In an era where sports can trans­form lives, the Sik­li­gar Sikh com­mu­nity in Ra­jasthan, In­dia, is wit­ness­ing a re­mark­able change. Young Sikhs like Kul­jeet Singh are not just chal­leng­ing stereo­types but are also carv­ing a niche for them­selves and their com­mu­nity in the field of hockey. This in­spir­ing tale of per­se­ver­ance, skill, and pas­sion starts with Kul­jeet Singh, the first Sik­li­gar Sikh to be­come a po­lice of­fi­cer in Ra­jasthan through the sports quota, and spans the jour­neys of sev­eral young as­pi­rants fol­low­ing in his foot­steps. WSN cor­re­spon­dent Ka­mal­jeet Singh re­ports.

In a day and age, when cricket rules the roost and every­one -from those who un­der­stand the game to those who gam­ble on the sports, are glued to TV sets, lap­tops, and phones, watch­ing one cricket tour­na­ment af­ter an­other, news of Sikh youth’s in­ter­est in hockey comes as a bit of sur­prise. What has in­spired Kul­jeet Singh and many other Sik­li­gar Sikhs is the fact that 10 of the 11 play­ers in the hockey team that won the Asian Cup were from Pun­jab and most of them were Sikhs, with some with flow­ing beards.

Jaipur-born-Kul­jeet Singh, now a bea­con of hope and in­spi­ra­tion within the Sik­li­gar Sikh com­mu­nity, had no ini­tial as­pi­ra­tions for a ca­reer in law en­force­ment. His jour­ney into hockey, sparked by his un­cle Balvin­der Singh’s pas­sion for the sport, be­gan a decade ago. Singh’s rise from a young boy ac­com­pa­ny­ing his grand­fa­ther and un­cle to Al­war for sum­mer va­ca­tions to a shin­ing star in hockey is noth­ing short of ex­tra­or­di­nary.

“Hockey was more than a sport; it be­came a path­way to a bet­ter life,” Kul­jeet Singh shared in an ex­clu­sive in­ter­view with The World Sikh News. His pur­suit of the sport led him to the Ra­jasthan Uni­ver­sity sports com­plex, where he met his men­tor, Coach Har­jin­der Singh.

Har­jin­der Singh, an ex­pe­ri­enced player and ded­i­cated coach, be­gan his own hockey jour­ney in Agra, Ut­tar Pradesh. De­spite shift­ing his ca­reer fo­cus due to lim­ited op­por­tu­ni­ties to rep­re­sent In­dia, he has never lost his pas­sion for the game. To­day, he ded­i­cates him­self to train­ing un­der­priv­i­leged chil­dren, pro­vid­ing them with free equip­ment and the op­por­tu­nity to shine in hockey.

“The tal­ent in these young­sters is im­mense. All they need is guid­ance and op­por­tu­ni­ties,” said Coach Har­jin­der Singh, whose acad­emy has been piv­otal in nur­tur­ing tal­ents like Kul­jeet Singh and oth­ers.

Fol­low­ing Kul­jeet’s ex­am­ple, his el­der brother Kul­vin­der Singh, and peers like Parveen Singh from Jha­lana Doon­gri Dera in Jaipur have emerged as promis­ing hockey play­ers. Parveen Singh’s in­tro­duc­tion to the sport came through a lo­cal so­cial worker at his Gur­d­wara, who ini­tially sug­gested bas­ket­ball but see­ing his in­ter­est in hockey, guided him to the uni­ver­sity sports com­plex.

These young play­ers have not only demon­strated ex­cep­tional skill but also re­silience in the face of ad­ver­sity. Their com­mit­ment, of­ten in­volv­ing long com­mutes and bal­anc­ing fi­nan­cial con­straints, is com­mend­able. “The jour­ney was­n’t easy, but my fa­ther’s un­wa­ver­ing sup­port made it pos­si­ble,” Kul­jeet Singh re­called, em­pha­siz­ing the role of his fam­ily in his suc­cess.

Kul­jeet Singh, Kul­vin­der Singh, and Parveen Singh have left a mark in the re­gional hockey cham­pi­onship, se­cur­ing gold and sil­ver medals con­sec­u­tively in 2017, 2018, and 2019. This suc­cess has not only fu­eled their dreams but also placed them in roles where they can give back to so­ci­ety, with Kul­jeet Singh join­ing the Ra­jasthan Po­lice.

De­spite these achieve­ments, their as­pi­ra­tions go be­yond. “Rep­re­sent­ing In­dia in my full Sikhi at­tire is my ul­ti­mate dream,” Kul­jeet af­firmed, a sen­ti­ment echoed by his com­pan­ions.

Their jour­ney and suc­cess have set a prece­dent in the Sik­li­gar Sikh com­mu­nity, in­spir­ing many young­sters to pur­sue sports as a ca­reer. “These play­ers ex­em­plify what ded­i­ca­tion, hard work, and fo­cus can achieve,” said coach Har­jin­der Singh, of­fer­ing ad­vice to the next gen­er­a­tion of ath­letes and stu­dents.

Kul­veer Singh, the younger sib­ling of Kul­jeet, looks for­ward to par­tic­i­pat­ing in hockey.

This story of the at­tach­ment of Sik­li­gar youth to hockey is not just about sports; it’s about break­ing bar­ri­ers, over­com­ing chal­lenges, and in­spir­ing a com­mu­nity.

This story of the at­tach­ment of Sik­li­gar youth to hockey is not just about sports; it’s about break­ing bar­ri­ers, over­com­ing chal­lenges, and in­spir­ing a com­mu­nity.

At The World Sikh News, we be­lieve sto­ries like these have the power to mo­ti­vate and guide, paving the way for many more Sik­li­gar Sikhs to cre­ate their own re­mark­able jour­neys in sports and be­yond.