Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha (Birmingham)

Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha (GNNSJ) is a faith-based Sikh charity (charity number 508470) built on nishkam sewa, selfless service, and sarbat da bhalla, the wellbeing of all. Its roots are in Kenya, around Sant Baba Puran Singh of Kericho. Sikhs from East Africa and India settled in Birmingham in the 1960s. The organisation says Sikhs began gathering under the GNNSJ name in 1975, that it opened the Birmingham gurdwara in 1977, set up a presence in Handsworth in 1978, became a registered charity in 1979, and marked 50 years in 2025. The Birmingham gurdwara at 18 to 20 Soho Road is its international headquarters.

Its spiritual leaders, in order

• Sant Baba Puran Singh Ji (1898 to 1983), known as Babaji, the founder. He moved to Kenya in 1917, left Africa in 1974 and came to the UK in 1975.
• Bhai Sahib Norang Singh Ji (1926 to 1995), the second spiritual leader. The site gives his years of leadership as 1976 to 1995 and says he succeeded Babaji after his death in 1983.
• Bhai Sahib Mohinder Singh Ahluwalia, the third spiritual leader and chairman. The site gives no start date.

Its work

GNNSJ runs gurdwaras in Birmingham, Leeds and Hounslow in London, in Kericho in Kenya, and at Gura and Anandpur Sahib in Punjab. It also has the Nishkam International Centre in Amritsar and pilgrim residences at Patna Sahib and Hazur Sahib. It says the Birmingham gurdwara serves about a million free meals a year. Its site lists Panthic kar sewa, heritage conservation masterplanning in the UK and Kenya, and civic and interfaith roles for Mohinder Singh, including the Birmingham Faith Leaders Group and the British Sikh Consultative Forum.

Mohinder Singh is patron of the Nishkam School Trust. The Department for Education’s register shows the Nishkam Schools Multi Academy Trust, incorporated on 8 February 2011, running six academies: Nishkam Primary School Birmingham, Nishkam High School, Nishkam Primary School Wolverhampton, Primley Wood Primary School in Leeds, Nishkam School West London in Osterley, and Akaal Primary School in Derby.

Where it stands today

GNNSJ is active. The figures above are the organisation’s own except the schools, which come from the Department for Education’s register.