Sikhism in the United Kingdom

With around 200,000 to 300,000 living in London, the area is home to the largest Sikh community in the UK, the highest demographics being in Southall, Hayes, Hounslow, Ilford, Seven Kings, Goodmayes, Mayfield, East Ham, Erith, and Belvedere. A significant population also resides in Hackney, Isleworth, Wembley, Barking, Feltham, Bexleyheath, Abbey Wood, Plumstead, and Harrow.

Slough is the largest community outside of London, with Sikhs making up approximately 11% of the population.

Sandwell has a large Sikh community at around 9% of the population, the majority living in West Bromwich and Smethwick. Sandwell’s first gurdwara was built in Smethwick, and is the largest outside of London.

In Wolverhampton ten percent of residents belong to the Sikh faith. This is the second largest proportion of Sikhs in The UK outside of London as Wolverhampton is home to around 23,000 Sikh inhabitants.

British Sikh Professionals speaking in Parliament

Sixty-five percent of British Sikhs have a graduate level qualification or above. Sikhs in the 20 - 34 age group have the highest level of graduates (55%) within the Sikh community. The highest level of postgraduate qualifications of Master’s degrees (22%) is in the 35 - 49 age group. Eight percent of Sikhs aged 65 and over have a PhD. The split of formal education between women and men is roughly equal, with slightly more women holding a university degree or equivalent (48% of women, 42% of men).[9]

Hundreds of Sikh professionals come together regularly in London to be inspired and to share their life journeys.

The most popular employment sectors for British Sikhs include: Healthcare (10%), IT and Technology (8%), Teaching and Education (9%), Accountancy and Financial Management (7%), indicating that Sikhs tend to favour professional and technical employment sectors over others. Healthcare is a popular sector for all age groups. Teaching and Education is more common in the 35 - 49 and the 50 - 64 age groups than others, whereas accountancy and financial management is more popular with the 20 - 34 age group (9%) compared with 6% respectively for both the 35 - 49 and the 50 - 64 age groups. The top career choices for Sikh women are Healthcare (14%) and Teaching and Education (15%). Healthcare is also a joint second most popular choice for Sikh men along with Accountancy and Financial Management, the most popular sector being IT and Technology (13%).[10]

Home ownership is very high amongst British Sikhs with 87% of households owning at least a portion of their home. Thirty percent of British Sikh households own their homes outright and only 9% rent their properties. Only 1% of British Sikhs claim Housing Benefit. This represents the highest level of private home ownership rate over any other community in the UK. In addition, half of all British Sikh families (49%) own more than one property in the UK, with a similar number (50%) owning at least one property in India, apparently indicating that property ownership is used as a top means of building assets for the future. 6% of British Sikhs own property elsewhere in Europe.[11]

Relative to the national average income at approximately £40,000 before tax (according to the British Sikh Report), the British Sikh Report 2014 found that Sikh households tend to be affluent. Two in every three British Sikh households (66%) have pre-tax incomes in excess of £40,000, and over a third (34%) have an income in excess of £80,000, giving a value for the Sikh Pound of 7.63 billion.[12]

However this data appears to be contradicted by research carried out by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which actually states Sikhs have the second highest poverty rate in the UK, with 27% of British Sikhs living below the poverty line; this is in comparison to 18% of the population as a whole.[13]

About one in three British Sikh families (34%) own a business in the UK.[14]

Sikhs distributing langar (free community kitchen) in London

Performing Seva (selfless service) is a basic tenet of Sikhism, and Sikhs are also expected to share at least 10 per cent their earnings with those less fortunate and for good causes (Dasvandh).

Sixty-four percent of British Sikhs engage in some volunteering work, and 40% give between one and five hours per week on voluntary activities, including Seva at their Gurdwara, whilst more than 2% spend over 25 hours on such activities, spending about on average 200 hours per year on voluntary activities. Ninety-three percent claim to donate some money to charity every month, with 50% donating between £1 and £20 every month, and 7% donating more than £100 per month. It is estimated that Sikhs in Britain donate around £380 per year to charity on average. Taken as a whole, Sikhs in the UK are estimated to donate about £125 million to charity per annum and spend over 65 million hours each year on voluntary activities.[15]

Sikhs prefer to live in extended family households as they grow older - 61% of males and 52% of females. The second highest preference is in their own home (44% males and 41% females) and the third preference is in a retirement village (31% females and 24% males).[16]

In 2018, some Sikh organisations requested the ONS to include an ethnic tick box for Sikhs, creating an ongoing dispute between various Sikh organisations. The ONS rejected the request.[23] The ONS rejected the demand in their published paper.[24]

Holding an Anand Karaj wedding ceremony between a Sikh and a non-Sikh has become a contentious issue. In 2016, armed police arrested scores of protesters at Gurdwara Sahib in Leamington Spa, which The Telegraph claims "has a history of tensions over mixed marriages".[25] Sikh Youth UK, who were behind the protest, blamed "a rogue Gurdwara committee creating discord".[26]

