The Sikh Diaspora

The Sikh Diaspora

by Seva Singh Kalsi

Procession to celebrate Vaisakhi

The Sikh tradition is an integral part of the Indian civilisation; it originated in the Punjab over a period of more than five hundred years. Since the beginning of the twentieth century a significant number of Sikhs emigrated to Canada, Australia, East Affica, America, Malaya, Singapore etc. Now the Sikh cormnunity has become a vital component of a global human family whose traditions emerged and developed in the context of a rich experience of interaction between Hinduism and Islam. The Sikhs have been living in the UK. for more than fifty years; their estimated number is over 500,000. In this paper I intend to explore the processes of migration and settlement of the Sikhs in Britain with a view to understanding the dynamics of change, continuity and modification in their religious and cultural traditions. The role of the pioneer Sikh male migrants is discussed who displayed enormous capacity for restructuring their religious and cultural traditions in Britain.

'Meeting Sikhs' in reality means looking at the development of a multi-faith Britain with the arrival of Sikh male migrants from British India before and during the Second World War. The presence of Sikhs in Britain can be understood in terms of colonial links, freedom of movement within the British Empire and the economic factors pertaining in the Punjab. The study of 'colonial links' is vital for understanding the unique relationship that developed between the British and the Sikhs since the annexation of the Punjabi/Sikh state in 1849 after the Anglo-Sikh wars. A large number of Sikh soldiers were recruited in the British army after the mutiny of 1857; they were entrusted to safeguard the interests of the British Empire both in India and abroad. They also gained knowledge concerning the potential of economic opportunities in British colonies. Consequently, a significant number of demobilised Sikh soldiers settled in British colonies, e.g. Singapore and Malaysia.

The extension of British rule in the Punjab also opened up enormous opportunities for the Sikh craftsmen, popularly known as Ramgarhia Sikhs, both within India and abroad. The second most important wave of migration from Punjab was that of the Sikh craftsmen to East Africa in the early twentieth century; they were recruited to build the Uganda-Kenya railway. Their experience of migration and settlement in East Africa and then emigrating to the UK is most significant to gain an insight into the development of Sikh tradition beyond the frontiers of Punjab.

Theoretically, there were no restrictions on the movement of British subjects within the British Empire until the passing of the Commonwealth Immigration Act, 1962. Mass migration of Sikh male migrants from the Punjab to Britain began in the early 1950s. Main reasons for coming to Britain included pressure on land and shortage of industrial jobs in India, and a labour shortage and an economic boom in Britain after the Second World War. Jobs, mainly unskilled, were not hard to find in the foundries and textile industry. Arrival of the pioneer Sikh male migrants in the industrial towns unfolds a fascinating drama of the development of a migrant community in Britain.

In the early period of their settlement in Britain, most Sikhs had removed their outward symbols (turban, hair and beard) in order to obtain jobs. Reflecting on his experience of going to the hairdresser, one elderly Sikh said:

"All other Sikhs migrants in our house had removed their turbans, hair and beards. I reluctantly agreed to go to the hairdresser. For a couple of days I felt very depressed as if I had lost a limb of my body. I remember that some Sikhs had saved their shorn hair neatly in their suitcases. It was the most painful experience of coming to England. Well, departure from one's village to perdes (foreign land) is full of unknown encounters and obstacles, i.e. language, climate, food, dress and the absence of support of the family".

In the Punjabi/Sikh society, a number of phrases are applied to describe the departure of a member to a foreign country, i.e. jithey dana pani likhiya other khana (one follows a preordained destination for livelihood) and daney daney tey mohar lagi hoyi hai (each and every grain has a divine stamp). Divine doctrine of hukam (Div'me Will) is fundamental in Sikh tradition, as Guru Nanak says: "hukmi ander sab ko bahr hzikam na koye. "All are subject to the Will of God and no one is beyond God's Will." Therefore, the decision to emigrate is understood as part of God's hukam over which man has no control. Departure of a member to a foreign country is a very emotional moment in the life of the family. One eighty years old Ramgarhia Sikh remembered vividly the scene when he left home to go to East Africa in the mid-1930s.

He said, all members of our joint household got together for "bistra-bananan" preparing portable bedding and suit-case for the migration of the Ramgarhia Sikhs to East Africa brought a fundamental transformation in their traditional economic and social status; they had abandoned the status of a low caste sepidar (a craftsman who works for landowning agriculturists for payment in kind twice a year) and had become wage-eamers. They were able to remit the major part of their earnings to their families in the Punjab; as a result they could finance the education of their children.

It was the most dynamic change in their social status. Reflecting on the impact of migration to East Affica, one East Affican said:

"Our traditional occupation was carpentry -all our ancestors worked for the landowning Jat Sikhs as sepidars and there was no tradition of education in the family as they could not aford to pay for the education of their children. 1 called my family to East Aftica in the mid-forties. My children were educated in Nairobi; my daughter is a medical doctor and my son is a chartered accountant who worked in a bank in East Africa. We emigrated to England in the early 1970s because of the policy of Africanisation in East Africa countries. I have two grandsons; both are qualified chartered accountants. One of my nephews qualified as a lawyer in India. These developments are beyond our parent's conception.

In East Africa, the Ramgarhias were the majority Sikh group, approximately 90 per cent of the whole Sikh population. Their newly achieved economic status enhanced their pride in the Ramgarhia Sikh identity. They established their caste-based gurdwaras and social centres in East Africa and also contributed towards the establishment of Ramgarhia educational institutions in the Punjab. East African Ramgarhia Sikhs were in the forefront for establishing Ramgarhia social centres 'm the UK. The Sikh migrants displayed enormous capacity for restructuring their religious and cultural traditions in the Sikh Diaspora. There is a strong tradition of building gurdwaras among the Sikhs. As soon as there is a reasonable number of Sikhs in a town, they begin to take steps to establish a gurdwara which becomes their central place of worship and social centre.

Eating in Community in Southall

For example, the first Gurdwara in Canada was established in 1908 in British Columbia and the first community-based gurdwara was established by Chatra Sikhs in 1956 in Cardiff. The concepts of seva (voluntary service) and daswandh (literally, one tenth of one's eaming donated to the Guru) are genuine acts of creativity; they are inseparable parts of the Sikh tradition. In the 1950s and 1960s Sikh migrants engaged themselves in establishing gurdwaras in major towns 'm the UK. Although most Sikh migrants had removed their outward symbols in the early period of their settlement, their commitment to the Sikh tradition was the main source of inspiration around which they began to organise community institutions like the shabad-kirtan (religious singing) gurpurbs (celebration of the anniversaries of the Sikh Gurus) and building gurdwaras.