British MP Tan Dhesi seeks a Na­tional Sikh War Memo­r­ial in cen­tral Lon­don to com­mem­o­rate the con­tri­bu­tion of Sikh sol­diers who died de­fend­ing Great Britain and its al­lies dur­ing World War I and II. Read­ers are in­vited to ap­pend their sig­na­tures to the on­line pe­ti­tion ini­ti­ated by the MP, ad­dressed to British Prime Min­is­ter Theresa May, seek­ing a par­lia­men­tary de­bate.

Com­mem­o­rat­ing the cen­ten­nial years of World War I and II, in a be­fit­ting trib­ute to thou­sands of Sikh sol­diers who died fight­ing for Great Britain and al­lied forces, the first tur­baned Sikh Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment in Britain -Tan­man­jeet Singh Dhesi takes up one of his dear­est causes seek­ing a Na­tional Sikh War Memo­r­ial in cen­tral Lon­don. With sup­port from leader of the Op­po­si­tion -Je­remy Cor­byn MP and Deputy Op­po­si­tion leader Tom Wat­son MP, this his­toric move has got the much-needed push to call for a par­lia­men­tary de­bate.

Mov­ing an Early Day Mo­tion in Par­lia­ment early last week, the Labour party MP from Slough called upon the Con­ser­v­a­tive party-led Theresa May gov­ern­ment to sup­port the set­ting up of the memo­r­ial. Till date, the mo­tion has more than 240 sig­na­tures from across the po­lit­i­cal spec­trum in the 650-mem­ber British House of Com­mons.  

Mak­ing the move, Tan Dhesi MP said, “This mo­tion recog­nises the sac­ri­fices of Sikh sol­diers in ser­vice of Great Britain, and calls for a per­ma­nent na­tional mon­u­ment in a prime cen­tral Lon­don lo­ca­tion. It would have huge ad­di­tional ben­e­fits for com­mu­nity co­he­sion and in­te­gra­tion within our coun­try – some­thing that’s very close to my heart”.

“This mo­tion recog­nises the sac­ri­fices of Sikh sol­diers in ser­vice of Great Britain, and calls for a per­ma­nent na­tional mon­u­ment in a prime cen­tral Lon­don lo­ca­tion.”

Tan­man­jeet Singh Dhesi, MP from Slough

Many se­nior par­lia­men­tar­i­ans in­clud­ing John Mc­Don­nell (Shadow Chan­cel­lor, Labour), Ken Clarke (longest serv­ing Con­ser­v­a­tive MP and for­mer UK Chan­cel­lor), Do­minic Grieve MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive, for­mer At­tor­ney Gen­eral), Ian Black­ford (Leader of SNP MP’s), Nigel Dodds (Leader of North­ern Ire­land DUP MP’s), Tim Far­ron (for­mer Leader of Lib­eral De­moc­rats),  Liz Sav­ille-Roberts (Leader of Wales Plaid Cymru MP’s), Car­o­line Lu­cas (Green Party Leader) and Lady Her­mon (In­de­pen­dent) have al­ready pledged sup­port.

Go­ing the whole hog, be­fore the Win­ter re­cess of Par­lia­ment for Christ­mas and the New Year, Tan Dhesi has asked the Leader of the House for “a de­bate on a Na­tional Sikh War Memo­r­ial in a prime cen­tral lo­ca­tion in our cap­i­tal, to com­mem­o­rate the ex­tra­or­di­nary brav­ery and sac­ri­fices of Sikh sol­diers in the ser­vice of Great Britain”

Leav­ing no stone un­turned to elicit pub­lic sup­port for the mo­tion, Tan Dhesi has ini­ti­ated an in­ter­net pe­ti­tion #WeWil­l­Re­mem­berThem, ad­dressed to the British Prime Min­is­ter Theresa May and the Lon­don Mayor Sadiq Khan which so­lic­its sig­na­tures be­cause “Sikh sol­diers ex­hib­ited ex­tra­or­di­nary brav­ery and sac­ri­fices in the ser­vice of Great Britain, in­clud­ing dur­ing both World Wars. Though Sikhs made up only 2% of the pop­u­la­tion of British In­dia, they formed 20% of the British In­dian Army dur­ing the First World War, and hun­dreds of thou­sands of Sikh sol­diers saw ac­tive ser­vice dur­ing the two ma­jor wars and many other con­flicts.”

