ALTHOUGH this study strictly concerns only the period prior to 1940 it would obviously be inappropriate to conclude it without commenting on post-war developments affecting the Punjabi community in New Zealand. It must, however, be stressed that the comments that follow are based as much on impression as on firm evidence. During the course of my enquiry I was able to observe the life of the present-day community and it was inevi­table that conversation should frequently digress from pre-war recollections to current realities. Although the information and opinion thus communicated was endlessly fascinating little of it has been subjected to systematic research or analysis. The con­cluding chapter of this study should be read in the light of this qualification.

During World War II there were no new developments as far as the Punjabis in New Zealand were concerned. By 1940 their numbers had probably dwindled to less than 100 and those who remained continued their scrub-cutting or dairy farming.¹ With the conclusion of the war, however, there came some important developments. Five of these deserve notice.

Perhaps the most significant development was the change which took place in the New Zealand government's application of the discretionary principle embodied in the 1920 Act. Previously this had been exercised restrictively; now it was to be liberalised to the limited extent that spouses could be brought from India for daughters as well as for sons. Those who had remained in New Zealand during the war or had returned after it was over were

increasingly inclined to settle permanently and this shift in govern­ment policy made it significantly easier for them to contemplate the possibility. The change undoubtedly strengthened the tiny community although, as we shall see, the numbers involved have been insufficient to solve all the problems which derive from the smallness of the community.

A second development has been the progressive abandonment of scrub-cutting, a process which now appears to be complete. Although dairy farming remained the first preference for most of] the former scrub-cutters only a few were able to achieve their ambition before accelerating land prices carried the objective beyond their reach. Those who were unable to purchase dairy farms began to indicate a secondary preference for factory employ­ment and during the 1960s a movement towards the southern suburbs of Auckland city became evident. There they worked and saved with the determination of the scrub-cutting days, but with­out the commitment to Punjab remittances. Increasingly the savings have been invested in urban properties and some of the Punjabis are now moving into corner dairies or other small-scale retailing businesses.²

A third development affected those who had acquired dairy farms. A tendency to coverge on the Waikato became apparent, specifically on the Gordonton/Whitikahu area to the north-east of Hamilton. There are now several Punjabi dairy farms in close proximity to each other within this particular area and it is reasonable to expect that the number will gradually increase.

A fourth development deserving notice has been the arrival during the past two decades of Punjabis with professional quali­fications. These include doctors, scientists, engineers and lawyers. Although their numbers are not large³ they add a new dimension of some significance to the old-established Punjabi community, particularly those who are Sikhs. The newly-arrived pro­fessional Sikh is usually a person with an intellectual understanding of Sikh belief and a continuing loyalty to the Khalsa symbols. Although their presence has not led to the kind of conflicts which occur in Canada⁴ it would be misleading to suggest that their distinctively Sikh qualifications have endeared them to the old-

established Punjabi community. Their professional skills may be admired, but zealous participation in the life of the community is likely to be viewed with suspicion or even resentment. Their presence seems clearly to have made a greater impression than the indeterminate number of Punjabis who have moved to New Zealand from Fiji during the post-war period.⁵

Finally there has been the founding of the Sikh Society. This was established because the growing number of wives, together with increasing ease of transport, had prompted a strong desire for regular gatherings. The obvious occasion for such gatherings within a predominantly Sikh community was the gurpurab, or Sikh festival day. Several of these are scattered through the year and from the traditional list four of the more popular were initially chosen for regular celebration in New Zealand.⁶ Some means of organising these gurpurabs was necessary and it was for this purpose that the Sikh Society was founded on 3 October 1964.⁷ For the first thirteen years of its existence gurpurab services were usually held in the Gor-donton hall. Meanwhile plans for a gurdwara were prepared, funds were collected, and a five-acre section was purchased at Te Rapa on the northern outskirts of Hamilton. The project weathered legal objections and factional disputes. After some litigation the gurdwara was officially opened on 28 May 1977.⁸ It is an impressive building, one which effectively blends the traditional gurdwara style with a distinctively New Zealand setting.

