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Britain’s Best Known
Sikh Is On The Good List 2006
Indrajit Singh is among 50 people who make our world
a better place
 Britain’s
best-known Sikh is also one of its greatest advocates of ethnic and
religious tolerance. A popular contributor to Radio 4’s Thought for
the Day, his voice is one of unswerving reason with its calls for
tolerance and multiculturalism. He was the first non- Christian to
be awarded the One Million Pounds Templeton Prize for the
furtherance of spiritual and ethical understanding. Dr Indarjit
Singh is a nationally recognised journalist and broadcaster. He is a
frequent contributor to the Times, Guardian, Independent and other
newspapers and magazines in the UK and abroad. He is a regular
contributor to ‘Thought for the Day’ on Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme
and ‘Pause for Thought’ on Radio 2.
Dr
Singh is the most widely known voice of the UK Sikh community. He
edits the highly respected ‘Sikh Messenger’ and is Director of the
Network of Sikh Organisations (UK), which has more than 80
affiliates. He regularly represents Sikhs at the Commonwealth
Service, the Annual Remembrance Day Service at the Cenotaph and on
similar civic occasions. He is also a leading figure in the national
and international inter faith movement, a Patron of the World
Congress of Faiths and an Executive Committee member of the Inter
Faith Network UK (and one of its founder members and first
officers).
We
live in an age obsessed with fame, wealth and power. Isn’t it time
we celebrated those who contribute to society in deeper, more
beneficial ways? Welcome to the ‘Independent’ Good List 2006. Some
of these 50 people are
household names, some are not. What they share is a commitment to
improving lives and changing attitudes.
HOW
THE LIST WAS DRAWN? What does it mean to be good? Two thousand years
ago Plato asked the question in one of the earliest pieces of
philosophy still
available to humankind. In it he depicts the father of Western
thought, Socrates, meeting a young man named Euthyphro, who is on
his way to court to prosecute his own father.
The
youth seeks to defend his action on religious grounds. Socrates is
unimpressed and raises questions about the relationship between
good, piety, sacrifice and justice. It will come as no surprise to
learn that young Euthyphro turns out to be selfrighteous, pompous,
confused and not very good at all.
So how
are we to be good? Every age answers that question with significant
differences. But Socrates’ method of discernment holds good. He
suggests that conclusions are best arrived at through scrutinising
the behaviour of individuals. Which is exactly what we did when it
came to compiling The Independent’s Good List.
The
mission was to come up with 50 individuals - visionaries, idealists,
prophets or moral movers and shakers - whose work was making Britain
a better place in which to live. Unlike a Rich List, which has the
objective yardstick of being able to measure or estimate pounds in
the bank, a Good List depends upon judgements of merit. So we
assembled a panel of experts who brought together expertise on a
range of areas in which individuals apply moral vision to what they
do.
27 September, 2006
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