Misunderstanding Mandla

Author:  Dr Devinderjit Singh

Dear Editor,
Misunderstanding Mandla St Catherine’s College, Oxford

The January 2005 edition of the Sikh Bulletin carries a Letter to the Editor by Harjinder Singh, entitled ‘Understanding Mandla’, regarding my recent article on Sikhism and ethnicity (Aug-Oct, 2004). His bottom line states that “The more I read this Law Lord’s ruling the clearer it becomes: Sikhs are an ethnic group, and that has nothing to do with many of us being Panjabis.” I find this to be rather odd because, according to my Law colleagues, their Lordships do not make general pronouncements on any issue. Their judgements are only to be taken with reference to the application of Legislation – in this case, the Race Relations Act of 1976 – a proviso which they emphasised repeatedly.

Harjinder Singh says that, as a Dutchman, Sikhism defines his ethnic group since he satisfies the principal Mandla criteria of a shared history and cultural traditions. Leaving aside the qualifier above, and that folk-etymology would probably disagree with his assessment, these requirements do not determine ethnicity uniquely in the modern world. Stonehenge, the Romans, the Norman Conquest, William of Ockham, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Newton, Oxbridge, etc., are just as much part of my culture and history as Alexander the Great, the Moguls, Farid, Nam Dev, Guru Nanak, Bhai Mani Singh, Tagore, Bose, and so on. While there is no question that Sikhism specifies my religious orientation, my ethnic group is not well defined!

I stand by the conclusions in my article, ‘All Children of the Same One God’, and would remind the proponents of ethnicity that the context of the Mandla case is fundamental to its understanding. More importantly, I would urge them to square their agenda with the teachings of the Guru Granth Sahib.
Devinderjit Singh

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