The opening of the gurdwara at Te Rapa was understandably regarded as an event of major importance for the community. Throughout the previous history of Punjabi immigration into New Zealand the practice of the Sikh faith had been inconspicuous to say the least. Now, with increasing numbers and a more representative age/sex distribution, it was to assume an overt importance which it had never previously possessed. The manner in which this has been progressively achieved is one which has served to strengthen the network of relationships connecting early immigrants and their descendants without finding a satisfactory place for the newly-arrived professionals.

The Country Section has meanwhile continued to function as the effectual Punjabi wing of the Central Indian Association, serving those interests which are best pursued in concert with the larger Gujarati community. Although there is an extensive overlap in membership the two Punjabi organisations should not be regarded as identical, nor is it sufficient to treat one as political/ administrative and the other as religious. The Sikh Society is much more than a religious society and embraces a much wider age/sex range of membership than the male-dominated Country Section. Although the conduct of corporate religious ceremonies consti­tutes the avowed purpose of the Sikh Society its actual function is considerably broader. It provides the one means of regular organised social intercourse between Punjabis.⁹ As such it draws together people who would otherwise be limited to occasional visits and the beloved telephone. The fact that it is explicitly Sikh in constitution and purpose doss nothing to inhibit membership on the part of Hindu and Ad Dharmi Punjabis connected with the old-established families.¹⁰ It might well be argued that although the corporate practice of the Sikh faith shows signs of growing in strength the real basis for this interest in religious assemblies and for the support given to the Sikh Society is an awareness of shared Doabi origins rather than a distinctively Sikh consciousness.

Those who might want to carry this argument further will claim that the distinctively Sikh consciousness is bound to dimi­nish in the New Zealand situation and that eventually the community will dissolve. As the Sikhs of New Zealand adapt to permanent residence the earlier ties with India must gradually weaken. Whereas a community as large as those which are now to be found in England or North America can reasonably expect to develop a self-sustaining independence, the tiny group which remains in New Zealand must be denied this hope. For some years it might have seemed that the right to bring spouses from India would serve to maintain the traditional links, for this requires occasional visits to India and it brings to New Zealand young people who have been nurtured in the authentic traditions

of the Sikh Panth. Today, however, that should be seen as a fading hope. Marriages between children of such radically different backgrounds are doomed to frequent failure, all too often the public failure of separation or divorce. The New Zealand commu­nity, with only rare exceptions, lacks the defensive mechanism provided by the outward forms of the orthodox Khalsa tradition. Increasingly exposed to the influence of a dominant European culture to which they can easily assimilate New Zealand Sikhs are bound to succumb.¹¹

Is this an excessively pessimistic view ? There are arguments which can be offered on both sides.

Those  who would challenge the  pessimistic view will pro­bably remind us that  we have been  here before and that the sub­sequent result bore no resemblance to  the gloomy promise.  Pro­phets of doom who have predicted the demise of the Sikh commu­nity in the past have invariably been proved wrong.  Following the conquest  of the Punjab   in   1849  British observers    frequently expressed  the  belief that the Sikhs were heading for extinction. They were well  astray.  Khushwant  Singh who  made the same prediction in 1953¹² has long  since  acknowledged that he too was profoundly mistaken.  The New Zealand  Sikhs  may have largely abandoned the outward forms of Khalsa observance,  but this for the rural Doabi does not  signal a renunciation of the Sikh iden­tity.   The identity  is explicitly  retained  by most  New Zealand Sikhs, as one would soon discover if one were to put the question to a member of the community.  He might preface his reply with a series  of the qualifiers  concerning  the   nature  of his  outward appearance and the sorry state of his doctrinal understanding but, yes, of course he is a Sikh and he will consciously demonstrate this  awareness  by his  attendance at the gurpurabs. The fact that such an attitude amounts in practice to a socio-religious definition rather than a strictly doctrinal  one is of no consequence,  for as we have just noted it involves no revolutionary transformation of inherited norms.

Others who are less confident will point out that earlier unfounded predictions concerned the Punjab, a very different situation from New Zealand.  They will insist  that  a widespread

abandonment of the Khalsa insignia is tolerable only if a signi­ficant remnant retain the traditional observance. They may also point to the comparatively insignificant place of the Adi Granth in the life of the New Zealand community and the lack of syste­matic instruction in Sikh traditions for the young. Interest, they will claim, focuses on farm acreage and bank balances rather than on the maintenance of these traditions Particular emphasis will be laid on the marital problem which increasingly is causing stress within the community. Here as nowhere else the conflict between inherited tradition and local pressures within New Zealand promises to produce real dislocation.

