Annual Sikh Shaheedi (Martyr) Games in Griffith, Australia

The annual Sikh Martyr Games -Shaheedi Games- are held in Griffith in the state of New South Wales, Australia on the second weekend of June, which is a three-day long weekend being Queen's birthday. The event commemorates death of thousands of Sikhs during the mayhem of 1984, unleashed by extremist Hindus in the wake of murder of Prime Minister Indra Gandhi. Having attended the games in 2007 and 2015, where I enjoyed the ambience a great deal, I happen to be here again in 2017 and spent a joyful two days surrounded by true unadulterated Punjabi culture under a sunny winter sky. The games are held in the lush green, undulating, penta-level Ted Scobie Oval with a small hill on its northern side, in the Collina suburb of Griffith. When I am here, I go to this picturesque ground regularly for my daily walk. My son in law's house, where I am staying, is across the road from this playground. Being a 'Gill', a caste that he shares with many of the local Sikhs, and a fluent Punjabi speaker, he happens to be the favourite physician of the Sikh community, providing free consultation and prescription for their relatives visiting them from outside the town, or abroad. Established in 1916, Griffith is a sleepy semi arid town on the edge of deserted central plains. It has a population of twenty five thousand that includes villages in its suburbs. With construction of canals in the early previous century, this area has become agriculture intensive with vast tracts of vineyards, citrus orchards, and almond plantations. It grows enormous quantities of water melons, rock melons, cherries, strawberries, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, egg plants, capsicums of all shades, and a host of other vegetables that are exported to other states of the country through the vast network of super stores. Then there are miles upon miles of extensive wheat, cotton and rice fields; complete with storage silos and ginning factories. There is a huge Halal branded poultry factory here that processes a million chickens each day. The area raises enormous quantities of sheep that are exported to all over the world. With all the vineyards and oranges, it is no wonder that one in four bottles of wines produced in Australia is made in one the local breweries of this town, including the world famous 'Yellow Tail' brand. The people are friendly and welcoming. Interestingly, some of the older residents recall that the British engineers working in the irrigation department of Punjab came over to this area and employed their skills and experiences to create the irrigation network of this remote interior of NSW. All this agriculture attracted a large population of Sikh immigrants to the town. Being diligent and industrious, they have been able to establish their presence in the area. Starting mostly as farm hands, many of them now own orchards and businesses of their own and are financially well off. There are about 500 Sikh families in this town, comprising about 10% of the local population, many of them living in affluent neighborhoods. A few years ago, they procured a large block of land and built a big double story Gurdwara that formally opened in 2015. A very large copy of specially printed Granth Sahib was brought here from India and placed in the Gurdwara in an elaborate ceremony in which Sikhs from all over Australia participated. I happened to be here at the time and was invited there by one of the friends. The food served is prepared in the Gurdwara kitchen by the local volunteer Sikh ladies. All ladies, irrespective of their social, educational or financial standing, work in the Gurdwara kitchen making luddos, go¬l-gappas, parathas, lentils, paneer palik, etc, whereas the men serve food in the main hall. The place serves as the social and religious focal point for community. The purpose of writing this in detail is to show that the Sikh community is well organized and cohesive for their common good. The roots of the games lie in June 1984 when Indra Gandhi ordered her military to carry out operation inside the Golden Temple, the holiest of Sikh shrines. The last such sacrilege had been committed by the Afghan invader Ahmad Shah Abdali in 1764. When she was herself assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards on 31 October 1984, her Congress loyalists perpetrated anti Sikh riots in Delhi, Haryana and forty other towns across India. An estimated eight thousand Sikhs were killed, some in the most inhuman manner. The Sikh secessionist movement claimed further thousands of lives. Those who felt threatened, sought asylum in UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, USA and some other western countries, where there are now active movements for Khalistan independence. Sikh community in Australia alone is about one hundred twenty five thousand and has earned respect as peaceful and enterprising people. They operate a radio station named 'Quami Awaz' (National Voice). One of my neighbours here, Mr Ajeet Singh Rahi, a noted poet and a writer, who migrated from West to East Punjab in 1947 and to Australia in 1984, expressed typical Sikh sentiments thus, " ...by a canal bridge, after deliberate killing an encounter is announced how far is the day when your horrible deeds will rebound O, murderer, how poor are, how pitiful the hope to link state's survival by eliminating us all" (7 Feb 1986) The Sikh diaspora of 1984 is a traumatized lot. When they speak of riots, a Pakistani like me, whose family had to migrate from Amritsar in the riots of August 1947, mistakenly thinks that they are referring to that era. Their memories, however, have been overtaken by the events of 1984. They remember those riots, talk about them often and arrange related events world over. Two annual game events are held in Australia; a three day event in Adelaide in April and a two day event here