{"id":327968,"date":"2025-08-08T13:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T13:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/327968\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T13:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T13:27:10","slug":"why-uk-has-allowed-gurdwara-to-keep-khalistan-boards-firstpost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/327968\/","title":{"rendered":"Why UK has allowed gurdwara to keep \u2018Khalistan\u2019 boards \u2013 Firstpost"},"content":{"rendered":"

A watchdog for the United Kingdom\u2019s charity sector has allowed a gurdwara to keep boards featuring the word \u2018Khalistan\u2019. The Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha in Slough was found not to violate the regulator\u2019s political guidance for charities operating in the country. Here\u2019s what happenedread more<\/p>\n

A gurdwara in the United Kingdom (UK) has been allowed to keep boards featuring the word \u201cKhalistan\u201d. The watchdog for the UK\u2019s charity sector ruled that it had found in its investigation into Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha in Slough that the \u201cKhalistan boards\u201d did not violate the political guidance for charities operating in the country.<\/p>\n

The case arose in 2019 when an Indian journalist came across a \u201cKhalistan board\u201d in the premises of the place of worship. However, the committee of the gurdwara reportedly defended the use of these plaques as \u201creligious\u201d rather than political.<\/p>\n

STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what happened.<\/p>\n

The row over \u2018Khalistan boards\u2019 in UK gurdwara<\/p>\n

In 2019, an Indian journalist visiting the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Slough, in the Berkshire county of southeast England, found a large \u201c
\nKhalistan<\/a> board\u201d inside the premises.<\/p>\n

She filed a complaint with the Charity Commission, which regulates the UK\u2019s charities.<\/p>\n

Gurdwaras are registered as charities in the UK as they are for public benefit.<\/p>\n

The British Charity Commission\u2019s guidance does not allow advocating political party or state.<\/p>\n

The \u201ccomplex and sensitive matter\u201d of displaying Khalistan banners or plaques at the gurdwara was raised with the independent watchdog for review.<\/p>\n

Last December, the commission told the trustees of the gurdwara to take down the plaques by March 10, 2025. However, they were never removed, reported Times of India (TOI).<\/p>\n

The Gurdwara\u2019s management tried to portray the Charity Commission\u2019s ultimatum as \u201cbullying\u201d and \u201cinterference in Panthic affairs,\u201d reported Khalsa Vox.<\/p>\n

The ultimatum led to a meeting among several Sikh organisations and three Sikh MPs \u2014 Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, Preet Kaur Gill and Jas Athwal \u2014 with top officials at the commission to resolve the issue.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

UK commission allows \u2018Khalistan boards\u2019 at UK gurdwara<\/p>\n

Five years after the issue was flagged, the UK\u2019s commission has decided that the boards can stay, noting that the word \u201cKhalistan\u201d has an important religious meaning, while it is a political term for some.<\/p>\n

The panel concluded that the charity was acting within its religious objectives, as the Khalistan boards did not promote material calling for a political state.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a number of governance concerns were raised with us about Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Slough, we opened a regulatory compliance case to further assess these and engage with the trustees,\u201d a Charity Commission spokesperson was quoted as saying by PTI.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cAs part of this case, a complex and sensitive matter was raised regarding the display of \u2018Khalistan boards\u2019. Following substantial review of evidence and consultation with a number of sector representatives and stakeholders, we have determined the display of the boards in itself not to be in breach of our campaigning and political guidance for charities,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n

As per TOI, Dabinderjit Singh, lead executive for political engagement at the Sikh Federation UK, said he told the commission \u201cthe word \u2018Khalistan\u2019 on its own means \u2018land of the pure\u201d. That is different to \u2018Khalistan Zindabad\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have reached a decision about the Slough one so our interpretation is any gurdwara can display this word,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Indian newspaper, staff at the Slough gurdwara said that the two Khalistan boards have been there for nearly 50 years.<\/p>\n

Gurdwaras in Birmingham, Derby, Leicester and London also display the word.<\/p>\n

The development comes amid India\u2019s concerns about rising
\nactivities of Khalistan<\/a> supporters in the UK. Last month, during his London visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged his British counterpart Keir Starmer to take action against \u201cextremist ideology\u201d that \u201cmisuse democratic freedoms to undermine democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n

STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD<\/p>\n

With inputs from agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A watchdog for the United Kingdom\u2019s charity sector has allowed a gurdwara to keep boards featuring the word…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,70507,118156,393,4884,118153,118155,118154,118151,1144,712,94600,16,118157,118152,118150,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-327968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-charity-commission","11":"tag-charity-commission-investigation","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-gurdwara-sri-guru-singh-sabha","15":"tag-gurdwara-sri-guru-singh-sabha-slough-khalistan-row","16":"tag-khalistan","17":"tag-khalistan-boards","18":"tag-northern-ireland","19":"tag-scotland","20":"tag-slough","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-uk-charity-rules","23":"tag-uk-gurdwara","24":"tag-uk-gurdwara-khalistan-board","25":"tag-united-kingdom","26":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114993381030896424","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}