Many Panthic Gursikhs are moving forward with plans for organizing another Sarbat Khalsa later this year. In hindsight it has become sadly clear that more will need to be done to inspire confidence in the Sarbat Khalsa process. The last Sarbat Khalsa's defects included: a lack of transparency, a lack of representation, the inability for common Sikhs to have their voices heard, among many other issues. All of these defects, put together, made the Sarbat Khalsa an almost self-defeating task. Its organizers wanted progress in the Panth but the defects in its organization only served to undermine the event's goals, most of which were obviously positive for the Panth. Shortly after the Sarbat Khalsa, the Jathedars that were selected were arrested and there was no major outpouring of outrage from the community. This was because most common Sikhs saw the event for what it was: driven by political self-interest and not even bothering to reflect the will of the Khalsa Panth in any meaningful or proper way.
So how can a Sarbat Khalsa be organized that will be legitimate in the eyes of common Sikhs? I've already laid out a proposal a few weeks ago. This involved creating geographic zones, coming up with a checklist for representatives to the Sarbat Khalsa and finally for a Sarbat Khalsa Punj Pyareh to oversee the selection of representatives from each of the zones.
Honestly, I think that is unlikely to happen. It seems as if there is simply a lack of vision and know-how to execute this kind of system, especially now given the time constraints in place. So instead, I want to offer a more minimalistic approach to how I think a Sarbat Khalsa can still be pulled off in a way that is practical and yet still legitimate enough that it could lead to positive changes for the Panth, moving forward.
Before any of that though, I think it has to be clear who the "organizing committee" of the Sarbat Khalsa is. Before a Sarbat Khalsa can be organized, it has to be obvious who the organizers are. Who is responsible for convincing "Panthic Leaders" to show up? Who is responsible for compiling resolutions, managing proceedings and so on and so forth? This seems like such an obvious issue but I think the question of who the organizers are needs more clarity. The identity of the organizers should be obvious to the entire Panth, if only so we know who can be held accountable for the event's successes and failures.
So here are my suggestions for the organizers of the Sarbat Khalsa, whomever they may be:
1) Taking it seriously when you call yourself "Guru Panth Da Daas".
It is common for Panthic leaders and politicians to claim to be "daas" or servant of the Guru Khalsa Panth. Few seem to act like it in a genuine way. If a Sarbat Khalsa is going to be executed successfully, I think it requires a group of organizers who genuinely feel as if they are the servants of the Khalsa Panth and of each and every Gursikh.
This means that the organizers of the Sarbat Khalsa should be constantly open to constructive criticism and feedback. They should be willing to implement positive feedback as they receive it. They should know that the Sarbat Khalsa does not belong to them but rather to the entire Panth. They are simply its temporary custodians.
2) Inspiration from Shabad Guru.
Harinder Singh (formerly from SikhRi) had a really spot-on criticism of the Sarbat Khalsa process. He was a part of the deliberations and noted that there was no Sikhi presence in the discussions surrounding the Sarbat Khalsa. For example, there was no ardaas before meetings. No reading of Gurbani before beginning deliberations. There was no use of Gurbani, Sikh History, Sikh Rehit Maryada, etc. to support one's opinions.
The whole underlying idea behind the Sarbat Khalsa is that the Badal group is divorced from genuine Sikhi. How can this criticism stand when those who want to replace the Badal-order can't even bother to support their opinions with Gurbani?
3) Accepting proposed resolutions from the Global Sikh population.
This is important. A mailing address and an e-mail address should be set up and Sikhs from around the world should be able to send their proposed resolutions. This would be easy to set up and it wouldn't even be that difficult for a Sevadar to spend some time and compile a list of the different proposed resolutions. Similar-ish resolutions could be grouped together and a tally could be kept of how often that type of resolution was proposed.
This would be a solid starting-off-point for when the "important" decision-making types show up in November.
4) Transparency.
This item flows from point 1 but if someone feels as if they are Guru Panth Da Daas, then they would naturally be transparent with their master.
Even until today it seems as if no one has bothered to be transparent about last November's Sarbat Khalsa. Where is the list of organizers? Where is the list of decision-makers?
5) All deliberations should be minuted and recorded.
Everything should be minuted so that the sangat could have an understanding of what transpired behind closed doors. Everything should be video-recorded as well just in case.
There are strong reasons to keep things more confidential and private. There is the ever-present issue of government harassment and intimidation. Someone may feel uncomfortable expressing an unpopular (but maybe correct) opinion if all deliberations are going to be made public.
However, I think, on balance, there are stronger reasons to decide in favour of transparency. There is currently a massive deficit of trust in our Panthic leaders and institutions. This would go some way to demystifying the decision-making process and would lead to more trust in the people who are making the decisions and their motivations.
6) Speakers should be the same as decision-makers.
Last November, there were many discussions ongoing behind closed doors. There was also a parade of speakers who spoke on the live-feed of the Sarbat Khalsa. Most of the speakers had no actual participation in the decision-making behind the scenes. This time, the list of speakers and the list of decision-makers should be one and the same. Every decision-maker should present themselves to the Sangat and explain their priorities, their vision and their dreams for the Panth. This would give the speeches an actual purpose rather than being a quite lame ritual like it was last time.
7) The organizers should actively explain their decision-making regarding issues of representation
For me, this is one of the most important issues. The organizers' main job, in my opinion, is to bring together a representative collection of the global Sikh community. In order to hold the organizers to task for this important role, they should actively explain their efforts in this regard both before and after the Sarbat Khalsa.
They should write a letter explaining their efforts in convincing representatives from all groups and schools of thought to show up. For those who declined to participate at the Sarbat Khalsa, they should also explain why those people did not show up and which efforts were made to persuade them. I think this would be quite powerful. When Dhadhriawale did not show up at the last Sarbat Khalsa, the reasons were largely shrouded in mystery. This time, if a similar situation arises, the organizers should explain what efforts were made to contact Dhadhriawale and furthermore, what efforts were made to listen to his concerns and address them.
At the end of the day, it is the job of the Sarbat Khalsa organizers to explain how they tried to bring together a representative group of Gursikhs to have a discussion about the future of the Panth. If there is enough transparency in the process, I would like to believe that the end result would be far more legitimate instead of coming across as a rigged process that was illegitimate from the outset.
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