The British Sikh community demanding for a separate ethnic identity are being accused of supporting 'Khalistan' movement in the UK. This comes after a staggering 83,362 Sikhs in the 2011 UK census ignored existing categories to identify themselves, and used the 'write in' option to state their ethnicity as Sikhs. The census already has an optional tick box section that recognises Sikhism as a religion since 2001. But the Sikhs are demanding to be officially acknowledged as a separate ethnic group in the 2021 census, and not simply as 'Indians' or 'Asians'.
The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for British Sikhs and adviser to the Sikh Federation UK recently met with Iain Bell, deputy national statistician and his team to discuss the demand.
Preet Kaur Gill, Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston and the Chair of the APPG, handed ONS a letter addressed to John Pullinger, the UK National Statistician and Head of the Office for ONS demanding a Sikh ethnic tick box. The letter was signed by nearly 140 MPs including MPs of Asian origin such as Faisal Rashid, Mohammed Yasin, Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, Khalid Mahmood, Seema Malhotra, Tulip Sidiq, Virendra Sharma, Keith Vaz and Yasmin Qureshi.
Speaking about the letter, Preet Gill said: “The number of MPs signing the letter could easily have been doubled or even tripled as there is universal support for Sikhs on this issue. We simply stopped adding additional signatures as we were meeting with ONS.”
“ONS now knows in no uncertain terms that it must recommend to Parliament the inclusion of a separate Sikh ethnic tick box in the census 2021 or it will be overturned by MPs.
Gills said she was shocked that ONS has done very little work to establish how many Sikhs may not have answered the religious question in 2011. “If around 1 in 20 or 1 in 30 of Sikhs who did not specify their religion took the effort to write in Sikh as their ethnic group, the number of Sikhs may be underestimated by as much as 200,000.”
A number of points were put across to the ONS, including the fact that Sikhs are a legally recognised ethnic group that are protected from discrimination under UK law, following the House of Lords ruling in the Mandla v Dowell Lee case in 1983.
ONS confirmed that they have agreed to an urgent meeting and will work with the Sikh Federation (UK) and Sikh Network to use alternative methods to establish the extent to which the religious proxy underestimates the total number of Sikhs. It has promised to take into account the results of the UK Sikh Survey 2016 that was conducted by the Sikh Network. This covered over 4,500 Sikh respondents from across the UK and 93.5 per cent stated they wanted a Sikh tick box and 19 out of 20 preferred to be identified as Sikh rather that Indian or Asian. ONS has also revealed that it is undertaking their own research on adding Sikhs and Kashmiris as separate ethnic tick boxes in the 2021 census.
Though there has been no official statement from Indian authorities yet, this demand has sparked a major controversy among the diaspora who claim that a separate ethnicity status for Sikhs is unfair and divisive.
Dr Rami Ranger CBE, a well known entrepreneur and chairman of the British Sikh Association, lost his father Shaheed Nanak Singh to the turmoil of India-Pakistan partition. Nanak Singh was a freedom fighter and opposed to the breakup of India on basis of religion. Speaking to THE WEEK, Ranger said, “Sikh gurus gave Sikhs a modern and progressive religion away from man-made barriers which were designed to divide. They promoted universal brotherhood but to date some of their followers claim that they are greater visionaries and demand not only a separate homeland but also separate ethnicity. How can we attract others to our faith if we tell them we are of a different race?
“I am saddened by the demands of my fellow Sikhs who want to be classified as a separate group rather than part of humanity at large. Will they also demand that the teachings of all non Sikhs be removed from our holy scriptures?”
A community worker from the Sikh community who did not wish to be named, mirrored the same view. Speaking to THE WEEK he said, “The Jewish community is also considered as a race under British law, they are more than content by having their faith only being dealt under the religious box (in census) than the ethnicity box. The Sikh community to be given special treatment like this is absurd.”
Lord Indarjit Singh, the first turbaned Peer in the House of Lords, and director of the Network of Sikh Organisations in a statement said, “The Sikh Federation is always looking for a campaigning issue. The latest is the inclusion of Sikhs as a distinct ethnic group in the next census. Predictably, Federation supporters, like Gurmukh Singh (Sewa UK), cite the Law Lords Ruling in the Mandla Case to justify an assertion that Sikhs are a distinct ethnic group. We are not, and to say we are shows a lack of understanding of the Law Lords’ findings, the meaning of ‘ethnicity’, and worse, ignorance of the teachings of the Sikh gurus.”
“Some Sikhs naively believe that calling ourselves an ethnic group (which we are not) will strengthen the case for Khalistan, an emotionally attractive homeland for Sikhs. Talking of Khalistan is an understandable way of vocalising our anger over the genocide in 1984; it is an excellent rallying call for generating unthinking emotional following and funding by groups like the Sikh Federation, but as a practicable or desirable proposition, it is a complete non-starter,” he stated.
A statement issued by Gurjeet Singh, national press secretary, the Sikh Federation of UK said that the Sikh community has a considerable support on this issue from law makers in the UK, including those who are pro-India and have added their signatures to the ONS letter. He explained how as a group they voice and lobby for Sikh rights and denied any connection with any terrorist organisations. He added, “If the Sikh Federation UK was simply the successor of International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) that was proscribed in March 2001, the UK Government would have taken a legal action and imposed a ban.”
Seema Malhotra MP who has signed the letter to the ONS told THE WEEK, “This issue is fundamentally about whether the information collected in the census provides sufficient data for the allocation of resources for public services.”
“The government must also do much more to raise awareness in all our communities of the need to fill in the census form accurately and completely. It really matters,” she added.
