ECB is about differentiating Sikhs
from the word 'Asian.'
Its a Vision to help raise awareness
of Sikhs in the Western World,
their history,beliefs and identity.
The owner of an upscale Salt Lake City private club is apologizing for turning away a Sikh man because his turban violated its no-hats policy. The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund wrote a letter to Club Habits complaining that in July, Harpreet Singh Multani of Sandy tried to gain entrance to the club at 832 E. 3900 South but was told its no-hats policy applied to his turban. For Sikh men, the turban is a part of their religious identity. "It's a religious requirement for practicing Sikhs," said Rajbir Singh Datta, associate director of the Washington, D.C., organization. Club owner Bill Carter said Tuesday he had received the letter and that the club would issue an apology, and invite Multani to visit again. "We apologize to him . . . through our ignorance we didn't know there was a religious-type problem with anyone." Multani said he and several friends went to the club on July 14 and waited in line to get in. "The lady at front door, the only thing she said [is] you cannot have any head coverings and you cannot come in," he said in an interview Tuesday. Multani said he found no sign with a dress code posted outside the club or on the club's Web site, leaving him wondering if he had been singled out. Carter said the club, which will amend its dress code, is trying to be an upscale dinner-and-dancing establishment and, therefore, prohibits dress such as T-shirts and hats, including baseball caps. Utah liquor statutes don't cover issues of discrimination in establishments that have state licenses, but Salt Lake City attorney Brian Barnard said Utah's civil rights laws do. Barnard won a 1992 Utah Supreme Court ruling that he says forced all liquor-license holders to meet state civil rights standards. They say that establishments licensed by the state cannot discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, ancestry, religion or national origin. Barnard had sued the Elks Club in St. George because it held a liquor license but didn't allow women to be members. "Clearly a private club with a state liquor license cannot discriminate on the basis of religion," said Barnard. Datta said he was pleased to hear Club Habits would apologize and that his group would send Carter information explaining various types of religious headgear. Datta said the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund gets hundreds of complaints about religious discrimination, including from Sikhs who are denied access to courtrooms because of prohibitions on hats and headgear. tharvey@sltrib.com
Irish Police Commissioner Noel Conroy has agreed to meet Sikh community leaders to discuss the ban on turbans imposed on officers.
The move comes after a Sikh trainee officer was told that he could not wear the turban on duty.
Members of Ireland's Sikh community are hoping to convince police to change the ruling.
But police say that religious symbols could lead the public to believe that they are not acting "impartially".
The man, who had already passed three stages of his training, was told of the ban before starting the fourth - in which he would have been working with members of the public.
The Republic's police force, known as An Garda Siochana, requires all officers to wear standard issue uniform - including a cap.
A statement issued on behalf of An Garda said that the public may view variations of the uniform as an indication that the force was not "policing all sections of society equally".
A spokesman for the force told the BBC that they were currently "examining" their policy on all religious symbols, including crucifixes and pioneer pins.
But the president of the Irish Sikh Council, Harpreet Singh, told BBC Radio Five Live that the turban was "a mandatory article of faith that a Sikh cannot take off".
He argued that the rules meant that An Garda were "asking the whole Sikh community to stay out of the police force".
Philip Watt, from the Irish Republic's National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism, also told BBC Radio that he thought the police had got it wrong.
"They've perhaps not thought it through full enough, and I think they should go back and review this decision now," he said.
Sikh boy holds a placard against the French ban of turbans in New Delhi, India (File Photo)
The largest civil rights organization of American Sikhs has expressed outrage at a new U.S. airport security policy that allows random searches of turbans.
The Sikh Coalition said it had been informed by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration that under new guidelines the religious headdress could be subject to pat-downs even if the turban wearers had passed a metal detector test.
On its website, the Coalition says it is concerned that the new policy amounts to religious profiling. The organization urged Sikhs to sign a petition to the TSA to demonstrate grassroots concern with the new procedures. It also asked all Sikhs to document their experience with the new headgear screening procedures.
The TSA said on its website it does not conduct ethnic or religious profiling.
The Irish Sikh Council (ISC) has denied weekend media reports that it is considering a High Court challenge against An Garda Síochána over the wearing of turbans.
The row broke out after it emerged a Sikh recruit to the Garda Reserve was told he would not be allowed wear his turban on duty.
It had been reported that the ISC had sought advice from representatives of a police officer who successfully overturned a similar ban in New York.
