Two of British-Columbia’s most prominent Sikhs are seeking pardons from their apex religious body for actions which led to a holy melee over temple communal meals.

The two leaders, Kashmir Singh Dhaliwal and Balwant Singh Gill, were excommunicated 13 years ago for serving food prepared at the langar or communal kitchens on tables and allowing the use of chairs in local temples.

This was done despite an edict from the Sikh holy city of Amritsar to remove tables and chairs in temple dining rooms, known as langar halls.

Fundamentalists linked to separatist groups then tried to remove the tables and chairs with force in December 1996 and January 1997, before open hostilities died down.

The langar or free kitchen was started by the first Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak to uphold the principle of equality. Tradition and fundamentalist faith held that the langar would be an institution where all people would sit on the floor together, as equals, to eat the same simple vegetarian food.

However some Sikh leaders, including Dhaliwal and Gill allowed tables and chairs in temples for the benefit of the sick and elderly.

This led to open confrontations, sometimes bloody and continues to simmer in some segments of the community.

Last November the decade long-rein of Balwant Singh Gill as the head of the Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Temple, one of North America’s most influential came to an end when a youthful orthodox group of baptized Sikhs swept all the executive positions.

The youth group headed by Amardeep Singh, a 26-year-old software engineer, ran on a platform to follow the edict of serving the langar meals on the floor.

Singh said after the victory that if and when the tables and chairs, ordered in by Gill’s executives are removed, there will be special provisions for the elderly and the disabled.

Last week, a body representing Indians in North America appealed to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to pardon Gill and Dhaliwal.

“We are appealing to Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal to convince SGPC to pardon Kashmir Singh Dhaliwal and Balwant Singh Gill, presidents of Ross Gurdwara and Surrey Gurdwara, respectively,” Vikram Bajwa, secretary of Indian Immigrants in North America (IINA) told reporters in Chandigarh, Punjab.

“They were declared offenders and ousted from the Sikh community in 1986. Their only fault was that they organised a ‘langar’ (community kitchen) on tables that offended the sentiments of Akal Takht. However, the Sikh populace of Vancouver has full faith in them and supports them,” he said.

The SGPC is the apex Sikh body based in Amritsar and Akal Takht is the highest temporal seat of Sikhism. The Akali Dal is Sikh-based political party.

Bajwa said there are at least 15 Sikhs staying in North America who have been similarly ex communicated from the community.

IINA is an umbrella organisation with a membership of 37 organisations representing Non-Resident Indians from different communities and religions in North America.

Bajwa, who runs a real estate business in San Francisco, US, is in India with five members of IINA. They intend to meet Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and SGPC president Paramjit Singh Sarna to seek the pardons for Gill and Dhaliwal.

Dhaliwal is the current president of the Khalsa Diwan Society which runs the historic Ross Street temple in Vancouver.

His family operates J and K Construction, a home building company, and Dhaliwal is also a partner with the East Van Bottle Depot.

He made an unsuccessful bid to be elected to Vancouver city council last year.

Dhaliwal is active in B.C.’s New Democratic Party and the Liberal Party at the federal level. Dhaliwal arrived in Vancouver from India in 1983 to marry his wife, Balbir Kaur. The couple has two sons, Vardip and Deepak.

Gill, who has been the moderate face of the local Sikh community for over two decades, is no stranger to controversy.

He has taken on some of Sikhism’s high priests including the controversial Bhai Ranjit Singh, who openly justified the 1980 murder of a rival religious leader and Giani Gurbachan Singh, who had visited Vancouver to settle the langar dispute between rival groups.

Gill was one time targeted on a hit list alongside his close friend, publisher Tara Singh Hayer, who was gunned down after a series of articles where he criticized Sikh extremists and community members, whom he disagreed with.

More recently, he emerged as a key supporter of paralyzed refugee claimant Laibar Singh, whose controversial deportation hogged local headlines for months.

In 2001, Gill was acquitted on a charge of impaired driving.

Gill’s lawyer had argued that his client, who was then 62, was suffering from the effects of diabetes when he was pulled over.

During the trial, Judge James Jardine said there was evidence that Gill drank between three and four ounces of alcohol. He also noted police found a bottle of rum in Gill’s truck with more than nine ounces missing.