Why muhindi with kilemba and thick beard is called ‘Kalasinga’

1965 Joginder and Jaswant Singh celebrating their win in the East African Safari surrounded by fans and family [Photo: File]

Kenya boasts of famous Kalasingas like the late Safari Rally icon, Joginder Singh, often co-driven by his brother, Jaswant Singh. They were known as the ‘Flying Sikhs.’

Joginder Singh’s love for rallying leads us to another area the turban sporting Sikhs are famed for: crankshaft grinding and other engineering related hands-on businesses, as Gurmukh Singh notes in his 2003 book, Global Indians: The Rise of Sikhs Abroad, where we’re informed that the Kalasingas came down these shores in the 1890s as labourers during the construction of the Uganda Railway and as cops for the Imperial British East Africa Company, the caretakers of Kenya on behalf of the British Crown. In fact, Kapur Singh became the first Indian Inspector of Police in 1895.