I witnessed something remarkable this Saturday evening (10 March, 2012) in Melbourne, Australia at the Whittlesea Council Assembly Hall.

Politicians from our federal, state and local assemblies were present and some prominent Sikh luminaries, Sikh sangat and non-Sikhs. It was an initiative of the local council, under the auspices of one Harkieret Singh, ably supported by staff and councillors.

I think even they did not know the enormity of the cause and initiative they were supporting. It dawned on me as I sat and listened and watched.

Firstly, let me remind all that 14 March is a triple whammy (forgive my Aussie slang) for us. It is not only the Sikh Environment Day but also the Sikh New Year Day as well as the Gurpurab of our affectionately named 'Eco-Guru', the Seventh Master, Guru Har Rai.

A day, which otherwise used to pass off as 'just another' Gurpurab but, within the year, has suddenly become one of the most significant days in the international Sikh calendar.

At the program, I asked for a show of hands as to how many Sikhs knew that it was our New Year Day. A couple of hands went up. This, to the amusement of everyone else present.

Prominent members of our legislature, including outgoing Speaker of the Federal Lower House, Mr. H. Jenkins, gave some insightful speeches about Sikhs in Australia. All had done their homewwork and were with us to have a good time.

Prominent Sikh luminary S. Gurbaksh Singh talked about the Nanakshahi calender. A personal message was read out from Sikh-Canadian S. Pal Singh Purewal, the architect of the Nanakshahi calendar.

As I sat there, the full significance of this day slowly dawned upon me. I had the opportunity of saying a few words too ...

I do not think we have actually fully woken up to this phenomenon of what 14 March is going to mean to us into the future.

This celebration is about:

1  Our International Identity as a community (quom). Dare I say, 'nation without borders'?

2  Sikhs as an international, responsible community becoming super conscious of the environment and become eco-friendly collectively, as families and as individuals. 

3  Sikhs playing an active and responsible role in promoting multiculturalism which appears to under attack in some parts of the world. 

4  Attaining a higher and positive profile worldwide by a community which is hard-working, civic-minded and a credit to the nation in which they stay in - whether it be U.S.A., Canada, Australia, Malaysia,  India or any other country. 

Firstly, credit where credit is due. I believe the Washington Sikhs under the capable leadership of S. Rajwant Singh are to be credited for launching this idea of an International Sikh Environment Day and for vigorously promoting it. 

Sikhs have never widely celebrated the Sikh New Year on March 14  before - it has to date been subsumed into Vaisakhi in April! 

Some do celebrate the Gurpurab of Guru Har Rai. Now, it has been given an added dimension as the Sikh Environment Day. 

To me, this is a significant step in our effort to establish our status as the Sikh quom worldwide. Here we have a distinct identity, a worldwide presence, our own language, our own script, a very colourful five-century long history, including sagas of tremendous valour worldwide over the last two centuries, and dare I say, a 'culture' which we call our own. 

We do have our challenges, though.

Firstly we have the problem of 'ethnicity'. Are we an ethnic minority when it comes to minority monitoring by various governments worldwide? Though a British House of Lords case, Mandala v. Lee in 1983, established that Sikhs should be considered an ethnic minority for census purposes, we still have a problem over that. Rather than accepting that Sikhism is a complete and distinct way of life, we still like to separate religion from culture and once again we are lost in the quagmire of being Indians or South Asians, etc. for census purposes.

From within, there are Sikhs who refuse to accept that we are not just a religious community but also an ethnic community, based on a religion. For census purposes we are neither Indians, not even Punjabis but 'Sikhs'.

Increasingly in the worldwide diaspora, many of us are born outside the subcontinent and have little in common with others who now live there, except Sikh-Indians. There is no reason we need to be bundled for census purposes with people who share neither ethnicity nor language nor culture nor values with us (Indians, for example) or with those who merely speak our language (Pakistanis, for example) ... and so on.

There is no reason for us to denigrate ourselves in the diaspora by labelling ourselves 'Indian". We are Sikh are are proud to be so. 

As a collective body we need to convince governments that we must be counted as Sikhs. We will then get a better idea as to how many Sikhs there are in each corner of the world. Are we now 30 million worldwide? Are we more?

Can this army of 30 million then also turn into eco-warriors?

For a modest start, Khalsa ji, may I request all gurdwaras that still dishing out paper napkins when degh is served and also still using paper plates for langar - please do something about it. It is embarrassing to talk of the environment when we still have such wasteful exercises in our gurdwaras! 

We are doing so at our Blackburn Gurdwara in Melbourne, Australia this week when all of our 'neighbours' from far and wide have been invited. We have members of the Jewish, Christian, Hindu and Muslim faiths to joing us to talk of efforts within our respective communities re the environment.  

Let us all celebrate Sikh Environment Day and become active eco-warriors and promoters of peace and harmony in the countries we live in.  

We are nation-builders: this is our mandate.

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