One Sikh journalist called the issue a "deepening schism"[27] while another deplored the protesters' use of masks, and the way their actions allowed the kirpan (ceremonial dagger) to be seen as a bladed weapon rather than traditional dress, thus giving "the racists and the bigots justifications for their ignorant hatred".[28] An investigation on BBC Asian Network found that these disruptions over interfaith marriage had been going on for years.[29]

• In 2018, there were various violent incident at Gurdwaras involving Sikhs being attacked for supporting different views.[30][31]
• In 2018, five Sikh homes were raided by Anti-terror police.[32] The reason for the arrests was questioned by MP Preet Gill.[33]
• In 2017, a Scottish Sikh named Jagtar Singh Johal was arrested in India for terrorism offences whilst wedding shopping.[34] As of yet he has been held without charge.[35]
• In 2016,an interracial couple was terrorised for having a Sikh wedding by gangs of men.[36]
• In 2015, BBC presenter Bobby Friction was pressed by the Sikh Federation to apologise for using the offensive term 'Sikh Taliban' on air.[37][38]
• In 2015, a Sikh Lives Matter demonstration turned violent with at least one police officer injured.[39]
• In 2014, a religious leader of a Sikh sect was attacked by an axe-wielding man.[40] The attacker Harjit Singh Toor was jailed for 17 years.[41]
• In 2012, the Indian general who led the raid on Sikhism's holiest shrine was attacked whilst walking with his wife in London by four men.[42] The attackers were jailed in 2013.[43]
• In 2011, a 21-year-old millionaire Sikh executive was murdered in revenge for allegedly seducing a woman.[44] The student who lured him to her apartment and who was jailed for GBH was later released.[45]
• In 2004 a play by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti sparked controversy and its performances were cancelled after violent protests. The play included a scene set in a gurdwara involving rape, physical abuse and murder. Sikhs protested its opening night at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.[46]

A BBC Inside Out (London) programme televised in September 2013 interviewed several young Sikh women who were allegedly groomed and sexually abused by Muslim men, with one alleged ex-groomer even admitting that they specifically targeted Sikh girls. Bhai Mohan Singh, working for the Sikh Awareness Society (SAS), told the BBC he was investigating 19 alleged cases where Sikh girls were allegedly being groomed by older Muslim men,[47] of which one ended with a successful conviction.[48][49]

In August 2013 four Muslims and two Hindus were convicted at Leicester Crown Court of paying a "vulnerable and damaged" 16-year-old Sikh girl for sex,[50] the investigation having been opened due to evidence Bhai Mohan Singh had presented to the police.[49]

However, a report published the previous year by Faith Matters (which runs the TELL MAMA anti-Muslim violence helpline and works closely with the Jewish Community Security Trust[51]) claimed that the Sikh Awareness Society included radical anti-Muslim elements among its members;[52][53] Faith Matters furthermore alleged it was a matter of "common consensus" that the radical Sikhs said to have had secret meetings with the English Defence League were members of the SAS.[52][53] The SAS denied allegations and distanced themselves from the organization,[52][53] a spokesperson telling Hope not Hate: "We would have nothing to do with any racist or fascist group, certainly one that uses religion to divide people…I know nothing about this and no, we are not in any kind of talks and discussion with them".[54] The Nihal Show on the BBC Asian Network discussed the issue and debated the merits of the grooming claims in September 2013.[55]

In 2018, a report by a Sikh activist organisation, Sikh Youth UK, entitled “The Religiously Aggravated Sexual Exploitation of Young Sikh Women Across the UK" made allegations of alleged similarities between the case of Sikh Women and the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal.[56] However in 2019 this report was criticised by researchers and an official UK government report lead by two Sikh academics for false and misleading information.[57][58] It noted: "The RASE report lacks solid data, methodological transparency and rigour. It is filled instead with sweeping generalisations and poorly substantiated claims around the nature and scale of abuse of Sikh girls and causal factors driving it. It appealed heavily to historical tensions between Sikhs and Muslims and narratives of honour in a way that seemed designed to whip up fear and hate".[58]

In 2007, a Sikh girl's family claimed that she had been forcibly converted to Islam, and after being attacked by an armed gang, they received a police guard.[59] In response to these news stories, an open letter to Sir Ian Blair signed by ten academics argued that claims that Hindu and Sikh girls were being forcefully converted were "part of an arsenal of myths propagated by right-wing Hindu supremacist organisations in India".[60] The Muslim Council of Britain issued a press release pointing out there was a lack of evidence of any forced conversions and suggested it was an underhand attempt to smear the British Muslim population.[61]

An academic paper by Katy Sian published in the journal South Asian Popular Culture in 2011 explored the question of how "forced conversion narratives" arose around the Sikh diaspora in the United Kingdom.[62] Sian, who reports that claims of conversion through courtship on campuses are widespread in the UK, says that rather than relying on actual evidence they primarily rest on the word of "a friend of a friend" or on personal anecdote. According to Sian, the narrative is similar to accusations of "white slavery" lodged against the Jewish community and foreigners to the UK and the US, with the former having ties to anti-semitism that mirror the Islamophobia betrayed by the modern narrative. Sian expanded on these views in 2013's Mistaken Identities, Forced Conversions, and Postcolonial Formations.[63]