OM ASTHA RAI

If the tale of Jasvinder Singh’s father bears a testimony to how the war ravaged, Nepal’s fledgling economy, his is a story of hope.

Jasvinder Singh, who belongs to the second generation of Nepal’s Sikh community, was a little boy when he was sent by his father to India. Not even in his wildest dreams, he thought he would settle down there. As luck would have it, he ended up living there forever – something he never preferred.

“I went there just for study,” says Jasvinder, now a 33-year-old graduate from the Jammu University of India. “I wanted to live in Nepal as my whole family was here for decades.” However, he eventually gave up on his hope to return to Nepal. Instead, his father, too, shifted to India later, leaving a country where he had made a little fortune as a transport entrepreneur.

The year Jasvinder left Nepal was 1990. That was a year of big political changes. Ruled by the monarch for three decades, Nepal was just declared a democracy. The people were euphoric over the probability of economic boom, which political parties claimed would take place only in a democratic setup. For Nepal’s Sikh community, the political changes of 1990 meant nothing but more jobs, more economic opportunities and more prosperity.

That was perhaps why Jasvinder’s father wanted him to return to Nepal. “In the 1990s, my father saw a lot of economic opportunities in Nepal,” says Jasvinder. “Sadly, things didn’t remain the same. Gradually, economic opportunities shrank. And my father decided to leave for India forever.”

In 1996, the Maoists launched an armed insurgency against the state, dashing people’s hope that the country would now prosper in a liberal economic environment. As the Maoist insurgency, initially confined to the mid-western hills, spread across the country, the Sardars – as the Sikhs are fondly called – could not remain unaffected. Although the Maoist insurgents never attacked the Sardars or their trucks, they were one of the worst-hit groups by the insurgency.

As the Maoist insurgency turned into a protracted war, transport strikes, general shutdowns or incidents of highway blockade became more frequent than ever before. The war adversely affected Nepal’s transport business, which was initiated and dominated by the Sardars for decades. Some Sardars sold their trucks, while others switched to hotel business. But the war had its impact on the country’s overall economy, not just on transport sector only.

With the war showing no sign of ending, the Sardars started shifting to India. “None of us believed that the war would ever end,” says Jasvinder. “So, even the most strong-minded of us gave in to our frustration.” By 2006, when the war ended with an accord between the state and the insurgents, hundreds of Sikh families had returned to where they originally hailed from. Jasvinder says over 500 Sikh families relocated to India from Birgunj alone. “When the war ended, only some 150 Sikh families were left in Birgunj,” says he.

Jasvinder’s father had immigrated to Nepal from India nearly five decades ago. “My father lived here for about 44 years,” says he, his eyes gleaming with a sense of pride. “By the time he left Nepal, my father was so much rooted in the Nepali society that it was really a painful decision,” says he who was recently at the Gurudwara, the shrine of the Sikhs, in Kathmandu.

As Nepal struggles to overcome the trauma and aftereffects of the war, Jasvinder is now exploring a business opportunity in a country where his father had established himself as an entrepreneur with honesty and hard work. “The situation has obviously changed,” says Jasvinder. “I think there are opportunities now in Nepal’s hydropower and construction sectors.”

If the tale of Jasvinder’s father bears a testimony to how the decade-long war ravaged Nepal’s fledgling economy, his is a story of hope – a hope that Nepal will now move forward despite its prolonged political instability. “It’s not just me who is trying to return to Nepal,” says he. “A lot of young Sardars are now exploring opportunities the way their fathers did decades ago in Nepal.”

The Sardarjee history in Nepal

In 1957, just a year after the construction of the Tribhuvan Rajpath, Nepal’s first highway linking Kathmandu with the outside world in the south, was completed, Pritam Singh came to Kathmandu. It took him three days to reach Kathmandu from Amlekhgunj by driving a truck along the newly-built highway, which was yet to be blacktopped. “The road was bumpy,” he reminisces. “But I safely drove the truck all the way.”

Once in Kathmandu, Singh did not return to India, barring those occasions when he was there with some particular purposes. As he asserts the fact that he was the first Sardar to come to Nepal by driving a truck, his eyes glisten with pride and satisfaction. “Before I came to Kathmandu, there were just two Sardars in Nepal,” says the septuagenarian Sikh. “Both were working at the Bijuli Adda (today’s Nepal Electricity Authority, or NEA). They died a few years later. I’m now the only living Sardar who came to Nepal at that time.”

