Sikh Community in Iran

[Premi5]

https://scroll.in/magazine/1012298/when-a-small-sikh-community-thrived-in-an-iranian-border-town

When a small Sikh community thrived in an Iranian border town

Zahedan, which is close to the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, was once a major entry point for Sikhs looking for opportunities in Iran.

Ajay Kamalakaran

Yesterday · 11:30 am

 

In the early 1930s, when Reza Shah Pahlavi went on a tour of Iran’s easternmost outposts, bordering India, he saw a group of turbaned men with long flowing beards dressed in white robes. As the story goes, he asked some locals about the turbaned men and was told that they were Zahids, or holy men from Hind. The small town, then called Dozdaab, was renamed Zahedan – the city of holy men.

Dozdaab, or Zahedan, is in the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan (the official spelling in Iran). There is some confusion about the original name of the town. “Dozd” means thief in Farsi, while “aab” means water, which makes some people believe the name meant “water thief”. Others have said the place was at one time notorious for thieves from the part of Balochistan that was under British control. According to this telling, the name is a Baloch word that means outpouring of water.

While some scholars in South Asia and Iran say the Sikh community started coming to the small town in the early 1900s, historical records of the Sikh community in Iran date back to the early 1920s. During the First World War, German and Ottoman agents had penetrated deep into Persia and had their eye on the Indian frontier. Alarmed with the possibility of an invasion of India, the British rulers began constructing a strategic railway link connecting Quetta with Iran. It was at this time that enterprising Sikhs began moving to Dozdaab.

“The railway connecting Quetta to Zahedan has been one of the reasons for the development of the settlement of Dozdaab (Zahedan),” Iranian academic Farideh Okati wrote in a 2015 paper for The Iranian Journal of Language Issues. “The Indians, particularly Sikh workers, building the railway were somehow involved in the establishing and developing of this city by building their houses there and starting new businesses.”

The First Wave

When word of opportunities in what was still called Persia spread to Punjab in the early 1920s, a group of enterprising families from villages near Rawalpindi decided to try their luck in the country. These families would later be joined by relatives who fled the violence that preceded and accompanied the Partition of India in 1947.

Other Sikhs who chose to settle in Zahedan were part of the British Indian Army. When some British forces left Mandatory Iraq for India via Persia, a few years after the end of the First World War, some Sikh soldiers were given trucks as reparations. These decommissioned soldiers then became truckers, transporting fresh produce to Zahedan from Punjab.

“Both my grandfathers, maternal and paternal, were truck drivers bringing vegetables from Punjab into Zahedan,” said Runjeet Singh, who was born in Zahedan and is now a retired professional living in the UK. His parents were born in the Iranian border city and were married in the gurudwara. They left for Tehran when Runjeet Singh was a one-year-old.

“Drivers and traders, who carried or merchandised goods, spices and other products, such as pistachio between Iran and India in the early years of the 20th century, gradually decided to reside in Iran and carry out their jobs in this country,” Okati wrote.

Zahedan’s gurudwara, one of the city’s most unique landmarks, was built in 1921. It was the first Sikh temple in West Asia. Over time, the city became an entry point for Sikhs to Persia, with a significant number of immigrants moving to Tehran.

The community in Zahedan mainly comprised of traders, but some members set up moneylending businesses. Over time, the Sikhs monopolised the auto parts business. In the 1930s, an area in the centre of what was still a small town was known as the Sikh Bazaar.

A 2001 report in The Tribune mentions an entrepreneur named Sahib Singh, who set up the Hind-Iran Bank. The bank had extensive operations in Iran and India, but was liquidated in the late 1950s.

Given the fondness that the Pahlavis had for the community, the Sikhs were granted Iran citizenship without much hassle. Community members still speak of the last Shah with a great degree of admiration and respect. Before Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown in February 1979, the Sikh community in Iran numbered 5,000.

In Zahedan, the community also managed to develop a good relationship with both the Sistanis and the Baloch. At its peak, the community numbered 500 in the Iranian border town.