But ISC president Harpreet Singh said no decision has been made on a legal challenge. "The Irish Sikh Council is very much hopeful that the issue can be amicably resolved," he said.
Members of the Sikh community are to meet Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy next week to discuss the issue.
The Garda has rejected claims that its decision to ban the turban from its official uniform was religiously or racially motivated.
Mr Conroy said last week that the Garda sought the advice of UK police forces and met representatives of the approximately 1,000-strong Sikh community in Ireland before deciding that Sikh gardaí in Ireland would not wear a turban.
The issue has forced the Garda to say it will review the wearing of ashes on the forehead on Ash Wednesday, of crucifixes and of pioneer pins with the official uniform. "All religious items are being reviewed," a spokesman said.
26 August 2007 By John Burke The Irish Sikh Council is considering mounting a High Court challenge aimed at overturning Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy’s ban on Sikhs wearing their traditional turban while on Garda duty.
The Sikh council has also confirmed to The Sunday Business Post that it made contact with representatives of a New York Police Department (NYPD) officer who successfully overturned a similar ban in the New York police force.
President of the Sikh council, Harpreet Singh, said the council intended to ‘‘take the necessary steps in the event that there is no change of position from the Garda’’ after a Sikh Garda Reserve recruit was told he could not wearing his turban while on duty.
The wearing of the turban is considered a religious act by members of the Sikh faith.
Sikh police officers in Britain, Canada and New York are permitted to wear a turban on duty. Singh said the council was examining the issue from a European law perspective but that it would not launch a legal action until meaningful dialogue had ended.
Conroy released a statement late last week re-affirming Garda management’s decision to ban Sikhs from wearing a turban instead of the traditional Garda cap.
In a strongly-worded statement, Conroy said he believed a variation to standard Garda uniform and dress, including those with religious symbolism, ‘‘may portray an image of the force that the public would not want’’.
The statement outlined that the policy was binding on all members of the force, irrespective of religious beliefs.
Sikh Turbans, A Mandatory Article of the Sikh Faith, Listed as Item to be Screened at U.S. Airports
NEW YORK, Aug 25, 2007 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The Sikh Coalition, the nation's largest Sikh civil rights organization, strongly opposes new headwear screening procedures put in place by the Transportation Security Administration on August 4, 2007. TSA officials told the Sikh Coalition that the new Standard Operating Procedure includes a guidance recommending that America's 43,000 airport screeners pull aside turban-wearing travelers for secondary screening, based solely on their headwear.
The turban is the only form of religious garb specifically identified by the TSA as an example of headwear that could lead to secondary screening at security checkpoints. Other examples include cowboy hats and berets. The TSA's policy accounts for no difference between the turban, a religious requirement, and fashion headwear.
"Telling screeners to search people in turbans is the same as telling them to search black people or Arabs or Muslims. The policy allows screeners to single out travelers on the basis of their religion. The message this sends to the public is that people who wear turbans are dangerous," said Amardeep Singh, Executive Director of the Sikh Coalition. "That attitude challenges the spirit of religious pluralism on which our country was built."
The new policy revokes standard procedures, created in November 2001 to address Americans' national security concerns, while safeguarding religious freedom. That policy required TSA screeners to search Sikhs' turbans only when they had not successfully cleared a metal detector. Screeners were required to do as much as possible to avoid physically touching the turban. The new procedures recommend physical pat-downs of the turban, without acknowledging the religious sensitivities involved, and do not include any guidance on how to perform these manual checks.
In addition, these procedures were implemented without input from community groups, and the text of the policy is now being kept secret. Earlier policies had been the result of a joint effort between the Sikh Coalition and the Department of Transportation.
Since September 11, 2001, hundreds of Sikhs have been harassed, beaten, and even killed because of the association of their turbans and beards with terrorism. The TSA procedures put an official stamp of approval on this harmful stereotyping by the public.
CARLSBAD – A religious civil rights organization has complained to the U.S. Justice Department after a member of the Sikh religion was denied entry into two Carlsbad Village nightclubs because he was wearing a turban.
Dave Bindra, 22, said the Ocean House restaurant and Coyote Bar & Grill would not let him in July 27 because they have rules against do-rags, beanies, bandannas and other head wear associated with street gangs.
Bindra also said that when he explained to Ocean House manager Steve Town that his turban was not a do-rag but a religious expression that he never removes in public, Town said, “ 'Beanie, do-rag or turban, you still have a towel on your head and you're not going in.' ”
Town denies he made the “towel” remark and said Bindra and his friends were denied entry because they were being aggressive.
