Sikhs settled overseas are likely to form an important part in the tricentenary celebrations of the Khalsa planned by the Centre and the Punjab government.
The ministry of external affairs is to produce a documentary on the Sikh diaspora. The government also plans ``country committees'' to enable Punjabis settled abroad to plan programmes in their countries.
Committees have been set up for Canada, UK, Australia, Thailand, the Middle East, Europe, US (separately for east coast and west coast states), Singapore (covering Malaysia and Indonesia), Hong Kong (covering China) and Africa (South Africa, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania). A central committee under Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal will coordinate with the various country committees.
With a sizeable number of Sikhs settled abroad and most of them well off, the government believes their achievements should be highlighted. Besides, the Sikh diaspora should be closely involved in the celebrations.
Although, there is no official figure on the number of Sikhs abroad, an independent estimate is that there are four lakh Sikhs settled in the UK and about the same number in the US. In Canada, there are currently 2.5 lakh Sikhs and form one per cent of the country's population. Some 80-85,000 Sikhs are estimated to have settled in Germany.
The Far East, where the story of the Sikh diaspora is believed to have begun, continues to play host to a large number. Singapore has 15,000 Sikhs. Another 35,000 live in Malaysia. There is a sizeable number in Hong Kong and Indonesia as well.
While most of the Sikh emigrants in these countries are well-to-do, many have distinguished themselves in business, professions and even politics. In Singapore, two of the 84 MPs are Sikhs: Devender Singh who is also a prominent lawyer and Inderjit Singh. One of the members of the Malaysian Parliament is Kirpal Singh, also a prominent lawyer.
The Singapore Businessman of the year in 1995 was Kartar Singh Thakral, a leading entrepreneur with listed companies in Singapore, China and India. Mr Choor Singh is a former chief justice of Singapore. The deputy high commissioner of Singapore to India, Ajit Singh, is a second generation immigrant from Narur village near Phagwara in Punjab.
Almost all immigrants had humble beginnings, starting off as sepoys or soldiers. Mr Khushwant Singh, author of a two-volume History of the Sikhs, says migration began in the late 1860s largely through the police force. ``Sikhs were the favourite police of the British. Right from Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore to Burma, the police force was largely Sikh. When the British pulled out, they stayed on,'' he says.
The story is somewhat similar in Canada and the US. The early Sikh settlers started as lumber workers, cutting wood to build sleepers for the Canadian Pacific Railway at the turn of the century. Some now own huge ranches and orchards. Others are established in business and in professions. A few figure in the provincial and federal governments. The federal revenue minister in Canada is a Sikh, Herb Dhaliwal.
``There are 5-6 Sikhs in California who own aircraft,'' notes Khushwant Singh. ``The multi- millionaire industrialist in Uganda, late Inder Singh, certainly had one since he flew me in it.'' He says Sikhs abroad have been successful because they have always been determined ``to neither beg nor starve''.
``It invariably started with one member of the family. He sponsors the others,'' observes Khushwant Singh. ``So you find concentration of villages and clans abroad. The commonest names are Sidhu and Gill in Canada. Randhawa, Kang, Bains and Dhillon are the other surnames. Those in East Africa are predominantly Ramgarhiya. In Bangkok, the major chunk is of Namdharis''.
Scholar Patwant Singh, in his forthcoming book on the Sikhs, points out that Sikh farmers in the Punjab were doing well when the immigration began at the turn of the century. ``But they still went for reasons of mobility, enterprise and opportunity,'' he notes.
Most of the Sikhs in the professions and in business do well because of the competitive energy and drive, he says. ``The success of the Sikh diaspora is a saga of solid, hard effort and a strong work ethic,'' he observes.
In the first World War, the British (with British Indian army) troops wanted to attack Mecca, the holiest Muslim shrine. A Sikh (I do not remember his name) who was leading the unit in Saudi Arabia, was ordered by his British supperior to attack the holy shrine. He refused to do so. In military, refusal to obey an order either meant death or a prolonged period behind iron bars. The Sikh knew it and shot and killed his superior. The Sikh was later was put in a jail, not killed. I think he died in some Rajasthan area.