Islamic Revolution

The Islamic Revolution, which began in 1978, deeply affected the Sikh community. In December 1979, renowned journalist and author Pranay Gupte was in Zahedan when pitched battles broke out between the Sistanis and the Baloch.

In a report filed for The New York Times on December 24, 1979, Gupte wrote, “The Sikhs were needed by the Baluchis and the Seistanis, and by anyone the Tehran government sent here, because the immigrants from India operate all the automobile spare parts store and other big consumer supplies businesses in town. The Sikhs were also moneylenders and, until the liquor ban ordered by Ayatollah Khomeni, they ran all six wine shops in Zahedan.”

When the violence reached its peak, the community closed its businesses and used the gurudwara as a sanctuary. The community was given assurances by both sides that it would not be harmed.

In his despatch, Gupte wrote that the Sikh community welcomed everyone in the gurudwara, offering visitors “spice-flavoured hot milk and pistachios”. Kirpal Singh, a community leader, told the journalist that the Sikhs stayed away from the local politics of Zahedan. “We number only about 220, and so what choice do we have but to be on good terms with everybody,” Phula Singh, principal of the gurudwara’s school told the journalist. “Our social life is restricted to our own community. We deal with the Baluchis and Sistanis during business hours. But after that we come to our homes and only deal with other Sikhs. It has been like that for more than 50 years.”

Once the fighting came to an end, some Sikhs left Zahedan for Tehran and migrated out of the country. “Some of the Sikhs left this city and also the country just after the revolution because they were afraid of losing their jobs, or that the new situations and conditions of the country might affect their ways of living,” Farideh Okati wrote in her 2015 paper.

More than 20 families stayed behind in Zahedan, but they were subject to new laws and regulations that were imposed by the Islamic regime. Some young Sikhs were conscripted into the army and made to fight in the Iran-Iraq war.

Since the Sikhs in Iran are Iranian citizens, their sons are still obligated to serve in the armed forces for a period ranging from 18 months to two years. However, Sikhism is not recognised by the government as a minority religion. Iran only recognises Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians as official religious minorities. Article 13 of the Iranian Constitution recognises members of these three religious groups as “People of the Book”, and allows them to “exercise religious freedom”.

As per the 2016 census, 40,551 Iranians observed other religions, while 124,572 others did not declare their religion. The Sikh community falls under the category of 165,123 citizens who are not included in the “religious officialdom” of the country. A member of the community in Zahedan who spoke to this writer on the condition of anonymity said Sikhs did not face any kind of discrimination in the country, but added that they discouraged their children from marrying non-Sikhs.

Dwindling Community

At the time of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s 2001 visit to Iran, Zahedan was home to abut 20 Sikh families. Local estimates in 2021 put it down to 10 families. The city’s gurudwara is still functional and is also used by Indian diplomats and their family members in Zahedan. The consulate, which is located near the gurudwara, provides consular services to four Iranian provinces.

Young adults from the now-miniscule community in Zahedan often look for business opportunities in Dubai or the West, while students seek admission in universities in western countries. There is also a small community of Zahedan Sikhs in the UK.

Research conducted by Iranian scholars suggests that the community is likely to disappear within a couple of generations. A major indication of this is the tiny number of Sikh children in the city. The gurudwara’s school has very few students in its three classrooms, and local reports indicate it is not maintained well. “At the present time, as almost all the younger people have moved to India or other countries either to accomplish their studies or for any other reasons, and have not come back to Zahedan as residents, there have not been any new marriages, and so no more children in the Sikh society to need this school anymore,” Okati wrote.

Efforts are being made by the Sikh diaspora and the Indian government to ensure that the Zahedan gurudwara is looked after. However, with Iran continuing to face Western sanctions and political instability in the wider neighbourhood, Zahedan is a far cry from the days when Punjabis believed it was a place where “money poured from the sky”. It’s only a matter of time before the Sikh community vanishes from the city that got its present name because of them.

Ajay Kamalakaran is a writer and independent journalist, based in Mumbai. He is a Kalpalata Fellow for History & Heritage Writings for 2021.