Singh has been rightfully credited with inspiring the Sikhs to immigrate to and live in Nepal. Now regarded as the father figure of Nepal’s Sikh community, Singh encouraged more Sardars to come to Nepal in the following years. If growth of market lured the Marwaris to Nepal, it was the highways that attracted the Sardars to this once-isolated country.

After the Tribhuvan Rajpath connected Kathmandu with India by road, several other highways were constructed in Nepal, which inspired more Sardars to come here. For decades, Nepalis consumed salt solely transported by the Sardars from India. Apart from salt, other essential goods like sugar, rice, cereals and soaps were also transported to Nepal by turbaned Sikhs.

When India imposed an economic blockade on Nepal in 1989, ostensibly for plying pressure on the palace to restore democracy, the Sardars transported essential items from Tibet. “Transport wasn’t just our business,” says Singh. “It was our duty, too – a duty to feed the people and meet their demands.”

As the economic blockade lingered, Keshar Bahadur Bishta, who was an influential politician in the partyless Panchayat system, sought Singh’s help.

“Back then, my elder brother was a minister in Jammu and Kashmir,” recalls Singh. “Through his help, Bishta, who represented the royal palace, and I met Rajeev Gandhi, who was then India’s Prime Minister. Upon our request, Gandhi urged Boota Singh, who was then India’s home minister, to rethink the economic blockade.” Singh claims that Bishta and he were able to convince Gandhi that the blockade badly affected the poor’s lives in Nepal.

Singh adds that the Sardars have always contributed to Nepal’s economic growth and development. “We’ve done our part,” says he. “In return, we have also got love and respect from this country.” According to Singh, when India saw anti-Sikh riots in the aftermath of the assassination of the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards, who wanted to avenge the military attack on the Golden Temple, Sikhs in Nepal did not have to fear anything. “We were a bit scared,” says he. “But the palace secretary assured us of our safety..”

Even during the insurgency, the insurgents did not burn a single truck of a Sardar, according to Singh. It was only the war’s economic impact that adversely affected the Sardars. “Just a Sardar who was in service with the Nepal Police was killed in the war,” says Singh. “But that was an exceptional case.”

Struggle for citizenship

When every minority group is now fighting for their fare shares in New Nepal, a term that implies a restructured nation where all communities are expected to have equal say, the Sikhs, however, do not have much expectation. All they want now is Nepali citizenship certificates for themselves

“Unfortunately, only around 300 Sikhs have citizenship certificates in Nepal,” says Singh.

Most Sardars who came to Nepal soon after Singh never thought about applying for Nepal’s citizenship certificates as they were not certain they would settle here. As a result, even their children did not get citizenship certificates.

Another reason that discouraged the Sikhs from applying for citizenship certificates is their turbans. As followers of Sikhism, the Sardars never remove turbans from their heads. As it was necessary to put on Nepali topis to get citizenship certificates throughout the Panchayat system, and even after that, the Sikhs were deprived of this basic right.

Gurubakash Singh, a preacher of Sikhism, says he had to struggle for two decades to get a Nepalit citizenship certificate without removing his turban from his head. “I was asked to put on a Nepali topi when I applied for a citizenship certificate in 1980. But I didn’t agree,” says he. “I struggled for it for years. Only in 2000, the authorities agreed to give me my citizenship ID but with the sole precondition that I would have to show both my ears even while wearing my turban. I agreed to this stipulation, and I got what was due me in 1980 itself.”

“The condition under which I got my citizenship certificate isn’t practical,” says he. “You’ve to cover your ears if you’ve to wear turbans. Else, turbans slip off the head, which is bad. In Sikhism, turban is our pride. We can’t let it slip off our head.”

After Nepal was declared a secular country, the Sikhs have felt it a bit easier to acquire citizenship certificates. “The Panchayat was a tough period,” says he. “Now, it’s much better when it comes to acquiring citizenship certificates without hiding our Sikh identity.”

The 2011 Census has put the number of Sikhs in Nepal just at 609. However, Nepali Sikhs claim there are more of them, probably around 3,000. Although the Sikhs began immigrating to Nepal in hordes only after Pritam Singh’s arrival in Kathmandu, the history of the Sikhs and Sikhism dates back to the Malla era.

It is believed that a platoon of Sikh soldiers had come to Kathmandu from Punjab to help a Malla king. Later, some of Sikh soldiers settled down in a village of Banke, which is now known as Sikhanpur – or the place of Sikhs. It is also believed that Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, had visited Nepal during the Malla era.

By and large, and all things considered, the Sikh presence in Kathmandu in particular and Nepal in general, is old as modern Nepali history.

Published on: 10 January 2014 | Republica