When asked about this move by Tan Dhesi, lead­ing chron­i­cler of the Sikhs killed in World War I and II, Bhupin­der Singh Hol­land, whose two vol­umes on the World Wars al­ready has names of 44 thou­sand Sikh sol­diers from across the Com­mon­wealth coun­tries across the world, said, “this is a great and timely move. I am sure that with an ap­pro­pri­ate memo­r­ial in Lon­don, the brave Sikh sol­diers would get due recog­ni­tion. I con­grat­u­late Tan­man­jeet Singh for this.” He ap­prised that in 2013, in a con­fer­ence on the sub­ject at West­min­ster, par­lia­men­tar­i­ans, his­to­ri­ans, au­thors and com­mu­nity lead­ers had sought such a memo­r­ial dur­ing the launch of the Na­tional Sikh Re­mem­brance Foun­da­tion.  He fur­ther added, “this is not com­ing a day too soon.”

Bal­winder Singh Cha­hal, au­thor and ac­tivist, who has chron­i­cled the con­tri­bu­tion of Sikh sol­diers in the two Wars in Italy and other parts of Eu­rope, said, “Tan Dhe­si’s move is a mile­stone as there has to be a memo­r­ial in Lon­don for pos­ter­ity to re­mem­ber the mon­u­men­tal con­tri­bu­tion of Sikh sol­diers and of­fi­cers. Eu­rope has taken lead in set­ting memo­ri­als and Great Britain must not lag be­hind. I will do my best to fur­ther the cause.”

“This is not com­ing a day too soon. I am sure that with an ap­pro­pri­ate memo­r­ial in Lon­don, the brave Sikh sol­diers of yore would get due recog­ni­tion. I con­grat­u­late Tan­man­jeet Singh for this.”

Bhupin­der Singh Hol­land, au­thor and chron­i­cler

Ear­lier this month, the first Mayor of Lon­don Sadiq Khan had re­it­er­ated his elec­tion promise of a war memo­r­ial in cen­tral Lon­don in ho­n­our of the Sikh ser­vice­men and women who fought and lost their lives in the First and Sec­ond World Wars. He said, “Britain and the world owe a huge debt to the Sikh ser­vice­men and women who fought along­side British troops dur­ing the First and Sec­ond World Wars.”

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With the num­ber of sig­na­to­ries build­ing up and sup­port com­ing in from across the globe, not very far from Trafal­gar Square, we look for­ward to a Sikh Cir­cle, epit­o­mis­ing An­glo-Sikh as­so­ci­a­tion and the in­clu­sive na­ture of pre­sent-day British so­ci­ety.

Tan­man­jeet Singh Dhesi 19 De­cem­ber Early Day Mo­tion in the British House of Com­mons seek­ing the set­ting up of a Na­tional Sikh War Memo­r­ial in Cen­tral Lon­don.
“That this house ap­pre­ci­ates the ex­tra­or­di­nary brav­ery and sac­ri­fices of Sikh sol­diers in ser­vice of Great Britain, in­clud­ing dur­ing both World Wars, and sup­ports the erec­tion of a per­ma­nent na­tional mon­u­ment in a prime cen­tral Lon­don lo­ca­tion to com­mem­o­rate and high­light these con­tri­bu­tions; fur­ther notes that for over a decade there has been a de­mand from var­i­ous quar­ters for the in­stal­la­tion of such a na­tional mon­u­ment; wel­comes the re­cent state­ment by the Mayor of Lon­don who said it is only right that these brave in­di­vid­u­als should have a memo­r­ial in our cap­i­tal city; notes that, though Sikhs made up only two per cent of the pop­u­la­tion of British In­dia, they formed 20 per cent of the British In­dian Army dur­ing the First World War, and that hun­dreds of thou­sands of Sikh sol­diers saw ac­tive ser­vice dur­ing the two ma­jor wars and many other con­flicts; fur­ther notes that more than 83,000 tur­baned Sikh sol­diers laid down their lives and more than 100,000 were in­jured dur­ing the World Wars; and calls on the Gov­ern­ment to ac­tively sup­port a memo­r­ial ded­i­cated to those who made or were will­ing to make the ul­ti­mate sac­ri­fice for the free­dom of our coun­try.”