Bindra, a Los Angeles native and a student at Carlsbad's Gemological Institute of America, said that after he was denied entry at Ocean House, he went to the nearby Coyote Bar & Grill. The bar would not let him in, so he asked for the manager's name and phone number and decided to call it a night.
Coyote general manager Aaron Williams said, “It had nothing to do with attacking his religion. We have a no-hat, no head wear policy when we have a DJ.”
Told that Sikhs wear a turban as an expression of their faith, Williams said, “I'm not judging anyone for their religion. Anybody can come in here and say, 'I'm wearing this because it's my religion.' ”
Bindra said that after the Coyote refusal, three female friends had gone back to the Ocean House, which is in the same shopping center as Coyote, and demanded to see the manager.
At that point, Town and Bindra agree, things spun out of control.
“He was with three females who were going ballistic,” Town said, adding that Bindra threatened his employees physically and used profanities.
“I said, 'We're not going to let you in because you're attacking us,' ” Town said.
Bindra said his friends were yelling profanities, but he did not.
“I did not get aggressive,” Bindra said. “I didn't want to give a bad name to Sikhs by reacting aggressively.”
Bindra said he was not wearing a traditional peaked turban but a patka, which uses less material and is more skull-tight. He said he also has a full beard, in observance of his religion.
Town said Bindra's head wear did not look like a typical turban, and bouncers at the club told Bindra that he would be allowed into the club, but every club employee would question him because of the strict rules against head wear.
Bindra said, however, that he saw the club admit patrons wearing baseball hats and didn't understand why a rule against do-rags applied to him.
The Sikh religion is one of world's newer faiths, having been founded about 500 years ago in Punjab, said Rajbir Singh Datta, a spokesman for the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
Datta said incidents of discrimination against Sikhs have increased since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
He called the turban “the uniform of the Sikh religion” and compared it to a Jewish yarmulke.
Datta said his organization has contacted the Community Relations Service of the U.S. Justice Department, which mediates in instances of racial and ethnic discrimination.
If the restaurants did deny Bindra service because he wore a turban, he would have a strong claim against them, said David Steinberg, a professor of civil rights law at San Diego's Thomas Jefferson School of Law.
Steinberg said the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 explicitly prohibits discrimination in “public accommodations” – such as stores, hotels and restaurants – based upon race or religion.
“The reason this person can't come into the restaurant, unlike a hatless person, is because of his religious beliefs,” Steinberg said. “I don't see any justification for a no-hat policy that would outweigh the very legitimate rights of the man to practice his religion.”
Staff writer Steve Liewer contributed to this report.
US Sikh organisations have expressed anger over changes allowing airport security staff to "pat down" turbans.
Until now turbans have been searched or removed only to resolve an unexplained alarm from an airport metal detector.
But now security will have greater discretion to inspect turbans so that they can be manually checked for objects such as non-metallic weapons.
However Sikh groups have responded to the new measures by describing them as outrageous and discriminatory.
Sikh men wear turbans to cover their hair, which they leave uncut in accordance with their religion.
Organisations representing Sikhs have only recently completed a publicity campaign to explain the significance of the kirpan, or religious sword, to security officials.
The Transportation Security Administration insisted the new policy was necessary to counter the threat of improvised bombs and chemical weapons.
In Britain, the government said recently that private searches of turbans might be necessary as part of airport security.
Monty Panesar has been named the Wisden Cricketer of 2007. He is the first Sikh to play cricket for England and is the face of Walkers new Chilli and Lemon flavour crisps.
If I weren't talking to you right now I'd be ...
Relaxing somewhere with my friends and family.
A phrase I use far too often ...
"Tiga, tiga" which means "okay, okay" in Hindi. Or I use "How's that?" when I'm appealing a call.
I wish people would take more notice of...
Being able to play cricket
The most surprising thing that happened to me ...
I never imagined I'd see my face on a double-decker bus. It's shocking to see such a large picture of myself.
A common misconception of me is ...
People think that I can rap. I have done it, but I am not really good. I'm not Eminem.
I'm not a politician but if I were ...
I would have more national holidays and I would also extend the Christmas holidays.
I'm good at...
Jumping high and missing high fives with my team-mates. I can also make my friends and family laugh.
I'm bad at...
Cooking. I tried at university but I had to end up buying a card for meals because I was so bad.
You know me as a cricketer but in another life I'd have been...
A musician. I would have been a pianist, even though I don't play now.
