British Sikh Community

Local and General Election Issues (2001-2002)

1. Separate Ethnic Group Monitoring Category for Sikhs

The 600,000 British Sikh Community needs a separate ethnic group monitoring category, in order to get a fair share of jobs, promotions, aid to businesses, grants from local and central government departments, recognition, etc. The British Sikh Community is larger than many of the other monitored groups and deserves to be fairly treated, e.g. the 1991 Census figures give Black-African (212,000), Other Black (178,000), Pakistani (477,000), Bangladeshi (163,000), Chinese (157,000). This helps them to get jobs, promotions, and service delivery since they are monitored as separate ethnic groups. The British Sikh Community also needs to be monitored as a separate ethnic group, since this affects our jobs, promotions, and service delivery by Government departments and employers.

The highest court in the country, House of Lords, has ruled that Sikhs are an ethnic group on the basis of a common geographical origin or descent, a common language, a common literature, a long shared history, a separate identity distinguished from other groups, a separate alphabet, historical political sovereignty, etc. The House of Lords clearly rejected that Sikhs were just a religious group, but held that Sikhs were also an ethnic group.

The British Sikh Community can be easily monitored as an ethnic group, and responsible organisations have done so, e.g. Hertfordshire County Council, West Midlands Police, South Bucks (near Slough) Council, British Energy, and Birmingham City Council for delivery of services

2. Jobs

Sikhs and other Asians do not get their fair share of jobs in public sector bodies.

Separate targets should be set in place for the Asian communities (Sikh, Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani), otherwise Asians will not get their fair share of jobs, and the majority of jobs would be given to the Black communities, e.g.

Black Jobs Asian Jobs

Commission for Racial Equality 44% 19%

Birmingham City Council 8.5% (5.9%) 6.1% (13.5%)

Sandwell Borough Council 6.6% (3.3%) 5.6% (10.8%)

Walsall Borough Council 5.74% (1.32%) 2.17% (7.90%)

Wolverhampton Borough Council 6.44% (5.21%) 5.87% (12.85%)

Merton London Borough Council 9.6% (5.9%) 2.7% (8.1%)

Hammersmith & Fulham London B.C 22.7% (8.2%) 3.6% (3.7%)

Corporation of London 4.26% 0.8%

Waltham Forest London B.C 19.2% (11.45%) 7.34% (10.60%)

City of Nottingham Council 6.3% (3.8%) 3.9% (3.4%)

Nottinghamshire County Council 3.79% 1.67%

Cabinet Office 6.0% 3.2%

Dept for Education and Employment 5.1% 2.8%

Dept of Health 7.6% 4.7%

Figures in brackets indicate population proportions from the 1991 Census; the job figures were provided by the organisations themselves. The figures for the central government depts. e.g. Cabinet Office, DfEE, Dept of Health were obtained from the Institute for Employment Studies, Equality Proofing in Performance Review in the Civil Service, April 2000.

From the above it can be seen that so many large public bodies practice racial discrimination against the Asians, and even the Commission for Racial Equality practices racial discrimination against Whites (who get only 31% of the jobs) and Asians, since Asians are twice as large as Blacks on a population proportion basis and have higher educational achievement rates according to the Government Office for National Statistics, e.g. those studying for a first or higher degree in 1995 (19-24 age) gave Sikhs & Indians: 29%, Black:12%, White : 13%, Pakistani/Bangladeshi:14%.

In Wolverhampton Borough Council alone, some 700-1200 jobs are denied to Asians, amounting to a loss of £11-18 million per year in salaries alone, whilst blacks receive 124 more jobs in comparison to their 1991 Census population proportion.

3. Appointments to Public Bodies

Sikhs and other Asians miss out in appointments to Public Bodies, e.g. there was no Sikh Commissioner at the CRE for several years, there are no Sikh, Muslim, or Hindu religious representatives in the Upper House of Parliament, House of Lords, although some 26 seats are reserved for Christian Protestant Bishops. This reservation of seats, due to historical reasons, is contrary to modern beliefs of fairness for all, and is religious discrimination contravening the United Nations Charter, European Convention on Human Rights, and other International Conventions against all forms of racial discrimination - although the UK is a signatory to such International Conventions.

Also, the King or Queen should not swear an oath to uphold the Christian Protestant religion alone, but should swear an oath to protect all religions in the UK.

