A little History of the Sikhs

A little History of the Sikhs Walking Tours in London, Day Trips to the South East of England and Study Visits across Europe

Walking Tours in London, Day Trips to the South East of England and Study Visits across the UK and European destinations. Anglo-Sikh and Sikh History Presentations to Punjabi School classes, Sikhi Camps, Corporate Networks and at Academic Conferences to present research to wider audiences. More information on tours, presentations and research can be found at: www.alittlehistoryofthesikhs.org

In Person Event:After the Partition:  A Shared Cultural Heritage in EssexSaturday 1 February 2025 12.30-3.00pmExhibition...
16/01/2025

In Person Event:
After the Partition: A Shared Cultural Heritage in Essex
Saturday 1 February 2025 12.30-3.00pm
Exhibition launch, talks and a tour
Essex Record Office, Wharf Road, Chelmsford, CM2 6YT

Further Information and Free Ticket booking:
https://essexcdp.com/event/afterthepartition/

   Thank you to the Bedford sangat for supporting our work with regular bookings for our Sikh History Tours. Our October...
16/01/2025

  Thank you to the Bedford sangat for supporting our work with regular bookings for our Sikh History Tours.

Our October event saw a coach group from Gurdwara Sahib's across Bedford join us at the Tower of London for a day of history, dazzling jewels and the story of the Kohinoor, before a chance to experience the diamond for themselves.

The Bedford sangat has now supported us with five different tours in the last 3 years, ensuring we now have to curate something new for 2026!


  Highlights 5 of 5 of our 2024 study visit exploring Sikh & Punjab History on the French RivieraPost  #5 from the Côte ...
05/01/2025

Highlights 5 of 5 of our 2024 study visit exploring Sikh & Punjab History on the French Riviera

Post #5 from the Côte d'Azur, France.  Invitations for a group tour were issued to different individuals following our first research trip in May 2022.  Many indicated their support and intentions to join and support, and in the end, the group comprised 8 individuals with whom I could test my logistics, plans, and proposed daily itineraries.

Thank you to all those who intended to join and support, and a sincere thank you to the 8 who made it to Nice, France from 7-11 October 2024. 








 

  Highlights 4 of 5 of our 2024 study visit exploring Sikh & Punjab History on the French RivieraPost  #3 from Nice, Côt...
04/01/2025

Highlights 4 of 5 of our 2024 study visit exploring Sikh & Punjab History on the French Riviera

Post #3 from Nice, Côte d'Azur - where Queen Victoria spent her winters from 1895 and with her Indian Munshi's resided at the Excelsior Hotel, Nice. The Duleep Singhs also visited Nice on their visits to the South of France, so we will continue to search for and map their associated stories!

  Highlights 3 of 5 of our 2024 study visit exploring Sikh & Punjab History on the French RivieraPost  #3 from St.Tropez...
03/01/2025

Highlights 3 of 5 of our 2024 study visit exploring Sikh & Punjab History on the French Riviera

Post #3 from St.Tropez, Côte d'Azur - home of General Jean-Francois Allard before he left and found his way to Lahore. His wife, Bannou Pan Dei, with whom he returned to St. Tropez in 1835 and where Bannou raised their five children and lived for the next 49 years.

While General Allard died in 1839 and is buried in Lahore, his wife remained in France and is buried in the cemetery in St. Tropez.

A fascinating story brought to life on the streets of St. Tropez, where our tour was supported by Henri Prevost-Allard, descendant of the General and Bannou, and author of Le Generalissime, who also worked on a project to install the statues in St. Tropez of General Allard, Bannou Pan Dei, and Maharajah Ranjit Singh.

  Highlights 2 of 5 of our 2024 study visit exploring Sikh & Punjab History on the French RivieraPost  #2 from Monte Car...
02/01/2025

Highlights 2 of 5 of our 2024 study visit exploring Sikh & Punjab History on the French Riviera

Post #2 from Monte Carlo, Monaco, and where Victor Duleep Singh, the eldest son of Maharaja Duleep Singh, chose to be buried. Described as 'fool for living for amusement' by General Tevis, the British agent planted on Duleep Singh, he entertained his socialite friends with high-stake card games. He died on 7 June 1918 and was buried in the Cimietiere de Monaco on 11 June 1918. Beside him is Lady Anne Blanch Alice of Coventry, who died aged 82, on 2 July 1956.
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  Highlights 1 of 5 of our 2024 study visit exploring Sikh & Punjab History on the French Riviera with a small group fro...
01/01/2025

Highlights 1 of 5 of our 2024 study visit exploring Sikh & Punjab History on the French Riviera with a small group from the UK

Post #1 with little histories from Grasse, Côte d'Azur - centre of the French perfume industry and known as the world's perfume capital

Congratulations to the .9 team on the release of the 2025 Mahala9 Calendar - theme Sarkar-e-Khalsa.  Now in its 4th year...
31/12/2024

Congratulations to the .9 team on the release of the 2025 Mahala9 Calendar - theme Sarkar-e-Khalsa.

