advertisement
“People know a gurdwara is a place where anyone can take refuge – their nationality and religion don’t matter,” Navjot Singh, a caretaker of Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, located in the suburbs of Polish capital Warsaw told The Quint.
Over the last four weeks, since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on 24 February, over 300 refugees across nationalities have found shelter inside the humble premises of the gurdwara.
As the number of refugees grew in the initial weeks, the gurdwara reached out to the Hindu Bhavan temple, 16 km away from its premises, and solicited them to house a few of them as well.
To this day, some of these refugees are still staying on the premises of the gurdwara and the temple, even though the number has dwindled in the last one week.
One of them is Srinivas – an Indian from Ukraine, who crossed the Medyka border on 4 March.
"My feet were bloody and sore. I was denied entry into the train from Kyiv. Pushed out and left on my own, I waited for 12 hours to take the train and then arrived in Lviv the next evening," recounted Srinivas.
His ordeal didn't end at Lviv. Speaking to The Quint, he said:
After crossing the border, Srinivas and a group of South Asian refugees from Ukraine contacted Indians in Poland.
"After having faced such racism, we knew the only people we could rely on, were other Indians in Poland. We called the Indian restaurants in Warsaw, found social media posts, and found out that the Hindu Bhavan Temple and Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha were hosting refugees," explains Srinivas.
Srinivas and his group of seven refugees stayed with the gurdwara and then the temple for four weeks.
Gurdwara in Warsaw.
Gurdwara in Warsaw.
Ukrainians Ludja and her 83-year-old bedridden mother escaped from Chernivtsi soon after the war broke out. Holding back her tears, Ludja told The Quint:
"We’ve not asked for help from the embassy or the authorities here. Our communities have helped each other. The Indian community has donated necessities and so much more that we distributed those in the stations to refugees," says Singh, the caretaker.
Among the volunteers in the gurdwara, is a group of young Sikh men who drive taxis in Warsaw. They have not only been transporting supplies to refugee centres but also helping refugees find shelters in either the gurdwara or the temple.
Harish Lalwani, president of the Hindu Bhavan Temple in Warsaw told The Quint that the two communities coordinated to provide a safe space for refugees.
"These refugees will stay here until they decide to go back home or move on to another country. We have a family here that wants to stay in the temple until the war is over so that they can go back to Ukraine. Some of them have found jobs and will stay here," reveals Lalwani.
Among the refugees housed in the Hindu temple, is Jayanti Bhai, a native of Ahmedabad, Gujarat. He arrived in Kyiv just a few weeks before Russia attacked Ukraine, and was to work in a fruit-packing company. But the war disrupted his plans.
Jayanti Bhai spent $250 on a taxi ride from Kyiv to Lviv on 24 February and crossed the border after waiting in line for 48 hours. He found refuge at the Hindu Bhavan temple and is now appointed as the caretaker of the temple.
Unlike Jayanti Bhai, we met Indian refugees from Ukraine who have had to leave their successful business ventures behind and are now waiting for the war to end so they can go back, pick up the pieces, and rebuild a life in Ukraine.
One such refugee is Mukesh Saha, who runs a pharmaceutical company in Ukraine. He has lived in the country for 27 years. The Quint met him in the gurdwara where he plans to stay until the war ends.
Among families that have left all that they own behind in Ukraine is the Sharma family which owns an Indian sweets shop and cafe in Kyiv.
Kamlesh Sharma, a 55-year-old woman, and her son, 27-year-old Ashish, who drove from Kyiv to the Ukrainian-Polish border soon after the war started.
“When we were escaping, a group of men asked us to give donations to the Ukrainian army, at gunpoint. I knew these were scammers, but because even civilians were given arms, it was utter chaos and scammers were trying to loot people.”
Ashish and his mother Kamlesh plan to stay in the Hindu temple until the war ends and are looking forward to rebuilding their life in Kyiv. Meanwhile, Luda and her mother are attempting to move to Canada and rejoin her daughter.
The Sikh and the Hindu communities of Warsaw continue to rescue refugees and hope peace returns to Europe.
Speaking over the phone to update us on the current situation, JJ Singh, chief administrative officer at the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, says, "Although the influx of refugees to the Gurdwara has reduced, the situation remains the same. Few people are still coming in every day, taking refuge here. We have 18 refugees as of now, and we will provide all the help they need until peace prevails."
(The author is an independent journalist based out of Paris. An alumna of University College Dublin, she writes about international conflict and war.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)