The parents of a Sikh girl want to convert her to Roman Catholicism to win a place at the school of their choice.
Baljit and Bal Singh say they will change their four-year-old daughter's religion if it means she can attend their favoured school next month.
Maya Kaur has been attending a nursery at St Paul's Roman Catholic School in Wolviston, Cleveland, for the past two years.
But her parents have been told there is no place available for her when she starts full-time education in a few weeks.
After losing an appeal, the couple say they are seriously considering changing her religion in the hope she may be allowed into the school, which gives priority to Catholic children.
Mr Singh said: "We think Sikhism is similar to Roman Catholicism so we put her in that school. She's been there for two years, she goes to church with them, she says a prayer before she eats her dinner.
"I'll baptise her as Roman Catholic so she can go to the school."
St Paul's admissions policy gives priority to children who have been baptised Roman Catholic, have been formally received into the Catholic church and live in the catchment area, or who have a sibling at the school. Priority then goes to other Christian denominations before children of other faiths.
The Singhs' extraordinary proposal is likely to be frowned upon within the Sikh religion, which takes some of its identity from ancestors who were persecuted and martyred for refusing to convert to other faiths.
Among the stories taught within the faith is that of Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth of the founding gurus of Sikhism who was beheaded in 1675 by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb for refusing to convert to Islam.
The Singhs insisted that they were doing nothing wrong in trying to get the best for their daughter.
"Two years ago when they took her into the nursery why didn't they say she wouldn't get a place straight away in the primary school?" said Mr Singh.
"I would have got her baptised then - or I'd have put her in another school."
Maya has been offered a place at William Cassidi School, a nearby Church of England school. But her parents claim she is upset and wants to remain with her friends.
Catherine Connelly, head at St Paul's, said the school had received 34 applications this year, compared to the norm of 24. The class size had also been expanded to the legal limit of 30.
"We are proud of our school's inclusive nature and we have children of several different faiths and ethnic groups," she said.
"We allocated the places according to our published admissions criteria which all parents had access to."
VANCOUVER -Passport Canada will issue an apology --and travel documents -- to three Sikh children whose passport applications were rejected because they were wearing religious headgear. The federal agency will also offer remedial training to passport staff to ensure a similar incident doesn't happen in the future, spokesman Fabien Lengelle said yesterday. "It is resolved," Mr. Lengelle said. "As soon as we became aware of the issue, we called the parents and offered corrective measures." Lakhwinder Kaur Sidhu had mailed passport applications to Ottawa for herself and her husband along with their three children, Gurleen Kaur, 9, Ravneet Kaur, 7, and Gurmant Singh, 4, on May 15. All five had included passport photos in which they were wearing their religious headgear. Although Ms. Sidhu and her husband, Hardip, received their passports last week, the children's applications were denied because their photos did not meet the specifications, as the wearing of a "head covering is unacceptable." Her son was wearing a patka, which is knotted at the top to keep the hair intact, while the girls were wearing head scarves. Sikhs wear head coverings as part of their religious observance after they are baptized.
Sixty years ago this week India and Pakistan were granted independence from British rule. Independence meant that Pakistan and India were separated into two different countries, one for Muslims, the other for Sikhs and Hindus.
The struggle to make sure you were in the right country led to riots, murder and bloodshed, which affected the families of many people now living in Peterborough. Jemma Walton heard their stories.
Despite having much in common – like history, culture and languages – Pakistan and India have struggled to live peacefully together since they were granted independence from Britain in August 1947.
Much of south Asia came under direct control of Great Britain in the late 18th century. The British Raj over the Indian subcontinent lasted for almost two centuries.
But The Muslim League proposed the Two Nation Theory in the early 20th century, and a campaign for partition gained pace in the '40s.
According to the Two Nation theory, Hindus and Muslims shared little in common and India should be divided into countries, one for the Muslims and the other for the non-Muslims.
The Partition of India created two countries, the Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Both were part of the Commonwealth, with their own democratically elected governments and Prime Ministers.
Pakistan received independence from Britain on August 14, 1947, and India achieved independence the next day.
Tens of millions of Hindus living in Pakistan emigrated to India, while several million Muslims living in the Union of India went to live in Pakistan, but two million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs died amid the chaos of mass emigration.
And that was just the start of the region's troubles.
According to the British plan for the partition of
India, all the 680 princely states were allowed to decide which of the two countries to join.
With the exception of a few, most of the Hindu-majority princely-states acceded to the Union of India, while most of the Muslim-majority princely states joined Pakistan.
