinder appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow liberal grant for the event. The state’s demand for a ~ 2,145-crore package has not been approved by the NDA government, of which the Akali Dal is an ally. State tourism and culture minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, who is part of the national implementation committee (NIC) headed by Union home minister Rajnath Singh, had last month lashed out at the Centre for rejecting the demand. The NIC earmarked funds to set up a national institute of inter-faith studies in collaboration with Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, and the heritage village.
Funds notwithstanding, the culture department is buzzing with a missionary zeal. Even designing a logo required days of planning till it found something as simple as Guru’s life and teachings. No catch line but the last line of the ardas (Sikh prayer): ‘Nanak naam chardi kala, tere bhane sarbat da bhala
(With the name of God comes well being, happiness and positive spirit and with the Lord’s blessings, may everyone in the world prosper and be in peace).’