My friend and colleague Darshan Singh Tatla, who has died aged 74, was an academic who studied and documented the global Punjabi and Sikh diaspora. He was internationally renowned as an expert in the field.
Darshan was born in Bharowal, in the district of Ludhiana, to Sardar Isher Singh, a farmer, and his wife, Chand Kaur. After attending the village school in Bharowal, Darshan took a first degree in science at Lajpat Rai Memorial College, Jagraon. He received a master’s in economics from Punjabi University, Patiala.
In 1974 he came to the UK to study economics at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, and then obtained another master’s degree, also in economics, from the University of Birmingham.
From 1985 to 1996 he was a lecturer in the department of languages and community studies, South Birmingham College. His University of Warwick PhD thesis was published in 1994 as The Sikh Diaspora: The Search for Statehood.
Darshan and I worked together to produce two editions of Sikhs in Britain: An Annotated Bibliography, as well as (with other scholars) in developing the Punjab Research Group and its journal. Darshan was always the driving force. He published many books and papers (in Punjabi and English) on the Punjabi diaspora in the UK and North America; on Sikhism and development; and on Sikh nationalism. With Gurharpal Singh he published Sikhs in Britain: The Making of a Community (2006).
Darshan travelled between the UK and Punjab and held positions at Punjabi University, Patiala, Coventry University and the University of Birmingham. After retiring from his job in Birmingham, Darshan returned to Punjab in 1998. There he established the Punjab Centre for Migration Studies at Lyallpur Khalsa College, Jalandhar, which opened in 2003.
In 2017 Darshan received a lifetime achievement award from the University of California-Riverside for his contributions to the study of the Sikh diaspora.
The Sikhs’ leading body, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, recently appointed Darshan to be founding director of a Sikh Diaspora Museum and Archives at the Tohra Institute of Advanced Studies near Patiala.
Darshan loved growing fruit and vegetables, and in Punjab he helped to provide food for local families. To me he was a loyal, supportive, enthusiastic friend and colleague.
He is survived by his wife, Gurmeet Kaur, whom he married in 1968, their children, Hardip, Harjeet and Rajwant, six grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.
