New Delhi : British High Commissioner Michael Arthur Thursday lauded Britain's 400,000-strong Sikh community, describing it as pioneers who forced debate on forging the new multi-cultural society in his country.

"Because Sikhs have such strong commitments to their cultural and religious identity...British society has had to reflect hard about how we cooperate with, and integrate, distinctive minority groups like the Sikh community," he said while delivering the first annual Maharaja Ranjit Singh Memorial Lecture here.

The envoy noted that British Sikhs had risen to the top of society in his country.

"We have a number of members of the House of Lords who are Punjabi speakers and of Sikh origin. The UK record for a young self-made millionaire is held by a Sikh. If you look at the arts, the media, the professions, Sikhs are disproportionately represented compared to their population size.

"And they are mostly young. Tavlin Singh's success in popular music, Ruben Singh's achievement as an entrepreneur and Darshan Singh Bhuller's fame in the field of ballet and dance theatre -- all these reflect the dynamism of the Sikh people in our society.

"The latest crossover Anglo-Indian film is 'Bride and Prejudice', which has just opened across Britain. It is a modern day version of Jane Austin's novel 'Pride and Prejudice', but it begins in contemporary Amritsar, with Aishwarya Rai playing the lead role.

"So with each coming decade, British Sikhs become even more central to our society," he said.

Arthur traced the history of Anglo-Sikh relations back to the pre-independence period and said: "Sikhism has an international dimension. Given the growing pressures of globalisation, the fact that Sikhism has that international spread is, if I may say so, a sign of 21st century strength."

He noted that Sikhs formed over 20 percent of the British Indian Army at the time of the First World War.

"That means 100,000 Sikhs. Their fine contribution, along with that of other Indian regiments, has recently been rather beautifully acknowledged in the new Memorial Gates that have just been built right next to Buckingham Palace at the top of Constitution Hill."

According to Arthur, the history of Sikhism has demonstrated a powerful duality, a combination of a distinctive religious identity combined with a strong territorial identity.

"I see it as an important modern attribute characterising Sikhism that the spiritual thinking evolved in the teachings of the 10 Gurus, and kept alive daily through the Guru Granth Sahib, has also found expression in society, in worldly virtues and disciplines, in a loyalty and commitment to the community. Modern society needs that temporal and spiritual duality."

About Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Arthur said his capture of Lahore in 1799 "singled him out way above the shoulders of other Sikh chieftains and leaders.

"But he was not just brave and tough, he was also magnanimous and crafty. In the pursuit of his single-minded goal -- the greater Punjab -- he was tactically clever enough to conclude alliances, not least with the Afghans.

Indo-Asian News Service
Oct, 2004