Tracing the history of Sikhs in Vijayawada

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Paramjeet Singh has never been to his hometown in Pakistan, but in his mind, he can picture a vivid image of what it looks like with the tidbits of information his father and other elders in the family shared with him. His eyes shimmer with tears as he begins telling the story of thousands of others, like his family members, who had to flee their homes for survival post-partition.  

His family members, even in their wildest of imaginations, would not have thought that 30 years down the lane, a small peaceful city on the banks of River Krishna, thousands of kilometres from their village in Pakistan, would become their home. Yet, this is where fate has brought them. And now, they call Vijayawada their home. 

At present, there are 45 Sikh families, apart from a few Punjabi families, who came to Vijayawada as refugees and settled down here around the time of partition of India in 1947. 

Outside of Punjab, Haryana has the highest Sikh population in the country (more than 12 lakh), according to the 2011 census. Then comes Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh and others. In the South, the composite State of Andhra Pradesh has the highest Sikh population of 40,000, and Visakhapatnam has the highest population of Sikhs in Andhra Pradesh, followed by Vijayawada.

Seventy-five years after the partition, Mr. Paramjeet Singh sits in a one-room cosy shop which was set up in 1979 in the Auto Nagar area of Vijayawada, making conversation with the people here by effortlessly transitioning between Telugu, Hindi and Punjabi.  

His shop is one among many located in an area where large trucks are parked one after the other. The air here is filled with dust and heat emitted by the vehicles being repaired by men smeared in oil and grease. However, the shop stands out from the rest because of the decades of history associated with it.  

Born in New Delhi in 1955, Mr. Paramjeet Singh distinctly remembers what ordeals his family of eight—parents and six siblings—had to face in Delhi.  

“My parents came to Delhi in 1948 as refugees. My father belonged to a well-to-do family. He and his four brothers were in the dry fruits business in Lyallpur (now in Pakistan). They had land, a house and a business. But when the partition happened, they had to leave everything behind and run for their lives in the thick of the night. It took them 2-3 days to reach Amritsar as they had to move on the sly,” says Mr. Paramjeet, recollecting what his father told him.  

“My father had no money, except for 100 silver coins, equal to ₹100 today, given to him by his mother. He began selling tea, jaggery, and doing other odd jobs in the initial years. Then, he learned accounting and found a job that paid him ₹150. We lived in a two-room house in a colony near Shahdara in Delhi for 20 years. The rent was ₹12 in those days. Towards the end of the 1960s, my elder brother started helping my relative in his tyres business. He visited many cities as part of his job, especially Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Chennai. On one of his trips, I trailed along and later settled in Vijayawada in the early 1970s,” recalls Mr. Paramjeet Singh.  

When asked why they chose Vijayawada, he says his family found the place peaceful and less crowded than Delhi. The rents were also cheaper here compared to Hyderabad, he says.  

The tyres and transport business became the main source of income for many refugee families who did not have any legacy business to fall back on, explains Amandeep Sandhu, an author and journalist. He is working on an upcoming project on Sikhs living outside Punjab in India. 

“The first four to five decades after partition was when the government was busy building the nation. This meant that cement, wood, and other things required in construction activity were being transported regularly across the country. That is one reason why we see Sikhs everywhere in the country. That is also why we see the culture of Sikhs spreading to other places,” says Mr. Amandeep Sandhu.  

He explains further: “Salwar Kameez or Punjabi dress became a fashion statement among women post the partition. We see many wearing it today. The Dhaba culture too, which was earlier restricted to Punjab, has spread across the country today.” Today, the number of Sikhs in the transport sector has reduced considerably as many got educated and opted for government jobs. 

The tyres business was not a smooth ride for Mr. Paramjeet Singh’s family. “The 70s and 80s were years of struggle. I remember how it took us 20-30 years to repay a loan of ₹20,000 with interest,” he says, with a smile thanking God. But today, they are in a position to help others.  

Almost every Sikh family displaced because of partition is doing well today because Sikhism teaches perseverance, chips in Mr. Paramjeet Singh’s daughter Gagneet Kaur. 

