Hardit Singh Sandhu

A family between Singapore and Punjab

Hardit’s father, Sunder Singh, also known as Racha Singh, had been in business in Singapore since 1894. He helped establish the Sikh Moneylenders’ Association and became its first president. Hardit was the elder of two brothers; the younger, Bahal Singh, was known in the family as Bhal. ^{11, 12, 2}

By 1936, Hardit was taking on responsibilities of his own. On 2 May he joined the Sikh Advisory Board, replacing his father, who had resigned. Two years later, his public work extended beyond Sikh institutions when he was elected to the Indian Association’s committee on 2 October 1938. His father subsequently retired to India in 1940, as Hardit later recalled. ^{10, 13, 1}

The occupation years

The Japanese occupation brought a different setting for his public life. Hardit became involved in the Indian Independence League, which worked for Indian independence. In June 1942 he served on its local Syonan working committee and attended the Bangkok Conference as a delegate from Malaya. The conference ran from 15 to 25 June. ^{14, 16, 15}

Within the League, Hardit served as a training and recruitment officer. ⁴

A July 1944 report appears to describe him in this capacity as member-in-charge of its Recruiting and Training Department. It quoted him describing ten part-time training centres across Singapore, where civilian volunteers received instruction during their leisure hours from graduates of the Azad Hind School. ¹⁷

Community leadership after the war

After the war, Hardit continued his involvement in Singapore’s community affairs. In August 1946, he helped arrange a farewell tea-party at Victoria Memorial Hall for B. Govindasamy Chettiar, a philanthropist preparing to visit India after twenty-five years. ¹⁸

By August 1949, Hardit was president of the Sikh Moneylenders’ Association, the organisation his father had helped found. Alongside its secretary, Kartar Singh, he signed a published response to the association’s critics. His responsibilities also extended to religious life: in February 1951 he was listed as honorary treasurer of the Central Sikh Temple. The following month, Sunder’s recent death in India, aged eighty, was reported. Hardit was still the association’s president. ^{19, 20, 11}

He began a further two-year term on the Sikh Advisory Board on 6 May 1955 and served as chairman during 1955–1957. The administration of the Queen Street and Silat Road gurdwaras became an important part of this work. In March 1961, he urged the Select Committee considering their amalgamation bill to proceed with the merger. He also argued for broader representation in the Queen Street management committee, with a majority elected at the temple and places for representatives of five Sikh societies. His proposal sought to give the congregation a larger role alongside the established societies. ^{21, 1}

By May 1962, Hardit had again been elected chairman of the Advisory Board. These later responsibilities continued a public life that had begun before the war. Hardit and his wife, Balbir Kaur, made their home at 116A Tessensohn Road, an address recorded in 1961 and again in his death notice. ^{22, 1, 2}

Later life and family ties

There was also a life beyond business and committees. In October 1970, Hardit was preparing to serve as navigator for a Singapore team setting out for an Asian rally. ³

Hardit died on 11 April 1976, aged sixty. His death notice named Balbir, his brother Bahal and the surviving family, and placed “Karmuwala” beside his name. Balbir’s own death notice appeared in September 1980. ^{2, 29}

The family home in Karmuwala

Memories of the wider family give a picture of its home in Punjab. Hardit’s nephew Jaspal, Bhal’s son, remembered outings by tonga with his grandfather Sunder and grandmother Kishan Kaur to neighbouring villages and festivals. Naseeb Chand recalled visiting the family’s large house as a child, bathing at its handpump and seeing its upper rooms. Gurdayal Singh remembered wells on Sunder’s land supplying water for cultivation and drinking. After many years with his maternal grandparents, Jaspal returned to Karmuwala and renovated the ancestral house. These recollections preserve the Punjab home of a family whose lives also unfolded in Singapore. ^{12, 23, 24}