Sohan Singh Jolly

Hounslow, London

Sohan Singh Jolly was a British Sikh and a political activist. Before migrating to Britain, he was a police inspector in Kenya. It is unknown when he moved from Kenya to Britain.

In 1968 he made a bid to become President of Shiromani Akali Dal. Shiromani Akali Dal became an important political organization for Sikhs in the UK after a Sikh leader in Delhi named Jathedar Santokh Singh organized a conference with prominent Sikhs from across the UK in Birmingham in 1968. The purpose of the conference was to bring British Sikh organizations under the Akali Dal umbrella and in turn strengthen Shiromani Akali Dal’s position in India.

Jolly made national and international headlines when, in January 1969, he threatened to self-immolate on 30 April if the Wolverhampton Transport Committee continued to ban Sikh employees who wore turbans and beards. The ban began in July 1967 when bus driver Tarsem Singh Sandhu was suspended for refusing to remove his turban or cut his beard. Sandhu had been employed after he was forced to cut his hair by his uncles, but when he returned to work after a bout of illness he was wearing a turban and a beard, which the committee told him to remove. South Asians made up a significant proportion of bus drivers in Wolverhampton. For example, in 1967 the committee employed a total of 823 bus drivers, 49 per cent of whom were Indian. The banning of turbans therefore affected a significant number of employees. After his suspension, Sandhu sought support for his campaign to overturn the ban but faced rejection from trade unions and Sikh community groups so turned instead to Jolly and Shiromani Akali Dal. Jolly and Sandhu organized a march where 6,000 Sikhs from across Britain gathered in Wolverhampton. In addition, Jathedar Santokh Singh organized a march to the British High Commission in Delhi which was attended by 50,000 people in solidarity with Sandhu. However, their large-scale events did not change the committee’s policies. As a result, Jolly proclaimed he would immolate himself on the date of the Sikh New Year.

Amidst the campaign against the banning of turbans, local MP Enoch Powell delivered his ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, which galvanized support for the committee. In addition, some Sikhs were against Jolly’s campaign, such as A. K. S. Aujila, who led the UK-based Supreme Council of the Sikhs.

On 10 April 1969, after a last-minute intervention by the Department of Employment and Productivity, the Wolverhampton Transport Committee overruled its decision to ban the wearing of turbans and beards by Sikh employees, in turn ending Jolly’s campaign. The committee agreed that new regulations were necessary to accommodate employees who wore turbans, although the committee argued that their initial decision to ban the turban was reasonable and non-discriminatory. Jolly was present at the two-hour meeting held at the local town hall, where he learned of the decision. After the announcement, Jolly was greeted by local Sikhs who shouted statements such as ‘truth is victorious’.

After the campaign Jolly retired from Shiromani Akali Dal and spent the rest of his life in Hounslow, where he lived with his wife, Anand Kaur, and his six children. He died in March 1988 aged 85.