Harjinder Singh & Pritpal Singh in Ealing the Sikh Channel Studio
Underneath the link to the Sikh Channel programme with Pritpal Singh and Harjinder Singh.
An inspirational chat show with Dutch Sikh Harjinder Singh. Find out why he embraced Sikhism. We take about his past experiences, his spiritual journey and his contributions to the wider society.
Find out why a Dutchman, Cornelis Heule, became Harjinder Singh
Cornelis Harjinder Singh Heule was born in 1947 in Roermond in the Netherlands as Cornelis Heule. He is known as Harjinder Singh, names given to him when he became an initiated Sikh in 1996.
He followed primary school in his home town and the first half of his secondary in Heerlen. Harjinder Singh then moved to Amstelveen (near Amsterdam) where he finished secondary school.
Harjinder went to University in Amsterdam, but he got caught up in the student movement. He worked for about 25 years in the travel industry, both in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and in Dublin, Ireland. In 1996 Harjinder Singh went to Panjab, India where he stayed for four years.
In the first 2½ years of his stay in Panjab he studied Sikhí and its history, and made himself useful in the Harmandar Sahib complex in Amritsar. The last 1½ year in Panjab he stayed mostly in Chandigarh, where he did voluntary work (seva) for the Institute of Sikh Studies.
In 2000 he came to West London, UK where he lived until June 2010. He did not have a ‘job’ but was involved in a number of different organisations as a volunteer and as ‘Faith and Cultural Diversity consultant’.
Harjinder Singh was a member of the Multi-Faith Chaplaincy team at Heathrow Airport and at Richmond upon Thames College and was involved in a number of Sikh lobby groups and advisory groups to the Police. Mr Singh did diversity training for the Slough REC, and was the National Development Officer of Faith & Belief in Further Education.
On June 17 2010 Harjinder Singh moved to Sint Truiden in the Dutch speaking Belgian province of Limburg, where he is trying to make himself useful by using his language skills. Harjinder Singh at present is assisting Sikh families from Afghanistan with their Asylum case in Belgium. He is providing all necessary assistance to one Afghan Sikh family in particular, who are threatened with deportation to Kabul, Afghanistan.
He does still write his column (The Man In Blue).
He is sixty-five, happy and busy doing seva for the Panth.
Pritpal Singh, the Dutch Sikh