However, the decisions of some of the princely-states – such as Kashmir – would shape the Indo-Pakistani relationship for years to come.
Each country claims Kashmir as a part of its territory. Today, as a result of a rebellion in 1947 and subsequent wars between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, the area is separated by a cease-fire line.
After years of bloodshed, tensions between the two are beginning to simmer down. Both countries have made steps towards peace, including more high-level talks and the easing of visa restrictions.
They have even come so far that the odd game of cricket isn't out of the question, either.
ROLY-poly Carole Vincent lost her inner peace in a string of rows yesterday – yet she once converted to Sikhism.
Carole, 52, explored her spiritual side when she joined her local temple in the 1990s.
But yesterday she exploded with rage in the house — over FOOD.
She had a spat with Gerry, when the gay Greek rapped her for controlling the house’s grub. Carole protested: “I’m not controlling anything, Gerry. You shouldn’t just go around taking other people’s stuff.”
And then she had a run-in with Liam after admitting having a secret tea bag stash. The Geordie branded her a hypocrite after she had earlier warned housemates: “If there is food hidden there’ll be serious consequences
Her tantrums was a far cry from when she visited her local temple in traditional garb.
Daughter Ebony Vincent said: “Mum did a course about inner spirituality and as part of that people had to learn about a new religion. She chose Sikhism and often went down to the temple in the full outfit.
“Mum is a very spiritual person and has a lot in common with the Sikhs. She finds them very calm and peaceful.
“Whenever they have big celebrations she often will put on her Sikh costume and go join in. She has lots of Sikh friends.”
London, Aug. 14: A Sikh man belonging to a volunteer reserve police force in Ireland has been banned from wearing his headgear.
The Sikh man, who has not been named, is a qualified IT professional who decided to join the Garda Reserve, the volunteer reserve section of Ireland’s police force Garda Siochana.
Ireland’s integration minister Conor Lenihan on Monday said that immigrants to the country must accept Ireland’s culture but acknowledged the importance of the turban in the Sikh community.
"If we are to take integration seriously, people who come here must understand our way of doing things. When the President and ministers travel to West Asia, they accept cultural requirements of the country and the culture they are operating in. It is a vice versa situation with regard to Ireland," he said. Male Sikhs are required by religion to cover their hair at all times by a turban, an article of faith and an intrinsic aspect of their identity.
As turbans are worn by Sikh police officers elsewhere, most notably the London metropolitan police, a compromise may be reached, news portal independent.ie, a website reported.
In June, Sikhs in France filed a case before the (ECHR) in Strasbourg challenging a French law that demands that turbans be taken off while being photographed for identity cards after Shingara Mann Singh, 52, a French national for over 20 years, was denied a replacement driver’s licence in 2005 and again in 2006 because he refused to remove his turban. (IANS)
London, Aug. 12: Sikh taxi driver Davinder Singh, who complained to police after allegedly suffering a torrent of racial abuse from an aristocratic customer — the Marquess of Blandford — would have understood all, forgiven all and perhaps even sympathised with his tormentor if only he had been familiar with Satyajit Ray’s depiction of the crumbling of a once great zamindari family in Jalshaghar.
Although he belongs to one of the noblest families in the land, the 51-year-old Marquess of Blandford could have inspired an evocative film on the last days of an old aristocratic English line had a person such as Ray existed in Britain.
To the tabloids, Charles James Spencer-Churchill, Marquess of Blandford, born November 24, 1955, and heir, as his eldest son, to John George Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough, has long been a ridiculous figure.
Marquess he might be and a distant relative of Sir Winston Churchill, but “Jamie Blandford” is now considered the upper class equivalent of Jade Goody, the reality television character with whom Shilpa Shetty clashed on Celebrity Big Brother. However, Jamie appears to have few of Jade’s redeeming qualities.
All of Britain, with the exception of Davinder obviously, also knows that Jamie’s main claim to fame is that he is the UK’s best-known upper class drug addict.
In fact, Jamie’s father is so fed up with his son that he has announced that his inheritance will pass not to son but his son’s son, George Spencer-Churchill.
The boy was born in 1992 to Jamie and his first wife, Rebecca Mary Few Brown, (Rebecca, Marchioness of Blandford), whom he married in 1990 and divorced in 1998. George, incidentally, is called the Earl of Sunderland.
But there is nothing that the 11th Duke can do to stop Jamie becoming the 12th Duke of Marlborough when he dies.