The marriage issue is critical, for there can be little doubt that traditional practice must be maintained if the community is to preserve its identity. It is an issue which concerns all Punjabis in New Zealand, not merely those who regard themselves as Sikhs. Whereas the problem of Khalsa observance is necessarily limited to the Sikhs a break-down of the traditional marriage prescriptions must affect the community as a whole. This, however is not to concede that the pessimistic interpretation is necessarily correct or that the time for epitaphs is approaching. Punjabi society, like the Indian society of which it is a part, possesses a resilience which westerners commonly find difficult to comprehend and it has yet to be demonstrated that it has met its match in New Zealand. This assuredly is not the place for predictions. Time alone will tell.

¹ As far as I know there were no Punjabis enlisted in the New Zealand armed forces during the war. There was, however, at least one who would have joined had his English been adequate and who enlisted in the Indian Army instead. This was Swaran Singh of Surapur who left New Zealand in July 1940 and enlisted In India fifteen months later. After the Japanese surrender Swaran Singh proceeded to Indonesia with the 5th Indian Division. He reports that as scout number 1 he was the first of the invading force to enter Surabaya during the so-called 'Battle of Surabaya'. Int. 42. During World War I Bir Singh Gill of Chirak served as a cook in Trentham Military Camp near Wellington.   Int. 33.1.

²  H.S. Randhawa, letter 8/9/81.

³  Dr Pritam Singh, an entomologist working in Auckland, estimated that there were forty professional Punjabis in New Zealand in late 1977. This total comprised doctors (10), engineers (7), medical technicians (4), school teachers (4). businessmen (4), scientists (3), lawyers (2), airline executives (2), a dentist, a social worker, a university lecturer, and an airline engineer     Letter 17/11/77.

⁴  A. J. Singh, 'Sikhs in Canada', Art of Living III.5 (May 1976), esp. p. 13.

⁵ Post-war Punjabi traffic between Fiji and New Zealand is a topic which I have not endeavoured to investigate. In addition to those who managed to secure permanent residence (presumably a very small number) there have also been short-term labourers. Mr Rattan Singh Nagra mentioned that when he was cutting scrub on the Lismore Station, Makirikiri, there were several Punjabis there working on six-month permits.   Int. 32.

⁶ The birth anniversaries of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh, the martyrdom of Guru Arjan, and Baisakhi. In recent years a day commemo-ratin? Sant Ravidas has been added to accommodate the wishes of the Ad Dharmi/Chamar group. The total membership of the Sikh Society in 1970 was 116.

⁷  Int. 14.3.

⁸  The Auckland branch of The New Zealand Sikh Society plants to build a second Gurdwara in Otahuhu (Auckland).

⁹  The usual language on such occasions, as in most families, is still Punjabi. Spons raised in the Punjab and regular visits to the homeland have kept New Zealand usage in touch with the spoken Punjabi of eastern Doaba. The Punjabis of New Zealand have retained a few words which Have tended to drop out of modern usage in the Punjab, but the differences are insignificant. Int. 34.1 Fluency is, however, limited to spoken Punjabi in most cases. Competence in Gurmukhi is very rare amongst those who have been educated in New Zealand.

¹⁰  Members of the Ad Dharam/Chamar group continue to sustain a sense of separate identity within the larger group.   See above chapter 4, Note 410.

¹¹  The problem within the larger Indian community in New Zealand is noted by Kapil N. Tiwari, Indians in New Zealand (Wellington, 1980), p. 72. The problem as experienced by the Sikhs of Canada is discussed by Michael Ames and joy Inglis, 'Conflict and change in British Columbia Sikh family life', BC Studies, no. 20 (Winter 1973-74), pp. 44-46. Their findings are implicitly challenged by Ram P. Srivastava, 'Family Organisation and change among the overseas Indians with special reference to Indian immi­grant families of British Columbia, Canada', in George Kurian (ed ), The Family in India (The Hague, 1974), p. 390.

¹² Khushwant Singh, The Sikhs (London, 1953). p. 7.