Kabuli Gurdwara: A sanctuary in Delhi for Afghan violence victims

Guru Arjan Dev ji Gurdwara, located in a narrow lane in the bustling New Mahavir Nagar in the Tilak Nagar area is better known as ‘Kabuli Gurdwara’--- and not without reason. Few people know that it is the nerve- centre of the Afghan Sikh community in Delhi, which built it in the 1990s. In fact, of the estimated 15,000 Afghan Sikhs in Delhi, about 90% live in west Delhi areas such as New Mahavir Nagar, Shiv Nagar, Ashok Nagar, Fateh Nagar, Vikaspuri, and Tilak Nagar. In the streets around gurdwara, one can hear elderly Afghan Sikhs talking to each other in a mix of Pashto and Punjabi language. The gurdwara also has ‘saroops’ ( copies) of Guru Granth Sahib that Sikhs from Afghanistan brought as they fled threats and religious persecution over the past several decades.

“ This gurdwara is manged and run by local Afghan community, and we have always helped Sikhs who arrive from Afghanistan, in every possible way. We are also taking care of many Afghanistan Sikh families who were evacuated to India last year,” says Kuldeep Singh, vice-president of the gurdwara’s management committee. In March last year, 25 Sikhs, were killed in an attack on Kabul Gurdwara, after which the Indian government evacuated many Sikh families. Many of them are settled in New Mahavir Nagar in the vicinity of the gurdwara.

On Sunday, an Indian Air Force (IAF) C-17 Globemaster aircraft landed at the Hindan airbase in Ghaziabad with 168 travellers, including 107 Indians, from Kabul. About 23 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus were among those evacuated.

“We are happy some of Afghan Sikhs and Hindus have been evacuated safely by the government. We are talking to them and will help them in every possible way. We are also in touch with Hindus and Sikhs who are still in Afghanistan. We hope they too will be evacuated soon, ” Kuldeep Singh.

Amrik Singh, who was among the passengers and is a native of Ludhiana in Punjab, said, “It took us about five hours to reach Delhi from Kabul, as we have to come through Iran. There were lot of issues there (in Afghanistan). There was firing all around, ” he said.

Afghanistan MP Narender Singh Khalsa was also among those airlifted to India from Kabul on Sunday. He broke down as the plane touched down at Hindan airbase.

“I feel like crying...Everything that was built in the last 20 years is finished. It’s zero now,” ANI quoted the MP as saying after landing in Ghaziabad.

The Taliban marched into Kabul on August 15 after the collapse of the Ashraf Ghani government. Most of the top leaders of the group, including Abdul Ghani Baradar, have returned to Afghanistan and are engaged in consultations of forming a government.

India evacuated its envoy, diplomats, officials, security personnel and some nationals on two C-17 heavy lift aircraft last week. The government is focused on the safe repatriation of Indians still stuck in the country.

Talking about the difficulties that the Afghans who came to India last year are currently facing, Mirwan Singh, 29, said: “My uncle was killed in the Kabul gurdwara attack last year, and we had no choice but to leave Afghanistan. I worked with the Afghan government in Kabul, but life has been pretty tough here in the last one year.” Mirwan Singh works in the Kabuli Gurdwara as a computer operator, taking care of the paperwork relating to visas, citizenship applications and other such. “I am lucky to have got some kind of work here, but most other Afghan youngsters who came last year with us either have no work or working as helpers in shops.”

Kuldeep says that the gurdwara pays house rent and provides for all the Sikhs who lost their family members in attacks in 2018 and 2020 in Jalalabad and Kabul respectively, and came to Delhi.

“We had offered to help them with ration and rent for a year, but they are in a financially difficult situation and still need our help,” he says. “ A large number of Afghan Sikhs who have arrived since the 1990s have not got citizenship, which makes life difficult for them. And this is one of the reasons why most Sikhs who are currently in Afghanistan wants to be evacuated to Canada and the US rather than India.”

A room adjacent to the gurdwara is packed with large sacks of flour, rice, and pulses. “We distribute the ration between first to fifth day each month to about 600 Afghanistan Sikh families. Most of the money comes from members of Delhi’s Afghan Sikh community and donations at gurdwara,” says Harman Singh, 75, who coordinates relief efforts. He came to India from Afghanistan in 1991 and is now an Indian citizen.

The gurdwara also runs a school in an adjacent building, which was attended by 280 children before the pandemic -- about 90 of them belonging to Afghan Muslim families and the rest, Sikhs.

In the early 1990s, says Kuldeep, there were about 100,000 Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan. Most of them were well off and lived in Jalalabad, Ghazni, and Kabul, he said. “They were the biggest exporters and importers in Afghanistan, but facing threats from Mujahideen (or Taliban), they fled to countries such as Canada, the US and India. I still have my shop there in Kabul,” says Kuldeep, who had a wholesale grocery and cosmetics business in the Afghan capital. He came to India in 1991 and has not returned since.

“ But most Sikhs who are now left in Afghanistan run small businesses such as grocery store and general stores,” he said.

While many Sikhs and Hindus left Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan war between 1979 to 1989, the mass exodus of Sikhs and Hindus from the war-torn country started in the early 1990s as Mujahideen took control of most of the country and President Mohammad Najibullah was ousted. Under the Mujahideen, there were constant threats, harassment, extortion, and, religious persecution, targeting Sikhs and Hindus.

Harpreet Singh, who looks after the maintenance of all the facilities run by Kabuli Gurdwara, says most of those who arrived in Delhi in the 1990s live in Tilak Nagar area, and many of them have their business in Tank Road in Karol Bagh. The gurdwara complex also has a hospital and a reception hall for organising weddings and other functions.

“Those members of our community who cannot afford a banquet hall or a hotel organise weddings here. Most Afghan Sikhs marry within the community because of the reasons of language and culture. But now many youngsters are getting married outside the community too,” said Harpreet.