4. Armed Forces

The racial and religious discrimination against Sikhs in the Armed Forces must be stopped; we must be able to serve in the Armed forces wearing our Holy Turbans only, without any requirement to wear hard hats, as done during both World Wars

Some 1.5 million Sikh officers and soldiers served to defend Great Britain during both World Wars, and helped to liberate European, African, and Asian countries; some 83,005 Sikhs gave up their lives, whilst 109,045 were wounded; in comparison, some 400,000 were recruited from Africa, and 16,000 from the Caribbean islands. Many Sikhs were awarded Victoria Crosses for their bravery during both World Wars. We made the highest contribution of all the ethnic minority groups now settled in the UK. British Military Generals during both World wars stated that Sikhs did not have a higher casualty rate than other soldiers wearing metal hats, e.g. Colonel H.A. Hughes “…During World War II I commanded the 4/16th Panjab Regiment from the battle of El Alamein to Tunis - in this battalion I had a company of Sikhs plus those in H.Q. Company. They all wore the Safa (Turban) and I certainly had no more head wounds in this battalion than in any other battalion wearing steel helmets.” Lt General Sir Reginald Savory, Major General B.W.Key, General Sir Frank Messervy, have made similar statements supporting Sikhs wearing turbans during both World Wars.

We see on television and in newspapers, British soldiers and Gurkhas wearing cloth berets on active combat fighting duties, in such areas as Bosnia, Kosovo, Northern Ireland, etc.; Australian SAS soldiers wear black headscarves, whilst other Australian soldiers wore bush hats whilst on active combat duty in East Timor.

The letter from the Ministry of defence, dated 5 January 2000, stating that Sikhs must wear a hard hat when required, must be withdrawn, since it amounts to racial discrimination against Sikhs; this means that British Sikh Community leaders cannot recommend British Sikhs to join the Armed Forces, but instead to urge a boycott whilst such restrictions are in place. Sikhs can only wear the Holy Turban on their heads, as done during both World Wars; hard hats are against the Sikh religion.

5. Businesses

Sikhs and other Asians are a highly enterprising group of people, with the Panjabi cities of Lahore and Amritsar being on major historical trading routes. 70% of all Indians and Pakistanis living in this country are Panjabis, and take an active part in running businesses in steel, plastics, clothing, retail, etc., 50% of all independent retail businesses are run by Asians in the UK. However, we do not get a fair share of the grants and aid given to businesses. Processes and mechanisms must be put in place to address such shortcomings.

6. Education

There are very few Sikhs and other Asians in the teaching professions, and it is important to redress this shortfall due to institutional racism, e.g. in the Wolverhampton area, there are only 4% ethnic minority teachers compared to the local 18% population for ethnic minorities, with most of the ethnic minority teachers confined to the lower job grades. This also has an adverse effect on our children, since they do not see successful role models at a young impressionable age, our values are not promoted in schools, and the children’s aspirations are reduced.

State aid is provided to religious denominational schools of Christian Protestant (Church of England), Christian Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim backgrounds. Following the recent change in the availability of state funding for schools, there is only one Sikh school in the whole country receiving state aid. State aid should be provided to more Sikh schools, so that we can have schools in all major towns and cities; this will enable us to teach the Panjabi language, Sikh religion, show successful role models, and provide higher aspirations for the children attending the schools.

The institutional racism against Asian and black lecturers in colleges and universities must be stopped, and our lecturers must be allowed to rise into the higher job grades as well, instead of being confined to the lower job grades; targets must be set throughout all job lecture grades. There should not be so much institutional racism in places of further and higher education.

7. Crime

In general, Sikhs and other Asians tend to be the victims of crime, rather than perpetrators of crime, with most muggings of Asian men and women being carried out by black and white youths. The Police must be instructed to do more to help Asians, so that these racist type of attacks are reduced; often it is only a small number of black and white youths who repeat most of these attacks on Asians. It would also help if the Police Services recruited a fair proportion of Asians; this would be more likely to be achieved if there was a separate employment target for Asians, rather than a general employment target for ethnic minorities, which usually means that blacks get more jobs than Asians (see above table under Jobs heading).

(a). Who mugs whom at a national level?

	Black Victims	Asian Victims	White Victims
White Attacker	16%	20%	49%
Asian Attacker	-	10%	1%
Black Attacker	58%	55%	32%

For example, 16% of black victims were attacked by whites, or 55% of Asian victims were attacked by blacks. Source: Home Office 1992 British Crime Survey

For more details see Independent newspaper, 4 August 1995.