To complicate matters and make all this sound though it was all taken from the pages of a P.G. Wodehouse novel, Jamie’s second marriage to one Edla Griffiths (Marchioness of Blandford), took place on March 1, 2002, at Woodstock Register Office. Although Jamie and his second wife have been living apart since 2004, their daughter, Araminta Clementine Megan Spencer-Churchill (Lady Araminta Spencer-Churchill) was born on April 8 this year.
The latest drama in the life of Jamie took place when one morning recently he summoned a cab from his ancestral home in the Blenheim Palace estate, Oxfordshire, to go to Coventry Crown Court where the heir to the Dukedom of Marlborough was facing a charge of dangerous driving and cutting up, of all people, a policeman on the M42. full Story...........................
The Irish Independent reports today that a Sikh member of the Garda Reserve will be prohibited from wearing his ceremonial headdress (turban) while on duty. Minister for Integration, Conor Lenihan, has backed the ruling.
The decision is in contrast to the positions of other forces, such as the London Metropolitan Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who allow Sikh members to wear their turbans, a vital part of the rules of their religion. Sikh men are prohibited from cutting their hair or appearing in public without the turban.
It is not clear whether the Garda Reserve member in question will continue with the force or resign his post.
His court appearances for a string of driving offences have been steadily mounting.
Now it seems that even getting to court is causing problems for the troubled Marquess of Blandford.
He is facing more hot water after being accused of racially abusing a Sikh taxi driver who had driven to collect him for an appearance at Coventry Crown Court.
The revelation comes just days after the wayward aristocrat faced Oxford Crown Court for an unprovoked road rage attack.
It was in July that driver Davinder Singh responded to a booking to take Charles James Spencer-Churchill, known as Jamie Blandford, to the West Midlands for a morning appearance on a different driving matter.
The 51-year-old peer, son of the 11th Duke of Marlborough, called for a cab to pick him up from his farm home, in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, to take him to Coventry.
Mr Singh, 46, said his problems began when he rang to check the exact location of the rural residence. He claims they escalated when he arrived and was greeted by a torrent of abuse. Blandford never made it to court that day.
The shocked driver contacted police and Blandford was arrested and questioned on suspicious of racially-aggravated behaviour the following day.
Last night Mr Singh told how he had been 'paralysed' with shock by the incident.
"It was just unbelievable," said the father-of-four. "I can put up with rudeness but not racism. There is just no excuse for it.
"I was having trouble finding his house so I called him and he said 'Why are you f***ing ringing me? You are the taxi driver you should know where you are f***ing going'."
The driver claimed that when he arrived he was greeted by even more derogatory racial remark and called a Hindu.
"He said I should remember I was a guest in this country and I replied that I was British," said Mr Singh.
"He looked me up and down and said 'You? British?'.
"I was just completely shocked."
Mr Singh, who has been a taxi driver for almost 25 years, said it was then that he turned down the £120 fare and drove off.
They woke me just after 3am. A Muslim refugee train had pulled into the railway sidings outside Amritsar after being attacked by Sikhs. Dawn was breaking when I arrived to find a slaughterhouse.
Blood was pouring from every compartment. We pulled out 270 bodies, pregnant women among them: throats cut, skulls smashed, stomachs ripped open, children with their legs hacked off.
A mile away, Sikh mobs were attacking a Muslim neighbourhood in the narrow streets of the city. On the other side of the new divide between Amritsar and Lahore, Muslim mobs were attacking Sikhs and Hindus. Refugee trains started to arrive from West Punjab after being attacked by Muslims. In Lahore, Sikhs were locked inside a Temple, which was then set on fire. India had gone mad.
This was Independence Day in the Punjab, 15 August 1947. I was staff captain in the Punjab Boundary Force, which was given the task of preserving order. Both the British and Indian armies had been withdrawn from the Punjab, and the Force consisted largely of my own division, 4th Indian.
The Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, gave it a mandate which guaranteed failure. Just 15,000 officers and troops were supposed to protect an area of 37,000 square miles, with 18,000 villages. He had been warned by Punjab's Governor that at least 60,000 troops would be needed (though with characteristic deviousness, he afterwards denied it).
At least a million people died and 15 million became refugees: columns as long as 25 miles made their way on foot from one side to the other. It was ethnic cleansing on an unbelievable scale. Disastrous floods added to the chaos, followed by inevitable outbreaks of disease.
The refugee trains became the prime target, with trains ambushed at any point during their journey. Railway engineers were bribed or forced to stop at a prescribed spot so that the train could be attacked.
