Gurpreet Singh ('Closer Look', Jan 09) in his reaction to the story on and tribute to Dalip Singh (Saund) is right on the mark. He is right that Dalip Singh was not much of a Sikh, as we now understand. Saund's comments on Gandhi and the Brahmins were egregious nonsense. Dalip Singh appeared uninformed of the whole thrust of the Sikh reform movement.

It is good that Gurpreet Singh points out these issues but we need to keep things in perspective. True, that Sikhs have been in North America for over 100 years but the first generation of Sikhs - and that includes Dalip Singh - were not very aware of their own Sikh heritage. In fact, such a charge would be equally true of
most Sikhs of the time, even in India.

Hinduized practices were often seen in Gurdwaras, idols were installed in many. Not only were many families mixed but also so were many attitudes. Look at Harjot Oberoi's Ph.D. thesis on how widespread such Hinduized attitudes were amongst the Sikhs. (Oberoi errs when he concludes that such values and practices were an integral component of Sikhism rather than a corruption that the Singh Sabha rooted out, even though incompletely. The battle remains unfinished.)

In the context of the times, Dalip Singh's attitudes were not unusual even though now we find them seriously wanting. We can perhaps congratulate ourselves if we now have developed a clearer sense of Sikhi and the uniqueness of its message.

The past can teach us many things.

I.J. Singh