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Obituary Sewa Singh Kohli
Sewa Singh Kohli
settled in Glasgow in the early 1960s and set up a business
importing Indian foods. He then went on to own a restaurant
and establish Kohli Travel
y father, Sewa Singh Kohli,
who has died aged 92, was a well-known Indian community leader and
businessman in Scotland. Born in Ambala, northern India, he was
the fourth of nine children. After school and college, he graduated in
oriental languages in 1941 from Punjab University Lahore. His passion for
justice was expressed in his Communist Party of India (CPI) activity.
From 1941 to 1948, he worked for NW Railways and was a trade union and
CPI activist; he was then a full-time union official and CPI leader until
1959. In 1948, the CPI was temporarily declared illegal and he went
underground. The partition in 1947 brought great challenges: for him it
involved saving the life of a Muslim man from a mob and helping refugees
settle in Delhi. Sewa Singh's broad outlook
took him to Liberia in 1959 to work in an import-export business. In
April 1962 he went to Glasgow for medical treatment and stayed on. The
rest of the family joined him from Delhi later that year so his children
could have better educational opportunities. His degree was not
recognised in Britain, so he went into business and started BK Trading
Company, which imported Indian foods. In later years he owned a
restaurant and then started Kohli Travel. He never forgot his
responsibility towards the community. He campaigned to ensure Sikh, Hindu
and Muslim religious marriages were legally recognised. His love of the
arts, including writing Urdu and Punjabi poetry, led him to encourage
others to take up Punjabi folk dance and drama. His oldest brother was
killed in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots following Indira Gandhi's
assassination, but he was not consumed with hatred. Rather, he sought the
truth about the riots and justice for those affected. He organised Sikh
pilgrimages to India and Pakistan, a feat recognised by the president of
Pakistan; compiled a translation of Urdu literature into Punjabi;
organised photographic exhibitions of the Sikh contribution to Glasgow
and of Sikhs in the second world war; and worked tirelessly to create the
Mel Milaap – a south Asian community centre in Glasgow for older
people. He was a longstanding Labour party
member and was actively involved in, and represented the community on,
many organisations. Of his numerous awards he was particularly proud of
his MBE [Member of the British Empire], presented in 1998. He is survived by his wife,
Harinder, whom he married in 1946; his children, Pushpinder, Aman and me;
10 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. • [Courtesy: guardian.co.uk, Sunday 29 April 2012]
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