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https://www.facebook.com/HeritageofPunjabSindh/posts/gurdwara-sahib-in-zahedan-iran-sikhs-came-to-zahedan-sistan-and-baluchestan-prov/2206110236175684/

 

 

GURDWARA SAHIB IN ZAHEDAN, IRAN

Sikhs came to Zahedan (Sistan and Baluchestan Province) in Iran in the early 1900s as businessmen, later to work in Railways and as Soldiers. There are 15-20 Sikh families in Zahedan and about 100 in capital Tehran. Military service is compulsory for all adult men (for 18 -24 months) hence more than half of all Sikhs have been in the Iranian Army!

Photo courtesy: farsnews.com website

 

 

[Jassu]

I don't know if anyone knows but there are a lot of conspiracy theories about Ayatollah Khomeini being a Sikh! And that's why their flag symbol resembles the 'khanda' symbol supposedly... apparently his family had settled in UP in India.

By the way, I don't like Iranians much! They're the Muslims that are typically least proud of being Muslim and distance themselves from their country/culture as much as possible! When they go to the west, they consume the worst parts of western culture and try to emulate it. They also look down on Pakistanis/Afghans/Indians for being darker and 'uglier' and backwards.

 

Quote

Some secular Persian intellectuals … reserve a special hatred for Ayatollah Khomeini, not just because he founded the Islamic Republic, but because to them he wasn’t even Persian. Since his paternal grandfather was an India who immigrated to Iran (to the town of Khomein) in the early nineteenth century, some Iranians feel that his “tainted” blood means that a true Persian was not at the helm of the revolution, the most momentous event in their country’s modern history, good or bad. And soon after that revolution, when the time came to change the symbol of Iran on its flag from the lion and sun (which the revolutionaries incorrectly associated with the Shahs), Khomeini himself chose a symbol among those submitted by artists—a stylized “Allah”—which is opponents, at least the more race-conscious ones, continue to insist bears a remarkable similarity to the symbol of the Sikhs.

Some of Khomeini’s enemies see it as proof of a foreign hand in the revolution, perhaps British because of their influence in India, or, worse, a secret conspiracy by an Indian religion to destroy Persia, and today, when Iranian exiles and even some inside Iran want to disparage him, they sometimes refer to him as Hindi (which happened to be his grandfather’s surname but is also Persian for “Indian”). One such Iranian in Tehran, when he found out where I was staying, insisted that I take a short walk in my neighborhood past the Sikh center of Tehran, a large white compound with a garden surrounded, naturally, by high walls. “Look at the logo on the gates of the walls, and then tell me that Khomeini wasn’t a Sikh,” he said. I found that there was indeed a Sikh center, right in my neighborhood, and the emblem on the gates I have to admit, does give one pause while viewing it in the Islamic Republic, where its own emblem is ubiquitous. But after a few moments reflecting on the coincidence of its uncanny similarity to the “Allah” of Iran, I moved on, reflecting instead on my compatriots’ love of and insatiable appetite for conspiracy theories. [Hooman Majd/The Ayatollah Begs to Differ pp168-169]

 

 

[Premi5]

19 minutes ago, Jassu said:

I don't know if anyone knows but there are a lot of conspiracy theories about Ayatollah Khomeini being a Sikh! And that's why their flag symbol resembles the 'khanda' symbol supposedly... apparently his family had settled in UP in India.

By the way, I don't like Iranians much! They're the Muslims that are typically least proud of being Muslim and distance themselves from their country/culture as much as possible! When they go to the west, they consume the worst parts of western culture and try to emulate it. They also look down on Pakistanis/Afghans/Indians for being darker and 'uglier' and backwards.

 

 

I noticed the flag resemblance, but maybe just coincidence since I have not heard of any Iranians being Sikh other than a tiny minority. 

They are Shia, Shias generally are friendlier than Sunnis to other religions in my experience. Why would you support them 'being proud of being Muslim' ?

I have met at least two Iranians who are darker than most Panjabis and one other who gets mistaken for Indian/Pakistani usually. Majority of Iranians I know have been warm towards me and other Indians. 

And Iranians like Bollywood and have mixed a lot with Pakistanis and Indians in the past.

