Most of the first Sikhs in the UK arrived from India and East Africa in the 1950s/60s. They settled mainly in London and the Midlands. Southall’s ten Sikh temples (gurdwaras) include the largest one outside of India. There are currently around 420,000 Sikhs in the UK.

Followers of the Sikh religion believe that there is one abstract god (waheguru) and all humans are equal. Indeed, the first of their ten successive founding Gurus in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries pioneered women’s equality. The Gurus wrote the Sikh scripture ~ Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Sikhs value the family, education, work, security, charity, courage, justice and peace. This makes them admirable members of society, though they were faced with some hostility in the UK initially.

The wearing of the turban by Sikh males and some females makes them easy to spot, which is intentional. They are not permitted to cut their hair, as it is a ‘gift’ from waheguru. Hospitals have guidelines to follow for Sikh patients and Sikhs are exempted from wearing motorcycle helmets and hard hats (except where it would be life-threatening not to do so). Sikhs are also legally allowed to carry a symbolic dagger (kirpan).

(Top image of a gurdwara in Hounslow: Des Blenkinsopp at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-NC 2.0)

Until 1526, Catholicism held sway in Britain but the combination of esoteric rituals, opulence and Latin pronouncements, though wondrous, was unintelligible to most. That year, William Tyndale (c.1491-1536) published his English translation of the New Testament from the original Hebrew and Greek on the newly-invented printing presses. The Reformation in Britain had begun.

German monk Martin Luther, pioneered Protestantism in 1517, but his books were burnt in London for being heretical. He reasoned that if a particular rite was not in the Bible, it was unnecessary. This helped King Henry VIII (1491-1547) to have his first marriage annulled, as it was pointed out that nowhere in the Bible did it state that the Pope was in charge, only monarchs. The Church of England was formed and all Catholic monasteries and abbeys were confiscated.

The next King, Edward VI (1537-53), was the first heir brought up as a Protestant. However, he died young and his official successor was the Catholic Queen ‘Bloody’ Mary (1516-58), so called because of her murderous revenge on the Protestants. On her death, another turnaround occurred with the accession of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), who tried to placate both sides but was excommunicated in 1570 by the Pope, thereby deciding the matter for Protestantism.

(Image: pixabay.com)