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What was once called British Honduras is
now Belize. The country has an old connection with Sikh migration.
Early twentieth century when Sikhs started arriving on West
Coast of Canada, the Canadian Government got a bit worried about
the emerging problem. Sikhs being British subjects, the Canadian
Authorities did not wish to out rightly deny immigration. So
they thought of a subtle approach. At least that is what they
thought by offering to settle Sikhs in British Honduras now
called Belize. The Sikhs refused to bite the bait. Thereafter,
some Sikhs did come to Belize but as direct migrants from India.
Late George Singh (converted to Christianity) son of a Sikh
immigrant reached the high office of the Chief Justice of Belize.
His son Douglas Singh is the Chairman of the Opposition political
party of Belize. There are supposed to be three Sikhs who came
in early 1920’s, Praphael Singh in Pentagora, Chanan Singh
in Belize and Lal Singh in Corozol. The Belize Singhs, some
of whom seem to have Negroid features are aware of their Punjabi
heritage e.g. Phillip Singh, who is an IT technocrat. Except
for some recent immigrants, most Sikhs and their siblings are
assimilated with the local population.
Big Falls Ranch - now Tut Farm: The Tuts of California purchased
the farm (37,000acres) in 1992. The Tuts interest was in rice
cultivation as the country’s requirements were being imported.
Tuts were sposors of "Kar Sewa" of water purification
project at the Golden Temple some time ago. They belong to village
Paragpur of Jullundhar. To start with the Tuts appointed a Belize
national as CEO till 2000 when Sabbi from Jullundhar took over
as the MD. A number of Sikhs went to Belize in the 1990’s
for the purpose of crossing over to USA. More details are given
in earlier pages. |
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