Multi-tal­ented Harki­ran Kaur Sodhi in­tro­duces this unique doc­u­men­tary on non-Pun­jabi Sikh im­mi­grant pop­u­la­tion per­ceived through the eyes of the young doc­u­men­tary film­maker Prit­pal Singh who has done ex­em­plary work of video doc­u­ment­ing Afghan Sikhs through his The­Dutch­Sikh YouTube chan­nel. World Sikh News in­vites read­ers to watch the doc­u­men­tary on Sky Chan­nel 836 San­gat TV at 7 PM UK time and 8 PM Eu­ro­pean time on 21 May 2017.

My first year at UC Berke­ley, I en­rolled in a course of­fered once every four years: His­tory and Cul­ture of Afghanistan. From then be­gan a sa­far of des­per­ately seek­ing every pos­si­ble grain of knowl­edge per­tain­ing to the coun­try. How­ever, I re­mained de­prived on one as­pect – the Sikh com­mu­nity of Afghanistan. Af­ter do­ing count­less pre­sen­ta­tions based on what­ever I could find, I dis­cov­ered Prit­pal Singh’s ef­forts and de­pic­tion from a Sikh per­spec­tive. I was elated. Mis­sion Afghanistan fi­nally in­tro­duced the Afghan Sikh com­mu­nity to the world. Fol­low­ing up on Mis­sion Afghanistan’s cov­er­age of the plight of Sikhs liv­ing in Afghanistan, ‘From Hindu Kush to Thames’ sheds light on those who have em­i­grated. It is a one-of-a-kind doc­u­men­tary on a non-Pun­jabi Sikh im­mi­grant pop­u­la­tion.

Once known for its thriv­ing trade routes and cul­ture, Afghanistan has now be­come known for its tur­bu­lent po­lit­i­cal his­tory, caus­ing many Afghans to mi­grate. Thou­sands of miles away from the home­land how­ever, a small com­mu­nity of Afghan Sikhs and Hin­dus have pre­served the cul­ture and tra­di­tions of the dwin­dling com­mu­nity.

Of Mis­sion Afghanistan(for video see be­low) fame, Prit­pal Singh fo­cuses again on the Afghan Sikh and Hindu com­mu­ni­ties, but this time through the lens of Afghan im­mi­grants to the UK, par­tic­u­larly Southall. By care­fully jux­ta­pos­ing the life left be­hind, with life in their adopted homes, the sac­ri­fices and strug­gles are masked with vi­brant dis­plays of faith, mu­sic, food and dance. With touch­ing de­pic­tions of the di­lap­i­dated Mandirs and Gur­d­waras in Kabul, and im­pres­sive re­ten­tion of their roots through­out gen­er­a­tions on for­eign soil, ‘Hindu Kush to Thames’ pre­sents the the story of im­mi­grants who are rarely cov­ered in Afghan main­stream me­dia, or Sikh me­dia.  

Sikhs have been a vi­tal part of the Afghan com­mu­nity. With in­ter­jec­tions by his­to­rian Har­bans Singh Handa, the au­di­ence learns of the var­i­ous po­lit­i­cal po­si­tions held by Sikhs over the years in Afghanistan, even vis­it­ing the British home of the 3rd Sikh MP of Afghanistan: Gajen­der Singh. Other promi­nent per­son­al­i­ties such as In­der Geet Singh are also in­tro­duced along­side sec­ond gen­er­a­tion British-Afghans.

Strongly re­flect­ing Afghan pride and an­ces­try, the doc­u­men­tary is pri­mar­ily filmed in Farsi with Eng­lish nar­ra­tion. ‘Hindu Kush to Thames is filmed and di­rected by Ari­adne Bechthold with sup­port of the Gharghasht Gharghakht and Afghan Voice Ra­dio, UK. Strongly re­flect­ing the shared sense of nos­tal­gia amongst all the Afghans, the doc­u­men­tary shows their con­nect­ed­ness with home. Of­ten mis­un­der­stood to have im­mi­grated from In­dia, this is the story of Afghanistan’s re­li­gious mi­nori­ties who have im­mi­grated to Lon­don and made a name for them­selves.

How has this com­mu­nity man­aged to re­tain its unique and of­ten mis­un­der­stood iden­tity on for­eign soil? Be sure to watch the doc­u­men­tary on May 21st at 7PM on The­Dutch­Sikh’s chan­nel to find out!