Wel­come to the sec­ond episode of our jour­ney in search of Hum­ble He­roes as we fo­cus our spot­light on such in­spir­ing jour­neys to en­rich the com­mu­nity and its read­ers. In an ex­tra­or­di­nary meet­ing of mile­stones, Ka­mal­jeet Singh, the first Sik­li­gar Sikh jour­nal­ist, sat down with Rand­hir Singh, the first Sik­li­gar Sikh ad­vo­cate from Jaipur. The sig­nif­i­cance of this ex­change can’t be un­der­stated: Two trail­blaz­ers from the same com­mu­nity, each carv­ing out a niche in pro­fes­sions where their com­mu­nity has been his­tor­i­cally un­der­rep­re­sented. As WSN cor­re­spon­dent, Ka­mal­jeet Singh, through his ques­tions, delves into the in­spir­ing jour­ney of Rand­hir Singh.

Rand­hir Singh bat­tled so­cial, ed­u­ca­tional, and eco­nomic bar­ri­ers to emerge as an in­flu­en­tial ad­vo­cate prac­tic­ing at the Ra­jasthan High Court. He sheds light on the ob­sta­cles he over­came, and the peo­ple who mo­ti­vated him along the way. Rand­hir Singh’s pro­fes­sional jour­ney serves as a pow­er­ful tes­ta­ment to the hith­erto un­tapped re­silience and po­ten­tial of the Sik­li­gar Sikh com­mu­nity.

In a world of­ten quick to stereo­type, Rand­hir Singh de­fies con­ven­tion. A self-mo­ti­vated in­di­vid­ual with a jour­ney as fas­ci­nat­ing as his ca­reer, Singh is the first Sik­li­gar Sikh ad­vo­cate hail­ing from Jaipur, Ra­jasthan. Ris­ing from a com­mu­nity known for its ed­u­ca­tional dropouts and chal­lenges, Singh is not just a lawyer prac­tic­ing at the lower courts, Ses­sions Courts and Ra­jasthan High Court but also a bea­con of hope and in­spi­ra­tion for Sik­li­gar Sikh youths.

“Every per­son here loves and feels proud of me. The el­ders even af­fec­tion­ately call me ‘Va­keel Sa­hab’.”

Rand­hir Singh goes be­yond court­rooms and le­gal briefs. He rel­ishes the ‘peo­ple’ as­pect of his job, where he gets to help oth­ers ex­er­cise their rights. “It does­n’t mat­ter if they are rich or poor; every­one de­serves jus­tice,” he em­pha­sizes. This phi­los­o­phy has earned him the love and re­spect of not just his fam­ily but also his com­mu­nity at large. “Every per­son here loves and feels proud of me. The el­ders even af­fec­tion­ately call me ‘Va­keel Sa­hab’,” he says with a smile.

Early Years: The Turn­ing Point
Rand­hir Singh’s ca­reer tra­jec­tory is far from con­ven­tional. Ini­tially, his dreams were set on be­com­ing an en­tre­pre­neur. How­ever, un­der the in­flu­ence of his fam­ily and men­tors, he found him­self grav­i­tat­ing to­wards law. “My par­ents urged me not to con­tinue the fam­ily pro­fes­sion of steel fab­ri­ca­tion, as it had be­come a stereo­type for un­e­d­u­cated Sik­li­gar Sikhs. Af­ter much ex­plo­ration, I de­cided to pur­sue a ca­reer in law,” shares Singh.

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Read Hindi ver­sion of this story here

जयपुर के पहले सिकलीगर सिख एडवोकेट ने लोगों के अधिकारों की रक्षा करने का लिया संकल्प

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Ob­sta­cles on the Path to Suc­cess
Build­ing a ca­reer was no cake­walk for Singh. Fi­nan­cial con­straints were a con­stant chal­lenge; and so was so­ci­etal pres­sure. “It was dif­fi­cult to ex­plain my choices to my fam­ily and peo­ple around me,” Singh re­calls. At one point, they even ques­tioned his place in the le­gal world. “Lis­ten­ing to peo­ple’s com­ments made me ques­tion why I was in this field.”

“Gar­ner­ing money for fees, fuel and even a cup of tea was a chal­lenge,” he added.

How­ever, re­silience and an un­wa­ver­ing fo­cus kept him go­ing. “I con­sider my­self a per­pet­ual learner. It took a lot of time and ef­fort to reach where I am to­day,” he noted.

The Guid­ing Light: An Un­cle’s In­flu­ence
“My un­cle -Jar­nail Singh adopted me at a young age. A sober and sup­port­ive fig­ure, my un­cle steered me clear of the pit­falls com­mon among Sik­li­gar youth. He is the one who sug­gested I be­come a lawyer,” says Singh. My col­leagues and se­nior lawyers are my men­tors and they guide me every step of the way.

Paving the Way for Oth­ers
“In my time, we did­n’t have much guid­ance or tech­nol­ogy. To­day’s youth should lever­age tech­nol­ogy to learn new things and build their ca­reers,” Singh ad­vises. He also speaks against de­struc­tive temp­ta­tions like in­tox­i­ca­tion that are di­vert­ing many from their path. He noted with pain that the fore­fa­thers of pre­sent-day Sik­li­gar Sikhs were de­vout Sikhs, whereas to­day some youth are go­ing astray.

Through his work and his words, Singh is steadily al­ter­ing the nar­ra­tive. He takes up cases of pub­lic in­ter­est with pride and is pleased to pro­vide pro bono ser­vices to those who need, in the true spirit of a Sikh -al­ways ready for Sar­bat da Bhala.

Where the Road Leads
When asked about his fu­ture plans, Singh is can­did: “I’m prepar­ing for ex­ams like that of the Ra­jasthan Ju­di­cial Ser­vices and to be­come a Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tor. It’s a long jour­ney, but I’m com­mit­ted to it.” His as­pi­ra­tions aren’t just per­sonal but stem from a de­sire to pave a broader path for those fol­low­ing in his foot­steps.

The con­verg­ing paths of these two pi­o­neer­ing fig­ures of­fer a cap­ti­vat­ing lens through which we can ex­plore the shift­ing dy­nam­ics within the Sik­li­gar Sikh com­mu­nity. This in­ter­view, con­ducted by one com­mu­nity trail­blazer to an­other, is more than just a di­a­logue; it’s a clar­ion call for change, as­pi­ra­tion, and the break­ing of bar­ri­ers. We are an­swer­ing the call of the Sik­li­gar Sikhs, will you?