Dalip Singh (Saund) ('Congressman From India: The Story of Dalip Singh (Saund)', Jan 07; 'Tribute to Dalip Singh', Jan 06) wrote a book titled 'My Mother India,' published by the Stockton Gurdwara in 1930. In the preface he writes, "It was only fitting that the Pacific Coast Khalsa Diwan Society, in its role as interpreter of Hindu culture and civilization to America, should undertake its publication."

He did not keep the Sikh identity. He consistently refers to himself and the early pioneers as Hindus.

He extols Hindu philosophy, civilization, and ethics. He refers to Sikhs as reformed Hindus. He defends the status of women in Hindu society, praises Gandhi, condemns the Caste System but defends its early necessity for the purpose of race. Some excerpts:

"Brahmans have not always ruled the country with purely selfish motives... they have used their power mostly for the advancement of its culture and arts. To the Brahmans we owe in general the elaboration and systemization of Hindu philosophy. They have abused their authority at several periods, but on such occasions a great reformer like Buddha or Nanak always appeared among the Hindus and gave the corrupted priests fresh warning for their mistakes."

"When the Aryans first migrated into India, they found themselves face to face with hordes of savage tribes belonging to inferior and aboriginal races. The position of those Aryan forefathers was analogous to that which later confronted the immigrants of Europe into the continents of America and Australia. While the latter invaders have sought to simplify their race problems by exterminating the original inhabitants of these countries the early Hindus under similar conditions accepted the inferior races as units in their social structure and gave them a distinct place in the scale of labor, the nature of their functions being strictly determined according to their qualification."

"In so far as the early Hindu sociologists safeguarded the superior Aryan culture by laying down strict rules - such as the refusals to intermarry and to drink the same water - they were in the right. Therein they recognized the diversity of races and the necessity of keeping separate the most highly developed and the least civilized."

Gurpreet Singh