The victory of religious conservatives in Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Temple election last month shocked the mostly moderate congregation. B.C.’s second-largest gurdwara has had a liberal environment for the past decade, but a split among moderate voters ensured the victory of religious conservatives in the November 23 election.

The last time the conservatives won was in 1996. Since 1998, the majority has consistently voted against the traditionalists. Of the almost 15,000 votes cast last month, the “Sikh youth” slate led by Amardeep Singh won 5,900 votes. The two moderate factions led by Balwant Singh Gill, the former president, and Sadhu Singh Samra, the former vice president, bagged only 4,770 and 3,947 votes, respectively.

Together, the Gill and Samra slates collected far more votes than the Sikh youth slate, which is determined to change the community-meal area of the temple—known as the langar hall—in accordance with a strict religious code. Although the president-elect, Amardeep Singh, claims that he wishes to bring changes in consensus with the congregation, moderate families who attend the temple are worried. All members of the winning slate are Baptized Sikhs with heavy religious convictions.

For years the temple had allowed its congregation to sit with uncovered heads in chairs and take the langar on tables. They could do this while wearing shoes. This is in sharp contrast to the normal practice in Sikh gurdwaras in India, where devotees must sit cross-legged on the floor with heads covered for the langar.

Here in B.C., temples have allowed furniture in the langar halls since 1906 because of hostile weather conditions and also to accommodate seniors and women, who at that time were forced to wear skirts.

Sikh separatists’ demands for the elimination of tables and chairs only came after they began losing elections to the moderates. At about the same time, there was a violent brawl between the moderates and the fundamentalists when the latter group reportedly tried to replace the tables and chairs with rugs. This resulted in injuries to the recently defeated president, Balwant Singh Gill, and to his daughter.

The new power struggle began in the B.C. Sikh temples after the Akal Takhat—the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs in India—issued an edict in 1998 that asked Canadian Sikh leaders to stop serving the langar on tables and chairs. Gill was ostracized by the Sikh clergy in India for not complying with the edict.

Both Gill and Samra were part of the moderate group that had managed the temple since 1998. This year, however, they became locked in a bitter tussle over the leadership issue. In the absence of a common enemy for years, they started fighting among themselves.

Samra wanted to be the next president, whereas Gill was not willing to quit. There were other issues. The temple, under Gill’s leadership, organized a prayer service for the widow of Sikh firebrand Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who was killed when the Indian army stormed the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984. Gill said he was against Bhindranwale’s ideology, but he emphasized that he couldn’t stop someone from holding this event. However, he attended a candlelight vigil to commemorate this military operation, which also alienated some moderates. Gill didn’t support Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, whereas Samra’s supporters did.

Each side also alleged the other was guilty of mismanagement. They accused each other of making unholy alliances either with “atheist communists” or with fundamentalists. The result wasn’t a huge surprise: the conservatives snuck up the middle to capture control.

Despite the recent defeat, moderates still form a majority in the community, but their egos and disagreements will only help the fundamentalists in the long run. Whereas the children in moderate Sikh families will eventually get assimilated into the mainstream, kids growing up in orthodox religious environments will continue to be immersed in the politics of the temples, which are also community centres. If the moderates don’t want to promote religious fundamentalism in the future, they should put their differences behind them and unite for the good of the entire community.