Langar is the communal meal shared by Sikhs and all visitors to the gurdwara. Since the founding of the Sikh community, langar has come to be an important part of Sikh religious life. For Sikhs, eating together in this way is expressive of the equality and oneness of all humankind. Visitors and guests are readily and warmly included in the great hospitality of the Sikh tradition. In visiting a gurdwara one will always be offered the sweet prashad which is distributed in the sanctuary as the “grace” of the guru. And in visiting at the time of a service, one will be offered the entire langar meal.

One of the most obvious signs of caste inequality in traditional Indian society is the taboo against eating with those outside one’s caste group, of a lower caste, or of a different religion. Rules for the sharing of food and water are still present. From the beginning, the Sikh gurus explicitly rejected this inequality by asking that all Sikhs and all visitors to the Sikh gurdwaras partake of common food in the company of one another. In the langar hall, women and men, rich and poor, high and low sit together. The langar meal thus assails the inner core of inequality and symbolizes a Sikh’s personal rejection of prejudice.

After serving cooked food (langar) during these extraordinary times of Covid 2019 pandemic and Cyclone Amphan to over 11,000 people daily day and night, for more than 121 days continuously, where IHA Foundation was serving consistently under the able guidance of Satnam Singh Ahluwalia.

We were receiving information that many NGO’s and Social Service Organizations who were serving food and water to the needy and underprivileged have withdrawn their services after Unlock-1, hence now Carrying forward the tradition of serving food through community kitchens beyond the walls of Gurdwaras, Satnam Singh Ahluwalia with the support of IHA Foundation volunteers had initiated his long drawn vision of “Langar on Wheels”, with the idea to serve underprivileged and needy people, along with a pledge that no one should stay hungry during these difficult times.

With the onset of Unlock, even though the lockdown restrictions have been relaxed overall, lack of income and dwindling finances has pushed people into a state of deep despair and distress. After the imposition of sporadic Lockdown dates imposed by the State Government in the month August, it became difficult for people to feed themselves due to Complete Lockdown. Satnam Singh Ahluwalia engaged his task force of IHA Foundation Volunteers and four (4) mobile units have been commissioned to provide food to the laborers, rickshaw-pullers, mutthias, migrant workers, domestic helps, people at Howrah Station, outside Hospitals etc. who have been stuck in this Lockdown. Apart from the above Mobile Langar Vans – Langar on Wheels we are also serving Langar to the underpriviledged and needy at different points of Kolkata on Lockdown and Weekend.

With this initiative we are not only serving food to the needy and underprivileged but have now decided to setup cloud kitchens, which will be maintained and run by unemployed woman’s who will get an opportunity to earn livelihood for her family and in turn will also be contributing her bit towards society.