Kelowna City Councillor Mohini Singh recently uncovered a story about her grandfather that had been hidden for generations, one that highlights his legacy of service to his community.
This discovery, which dates back more than 100 years, connects Singh to a family she never knew in a small village in India and reveals the quiet but significant contributions her grandfather made to the community.
Singh’s grandfather, Jawahar Singh Ubhi, was a well-respected member of his community and served the Sikh Gurdwara (temple) in Patara, India. He had two families: one in Patara with a wife and five children, and another in the Punjab region of Pakistan near Lahore.
Singh explained how the two families, though part of the same man’s life, lived separately.
“He married my grandmother, who was, I think, half his age,” Singh said. “They had two children, my mother and her brother.”
Singh’s maternal grandmother, Damyanti, lived with Jawahar in Punjab before they moved to Delhi, India, ahead of the 1947 partition of India, which divided the country into two independent states—India and Pakistan.
“So, my grandmother was the urban wife, and there was the rural wife,” Singh said. “But, family one and family two had nothing to do with each other.”
While the family dynamics were clear, the story of her grandfather’s work was less so. Jawahar started his career as a carpenter before becoming a mechanical engineer for the British government, working in jute mills—factories that process jute, a natural fibre.
Singh always knew about her grandfather’s second family, but she never had any connection to them. That was until she mentioned her grandfather’s name to a friend, not expecting anything extraordinary to come from the conversation.
“So, I was one day telling him, this is my grandfather’s name, and he comes from the village of Patara,” Singh recalled. “And he got all worked up, and he said, 'I’ll find your family for you because I am from Patara'.”
Her friend, Jaspal Singh Kuhnkunh, travelled to India and spent a week trying to locate members of Singh’s other family. While he was unable to find any surviving relatives, he did connect with village elders who remembered Jawahar’s contributions.
“They said, ‘Oh, that guy donated some money to our Sikh Gurdwara in the village, so we put his name on the main door,’” Kuhnkunh said. “At that time, they were well-known people in the community.”
The discovery was significant for Singh, not only because of the financial contribution but because it revealed the deep respect her grandfather had earned.
“He was a great service to the temple,” Singh said. “His first wife and children would have been of service to the temple and known as sewadars, someone who helps a gurdwara or community for religious reasons.”
She hopes to visit Patara one day, to see the house her grandfather built, although it now belongs to another family.
Her mother, Leila, born in Kolkata, India, will be 90 years old in April and reflected on the surprising revelations about her father. Leila never knew about his contributions until learning about them from her daughter.
“To find out at this stage of my life that my father had his name on a gurdwara, my God,” she said.
Both Jawahar and Damyanti died in the 1950s, and while Leila was not in contact with her father’s other family during his lifetime, she later formed a bond with them.
“I got to know them a little bit,” she said. “They were very good to me.”
For Singh, the knowledge that her grandfather’s name lives on as a testament to his service is comforting, even though she never knew him personally.
“His name stands as testimony to his dedication,” she said. “I know a little bit more about my family, and that he was a good soul. It’s nice to know that they devoted their lives to service.”
