Patwant Singh

Patwant Singh was a famous Sikh writer, commentator, journalist, editer and publisher, as well as a frequent TV presenter. He was born in New Delhi on March 28, 1925. He grew up and carried out his school and University education in Delhi. He began his career in the family business of building and engineering but soon merged these interests with his love for writing. He started up his first periodical, The Indian Builder, in 1953 as publisher. In 1957, he unveiled his most influential journal, Design, the only magazine of its kind in the world at that time.

Design was a revolutionary magazine which brought together the latest thinking in the fields of architecture, urban planning, visual arts, graphics, and industrial design. Subject areas that, up to that point, had tended to have isolated audiences that rarely looked at or understood each other’s fields. The journal’s strongly interdisciplinary approach led Singh to begin pondering questions about why Bombay, Delhi and other urban areas in India were being developed in ways that ran counter to his aesthetic and humanitarian sensibilities. When he realized that the answers had less to do with architecture and more to do with politicians, government policies and corruption, he began publishing newspaper articles in the 1960s with the aim of affecting public opinion and official policies.

After 1984, Patwant Singh began to delve into Sikh issues, editing and contributing the opening essay of Punjab: The Fatal Miscalculation, which was published in 1985. The Golden Temple, published in 1989, aimed to be the definitive volume on the Harimandir Sahib and show how central this “fountainhead of inspiration” has been to Sikhs since its construction.

Of Dreams and Demons is Patwant Singh’s 1994 memoir, which highlights the intersections that connect his personal history to India’s history in the 1930s to the 1990s. He returned to the topics of religion and history with his 1999 publication, The Sikhs, a survey of Sikh history beginning with the historical context of South Asia before the time of the Gurus and stretching to the present day.

Garland Around My Neck was published at the beginning of March, 2001. It the remarkable Story of Puran Singh of Pingalwara. The book was co-written with Harinder Kaur Sekhon as a tribute to the remarkable humanitarian, Puran Singh who dedicated his life to sewa in order to bring a more healthy and humane world into existence. It is the real life story of Puran Singh (1904-92), a barefoot colossus who cared for the despairing, disabled and destitute with his own hands restoring to them the dignity of human existence that an uncaring society had denied them. After 23 years of personally caring for ever-increasing numbers of people who were unable to take care of themselves, in 1957, Puran Singh expanded his service to society by establishing Pingalwara, which now serves over 1,000 residents. Unlike a hospital, which has the aim of treating the sick, Pingalwara was built for people–disabled, poor, mentally ill, with terminal diseases–who needed hope and a home. Patwant Singh and Harinder Kaur Sekhon relied on Punjab’s rich tradition of oral history in researching this book.

Patwant Singh’s latest book is The World According to Washington: An Asian View, published in 2005. In this work, the author examines the often violent history of relations between western imperial powers and Asia, including East Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. His perspective is passionately critical of the destruction western interventionists have wrought in Asia, largely through valuing their own political and economic interests over the interests of Asians themselves–and by backing up these interests with firepower. First, Singh writes, there was a time when “Europeans considered the domination of Asia their birthright.”

Now, incursions of US troops, US-made arms, and coercive development plans are the strategies of the world’s only remaining superpower. When Washington, DC and those in its pocket write history and cover current events, their perspective is so imbalanced that the general public in the western world is now ignorant of even the most basic facts about Asia. The World According to Washington was conceived as a corrective and fills in the missing histories of US involvement and interests in hotspots such as—Iran, Indonesia, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, India and Pakistan.

Patwant Singh has also written extensively for newspapers and magazines and has appeared on both radio and television. His articles have appeared in many publications including the New York Times, Canada’s Globe and Mail, the UK’s Independent. Patwant Singh gave a lecture on July 22, 2006 at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York in conjunction with, I See No Stranger: Early Sikh Art and Devotion, an exhibition jointly sponsored by the Sikh Foundation and the Sikh Art and Film Foundation.

As Chairman of a family Trust, Patwant Singh established a unique rural medical facility in the state of Haryana in 1977. The Kabliji Hospital and Rural Health Centre is today acknowledged as a one-of-a-kind initiative in providing medical coverage and promoting preventive health in rural India. It was born out of Patwant Singh’s conviction that very little was being done for the medical and educational needs of the rural population in India, and that private initiative must play a role in providing these. A school was also founded next to the hospital a few years later. Both continue to flourish.

Patwant Singh will be remembered through his literary works and his charity.

Snatam Kaur

Snatam Kaur, born 1972 in Trinidad, Colorado, is an American singer and songwriter. She performs Sikh devotional music called kirtan and has toured around the world as a peace activist. She currently lives in Española, New Mexico with her partner Sopurkh Singh Khalsa. Kaur's family moved to California when she was was two, living in Long Beach and Sacramento. When Kaur was six, the family went to India where her mother studied Kirtan. Kaur lived on a ranch near Bolinas, California as an adolescent, playing kirtan with her mother in Sikh temples and attending Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley. While at Tam High, she played violin in the school orchestra and began songwriting. Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead coached her and her classmates before they performed her song Saving the Earth at an Earth Day concert in San Francisco. Snatam was also active in social and environmental causes while in high school, serving as president of the Social Action Club, which started a campus recycling program and organized environmenal awareness programs. The Club also led the effort to change the school mascot and sports team names from the Indians to the Red Tailed Hawk in 1990 and 1991. After graduating she attended Mills College in Oakland, California, receiving a bachelors degree in biochemistry. She then returned to India, to study Kirtan under her mother's teacher, Bhai Hari Singh. In 1997, Kaur began a career as a food technologist with Peace Cereals in Eugene, Oregon which is a company started by followers of the Sikh Dharma that donates 10% of its profits to peace causes. Snatam Kaur was nominated for a Grammy Award for her album Shanti(2004) in the new age category.

Didar Singh Bains

Didar Singh Bains is known the as the peach king of California and is one of the richest Sikh farmers in North America. He arrived in America with just $8 in his pocket saw the potenital of land for farming in California and has now become one of the wealthiest men in Northern California, worth somewhere in the region of $50 million. Didar started out driving tractors and irrigating orchards for 75 cents an hour, he did the work of four men, and soon bought his first peach orchard. He bought another, then another, and by 1978, had become the largest peach grower in California. His first name roughly means "visionary" in Punjabi, today he owns more than 40 pockets of land in 13 counties, including 667 acres next to Sacramento International Airport and much of rapidly developing western Yuba City. He has always been a leading figure in the Sikh community for the last 20 years. Before 1983 he was the head of the North America Akali Dal. After the Blue Star Operation in Amritsar he became the president of the World Sikh organization. In 1985, he became the founder chairman of the World Kabbadi federation. He is also acknowledged as the founder of the Annual Sikh Parade in Yuba City where nearly 100,000 Sikhs come together is the largest gathering of Sikhs in America. He is also a member of the World Sikh Council.

Sant Singh Chatwal

Sant Singh Chatwal, born 1st October 1946, is the owner of Hampshire Hotels & Resorts, the Bombay Palace chain of restaurants, and a part-owner of the News Times India. He is rumoured to be worth in the region of $1 Billion. also the father of hotelier Vikram Chatwal, who is known as the Prince of New York by his friends for his extravagant lifestyle. Hampshire Hotels & Resorts owns hotels in the United States, Canada, the UK, India and Thailand, with over 3000 rooms in Manhattan alone. The Bombay Palace chain of internationally renowned gourmet restaurants has restraunts around the world in major metropolitan cities including London, Montreal, Toronto, New York, Washington DC, Beverly Hills, Houston and Kuala Lumpur.

Born in Punjab, India Sant became an Indian fighter pilot in his 20s, married a prominent actress, Dhaman Chatwal, and then moved to Ethiopia where he became close friends with the nation's leader, Emperor Haile Selassie. After Selassie was overthrown in 1974, Chatwal moved his family to Montreal and opened his first restaurant, which he named Bombay Palace. A decade or so later, he opened a second location on 52nd Street and expanded even further when he bought the moribund Beefsteak Charlie's chain from restaurateur Dennis Riese and converted them into yet more Bombay Palaces. He then moved into the hotel industry which has proved an even bigger money turner, owning 12 hotels in Manhattan alone he is also planning an incursion into southern India, and says he plans to open 27 lodgings in the region by the end of 2011.

Chatwal was a major donor for Bill Clinto when he ran for presidency and donated to Hillary Clinton's campaign when she ran for Senate. He maintains a close relationship with the Clintons who in February 2006 attended the extravagant wedding of his son Vikram Chatwal in India. The wedding included a week of festivities spread out over a week and three Indian cities and a veritable fleet of chartered planes. Other guests included Lakshmi Mittal, Deepak Chopra and the Prime Minister of India. He is also the Trustee of the William J. Clinton Foundation, a charitable foundation led by President Clinton that focuses global issues of health, security and economic empowerment. In April 1999, he became the only Indian in the United States to be honored with the “Order of the Khalsa” by the Government of India, for his outstanding service to the Community.

Dr Inderjit Kaur

Dr Inderjit Kaur is the head of the Pingalwara organisation in India. She earned her medical degree M.B.B.S. from the Govt. Medical College of Patiala, Punjab, in 1967. She worked as a Doctor under the control of the Directorate of Health Services, Punjab from 1967 to 1973 and has run her own private nursing/maternity home in in Sangrur, Punjab since 1973. Pingalwara was the name given to a humble house for the destitute in Amritsar and in the early 1900's, it was an original idea of the founder, Bhagat Puran Singh to care for the people who had been rejected by society. Since the death of its founder, Bhagat Puran Singh in 1992, it is headed by Bibi Dr. Inderjit Kaur who is a physician by training and also runs a private maternity clinic in Amritsar. On January 25, 2008, she was awarded the 'Padma Bhushan', India's third highest civilian award, in recognition of her social service. In December 2008, she was honoured by the National Commission of Minorities, for her grass root efforts to promote the rights of minorities and communal harmony in India. As the Patron President of the All India Pingalwara Society she has carried out the printing and free distribution of literature, including articles of eminent writers, to spread awareness among the masses regarding environmental degradation, drug, population explosion, deforestation, ruthless depletion of precious natural resources, like coal, iron ore, and other minerals. Today Pingalwara provides shelter to 1,300 persons who are disabled, terminally ill, old or abandoned. Besides, it runs three schools where children from economically weaker sections are taught.

Sir Sobha Singh

Sir Sobha Singh (1890-1978) was a civil contractor and a prominent builder of Lutyens' Delhi and was once the single largest builder and real estate owner of New Delhi. Sobha was the sole contractor for the South Block (the Secretariat Builidng which houses the most important ministries in the Indian government), the War Memorial Arch ( now India Gate), some parts of the ViceregalSir Sobha Singh had four sons and a daughter by his wife, Lady Varyam Kaur. Writer and author, his son "KS" or Khushwant Singh has made himself known the world over for his audacious and fresh style of writing. House (now Rashtrapati Bhavan) and Vijaya Chowk. Sobha Singh bought as much land in Delhi as he could. He bought several extensive sites at as little as Rs 2 per square yard, freehold. There were few other takers, and he came to be described as adhi dilli da malik (the owner of half of Delhi). He also became the first lndian president of the New Delhi Municipal Council and held the post four times, in 1938, 1942, and 1945-46. He was knighted by the government and appointed a member of the Council of States. Sir Sobha Singh had four sons and a daughter by his wife, Lady Varyam Kaur. Writer and author, Khushwant Singh has made himself known the world over for his audacious and fresh style of writing. Sir Sobha Singh left a large part of his private estate to a charitable trust, The Sobha Singh Trust, which maintains homes and hospices for the terminally ill and aged all over the country, most recently it built, a dharamsala, within the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital complex, in New Delhi in 2005.

