<p>Bengaluru-based Amandeep Singh Sandhu is one among five writers chosen for the New India Foundation (NIF) Book Fellowship. The programme, which supports writers and scholars who work on the history of independent India, began in 2004. Titled ‘Keeping the Faith: Sikhs who live outside Panjab, in India’, Amandeep’s book looks at Sikhs living in various parts of the country, including remote areas. “It was interesting to learn how they reached there and thrived, and what their vulnerabilities are at this point in time in the country’s history,” Amandeep tells <em>Metrolife</em>. </p>.<p>“After Independence, there was a sense that we are a secular nation, and that we’ll be treated as equal citizens in every part of the country. But the country has been witnessing a growing parochialism. Each state wants to assert itself — my state, my language, my culture. Even people moving to different cities fail to respect the region’s culture and language,” he says, adding that the subtext of his book is “How do Sikhs fare in such times?” He aims to use the Sikhs as a prism through which he will look at what is happening to the country. </p>.<p>His father, an engineer from Punjab moved towards eastern India to work in the steel plants set up by the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. “Growing up, I could see a distinct change in how people treated my father earlier and how they treated him after 1984, and how the society that was earlier open to us was slowly getting closed,” he says. He studied in Punjab, Hyderabad and then in Bengaluru with the sense that “we are safe everywhere and the country belongs to all of us”. He adds: “What does a human being want? They want to belong. They want acceptance.” </p>.<p>This is Amandeep’s fifth book. He also received the Homi Bhabha Fellowship for fieldwork for the book, and will use NIF’s fellowship to write the book. He will finish writing the book by the end of next year. He has written two novels and two non-fictions, three of which are autobiographical, and one on mental health during Covid.</p>
<p>Bengaluru-based Amandeep Singh Sandhu is one among five writers chosen for the New India Foundation (NIF) Book Fellowship. The programme, which supports writers and scholars who work on the history of independent India, began in 2004. Titled ‘Keeping the Faith: Sikhs who live outside Panjab, in India’, Amandeep’s book looks at Sikhs living in various parts of the country, including remote areas. “It was interesting to learn how they reached there and thrived, and what their vulnerabilities are at this point in time in the country’s history,” Amandeep tells <em>Metrolife</em>. </p>.<p>“After Independence, there was a sense that we are a secular nation, and that we’ll be treated as equal citizens in every part of the country. But the country has been witnessing a growing parochialism. Each state wants to assert itself — my state, my language, my culture. Even people moving to different cities fail to respect the region’s culture and language,” he says, adding that the subtext of his book is “How do Sikhs fare in such times?” He aims to use the Sikhs as a prism through which he will look at what is happening to the country. </p>.<p>His father, an engineer from Punjab moved towards eastern India to work in the steel plants set up by the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. “Growing up, I could see a distinct change in how people treated my father earlier and how they treated him after 1984, and how the society that was earlier open to us was slowly getting closed,” he says. He studied in Punjab, Hyderabad and then in Bengaluru with the sense that “we are safe everywhere and the country belongs to all of us”. He adds: “What does a human being want? They want to belong. They want acceptance.” </p>.<p>This is Amandeep’s fifth book. He also received the Homi Bhabha Fellowship for fieldwork for the book, and will use NIF’s fellowship to write the book. He will finish writing the book by the end of next year. He has written two novels and two non-fictions, three of which are autobiographical, and one on mental health during Covid.</p>