To mark Interfaith Week the British Chapter of the International Association for Religious Freedom presents: Religious Freedom of the Other - A Sikh perspective with Charanjit Singh. On 25th November 2025, the Sikhs across the world are commemorating the 350th anniversary of the supreme sacrifice of the ninth Sikh Guru, Tegh Bahadur to protect the religious freedom of the other. This is especially significant as there was unparalled persecution and forced conversion of subjects, whose religion was different from the rulers to the state religion. In this talk Charanjit would share her thoughts about the circumstances leading to the martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur and what can we learn from this tragic event in the context of human rights and religious freedom today.

About the Speaker

Our speaker is Mrs. Charanjit AjitSingh, a distinguished British-Sikh educator and globally recognised interfaith leader. A retired educationalist with a 25-year career in London schools, culminating as an Assistant Director of Schools, and an 18-year tenure as a non-executive director in the NHS, her public service has been extensive. However, her most prominent work is in the interfaith sector, where she has served as Chair of the International Interfaith Centre in Oxford, Chair of the Hounslow Friends of Faith, a Vice President of the World Congress of Faiths, and a member of the IARF's own Peace Commission and a trustee of its British Chapter. Her lifelong dedication to proving that faith unites rather than divides is deeply rooted in her personal experience as a child refugee during the 1947 Partition of India. She is the author of Wisdom of Sikhism and co-authored the seminal 1989 'Sikh Statement on Nature'.