In his yellow turban and long grey beard, Jeevan Singh Malla looks the part.

He’s just had a series of small, informal meetings with community leaders in Punjab‘s Hoshiarpur, seeking their support for his electoral debut as a candidate for the Lok Sabha seat. “I have the backing of Dalit activists, too,” Malla says, clasping his hands.

It’s only when the words roll out of his mouth with a curious accent that you realise he may be the odd one out in the roster of Sikh candidates for Punjab’s 13 Lok Sabha seats.

Malla is a Tamil-origin Sikh who heads Bahujan Dravida Party, which owes its origins as much to his choice of faith as to the cause of fighting caste discrimination.

The purpose of my contesting a seat in Punjab goes beyond immediate poll results. The messaging is both political & cultural. Egalitarianism was Guru Nanak’s fundamental principle, and we also want to spread that,” he says.

Malla loosely translates his party’s motto, Begumpura Khalsa Raj, as “Nanak’s freedom raj without sorrow”.
The 51-year-old, who was always fascinated by tenets of Sikhism, was at Singhuborder along with a few others from his native state in 2021 to show solidarity with the protesting farmers.

What was meant to be a march against farm laws turned out to be an exploration of what he calls Sikh fortitude. He saw in farmers’ steadfastness an extraordinary sense of purpose strengthened by their faith. He knew he must belong.

Three years later, Jeevan Kumar is officially Jeevan Singh Malla. He now recites the Gurbani. He has converted his house at Korampallam into “School of Miri Piri” (School of Politics and Culture), where Tamil Sikhs occasionally meet for discourse and prayers. His BDP has fielded Tamil Sikhs in seven LS seats in Tamil Nadu and 40 others in seats across other states. The law graduate had first visited a gurdwara in Punjab in 2019 to become a Sikh, only to be told to return in six months. “I was asked to grow a beard,” he recounts with amusement. Today, Tamil Nadu has about 25 practicing Tamil Sikhs and many others who are learning about the faith. On why he chose Hoshiarpur, Malla says, “Bahujan Samaj Party founder Kanshi Ram contested the seat and became an MP from there in 1996. He remains a source of motivation for us. Periyar and Kanshi Ram are icons of our party.”

BDP’s state president, Tirath Singh, who joined Kanshi Ram’s movement in 1981 and was closely associated with BSP until 2003, has been Malla’s constant companion on his political journey through Punjab. Tamil Sikhs pray at gurdwaras in Chennai and Rameswaram. Malla’s organisation, Tamil Sikhs Brotherhood and Education Foundation, plans to build a gurdwara in Thoothukudi, formerly Tuticorin. “Before that, we want to spread the message of the Gurus on eradicating caste from society,” says the lawyer. Discrimination in Tamil Nadu’s caste cauldron is one of the reasons for many being drawn to Sikhism. SCs like Pallar and Vannar bear the brunt of caste bias, sometimes facing harsh treatment from even their own. “Being a Sikh, I am not identified by caste anymore,” says Malla.