“You will not find even one Sikh begging for alms. Our families worked hard, and today, we are in a position to help others,” she said. Surendra Singh Kandhari, belonging to the family that was the first to arrive in Vijayawada in 1948, is now a big name in Dubai. He is one of the richest Indians in the Gulf Cooperative Council countries.  

“Many Sikhs you find outside Punjab have their roots in today’s Pakistan. Many of them will have horrible experiences to share,” Mr. Paramjeet Singh says.  

While his family came to Vijayawada much later, a couple of families came here directly from Amritsar immediately after the partition.  

Harmohinder Sahni, whose family was the second to arrive in Vijayawada in 1948, says: “After partition, many people boarded the Grand Trunk Express which was South-bound. In those days, Krishna Canal railway station was more prominent than Vijayawada station. Here, the train used to stop for a long time for filling water. People did not know anything about the South, and some of them never even heard about these places before. They just got off at whichever station looked big and promising.”

Mr. Harmohinder Sahni, who owns an automobile shop in the One Town area of the city and is fondly referred to as the walking encyclopaedia by others, adds: “After my family moved to Vijayawada, we used to stay awake all night every day because truckers used to come to buy items at night. Nothing gave us more happiness than earning ₹100 at night, as that brought food to our plate and ensured the continuation of shelter for us.” In his impeccable Telugu, he shares tidbits of history.

There was a small community of Sikhs already living in Hyderabad and surrounding areas before partition, and the word spread among refugees that Vijayawada was a good place to go to. That is how many came here, he says.

Elaborating on this point, Mr. Amandeep Sandhu says that in addition to partition, there are two trajectories that brought Sikhs to Andhra Pradesh in the 16th and 18th centuries.

One reason why many Sikhs made the composite State of Andhra Pradesh the destination is because of an older history tracing back to Guru Nanak. “Guru Nanak was known for travelling. He travelled to many places in South India in the 16^th century. It is believed that he stayed in Vijayawada for three days, went to Guntur, and then to Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. Everywhere he went, he preached the message of the oneness of God. He tried to dispel superstitious beliefs and showed people the scientific way. Many who became his followers continued to live here,” Mr. Amandeep Sandhu said.  

The second trajectory that connects Sikhs with Southern India is that when the ninth guru, Guru Gobind Singh, died in Nanded in 1708, people who came with him built a small memorial for him. The children, who were born to those who stayed back in Nanded and married local women, came to be known as Dakhni Sikhs. Theirs is a synchrony of two languages, two cultures and two religions, explains Mr. Amandeep Sandhu. The Dakhni Sikhs celebrate both Hindu and Sikh festivals. 

Later, in the 19^th century, when the Nizam of Hyderabad sensed resistance among people to part with the tax amount, he asked for Maharaja Ranjith Singh’s help in revenue collection. Responding to his plea, the King sent 12 battalions of Sikh soldiers (1,200 soldiers) to Hyderabad. Maharaja Ranjith Singh was paying the salaries, but in return, he appealed to the Nizam to let him construct a Gurudwara in Nanded, where Guru Gobind Singh died. The Nizam conceded and gave five villages for the construction of the Gurudwara, today called Huzoor Sahib Gurudwara, adds Mr. Amandeep Sandhu.

The 1,200 soldiers were stationed in Sikh Chowni in Hyderabad in those days, and continued staying in the city for a long time and married local women. Today, we can find the community in Bidar, Aurangabad, Mahbubnagar, Karimnagar and other places that once fell under the Nizam rule.

“The trade link was established long back between Guntur and today’s Pakistan as the Guntur chilli was being transported all the way to Rawalpindi in the 1940s,” Mr. Harmohinder Sahni says. 

Today, the Sikh families settled here are accustomed to the climate and culture. Many of them served the public by ensuring oxygen supply to people who were critical after contracting COVID-19.

“We call this land our home. We are used to wearing half-sleeved shirts, appropriate for this type of climate. Even if we go to Delhi or Punjab to meet our relatives, we come back immediately as we cannot bear the colder climate of the North,” Mr. Paramjeet SIngh says.