World Sikh News re­views “Hindu Kush to Thames” doc­u­men­tary of Prit­pal Singh on the Sikh Afghans liv­ing in the UK and how the Afghan mi­lieu is still alive in their hearts and homes.

Wel­come to Kabul via Southall, Lon­don. En­joy Afghan food, Afghani mu­sic, wor­ship and life in Kabul but ac­tu­ally in Southall.  From Hindu Kush to Thames -this first-per­son ac­count is a vi­sual treat by Prit­pal Singh, un­rav­el­ling not only his growth from a child to an adult in Afghanistan but also how two thriv­ing com­mu­ni­ties -Sikhs and Hin­dus and Afghans had to leave home and hearth and set­tle in new lands with new con­cerns and chal­lenges. It is heart­en­ing to know that the doc­u­men­tary, di­rected by ace ac­tor-di­rec­tor Ari­adne Bechthold, has been well re­ceived and has re­ceived fan­tas­tic re­views paving the way for its screen­ing at up­com­ing film fes­ti­vals world­wide.

En­joy the peep into Afghan Mu­sic by beau­ti­ful bearded Afghan Sikhs still yearn­ing to go to their watan -their home­land Afghanistan even af­ter ex­pe­ri­enc­ing moder­nity and pros­per­ity in the UK and other coun­tries of the West­ern world.  The sweet voice of In­dergeet Singh -the first Afghan Sikh singer lingers on and on. It is in­deed a plea­sure when he says, “It is hard to live with­out mu­sic.” I also think that his name lit­er­ally means, “song of the Almighty”. He is charm­ing and mu­sic oozes from his self. I am par­tic­u­larly happy to know that gui­taris Amar­jit Singh, wants to learn the Rabab.

“Can you be­lieve it that Di­wan Ni­ran­jan Dass was an as­so­ci­ate of the late King of Afghanistan in 1919 when Afghanistan at­tained in­de­pen­dence? Can you be­lieve it? First MP -Bhag­want Singh, sec­ond -Jai Singh and then Gajin­dar Singh. And in re­cent times, we had a Sikh woman, Anarkali Kaur Honar­yar as a mem­ber Par­lia­ment.”

The sound of the Rabab in the back­ground mu­sic brings the nos­tal­gia of the moun­tain­ous coun­try once ruled by Ma­haraja Ran­jit Singh. Prit­pal Singh says, “we love lis­ten­ing to old and new Pushto and Farsi songs.” Thank Al­lah! Oth­er­wise, our Sikhs from Pun­jab go­ing into the Di­as­pora, love lis­ten­ing to Bol­ly­wood songs and west­ern mu­sic!

Lis­ten­ing to his­to­rian Har­bans Singh Handa speak Farsi is mu­sic to the ears. Even though I do not un­der­stand it as of now, I have al­ways yearned for learn­ing and speak­ing Farsi. I will learn it soon and then usher in a move­ment to pop­u­larise Farsi amongst the Sikhs as a win­dow to the Se­mitic world.

Can you be­lieve it that Di­wan Ni­ran­jan Dass was the Fi­nance Min­is­ter of King Aman­ul­lah Khan of Afghanistan in 1919 when Afghanistan at­tained in­de­pen­dence? While we are so happy in the pre­sent times to see Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment in the UK and Canada, I was very happy to learn from this mar­vel­lously made doc­u­men­tary, that we had not one, not two but three mem­bers of par­lia­ment in Afghanistan in the early nine­teenth cen­tury dur­ing the reign of King Za­hir Shah. Can you be­lieve it? First MP -Bhag­want Singh, sec­ond -Jai Singh and then Gajin­dar Singh.  And in re­cent times, we had a Sikh woman, Anarkali Kaur Honar­yar as a mem­ber Par­lia­ment.

“Notwith­stand­ing the tri­als and tribu­la­tions that they faced and are fac­ing, Dr Ram­nath Kakkar and Har­bans Singh lend­ing voice to Afghan Sikhs and Hin­dus say, “wher­ever we live, we will al­ways have the peace and pros­per­ity of Afghanistan close to our heart.””

The broth­er­hood of mankind speech of Gajin­dar Singh played in flash­back by his smart-look­ing son Hard­eep Singh was a treat. As the au­thor-his­to­rian clearly says, “we had full free­dom of re­li­gion then in Afghanistan and we lived as broth­ers ir­re­spec­tive of our faiths”.

While the doc­u­men­tary fo­cuses on how close-knit the Afghan Sikhs are, it should be in­ter­est­ing to know how they are in­te­grat­ing with the whole Sikh Di­as­pora and the chal­lenges that they face therein. And also, how is the sec­ond gen­er­a­tion map­ping up to the past whilst meet­ing the chal­lenges that Eng­lish so­ci­ety pre­sents for them at the per­sonal, so­cial, re­li­gious and even po­lit­i­cal lev­els. May be that would be a se­quel by Prit­pal Singh and his team.

It was sad to lis­ten to the Hindu priest from Jalal­abad, who nar­rated the story of the van­dal­ism of a 900-year-old Hindu tem­ple by Mus­lim zealots there in the wake of the de­struc­tion of the Babri Masjid in Ay­o­d­hya, In­dia by right-wing Hindu lead­ers and vol­un­teers. I was re­minded of what my hu­man­ist friend in Mum­bai once told me, “Mi­nor­ity fun­da­men­tal­ism begets ma­jor­ity fun­da­men­tal­ism and one fun­da­men­tal­ism leads to an­other with­out an end.”

Notwith­stand­ing the tri­als and tribu­la­tions that they faced and are fac­ing, Dr Amar­nath Kakkar and Har­bans Singh lend voice to Afghan Sikhs and Hin­dus  and say, “wher­ever we live, we will al­ways have the peace and pros­per­ity of Afghanistan close to our heart.”