Now in its 4th year, we have witnessed the initiative grow each year, with a sustainable project model including:

- Creation of new pieces of art aligned to the annual theme
- Artists across the globe supported by commissioners,
- A group of sponsors to help with in-year production costs
- Supporters to help distribute and support sales, and
- Pieces of art that can be framed to keep for future years.

In the last two years, Gurdwaras and businesses have begun to commit to bulk orders, helping to ensure the model of art commissioning combined with learning for our community grows.

Do visit https://www.mahala9.com/ to order your 2025 calendar this New Year!

Exploring Sikh History in Vienna, AustriaConnecting snippets of knowledge and research together to construct stories fro...
29/12/2024

Exploring Sikh History in Vienna, Austria

Connecting snippets of knowledge and research together to construct stories from Sikh history on the streets of Vienna, I managed to delve into the life of Augustus Schoefft, an artist who was born in Budapest in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and trained at the Academy of Fine Art in Vienna.

"He arrived in India in 1838 and found his way to Lahore, Punjab in November 1841. He spent over a year in the Sikh Empire painting various scenes and portraits of prominent members of the Sikh Court. He studied and copied existing portraits by various artists of some of the principal characters of the Royal Court who had died before his arrival and had plans to incorporate these character studies of past figures along with his own sketches of current principal figures at Maharaja Sher Singh’s court into epic scenes at a later time on his return to Europe.

Visiting Amritsar and Lahore and preparing preliminary sketches of the locations, Schoefft successfully combined reality with imagination to create scenes that he had never witnessed but which were based on bits and pieces of real scenes that he had sketched along with his imagination of events and details that may have been. Thus, Schoefft laid the foundation work for his two most famous epic historical paintings of the Court of Lahore and Ranjit Singh at Darbar Sahib. He returned to Vienna, where he would spend the next several years working on his grand epic masterpieces using his notes, preliminary sketches, copies of other artist’s portraits, and some imagination"

Through time between conference events I managed to visit Academy of Fine Arts and delve into the archives where Schoefft trained, find his records (with help from staff) and was able to locate the venue where the paintings were first displayed at the Vienna Salon of 1855. Locating his studio in Vienna was not possible, so it will remain a challenge for a future visit!

https://www.sikhmuseum.com/schoefft/artist.html sourced from Sikh Portraits by European Artists (1979), by F. S. Aijazuddin

  Seventeenth International Conference on the Inclusive Museum, MuseumsQuartier Wie, Vienna, Austria, 13-15 September 20...
29/12/2024

Seventeenth International Conference on the Inclusive Museum, MuseumsQuartier Wie, Vienna, Austria, 13-15 September 2024

A great week in Vienna with the Historic Royal Palaces team presenting on the Indian Army at the Palace exhibition at Hampton Court Palace and sharing the design and co-curation aspects of the exhibition with audiences from the museum and academic sectors. It is a beautiful city with so many amazing buildings and museums, and each day of the conference was held in a different museum that makes up the MuseumsQuartierWien.

  Vienna 1 - Highlights from a visit to Vienna in September 2024 to attend and speak at the 17th International Conferenc...
29/12/2024

Vienna 1 - Highlights from a visit to Vienna in September 2024 to attend and speak at the 17th International Conference on the Inclusive Museum, MuseumsQuartier Wie, Vienna, Austria.

A gurdwara located between my hotel and the MuseumsQuartier made for a convenient stop, where on this occasion it was nice to speak to locals and hear their stories.
All of those present were Sikhs from Afghanistan, who had sought refuge in Europe following the conflicts and regime change in their country of birth. They told me of the coordinated events between Gurdwaras in Vienna, where the Asa Di Var programme was currently taking place at the Gurdwara on the other side of Vienna, hence the reduced sangat present.

Given that they were conversing in Pashto and German, and I was speaking in Punjabi and English, I managed to learn of their journeys from Kabul to Vienna and the government's support in adapting to their arrival in Europe. Learning German was mandatory, and these particular individuals were sent to rural locations around the country to learn the language, which took 8 years in total. A time they found quite difficult, having recently arrived in the country and never having lived outside cities. Once proficiency in German was achieved, and they were accustomed to the way of life in Austria, they completed their citizenship with Austrian passports secured. Following their citizenship, they returned to Vienna and set up their businesses in the locality of the Gurdwara, where others also did the same. They commented that they had visited the UK and were alarmed at the cost of living and public transport in particular, commenting that as Austrian citizens their travel only costs 1 Euro per day for all forms of public transport - a benefit they appreciated more upon their return to Vienna from London! They advised that the Sikh sangat in Vienna now comprises approx. 10,000 Sikhs with 3 Gurdwaras in the city.

If you are making investments this month, do consider purchasing the treasures below.  Having resources such as these be...
08/12/2024

If you are making investments this month, do consider purchasing the treasures below.  Having resources such as these beautifully written publications within the home ensures access for all the family, friends, and guests.  I am sharing my December reading list as below.

