Project Details
SCM Project

The Sikh Cyber Museum is a non-commercial educational project that focuses on Anglo Sikh History. The website has been funded by the Heritage Lottery fund and managed by the council of Sikh Gurdwaras in Birmingham. The primary aim of the project is to enhance and enrich relations between those of Sikh origin and the general community via the World Wide Web. The project seeks to propel a new and renewed interest in Anglo-Sikh Heritage, especially amongst the young, by the use of the Internet.

The project makes use of modern technology which enables access to the modern world. It further aims to widen, enhance and unlock popular access to heritage and archive materials which are not usually available to the public, such as private collections which are often stored in archives. The access of such material and the ability to provide access via the information haighway has furthermore enabled social inclusion in heritage, breaking down traditional costs, cultural, mobility and physical barriers. The project also aims to create partnership and co-operation with museums galleries and collectors by giving information where certain collections relating to Anglo Sikh History can be seen, Sikh Cyber Museum would act as a gateway to more visitors.

The website consists of over 2500 pages of information.
This includes:

A Message from the Team

During collection of information for the SCM site, I was over whelmed by the sheer amount of material in public & private hands. Most astonishing was that many of my peers were unaware or knew little or nothing about Anglo-Sikh history, seeing at most a fraction of what was available. The well known V&A display of Sikh items, a prime example, where many were dismayed at what they saw, the curators at Victoria & Albert museum knew more about the history & the relevance than many of the Sikhs that visited.

Another example was the well-known book, Warrior Saints, by Amardeep Singh Madra, and Parmjit Singh. The book had some beautiful pictures, which tied Sikh history into a new & interesting format, though again the tendency was, that we the Sikhs of today did not truly appreciate what was contained in that pictorial history.

As Taranjit & myself have tried to explain in more detail, who we are as Sikhs today and how from being alien to the British, we have become active members of the Commonwealth. Who ever finds the time to read about his or her history will find a multitude of layers and once these layers are understood, they will help the learner (Sikh) to understand themselves as well as the world around them.

I hope that Sikhs will not forget family history and their forefathers. For those who had relatives who fought in the British Army, I hope we can find the time to remember them at minimum on 'Remembrance Day', & May Day.

It was once said to me that when a Sikh did his Ardas (heart felt plea to God), he/she would verbally trace back the history of his/her family, as to say that I am here today due to the efforts and sacrifices of my forefathers. This is the greatest history, since it is personal and alive, let us not let go of these grand traditions.

I hope that young Sikhs record and collect oral information about their kin and their origins, we have parents/grandparents who lived through the partition of India, who came to a country owning little or nothing, who raised their children in a alien country, and yet we know so little about them.

Working on the Sikh Cyber Museum has been a great journey of discovery for me. I have learned so much about a very important part of my peoples history and an important part of history of the country in which I live today. A history that very little is known about or talked about. A history that binds the cultures of Sikhs and the British.

There is a general identity crisis within the asian youth of today because they do not know, what they are doing here, or how they have come to be here, or who they are. Only when we look into the past and understand where we have come from can we ascertain where we are now and more importantly in which direction we must venture in the future.

I hope this website helps the next generation of British youth to learn from our past, appreciate each others cultures and make a connection for the Future.

Taranjit Singh
Curator/Project Co-ordinator
Sikh Cyber Museum