Dhahan Family Continues To Build On Their Father’s Great Legacy Of Social Change Through Education
By R. Paul Dhillon
Budh Singh Dhahan’s name is synonymous with being an architect of revolutionary social change, a man who fought for India’s independence and then continued his fight to create the State of Punjab (Punjabi Soobha), even enduring jail time and then leading great social change in Canada through education and community building, playing a leading role in the community and religious-cultural institutions like Gurdwaras.
After accomplishing much in Canada, including setting up a lucrative construction business in Vancouver, Budh Singh completed his incredible journey by returning to his homeland in Punjab, specifically to his village of Dhahan-Kaleran to establish a pioneering nursing school for girls which would go on to become an internationally accredited institution with ground-breaking partnership with University of British Columbia for a degree program which has graduated nearly 1800 young women, 200 of which are settled in Canada and working in the nursing profession.
During an interview at the LINK office on Tuesday morning, the 90-year-old pioneer, along with his businessman son Barj Dhahan, took a trip back in time to recount an incredible journey of self-fulfillment that had at its basis in the simple Sikh philosophy of helping others better themselves and creating avenues for individuals, especially young girls and women, to seek higher goals through education.
After being an active young man in India’s freedom movement and then helping to set up schools and other social institutions of change in his native village and the surrounding area in the newly created Punjab state in independent India, Budh Singh came to Canada in 1959 to join his sister who had come to Canada before him. She was married to Tara Singh Bains, son of Jathedar Partap Singh Bains, a well known Ghadharite in Canada.
He settled in the Vancouver Island town of Port Alberni, where he quickly became prominent in the local Indo-Canadian community, teaching Punjabi to young kids and becoming actively involved in the local Gurdwara. He brought over his wife, three daughters and one son in 1967 and the family would settle in the coastal town, with Budh Singh working in the lumber industry, until his kids got older and were ready to go to university.
In 1972-73 – the Dhahan family would relocate to Vancouver, where Budh Singh began a lucrative construction business, being one of the very first Indo-Canadian home builders in the lower mainland.
Always a community spirit and one known for taking the lead, Budh Singh became active in the oldest Sikh Society in Canada – Khalsa Diwan Society, Vancouver (Ross Street Gurdwara) and was elected General Secretary in 1974-75 at the same time as Surjit Singh Gill was elected president.
Continuing his emphasis on education and community building, Budh Singh was instrumental in starting Punjabi classes for kids at the Ross Street Gurdwara as well as ESL classes for newcomers as many Punjabi Sikh families began arriving from India in the 1970s.
“A lot of our families coming from Punjab needed English skills and I felt it was as important for us to teach our youngsters our mother tongue of Punjabi as it was for newcomers to learn English, the language of their new home,” Budh Singh said.
He spearheaded a number of other initiatives at the Vancouver temple, including the historic transfer of the Abbotsford Gurdwara, which was under the Khalsa Diwan Society, to an independent society in the Fraser Valley town where the original gurdwara is now a Canada Heritage site. He also began a Punjabi newspaper known as Sikh Samachar in 1975.
After helping to establish all his children in their chosen fields, including marrying off his daughters, Budh Singh decided that it was time to return to the homeland in 1980 to complete his dream of not only creating a vibrant Dhahan-Kaleran, his village which he had left behind decades ago, but also to establish education and health initiatives which have since become the envy of other villages in Punjab.
“I felt it was time to go back and do my part . I left everything here and went back to Punjab to do some unfinished business which was really to realize a promise, a dream,” he said. “My dream was of returning to my homeland to help the poor and less educated.”
It was an expensive and time consuming task at hand and he began by establishing a trust called Guru Nanak Mission Medical & Educational Trust, which would go on to build a hospital and nursing school and college. When asked how difficult it was to get his mission accomplished and whether he faced any hurdles, he simply states: “Not everyone is your friend or enemy. You have to focus on the work and many will join you on that mission.”
He opened a 40 bed hospital in Nawanshahar District of Punjab in 1984. Few years later In 1987, Budh Singh opened an elementary and secondary school. This was followed by the Guru Nanak School of Nursing, which was opened in 1993 with a diploma program in nursing. In 1998 a baccalaureate degree program in nursing began with an intake of 50 students. It was a collaboration with the University of British Columbia (UBC) School of Nursing involving faculty and student exchange and development of nursing curriculum which put Dhahan-Kaleran on the global map.
Through his leadership these charitable organizations have a long established partnership of working together creatively to promote social development in rural Punjab through community-based health care, education and job creation.
The Canada India Education Society (CIES) was originally created to support the Guru Nanak Mission Medical and Educational Trust in Dhahan – Kaleran, Punjab. This Trust not only supports the local population through hospital and health care, but provides local nursing education as well – and it targets, especially, women from lower caste and lower income families, so that they can gain a profession and improve their lives and the lives of their family members.
“CIES was the pioneer in Canada-India partnerships, and our success has led the way forward,” adds Budh Singh’s son Barj Dhahan, co-founder and currently member of the CIES Board of Directors. “We view our investment in education and health care as just the first – and most important – step towards prosperity for both our countries.”
According to Barj Dhahan, who has played an active role in the endeavors his father started, his father’s main goal was to bring equality to all and that is also his own philosophy now as he adds to the work that his father has accomplished.
“We have raised $3.5 million in cash in Canada and if we count all the other in kind and government funding that we helped raise for all these projects in Dhahan-Kaleran, it stands at more than $10 million,” Barj Dhahan said. “These projects have also created 400-500 direct jobs in many fields and thousands indirect and other benefits to the Punjab and local economy in Dhahan-Kaleran.”
The Dhahan family continues expanding their work with new projects including a 50-bed hospital in Kandhi-Beej, near Anandpur Sahib. It will provide the same cost-effective healthcare services that are now available in Dhahan-Kaleran.
Funding comes from many sources but mainly from individual donors. Some funding came from the Canadian International Development Agency between 2002 and 2005 for a sixty village health outreach project in the Banga-Aur block.
In 2012 Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced the creation of a new Canada-India Research Centre of Excellence with a $12 million funding from Canada’s Economic Action Plan 2011 as part of the Government’s India Engagement Strategy. Barj Dhahan played an important role in helping to launch this Centre with its host institution, the University of British Columbia. The primary objective of the Centre is to accelerate the bilateral exchange of research and enhance Canada’s international visibility and reputation as a research leader.
The latest endeavor of the Dhahan family is The Dhahan International Punjabi Literature Prize, which has been founded to celebrate the rich history and living present of Punjabi language and literature, around the globe. A cash prize of $25,000 CDN will be awarded annually to one ‘best book’ in either Gurmukhi or Shahmukhi. Two runner-up prizes of $5,000 CDN will be awarded, one for each script. Winners will be honored at an annual Gala, held in Vancouver in its inaugural year on October 25, 2014. The Prize will be awarded by Canada India Education Society (CIES) in partnership with the University of British Columbia (UBC).
Dhahans are grateful for the generous support from all Canadians.
