8: Sovereigns and servers
Enablers and challenges to Sikh community-led activism during COVID-19
Early on during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown in the United Kingdom, community intelligence highlighted a growing need among people who had already been struggling. Some of these people, who come from all ethnicities, races, and religions, were familiar faces in Gurdwara langar halls (the communal dining areas in every Sikh place of worship). As soon as Gurdwara attendees noticed these community needs, phone calls and text messages started to spread, and plans were made to find solutions to help.
The events that this chapter covers, the systematic processes that spur people into action during situations of need, is not new. The acts of providing hot food, things that people need, and standing alongside people who are oppressed, is a normal practice in Sikh communities. It describes ‘Sikh activism around social justice and humanitarian relief [that centres on] Sikh concepts of sewa (selfless service) and langar (community kitchen) in a contemporary context’ (Singh, 2018).
This chapter therefore describes individual and collective actions by minoritised and often racialised Sikh communities to address needs and provide services that were necessary during the pandemic and related lockdowns. These services have included health and care services, like support for mental wellbeing, and provisions to nurture physical and emotional wellbeing. The co-production described in this chapter, therefore, relates less to research and more to the actual design and delivery of services by Sikh individuals and organisations. This chapter brings together the experiences of individuals and organisations, and describes the impact of existing structures on activism in racialised communities.
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