Punjabi Sikhs
Dr. Jasbir Singh Kang, a Yuba City doctor who called for peace and harmony after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Photo: Jesse Drury courtesy of Appeal Democrat
Building Lives and Community in the Valley
Some Sikhs have achieved great success as farmers. Didar Singh Bains, who arrived in 1958 at the age of 18, following his father and grandfather, established a successful farming operation. Eventually owning more than 16,000 acres of prime San Joaquin Valley farmland, Bains gained the moniker the "Peach King" of California.
Arriving in 1985 as part of the post-1965 immigration, Harbhajan Singh Samra also became farmer. Samra, however, practiced a different sort of agriculture. Focusing on specialty crops used in Indian cooking such as okra and bitter melon, Samra achieved great success catering to the immigrant community. Headquartered in Indio, California, Samra is now regarded as the state's "Okra King."
Many Sikh immigrants and their children have also branched out into the professions. For example, Jasbir Kang, a physician who moved to the United States in the late 1970s after completing medical school, notes, "We're not just a farming community. There are 20-plus physicians in this community. In Yuba City there is not a specialty where there is not a Sikh physician."