[MisterrSingh]

Someone ask the Akal Takht to award Khomeini a siropa, and see how he responds. 

[Jacfsing2]

2 hours ago, Jassu said:

By the way, I don't like Iranians much! They're the Muslims that are typically least proud of being Muslim and distance themselves from their country/culture as much as possible! When they go to the west, they consume the worst parts of western culture and try to emulate it.

You can force someone to practice religious rituals and such, and to adhere to a strict codified law; however, strict religious doctrine without love for God/Allah/Vaheguru is essentially useless; and once they go to a free society where such religious restrictions aren’t required by law; they tend to drop the act of pretending to religious on the outside, but believing in nothing on the inside. It’s part of the reason that I’ve moved away from the idea that we should make everyone Amritdhari when they don't have any interest in building prem with Vaheguru. 

[GurjantGnostic]

39 minutes ago, Jacfsing2 said:

You can force someone to practice religious rituals and such, and to adhere to a strict codified law; however, strict religious doctrine without love for God/Allah/Vaheguru is essentially useless; and once they go to a free society where such religious restrictions aren’t required by law; they tend to drop the act of pretending to religious on the outside, but believing in nothing on the inside. It’s part of the reason that I’ve moved away from the idea that we should make everyone Amritdhari when they don't have any interest in building prem with Vaheguru. 

Not everyone is or should be Khalsa. Ultimately we would like to see them reach and maintain Khalsa status but that's different. 

Could you imagine a Dojo where we said we only have blackbelts?

Where there was no expectation of what a blackbelt is?

And the practice is forced?

Equals a fake entirely weird group. 

People need to step into a white belt, a new start. Mona Sikh, and work up into Khalsa. And step down if they falter. Step back up when they're good. 

We're here to help as many people as possible actually become, be and stay Khalsa. 

[GurjantGnostic]

Love SehajPath. 

[GurjantGnostic]

A bit of the previous Ang. 

[Jassu]

7 hours ago, Premi5 said:

I noticed the flag resemblance, but maybe just coincidence since I have not heard of any Iranians being Sikh other than a tiny minority. 

They are Shia, Shias generally are friendlier than Sunnis to other religions in my experience. Why would you support them 'being proud of being Muslim' ?

I have met at least two Iranians who are darker than most Panjabis and one other who gets mistaken for Indian/Pakistani usually. Majority of Iranians I know have been warm towards me and other Indians. 

And Iranians like Bollywood and have mixed a lot with Pakistanis and Indians in the past.

Well, they will be friendly in public but secretly they look down upon us. I know for a fact they hate being associated with Indians or Pakistanis (even though they literally border one another) or even Arabs and think of themselves as more white. 

Forcing a theocracy (and enforcing religious doctrine and values) on a people who want anything but that will lead to cultural stagnation and decadence. You see Iranian people in the west renounce anything Islamic and instead adopt some sort of weird materialistic culture.

I mean, despite our faults at least we are very proud of our religion, heritage, and customs & values (even the non religious and moneh Sikh). 

6 hours ago, Jacfsing2 said:

You can force someone to practice religious rituals and such, and to adhere to a strict codified law; however, strict religious doctrine without love for God/Allah/Vaheguru is essentially useless; and once they go to a free society where such religious restrictions aren’t required by law; they tend to drop the act of pretending to religious on the outside, but believing in nothing on the inside. It’s part of the reason that I’ve moved away from the idea that we should make everyone Amritdhari when they don't have any interest in building prem with Vaheguru. 

Yes I totally agree. People who were born in Sikh families yet haven’t taken Amrit are still very proud and supportive of Sikhi so I see no reason why to act superior or not support them… maybe they will find the proper path themselves one day.

I mean, that is better than hating on them all the time. *cough*

[MisterrSingh]

Iranians are wonderful people, moreso Western ones. I know a few, and even with my critical eye, you can sense by reading between the lines that Islamic doctrine is just so removed from their natural, relaxed Persian demeanour, that it's an absolute tragedy that particular belief system was foisted upon them centuries ago.