(b). Handsworth Police Command Unit Area (Birmingham) street robberies / muggings victims figures given at a meeting on 5 May 99:

White Males: 213

Black Males: 41

Asian Males: 200

Black females: 15

Asian females: 82

White females: 216

From the above figures the following can be seen: -

I. Black males and females form the least number of victims;

II. Asian males, who wear very little jewellery, are attacked 5 times more than blacks;

III. Asian females, are attacked 5 times more than blacks; White females, who wear very little jewellery, are attacked 14 times more than blacks;

IV. Given the population proportions for the Handsworth Police Command Unit area, it can be seen that Whites and Asians are being attacked as racial groups.

Measures needed to reduce crime

This needs to involve the people, police, and courts.

Since the police cannot be everywhere, and provide an immediate response every minute of the day, at every possible location, the people must know what their rights are with regard to self defence or the use of reasonable force to resist and arrest criminals; this can be done by a letter to every household. The previous advise by the police not to tackle criminals is fundamentally flawed, so that most criminals get away with it. The people must be informed of their rights, and encouraged to take such measures to resist crime at source; the law must be changed in favour of the victim of crime, and be against those committing crime.

The police must be sufficiently resourced so that they can investigate crime, and make the necessary arrests; police numbers should be increased. The police should not be spending 80% of their time on paperwork and only 20% on combating crime; the content of police work should be changed so that they spend 80% of their time on combating crime, with targets set for various kinds of crime, and rewards given to those police units achieving their targets.

The Tony Martin case showed that the three persons who broke into his house had some 114 previous convictions for various kinds of crime, but they had received very lenient sentences in the past, so that they had not been deterred by only a few months in prison. The police had done their duty to charge and arrest these criminals in the past many times, but the judges had let down the justice system by giving very lenient sentences. The criminal law needs to be changed so that criminals receive longer prison sentences, and judges are required to pass longer prison sentences; criminals who repeat crimes should be given longer prison sentences on each occasion, so that there is a real deterrence. There should be a Judicial Commission who appoint judges without political interference/bias/patronage/old boy network, and can dismiss them if necessary; judges must not be appointed for life but instead on renewable contracts, so that have a motivation to work well, e.g. lower level Crown Court judges could be appointed for 10 years, higher level judges for 15 years, etc.

Some more prisons should be built to hold criminals for longer sentences; this money is available to the Government from the surplus budgets, £22 billion sale on mobile telephone licences, etc. Taking out the criminals, particularly the repeat criminals who commit most of the crime, will restore the balance, and lead to a better society for youngsters, pensioners, women, etc.

8. Media

The media does not help to portray Asians in a fair manner, with the negatives far outweighing the positive images, e.g. a few forced marriages get tremendous coverage, arranged marriages, etc. with very little said about the jobs created in high street shops, successful software / steel / plastics / fashion / music companies, etc. Asian music groups are not listed in the Top of the Pops, although Asian groups sell far more music CDs and tapes than the other groups, with the difficulty of monitoring sales being blamed as a reason for excluding Asian music sales.

Television and radio companies do not provide fair and proportionate coverage for Asians and the predominately Panjabi language spoken by 70% of all Indians and Pakistanis living in the UK, with greater emphasis being placed on programmes for the black communities and black characters, e.g. Bill Cosby show, Will Smith show, news readers, East Enders, BBC Radio Asian Network does not provide daily news in Panjabi or give a fair and proportionate coverage to other programmes in the Panjabi language, etc.

There should be a requirement for fair and proportionate coverage for Sikhs and other Asians, and the Panjabi language used by 70% of all Indians and Pakistanis living in the UK; this can be done by legislation, amending the terms of reference for the Broadcasting Commission, or making it a Licence Condition.

9. National Health Service

Most Sikh and other Asian doctors, nurses, and other workers are confined to the lower job grades due to institutionalised racism within the medical professions. Very little recruitment is done through the Panjabi media, e.g. newspapers, radios, Gurdwaras, etc. The NHS practices need to be changed, and recruitment of Asians monitored to make sure that targets are being met throughout the higher job grades, and in terms of delivery of services in the Panjabi language, e.g. Panjabi speech therapists for stroke victims.

10. British Embassy Offices in Panjab and Gujarat

According to the British Office for National Statistics data, some 70% of Indians and Pakistanis living in the UK have come from Panjab, with the next largest Indian group being from Gujarat. Thus most travel will be to Panjab.

Therefore British Embassies should have offices in Panjab and Gujarat, so that travelling is easier, sort out documents and attendance for interviews; since most Panjabis come from the Jallandhar District, it would be sensible to locate an Embassy office there. Also, since international flights have restarted to Amritsar, then it would be sensible to locate the office there, to sort out travelling problems. The British Embassies abroad are funded by our taxes, and since most Indians resident in the UK are Panjabis, then it makes sense to use our taxes in the manner most helpful to British Panjabis.

