Sultanpur Lodhi - Recent Developments

Recent Developments

Kali Bein, a 99-mile-long (160 km) river considered sacred by the state's majority Sikh population. Over the past couple of decades it was reduced to a filthy drain into which six towns and more than 40 villages emptied their waste. Parts of the river dried up, leaving neighbouring farmlands parched. Its polluted waters also seeped underground, contaminating the groundwater and causing lethal diseases. Seechewal, a Sikh holy man, set out to clean up this mess. Drawing on the Sikh tradition of kar sewa (voluntary service) he and his followers taught locals why they should clean the Kali Bein, enlisting volunteers to do the physical work and raising funds for equipment. At the height of his movement, people from more than two dozen villages were pitching in. The scale of the task was gigantic — volunteers cleared the entire riverbed of water hyacinth and silt, and built riverbanks and roads alongside the river. When appeals to government and municipal bodies failed to stop dirty water flowing into the river, Seechewal launched a public-awareness campaign to encourage villagers to dispose of their sewage elsewhere. Some villages revived traditional methods of waste disposal and treatment, and farmers lined up for a share of the treated water. A government order to divert water from a nearby canal was eventually obtained. As the riverbed was cleared, natural springs revived and the river began to fill up. Since then, trees have been planted along its banks and fishing has been banned to preserve biodiversity. Today, the Kali Bein is thriving. Families head there for picnics and the devout bathe during religious festivals. Seechewal has turned his sights onto the tanneries and other factories that dispose of untreated waste in rivers. He is also leading efforts to get residents and the government to clean up rivers and creeks in a more systematic way across the state. "We have proved that it is possible to restore our rivers to a pristine condition if we all come together," says Seechewal. "It is time to do that on a bigger scale."

Gurbani Work shop for foreign Sikh converts

For almost a fortnight, soulful music from traditional string instruments, which have almost gone into oblivion, wafted from centuries-old Qila Sarai till Monday. Gurbani kirtan practitioners, mostly Sikh converts from foreign countries, practiced finer nuances in a unique workshop organized by Anad Foundation.

Siri Ram Kaur Khalsa, an Italian student of kirtan since 1996, said after embracing Sikhism, he got the opportunity to study Gurbani kirtan at the place where Guru Nanak Dev lived for several years. "It is like coming back home. All the people in the town have accepted us like a family. It has been amazing to receive their kindness and care," she said

The workshop was organized by Bhai Baldeep Singh, who had also taken up the issue of conservation of Qila Sarai and revive the heritage. The event brought people from India, Canada, the US, UK and Italy on a common platform.