New York: Indian-American hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal will contribute USD 1 million to an ambitious project coming up in India aimed at better acquainting the Sikh youth and the international community about the origin and values of the Sikh faith.
The ‘Mool Project' is an initiative of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) under the leadership of its President Manjit Singh GK and General Secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa.
The project would cost between USD five to six million and is expected to be completed in two years. Chatwal, who will be providing the lead support to the project, told PTI here yesterday that he will contribute USD 1 million towards the project, which will include an auditorium, art exhibits, digital research library and a museum.
The project's infrastructure, to be housed in the Sikh Centre for International Studies in the Rakab Ganj Gurdwara Estate in New Delhi, will showcase the history of Sikhs and the presence of core values in Sikhism's sacred texts.
This will be done by presenting stories from the history of Sikhism and other relevant sacred texts using state of the art communication technologies.
Describing the initiative as “unique,” Chatwal said that the young Sikhs living in India as well as abroad sometimes lack better understanding of the Holy Book Guru Granth Sahib and the project will help spread the message of Sikhism to both Sikhs and non-Sikhs.
“The Guru Granth Sahib is not just for Sikhs. The project will help convey the message of the Guru Granth Sahib to everybody,” Chatwal said as he called on Sikhs across the world to support the project.
Chatwal had invited DSGMC officials to visit the city and spread the message about the project among the diaspora living in the US and Canada.
DSGMC President Manjit Singh and other officials outlined the details about the project which aims to familiarise young Sikhs with core values and contemporary relevance of Sikhism.
“The message of Guru Granth Sahib is universal. The Sikh Holy Book provides answers to all the problems the world is facing today, including gender inequality and climate change,” Singh said.
He said the project aims to acquaint the global community with the history of Sikhism.
“Anyone who wants to know or do research about Sikhism, its Holy Book will get all the answers through the Mool Project,” Singh said adding that the word ‘Mool' translates as ‘origin', ‘essence' and ‘roots.'
The project has been conceived by prominent filmmaker Bobby Bedi and supported by members of the international Sikh community who “believe that there is a need to re emphasise these core values in young people.”
The DSGMC plans to set up a subsidiary foundation for the project. To be built in phases, the project will include creating original content using some of the country's best talent.
It will also reformat the content for use in existing high-technology cinema formats like IMAX and offer it to organisations across the world.
The foundation also aims to reformat the content for showcasing and downloading on the Internet to make it easily available to Sikhs and others keen on learning about the history and tenets of Sikhism.
The content will be in English and Punjabi with subtitles in all languages of the United Nations.
