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When two or more people find sufficient in common to call themselves 'us', they will strengthen their togetherness by looking for a 'them' to dislike.
INDARJIT'S LAW
It's fashionable to talk of 'hate crime' as if a small minority of people are infected with a virus of hate against those they see as different. It is not like that. Prejudice and fear of difference affects us all.
I learnt about my Sikh religion almost as an outsider looking in to find surprising teachings on justice, compassion and a need to stand up for others.
Discrimination in employment in the '60s, normal and lawful at the time, led to my turning down a well-paid job to go to India, where writing under the pen name of Victor Pendry, I became a local hero to the Sikh community suffering majority persecution. This standing up to injustice through writing, speaking and importantly, humour, is the story of this book.
You cannot choose your battlefield
God does that for you
But you can plant a standard
Where a standard never flew.
NATHALIA CRANE
About the author
Lord Singh of Wimbledon CBE is an internationally recognised journalist and broadcaster and frequent commentator on social and religious issues. He is widely regarded as both the secular and religious voice of the British Sikh community. In 1989 he became the first non-Christian to be awarded the UK Templeton Prize 'for the furtherance of spiritual and ethical understanding'.
Indarjit was named by The Independent, a leading British newspaper, as one of 50 people who have made a major contribution to world peace. In 2011 he was made an Independent Peer in the House of Lords.
