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Exhibition-on-rails to commemorate 300 years of Khalsa

Three hundred years after the birth of Sikhism, the Khalsa Express, an exhibition on rails of the faith's history and accomplishments, will be taken across the country.

The 15-coach train, which will run throughout the country next year, will have exhibits depicting the message of the ten Sikh gurus for evolving a new social order based on liberty, equality, and fraternity, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said.

Presiding over a meeting of the Anandpur Sahib Foundation in Chandigarh this week, he said the government would ask the Centre to bear the expenses of the exhibition.

Badal said a 'Khalsa heritage complex', designed by noted architect Moshe Safdi and museum expert Saroj Gosh, is being created. The state government has already provided Rs 1,600 million to set up the complex.

An inter-faith conference will be organised in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. A light-and-sound show will also be mounted in Anandpur Sahib and various other cities of India to explain the Sikh philosophy and depict major events in the life of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth guru who founded the Khalsa Panth.

Gurbani concerts will be organised in which eminent artistes like Lata Mangeshkar and Jagjit Singh have been requested to recite shabads (hymns), Badal said. Photographic exhibitions will also be put up.

A sports festival will be held and special films, documentaries, and serials will be made to propagate the legacy of Sikhism.

Badal appealed to all political parties and social and religious groups to participate in the celebrations to depict the "centuries-old harmonious ties and glorious culture of the country".

He said Prime Minister A B Vajpayee has called a meeting of the national committee set up to conduct the celebrations on November 5.

The government has taken elaborate steps to create sound infrastructure at Anandpur Sahib to cope with the rush of pilgrims from all over the world, he added.

Delhi Tourism chairman Tarlochan Singh said steps would be taken to bring the exhibition of Sikh relics organised by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Toronto and Washington next year to India too.

UNI

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