On Saturday 27th June, the Wills Memorial Building in Bristol was the venue for the first in a series of seminars hosted by the Sikh Education Council as part of the ‘Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Project’. Over 100 people travelled from across the country to the historic venue to hear speakers Richard Reddie, Madge Dresser, Palbinder Singh and Kerry McCarthy MP contrast the abolition of slavery in the UK with the concepts of Truth, Equality and Justice in the 18th Century Khalsa Republic.

Richard Reddie began proceedings having kindly stepped in to speak at the 11th hour after key-note speaker Dr Robert Beckford was unable to attend for personal reasons. We look forward to working with Dr Beckford in the future, but thank him for introducing us to the knowledgable Richard Reddie who is a unique researcher and author on slavery in his own right. Richard took the short time he had to equip himself with information about Banda Singh Bahadur and the role he played in destroying feudalism in The Punjab, and he referred to Ganda Singh's wonderful work on Banda Singh on more than a few occasions during his talk. He concentrated on how slavery was abolished in the UK and examined the role that was played by religion in this occuring. It was fascinating to hear of the many heroes who had fought for freedom and equality, both white and black, and the significance of their belief in God.

A significant aim of this inaugural seminar was to look at this period of Sikh history in the context of World affairs at the time and to examine the unique aspects of the establishment of the 1st Khalsa Republic. Following on from Richard Reddie's valuable insights was Madge Dresser who similarly gave a more Worldly depth and context to the proceedings. Madge looked at some of the impacts of slavery on the city of Bristol itself, before addressing how Banda Singh's Khalsa Republic of three centuries ago had put Sikh ideology into practice. Again, there were a number of thought-provoking assertions put forward which ably fuelled conversations among attendee's over the lunchtime refreshments.

Palbinder Singh followed on and focused entirely on the achievements and historical backdrop of Banda Singh's life. In his own imitable style, Palbinder regaled the audience with how Banda Singh came to be the figure-head of the Khalsa after the departure of Guru Gobind Singh from this Earth and how he was able to lead the Khalsa Army to victory over tyranny, despite overwhelming odds. Local MP, Kerry McCarthy gave the final speech of the day with a brief depiction of the fight against inequality, injustice and tyranny being fought around the world today.

The seminar was brought to a conclusion with a question and answer session involving all of the speakers. Dr Pargat Singh, Chairman of the Sikh Education Council, commented that, “The speakers had undertaken a detailed research and were able to contemporise the subject so that the seminar was not a simple history lesson. The questions that were posed at the culmination of the seminar to the panel of speakers were highly indicative that the audience had been fully engaged by the topic and as we found during the refreshment breaks, they have also been inspired to further their own studies in this area.”

The seminars are just one part of the project which is celebrating the tri-centenary of the establishment of the Khalsa Republic by Baba Banda Singh Bahadur in The Punjab. The ‘Banda Singh Bahadur Project’ continues until 2016 and details of the next seminar in this series, to take place in London, are due to be announced shortly. The project aims to enhance understanding in both educational circles and among the general population of the events that took place from 1710 to 1716 in The Punjab.

If you attended the recent seminar in Bristol and would like to leave constructive feedback, or weren't able to attend and would like to make any appropriate comments, then please click on the following link to help us make future events even more productive.
Bristol Slavery Seminar feedback form

If you are interested in becoming involved with the Banda Singh Bahadur Project as a volunteer then please email us in the first instance stating such via the Contact page.