The Government of Canada has already opened an Embassy Office in Panjab, located at Chandigarh.

At the moment there are 5 British Embassy offices at Madras, Bangalore, Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, due to historical British Empire reasons. This does not make sense in modern times, since the majority of travellers and businessmen are from Panjab and Gujarat. There are 3 British Embassy offices in Pakistan, with 2 of these being in Panjab; on a UK Asian population proportion basis, there should be 3 British Embassy offices in Indian Panjab, and one in Indian Gujarat.

11. Overseas Aid to Panjab, India

The British Government gave a total of £282.5 million in 1995/96 to the Indian Sub-continent countries, and since 1986/87 such assistance has totalled £2,200 million, with India receiving about £1,000 million over the last 10 years. However, no British aid has been granted to Panjab (India), despite the fact that the vast majority of Indians resident in Britain are Panjabis (Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, etc.).

During the last 10 years India has received the most aid, running at £95-£100 million per year. Aid projects include £41 million for Primary education in Bengal, £32 million for Primary education in Andra Pradesh, another £46 million for a new Primary education project in Andra Pradesh, a £9 million health project for Primary schools in Andra Pradesh, £25 million for a forestry project in Karnataka, £3 million for a forestry project in Himachal Pradesh, £19.9 million for work on the Hirakud Dam hydro electricity station, £42 million for electricity distribution projects in Andra Pradesh, £63 million for high voltage direct current links, £16.4 million for Maharastra water supply and sanitation project, Health and Welfare projects in Orissa, etc.

Pakistan receives £25 million every year. Projects include £4 million for Panjab Middle schools, £3 million for health projects in Balochistan and North West Frontier Province, £8.3 million for primary health services in Panjab and Balochistan, £9 million for family planning services, £18 million for water and sanitation project to the Lahore (Panjab) Water and Sanitation Agency, £13 million for Faisalabad Area (Panjab) Upgrading project, £9 million to the water and power company WAPDA for 5 dams in north Pakistan, £13 million for 44 gates for irrigation barrage on the Indus river, etc.

Panjab in Pakistan has been given aid; why not Panjab in India? This is despite the fact that 70% of Indians resident in Britain are Panjabi Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims. The aid and our taxes should be fairly distributed to Panjab; help is needed in Panjab with education, medical facilities, electricity power, water and sanitation clean up, control and clean-up of pollution, roads, telecommunications, etc. Most of the other Indian states which have received aid from the UK are much richer than the Panjab, in terms of industry / Gross Domestic Product / Indian Government grants, software companies, Indian Government investment funds, etc.

On a proportionate basis, since 70% of all Indians living in Britain come from Panjab, Panjab should receive £70 Million aid every year from Britain, that is 490 Crore Rupees; £17 Million should go to Gujarat every year as well. This should also apply to European Union aid.

12. Flights to Panjab

Since 70% of all Indians and Pakistanis living in the UK are Panjabis, it means that most travel is to the Panjab, whether it is for pleasure, business, pilgrimage, etc. There are now some international flights operating from Birmingham / London to Amritsar. British Airways and other large carriers should be encouraged to provide flights to Amritsar in Panjab, so that travel takes place where people want to go, rather than endure a lengthy and insecure journey from Delhi; it would also have the advantage of reducing pollution and congestion in Delhi.

13. Freedom to Trade

Whilst the rest of the world has made progress to trade more freely, e.g. European Union, World Trade Organisation, NAFTA, China, East and West Germany, etc., some parts of the world remain restrictive. Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh should be encouraged to allow free trade across their borders in line with WTO agreements. This will help to increase economic activity, freedom to travel amongst the people, and bring about peace thereby reducing the chances for armed conflict / arms race.

14. Torture

The obligations placed on the United Kingdom by the Torture Convention were incorporated into the law of the United Kingdom by section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988; the Act came into force on 29 September 1988, and section 134 created a new crime under UK law, the crime of torture. As required by the Convention all torture, wherever committed worldwide, was made criminal under UK law and triable in the UK. It does not matter whether the torture was committed in Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor, India, etc. the officials could be tried in the UK, and sent to prison in the UK.

The booklet published by the Foreign Office in March 2000 on the process for gathering evidence to bring about a successful prosecution should be widely published and be put on display at British embassies throughout the world, together with a copy on the Internet.