in Griffith in June. The Sikhs come here from everywhere in Australia. Griffith, as I said, is a small town. Only one flight operates per day at the local airport, that from Sydney only. The participants, therefore, travel by road to this place; 6 hour drive from Melbourne, 8 hours from Sydney, 12 hours from Adelaide and 14 hours from Brisbane. Several persons travel from New Zealand, some from Canada, USA and other countries. They commemorate the innocent deaths of their loved ones and renew their pledge to strive for justice and an independent homeland. The Sikh games in Griffith have been held without break for the previous 21 years and these are the third games that I have witnessed. The participation each year has been on the rise. This year, there were about ten thousand visitors attending the two day event. The city Mayor was in attendance on the second day for the closing ceremonies. My interaction with the organizers revealed that the pioneer of the games was a migrant brother of one of the victims of 1984 riots, who organized the death anniversary of his martyred brother in June 1985 and each year thereafter. Gradually, relatives of other victims from across Australia too started participating in the services here to keep the memory of the massacre alive. Subsequently the event transformed into annual games of current format. Although the games in Griffith feature several sports like musical chairs for children, tug of war for ladies, etc but the main item is the Kabaddi championship. Apart from several Australian teams participating in the competition, there were two from New Zealand. One of the judges had come all the way from USA. Sikhs claim to have carried this sport to 189 countries. Here in Australia, they have several teams; at least one for each state and more for some. There are lavish prizes for the players with each good move awarded by wealthy Sikh audiences with fifty to hundred dollars. The prizes for the winning teams run into thousands of dollars. Sikhs have kept their culture alive all over the world. Punjabi language survives because of them and it is largely their music that has given a renewed life to the sufi poetry, especially of Bulley Shah. They speak their mother tongue at their homes and their children easily switch from chaste Punjabi to perfect Aussie accented English. I was amused to hear the free flow of choice Punjabi curse words amongst the young adults communicating with each other in English. It reminded me of my early days in Gowalmandi Lahore. The local library has a section on Punjabi literature. The games serve as a crash course in Punjabi language and culture. Sikh womenfolk are attired in their best clothes with bright colours and embroidery. Men are in turbans of all possible colours. The running commentary on Kabaddi in chaste fluent Punjabi with apt poetry is an aural joy. The environment is clearly of a 'mela' with several announcements for kids lost or found, all happily reunited in the end. These are the only two noisy days in the year for this quiet neighborhood. The food is aplenty and free. It is cooked in the Gurdwara by local ladies and sponsored by the people themselves. There were stalls for ladies clothes, bangles and other stuff. For me, the most interesting was the stall displaying history of the 1984 riots. Large framed pictures of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and other martyrs of the riots were displayed with a brief story of their struggle. There is a frequent mention of how the Muslims had been able to attain states of their own in the sub-continent but the Sikhs had failed to do so. There are posters advertising the atrocities of Indian government against the Sikhs at various instances since independence. The ample dedicated parking places and the roads around the vast grounds are full of cars with the excess vehicles finding places in the side streets. More than any community in Australia, Sikhs love to have personalized number plates for their vehicles. I saw number plates announcing "SIKH", "AGRWAL", "TOOR", "GILL", "JATT", "SINGH", etc in combination of compulsory six letters. One plate boldly claimed the owner to be a "GHABRU". I took images of these plates and have put them together for the readers. One very pleasant aspect of the games' gathering is that no visitor from outside the town stays at any hotel or motel. They are all accommodated in their homes by the local Sikh residents. Farms and farm houses are thrown open for the guests. One house near our home had forty guests for one night who had to be given breakfast on two mornings. Another home owner got a call by the organizing committee late on Friday night to make arrangements for eleven male guests. They cleared out their living room and threw out mattresses, rugs and whatever seemed appropriate. I need to remind here that the weather seasons in Australia are opposite of Indo-Pak and June is like December; severely cold with night temperatures hovering near 0o C. Mercifully, central reversible air conditioning provides respite and obviates the need for heavy quilts. The visitors dispersed peacefully at the end of the games. Remarkably, after two days of joyous gathering and eating by thousands, the next morning I found the grounds absolutely clean, without a trace of any garbage. The volunteers had combed through the grounds late in the night collecting each tiny bit of rubbish and depositing it away in the bins. The only thing reminding me of the boisterous gathering of the previous days was the stale aroma in the kitchen section of the ground. A memorable round of Punjabi festivities had come to an end. This article appeared in the weekly The Friday Times on 7th July 2017 Parvez Mahmood retired as a Group Captain from PAF and is now a software engineer. He lives in Islamabad and writes on social and historical issues. He can be reached at parvezmahmood53@gmail.com