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Opinion Columns Harsh Mander

Published: January 12, 2013 17:00 IST | Updated: January 12, 2013 17:00 IST

AREFOOT

From langar, with love

Harsh Mander

t a langar organised at Nanded in Maharashtra

The idea of a food charity is not just that the hungry should be fed, but that they must also be fed with dignity.

hrough the centuries, all maj or faith traditions in India placed great value in feeding the hungry. What was special

bout the institution of the langar, intrinsic to the humanist and egalitarian Sufi Chisthi and Sikh traditions, washat it embodied not just the idea of cheerful service to the needy, but also of respect for the dignity of the receiver ofood. However, in contemporary times, these traditions of food charity are eroding, and with these also the idea of thequal dignity of the person in need.

In Vedic texts, the worshipper seeks the privilege of possessing enough so as to be able to feed the hungry. This valueingers culturally in peoples consciousness even today. Destitute people I meet regret not only that they cannot feedhemselves, or their loved ones. They regret not being able to be hospitable to a stranger, to feed a guest like me, butven more so to feed someone in need.

Christian missionaries care for the destitute, and Jain sects serve and feed the disabled. Islamic traditions requireetting aside a regular fraction of ones earnings to feed the hungry and destitute. I find in Muslim ghettoes of Delhiike Nizamuddin and Jama Masjid, even today, a number of wayside eateries that offer plastic tokens for sale. These

re bought by people who eat at the restaurants, and they distribute these to destitute people. Each token can beedeemed by them for a meal, when they are in need of food, over a period of a month.

Of all these feeding traditions, the most charismatic is the Sikh langar, or the free-community kitchen, which buildsn earlier Sufi Chisthi practices in which people of all faiths were welcomed to eat hot cooked meals served in

Dargahs. The Persian word langar means a feeding centre and a resting place for travellers. Sufi saints likeNizamuddin Auliya Chisthi ran kitchens round the clock, and fed with love the destitute, dusty travellers and

orshippers.

he tradition of the langar continues to be a dominant motif of Sikh communities in all parts of India and the world.he Sikhs pray:Loh langar tapde rahinmay the hot plates of the langars remain ever in service. Volunteers fromural Punjab rush to sites of all major natural disasters, and run efficient and generous langars for tens of thousandsf survivors.

In the Sikh tradition, Gurudwaras offer wholesome vegetarian food to all who seek it. People are seated respectfully inines on mats on the floor, and volunteers cook and serve the food and clean the dishes. The langar is not only a foodharity. In the Indian context, social differences and hierarchies are expressed by strict barriers and taboos on eatingith the other. By requiring that all people eat together, this institution significantly affirms the idea of the intrinsic

qual dignity of all human beings, regardless of their faith or caste, or whether they are men or women, or rich or

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oor. It upholds the equal worth and oneness of all human beings, but also values of sharing, service, fraternity,

olidarity and the dignity of labour.

hese ideas of equality, kindness and secularity were brave and revolutionary in the India of the 13th and 16thenturies, with its deep caste and religious fractures, and the oppression of women and working people. But as iturns out, these remain radical and contested ideas, which are rapidly eroding in modern, republican,emocratic India.

his erosion marks not just Sikh but other major religious traditions as well. In a survey of religious food charities inDelhi, we found few Christian food charities anywhere in the city; mosques no longer open their doors as they did in

edieval times to the homeless and hungry; and Hindu temples mostly served sweet and oily food sporadically, onixed sacred days, and rarely with dignity.

e have found that most major Gurudwaras in Delhi, like Sis Ganj, or those in upmarket areas like Greater Kailashnd Vasant Vihar effectively bar the entry into the langar of destitute homeless men, women and children. The rulesre unwritten but actively enforced. In Bangla Sahib Gurudwara, a separate langar for the homeless and destitute haseen created, but outside the main precincts of the temple, thereby retaining the food charity for the very poor, butegregating them from middle-class worshippers.

I have discussed this informally with some Gurudwara managements, arguing that such barriers on entry oregregation violate the core essential teachings of the Sikh faith. They try to explain that the destitute and homelessefile the sanctity of the temple, because they are unclean, and often drink alcohol and take drugs. I ask them: werehe poor different in the times of the Gurus? And if they believed then that the unwashed masses would not defile the

Gurudwara then, what has changed today?I unsuccessfully remind them that the central value of the idea of the langar is not just that the hungry should be fed,

ut that they must be fed with dignity. It affirms that if I am poor and needy, this does not render me less worthy ofespect. But this idea of the equal dignity of the very poor is fast fading in the glittering India of today.

wonderful story is told of Akbars visit to the third Sikh Guru Amar Das. The Guru insisted that the emperor, wearyfter his long journey, must sit on the floor of the temple and eat the simple, wholesome fare of the langar. He did thisillingly, in the company of beggars and wayfarers.

It would be different if President Pranab Mukherjee decided to visit Sis Ganj Gurudwara today. He would be deprivedf the company of the citys destitute poor, because they are exiled from the temples precincts.

Keywords: food charity, langar, Sufi Chisthi, feeding the hungry, social services

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