Poor old King Charles has had a tricky start to his reign. Harry and Meghan’s tell-all Netflix show, in which they drop various ‘truth bombs’ about their time as serving royals, continues to dominate the headlines. The Royals are also recovering from the fallout from the drama sparked by Lady Hussey, the Queen’s long-serving lady in waiting, asking a guest at a Buckingham Palace reception where she was ‘really’ from. But amidst the various royal ruptures, Charles deserves praise: for fulfilling his promise to be a ‘defender of faith’.

The monarch showed this commitment clearly last week when he paid a visit to a gurdwara (Sikh temple) in Luton. His visit has bolstered the warm feeling that many British Sikhs, including myself, have for Charles.

Respecting Sikh tradition, Charles covered his head, took off his shoes and sat on the floor as an equal amongst the congregation. While being presented with a siropa (saffron scarf), the congregation said: ‘Bole so Nihal, Sat Sri Akal’ – which roughly translates to ‘whoever utters shall be fulfilled, the timeless Lord is the truth’.

The King spoke to a Sikh lady who works with children performing devotional hymns and visited the gurdwara kitchen which, in accordance with Sikh values, provides a free vegetarian meal to anyone who requires one, regardless of status, background or faith.

It would be foolish, of course, to assume all Sikhs in Britain are fond admirers of Charles. Yet it’s safe to say that a positive view of the monarch is common among British Sikhs. Professor Gurch Randhawa, member of the local Sikh congregation in Luton and director of the Institute for Health Research at the University of Bedfordshire, who greeted and accompanied the King at the gurdwara last week, said: ‘For a King to sit for prayers in a non-Church of England space to me is amazing and highly significant.’

You don’t have to be a staunch monarchist to admire the King’s progressive and tolerant sentiment

Randhawa is not alone in thinking so. Lord Singh of Wimbledon was one of the first faith leaders to meet the King in September following the Queen’s death. ‘[The King] has always been a good friend of Sikhs’, Singh writes in the latest edition of The Sikh Messenger. Singh also recounts how, during their meeting in September, Charles ‘pledged to uphold not only the Christian faith, but also the right of all faiths to worship in the manner of their choice, something central to Sikh teachings’.

Amidst the bad publicity the monarchy has been subject to – and the various eggs chucked in Charles’ direction – the King is quietly getting on with the job. In doing so, he is winning admirers, certainly among Britain’s Sikhs.

Back in September, the King pledged to uphold his ‘additional duty’ as a new monarch of protecting the diversity of the UK. He was unequivocal in his commitment ‘to carry out (his) responsibilities as Sovereign of all communities around this country and the Commonwealth and in a way which reflects the world in which we now live.’ You don’t have to be a staunch monarchist to admire this progressive and tolerant sentiment – and the way in which Charles is following in the footsteps of his mother in delivering on this pledge.

Despite the spate of negative attention, it is clear that the monarchy is moving with the times. The 2021 census shows that Christianity is now a minority faith in England and Wales: only 46.2 per cent now identify as such. Over a third of the population consider themselves to have ‘no religion’. The King’s admiration for non-Christian faiths, not only Sikhism, and people’s right to freedom of worship in Britain more broadly, is longstanding.

Back in 1999, the charity I work for organised an event at the Royal Albert Hall where the then-Prince of Wales attended as guest of honour. The event marked the tercentenary celebrations of the birth of the Khalsa, a fraternity founded in 1699 by the tenth Guru of Sikhism, Guru Gobind Singh, to push back against Mughal aggression. The future King gave a wonderfully entertaining and erudite speech. He referenced visits to India, and his utmost admiration for Sikh ethos. We even learned that he’d played polo with Sikhs in Jaipur.

Charles also provided an amusing anecdote: in 1980, while on a visit to Sikhism’s holiest shrine in Amritsar, the Harmandir Sahib (otherwise known as Golden Temple), he told how ‘a large crowd of very friendly and welcoming Sikhs carried me bodily off my feet around the entire site of the Golden Temple’. Pausing momentarily for effect, he added: ‘I was very lucky to find my shoes on my return.’

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