Gurbaksh Singh Chahal

Gurbaksh Chahal, born July 17 1982, is an American entrepreneur, author and TV Personality. He founded his first company at the age of just 16 after dropping out of high school. He was the Founder, Chairman & CEO of two advertising companies which he sold for over $340 million. Recently he has appeared on several talk shows shows and has appeared on the The Oprah Winfrey Show where he discussed his childhood and business journey. He has also appeared on numerous other talks shows including The Bonnie Hunt Show, The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet, and Neil Cavuto. Chahal also starred in the FOX philanthropic reality show Secret Millionaire, where he went undercover in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, California to give away at least $100,000 of his own money. Gurbaksh was the youngest person on FOXs' Secret Millionaire and was the first Indian American on the Oprah Winfrey Show. He has written a book titled The Dream which is published by Palgrave Macmillan (October 23rd, 2008).

Dr Ruby Kaur Dhalla

Dr Ruby Dhalla, born February 18 1974, is a Canadian politician. Ruby has represented the riding of Brampton—Springdale in the Canadian House of Commons since 2004 as a member of the Liberal Party and is the current Canadian Shadow Social Development Minister. Ruby alongside British Columbia Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Nina Grewal are the first Asian and Sikh women to serve in the Canadian House of Commons. According to her website her experience in politics started at a very young age, beginning as a volunteer with her local MP, to knocking on doors in numerous liberal campaigns at the age of 12, to writing a letter advocating for peace to the late Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, at the age of 10. Indira Gandhi mentioned the letter in a speech shortly before she died. Ruby was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba to an immigrant Sikh family from Punjab, India. Ruby has a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from the University of Winnipeg and in 1999 she graduated with a Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine. In 2005 she was instrumental in organising the Canada for Asia concert which feature prominent Canadian artists and performers, it went on to raise over $4 million for the tsunami relief efforts. She was reported to be running for the leadership of the Liberal party but has since said that it is not the right time for her.

Dr Narinder Singh Kapany

Dr Narinder Singh Kapany is shown here meeting with the Prince of Wales, is a physicist who is acknowledged as the father of fibreoptics. He conducted experiments that led to the invention of fibreoptics and this is the technology behind devices used in endoscopy to communication applications. He was named as one of the seven unsung heroes of the century by Forbes magazine. He was born in India, educated in England and has lived in the US. He has published over 100 scientific papers and four books. Besides work in fibreoptics he has over 100 patents and has received numerous awards. His personal interests include philantropy, collecting art and sculpting. As a philantropist he has been a major funder of the Sikh Foundation and been involved with its activities for over 30 years. One such activity was organising the first ever Sikh Film Festival with sikhs in Toronto. He has also funded a Chair of Sikh Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has a big collection of Sikh art, which he loaned to London's Victoria & Albert Museum for part of their acclaimed 'Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms' exhibition in 1999.

Bhagat Puran Singh

Bhagat Puran Singh (June 4, 1904-1992) was born in Rajewal, Ludhiana to a Hindu family and adopted Sikhism later in life. He was a writer, publisher, environmentalist and philanthropist. His most famous achivement was the establishment of Pingalwara, which is a charitable society that takes care of sick, disabled and mental patients. He founded Pingalwara in 1947 with a few discarded patients. Bhagat Puran Singh's contribution in spreading awareness about environmental pollution are also notable and he believed that every Panjabi person should plant a tree as they were being cleared at an alarming rate. Pamphlets with his views on subjects such as environmental awareness etc. were printed on recycled paper and freely distributed. The Indian Government awarded him one of their highest awards the Padma Shri award in 1979, which he swiftly surrendered in the wake of the Indian army's attack on the Golden Temple in 1984. He died on August 5, 1992 at the age of 98 in Amritsar. The charity he founded has seven branches including 5 in India and 2 in Canada and the US. Pingalwara offers many services in remote regions that would otherwise not be offered such as free drug dispensing, blood banks and offers education and shelter to the disabled.

The Indian writer Kushwant Singh once described him as "the bearded Mother Teresa of Punjab. Mother Teresa had the backing of the powerful Roman Catholic Church, the English press and innumerable foundations to give her money. Bhagat Ji Had nothing except his single-minded dedication to serve the poor and the needy. And yet he was able to help thousands of lepers, mentally and physically handicapped and the dying. His name will be written in letters of gold in the history of the world". His legacy lives on with the charity going strong and has recently opened a new branch in Manawala in the district of Amritsar. The organisation is now headed by Dr Inderkit Kaur and the charity is now known as the All India Pingalwara Charitable Society.