I was one of the coveted few who got the invitation to attend the 400th anniversary of the installation of Guru Granth Sahib in the Hounslow Gurdwara of London in the middle of October last year when I was on a private visit to the UK. On a request from the Indian Community Queen Elizabeth of the Great Britain along with her consort Prince Phillip were to attend the celebration. It was one of those unprecedented moments of history, an experience of a lifetime that I could ill afford to miss.
The event was unique in so many respects as much for the religious import it had for the Sikh devotees as it was for a Christian sovereign who was to show an extraordinary catholicity in attending in attending a religious function of another faith. But the Queen acted appropriately as the social head of the community which proudly lives in England and proclaims the British potentate as their own even if descended from distant Orient – once a jewel in the crown and professing a religion other than her own.
Unlike in our part of the world I did not encounter layers of concentric security. There was only one contact of access control and the check that it carried out was highly palatable without one having to go through the odious beeps of metal detectors and other gizmos. The presence of uniformed cops was totally symbolic and those in civvies quite unobtrusive. Due care was taken not to hurt the susceptibilities of the devotees and yet not a leaf could ruffle without notice. A lesson to learn by a professional cop.
The Queen arrived on the dot! After going through the usual obeisance in the sanctum sanctorum she stepped out into into the marqueed pandal outside the Gurdwara where the deliberations were to be held. She and the Duke of Edinburgh stood in graceful silence through an hour of the devotional music and other rituals. While being greeted by medallioned soldiers of the British Indian army who had seen action in World War II on the side of the British she spoke to each one of the veterans and shook hands with them. A moment of gratitude for the services rendered.
The royal couple spent an hour and a half in perfect grace and solemnity. It was as secular a function in a Gurdwara as it could be – full of religious deference yet devoid of unctuous ceremonialism.
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