The Road to Empire: The Political Education of Khalsa Sikhs in the Late 1600s
Satnam Singh
Available via:  www.ucpress.edu/books/the-road-to-empire/hardcover

Ranjit Singh: Sikh, Warrior, King - Exhibition Catalogue
Davinder Toor
Available via:
www.wallacecollectionshop.org/products/ranjit-singh-sikh-warrior-king-by-davinder-toor

Sikh: Two Centuries of Western Women's Art & Writing
Eleanor Nesbitt
Available via:
www.kashihouse.com/sikh/p/two-centuries-of-western-womens-art-writing-special-limited-edition

If you are making investments this month, do consider purchasing the treasures below.  Having resources such as these be...
08/12/2024

If you are making investments this month, do consider purchasing the treasures below. Having resources such as these beautifully written publications within the home ensures access for all the family, friends, and guests. I am sharing my December reading list as below!!

The Road to Empire: The Political Education of Khalsa Sikhs in the Late 1600s
Satnam Singh
Available via: www.ucpress.edu/books/the-road-to-empire/hardcover

Ranjit Singh: Sikh, Warrior, King - Exhibition Catalogue
Davinder Toor
Available via:
www.wallacecollectionshop.org/products/ranjit-singh-sikh-warrior-king-by-davinder-toor

Sikh: Two Centuries of Western Women's Art & Writing
Eleanor Nesbitt
Available via:
www.kashihouse.com/sikh/p/two-centuries-of-western-womens-art-writing-special-limited-edition

If you are making investments this month, do consider purchasing the treasures below.  Having resources such as these be...
08/12/2024

If you are making investments this month, do consider purchasing the treasures below. Having resources such as these beautifully written publications within the home ensures access for all the family, friends, and guests. I am sharing my December reading list here!

The Road to Empire: The Political Education of Khalsa Sikhs in the Late 1600s
Satnam Singh
Available via: www.ucpress.edu/books/the-road-to-empire/hardcover

Ranjit Singh: Sikh, Warrior, King - Exhibition Catalogue
Davinder Toor
Available via:
www.wallacecollectionshop.org/products/ranjit-singh-sikh-warrior-king-by-davinder-toor

Sikh: Two Centuries of Western Women's Art & Writing
Eleanor Nesbitt
Available via:
www.kashihouse.com/sikh/p/two-centuries-of-western-womens-art-writing-special-limited-edition

Highlights of "From Roots to Rise: Exploring Sikh Heritage", Deloitte's celebration of Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s Gurpurab on T...
29/11/2024

Highlights of "From Roots to Rise: Exploring Sikh Heritage", Deloitte's celebration of Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s Gurpurab on Thursday 28 November 2024, Shoe Lane, London.

Congratulations to the Deloitte SIkh Network - founding member Satwinder S Reyat, and the team of young professionals including Chanpreet, Manleen, Tazz, Simran, Satnam, Ish, Samuel and Kulraj on their event to celebrate Guru Nanak Dev Ji's Gurpurab and also the 10th year of the Deloitte Sikh Network. It was clear to see the effort and planning that the team had made, with an evening of rotating speakers for the groups, a Q&A session, an art display with pieces from .art and , a lovely plot your pind activity and a range of refreshments and wholesome food for all those that attended.



Thank you to the DSN for the opportunity to join your speaker panel and share our work with all those who attended.

From Roots to Rise: Exploring Sikh Heritage, Deloitte's celebration of Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s Gurpurab on Thursday 28 Novem...
29/11/2024

From Roots to Rise: Exploring Sikh Heritage, Deloitte's celebration of Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s Gurpurab on Thursday 28 November 2024, Shoe Lane, London.

Highlights from the 3 little history presentations by Ajunee Dhillon and Rav Singh at Deloitte's event last night. We spoke on our assigned topics of Amritsar 1919, the life of Sophia Duleep SIngh and Partition 1947. 

Thank you to the Deloitte event organising team, Chanpreet, Manleen, Tazz, and Kulraj.  The delivery of their vision was appreciated by all those who attended.

   Highlights of our study day and field trip for the 2024/2025 cohort of Religious Education PGCE students at the Insti...
24/11/2024

  Highlights of our study day and field trip for the 2024/2025 cohort of Religious Education PGCE students at the Institute of Education at University College London (UCL). 

A full day of visiting sites in Chelsea and South Kensington and ending our day at the Central Gurdwara (Khalsa Jatha British Isles).  A full itinerary included visits to a church, two museums, and stories in the public realm prior to an afternoon spent at the Gurdwara Sahib. We wish the 2025 cohort of RE teachers the very best with their future careers.

Thank you to  and for keeping the group of 20 engaged throughout the day and to   for the support to facilitate a learning visit to the Gurdwara for the group.

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Tuesday 5am - 7pm
Wednesday 5am - 7pm
Thursday 5am - 7pm
Friday 5am - 5pm

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