International Audience

Welcoming others

Recognised Worldwide

It would be incomplete also to go any further without stating the fact that the 70’s was a great period during which the organisation had caught full momentum. There was a youth wing called Ad-Dharam Brotherhood which was formed under the leadership of Joginder Paul Mahay well supported by Harbans Lal Chander and Mohinder Pal Randhawa, Nirmal Chand Summan, Nirmal Dass Mahay of village Sagarpur and others Mr. Harbans Singh Heera of Moranwali was chosen as the President, the constitution was drafted by Joginder Paul Mahay village Ghurka. under the leadership of Joginder Paul Mahay, a programme lasting more than 45 minutes was presented on Radio Derby on the life and teachings Of Shri Guru Ravidass Ji in 1973, Nirmal Chand Summan, Bakhshish Singh Yamla and a young lad called Jasveer Singh did the singing of the hymns and the commentary was made by Joginder Paul Mahay. Later on other live programmes were broadcast on other channels organised by Shri Guru Ravidass Dharmik Sabha Wolverhampton. This was at the very beginning of the 70’s.
This then was the period in the history of the Wolverhampton Sabha when an influx of very influential visitors from India ensued.

A prominent figure by the name of Sant Sewa Das Ji of “Kalewal Bhagatan” arrived visiting some of his disciples in UK and was visited by Mr Lal Chand Mahay who invited him to his house, the relationship was cemented and he was greatly impacted by the work that was being done by the community members here.

Sant Sewa Dass Ji during his stay spent most of his time helping the committee with the teachings of Shri Guru Ravidass ji. In 1971 Master Sadhu Ram from Phagwara, who was in the Indian Government, and was an MLA (Member of Legislative Assembly) had also visited U.K., only few months after him, another prominent politician of our community Sh. Darshan Singh KP, who was a Member of Parliament met with the prominent members of the Sabha and thanked the Sabha for sending the strongly worded letter in his support to the Government of India.

He had raised the issue and made a very emotionally charged speech in the parliament of India on a barbaric incident where scheduled castes had mercilessly been butchered in some state by the so called higher castes this issue was highlighted in a national news paper called Hindustan Times after his speech.

The Committee

Founding Members

During this time, Babu Jagjivan Ram Ji visited the temple who was the “Defence Minister” in Mrs Indira Gandhis’s government while she was the Prime Minister.

India’s War with Pakistan in 1971 during which Bangladesh was formed by liberating East Pakistan had put Babu Jagjivan Ram in a strong position. His visit came immediately, with few months of winning the war.

A very large number of people attended his speech at Wulfruna Hall. Babu Jagjivan Ram ji spoke for nearly two hours, highlighting the achievements of the war with Pakistan and the life and teachings of Shri Guru Ravidass ji, he spoke non stop for that period and was applauded very loudly for his sincerity and a wealth of knowledge about Guru Ravidass Ji.

He championed the indepth research on the life of Guru Ravidass Ji and built two temples in the name of Shri Guru Ravidass ji at “Raj Ghat” in Varanasi U.P and “Har ki Pauri” in Haridwar. his teaching appointed Acharya Prithvi Singh Azad and another scholar called Dr. B.P. Sharma. T

he result of their research lead to the discovery of the temple built in Rajasthan by Princess Mira Bai dedicated to the memory of Shri Guru Ravidass ji and after Acharya Prithvi Singh Azad visited UK, he stayed with a very dedicated man, Mr. Om Prakash Janagal in Walsall and soon after over 100 couplets of Shri Guru Ravidas ji’s were published in a book for titled “Ravidass Darshan”.

After the visit of Babu Jagjivan Ram Ji, Lieutenant Jagjit Singh Arora Ji who headed the operation to liberate East Pakistan now Bangla Desh which lead to the surrender of 92,000 Pakistani soldiers also visited the temple with his wife at the Dudley Road temple.

He was followed by the visit of Sardar Darbara Singh Ji, the Chief Minister of Punjab, with whom Mr. Amar Chand Mahay had built links over a number of many years ago before he came to U.K, many other VIP’s, deputations and academics from various institutions visited this temple.

In 1977 the most historical visit of Babu Mangoo Ram Ji Mugowalia was sponsored by the Ad-Dharm Brotherhood, Wolverhampton also proved to be very fruitful and informative as many who had only heard about him from their fathers and grandfathers now knew what he looked like and what were his achievements in the revolutionary awakening of our community in 1925/26 with his many other colleagues.

The achievements of the Wolverhampton Sabha had spread far and wide the spark it lit was now being spread in other places and as far as India.

The establishment of the Temple in Wolverhampton was the first achievement as it was the very first temple acquired in the whole of United Kingdom ( Europe). In the very early of 1970, a gentleman by the name of Mangoo Ram Jaspal had taken the initiative of publishing a newspaper on a weekly basis called “Ravidass Patrika” which was also instrumental in the unity and revival of our people’s historical past and there was a wide spread subscriptions by community members in U.K.

The famous community poet Sh. Chanan Lal Manak Ji who wrote very invigorating and emotions invoking poems about our ancestral past in the “Ravidass Partika” had also visited U.K some times in 1982 and was welcomed very enthusiastically by the committee and the community.

I must mention here what exactly laid the foundation of all this and how a great deal of time, effort and perseverance was behind it all. The foundation was strengthened by having a thorough knowledge of the mission of Shri Guru Ravidas ji’s life and forming political connections.

A lot of time and energy went into all that. Memorandums, letters were constantly sent, ranging all the way from the Prime Ministers to Presidents and whosoever was in key positions.

Sh. Amar Chand Mahay worked tirelessly writing them and memorandums went to the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, President of India Sh. V.V. Giri Ji, Babu Jagjivan Ram Ji, Dr. Zakir Hussain, who was also the President at one time, the Seventh Prime Minister Mr. V.P. Singh.

Deputation of the Sabha also met Prime Minister of India Manmohan Desai of Janta party and Master Sunder Singh MP and his deputation had also attended this temple and met with the founder members and had indepth conversations about past history and current issues of our community in India.

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