Sikhs across the UK and Liverpool recently celebrated the birth of the religion’s founder Guru Nanak in one of the most important events in the Sikh calendar.
Guru Nanak Gurpurab is a festival celebrating the founder’s birthday, with this year marking the 555th anniversary.
The word ‘Gurpurab’ is a mixture of the word Guru, which means ‘teacher’, and Purab, which means ‘Festival’ or ‘Celebration’ in Punjabi.
Liverpool is a famously diverse city, but perhaps less known amongst its many groups are the Sikh community. Sikhism, the fifth largest religion in the world, was born in Punjab, India, in the 15th century.
There are 525,985 Sikhs living in the UK according to the 2021 Census.
The percentage of those defined as Sikh living in Liverpool was only 0.1%, which is comparatively small to the percentage living in other major UK cities.
Bahadur Singh Chand and his wife Tek Devi were the pioneers responsible for the Sikh community in Liverpool according to Peter Bance’s “Sikhs in Britain – 150 years of photographs“.
Bahadur Singh served in the British Army in the Second World War and established the first Sikh temple (Gurdwara) at 40 Newstead Road in 1957 and became its president.
The Gurdwara later moved to the old Methodist Church at Wellington Avenue.
Hardev Singh Sohal, the present day General Secretary of the Guru Nanak Gurdwara on Wellington Avenue, said: “Guru Nanak Gurdwara was established on 15 November 1965 on 8 Berkley Street, in Toxteth L8. It’s now a community centre and every Sunday we serve langar.”
Langar refers to the Sikh concept of giving out free food to everyone, regardless of their background, in the Gurdwara.
Featured image (c) Amun Bains
