Indian-American scholar Tejinder Singh Sibia, who documented the arrival and struggles of pioneer Indians to the US and Canada, has died in California. He was 70.
Sibia, who became an unofficial archivist of Indian pioneers to America by collecting rare historic photographs and documents and compiling them on his website, died of leukemia at his Sacramento home on Thursday.
Popularly known as Ted, he was among the first to document the Komagata Maru incident, Ghadar movement and early South Asian immigrants. His website became a rich reference material for research on the Indian diaspora.
His early 20th century photos show turbaned Sikhs working the fields in Yuba and Sutter counties in California and building the Western Pacific Railroad near Quincy.
"He will never be forgotten for his work on early Indian immigrants and their struggles. The greatest thing about him was that he did all this at his own expense," said Jasbir Kang of the Punjabi American Heritage Society in Yuba City.
Born on August 20, 1937, at Kila Raipur village in Punjab, Sibia migrated to the US in 1960 and earned an MS in Horticulture from Kansas State and in Library Science from Emporia State University.
In 2006, he retired as Head of Research Library Unit for Biology & Agriculture at the Shield Library of UC Davis. He was a Patron of the Sikh Temple Sacramento, where he served as librarian and started the seniors Club. He is survived by his wife Manjeet, and daughter Kiran.
Sibia devoted himself to sharing the struggles and successes of the Punjabi and Sikh immigrant story and promoting their integration, close associates said.
Behind his librarian duties, Sibia became a mentor for Punjabi students and an ambassador of Punjabi culture, presenting his photo collection and samplings of native dishes at campus forums.
"He wanted people to know who they were, what they were about," said Carrie Rushby, his library assistant for 12 years.
Sibia also helped promote the inclusion of Punjabi history in California textbooks and the teaching of Punjabi language, successfully lobbying officials to add it to the curriculum, said Onkar S Bindra, a retired UC Berkeley professor of entomology.
"For a lot of people, including myself, he was a liaison for non-Punjabis interested in our community and history," Bindra said.
