An annual event that is recognised worldwide in the Sikh faith is Sirdar Kapur Singh’s death anniversary. He was an eminent Sikh philosopher, theologian, politician-parliamentarian, and a prolific writer of the twentieth century. As a distinguished linguist, he had a mastery over English, Gurmukhi, Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit. He wrote many books, such as Sachi Sakhi, Bikh Meh Amrit and Bau Visthar. However he is mostly known for writing the Anandpur resolution; a series of demands made by the people of Punjab to the Indian government which all fell under human rights and laws, which are still being abused even now.

This annual event which has been going on for the last seven years in the UK sees some of the most prolific and well respected Sikh historians, philosophers and scholars attending and speaking about his life and his work. Obviously, due to the coronavirus, the vent had to be minimised, to the point where there were only four speakers able to attend, 

But for the first time, a young personality was given time on stage to explain in English the importance that Sirdar Kapur Singh had on the Sikh religion and Punjab as a whole. Yes, I was lucky enough to be that young Historian who was able to take part in this fantastic seminar. 

Seriously this was one of the most exciting things that had happened for me during this whole pandemic. It was a great experience to meet scholars who I had never met before, people who I had looked up to for a very long, and authors to books I had been studying for this event. I provided with an hours worth of time to adequately explain Sirdar Kapur Singhs contribution to Punjab. Mainly I focused my talk on his most famous speech, “The Betrayal of the Sikhs”, a parliamentary speech where he laid down evidence that the government was using the people of Punjab for their gains and exploiting their beliefs to make them defend India.

Full video can be viewed here: