Untold Story of Resilience of Kashmiri Sikhs

In her first book, An Invisible Minority, Komal JB Singh puts the spotlight on the voices, struggles, and resilience of the Kashmiri Sikh community. Reviewer Bilal Gani says, the book provides a firsthand account of the displacement, violence and trauma experienced by the community through interviews, and by accessing archival records as well as literature. In popular discourse, Dogra ruler Gulab Singh is credited with establishing Jammu and Kashmir as an entity. However, it was the founder of the Lahore kingdom Maharaja Ranjit Singh who truly laid its foundation. Through rigorous research, the author establishes a narrative of state-building under the Sikhs. However, despite their proactive role, Kashmiri Sikhs have remained largely underrepresented and insignificant in the understanding of Kashmir and its society. This book presents a new historiography of the conflict-ridden region by placing the Sikh community at the center of history writing in the Valley. In the chapter The Partition of 1947 and the Sikhs of Kashmir, Singh presents a chilling account of the horrors of Partition and the mass killings along religious lines. Singh documents how the Kashmiri Sikhs, as a vulnerable minority, were persecuted and uprooted during the tribal invasions and the communal violence that followed the British withdrawal from India. The resilience of the Sikh community in the face of violence and persecution is evident from the fact that most Sikhs chose to remain in Kashmir even when Kashmiri Pandits left the Valley following the outbreak of armed insurgency in the late 1980s. Amid the complex and contested identities of the region, this micro-minority has remained both neglected and invisible. Singh’s book attempts to restore the lost glory and identity of the community; it stands out as a groundbreaking ethnographic account of their experiences. Kashmiri cultural practices became intrinsic to the Sikh community and significantly influenced their lifestyle and identity. The author carefully details that despite targeted killings and marginalisation, the Sikhs of Kashmir have remained fearless and resilient. As minority identities come under assault in India, this book becomes crucial for understanding how marginalisation and persecution endanger the survival of nation-states, and why protecting minorities is essential for building a truly democratic and powerful nation (earlier coverage).