The following has been sent by Pyara Singh Lotay. Sardar Nika Singh Lotay - Entrepreneur Extraordinaire Sardar Nika Singh Lotay was one of the earliest of settlers in Kenya who came to Kenya in 1894 at the age of 15 years. S. Nika Singh Lotay was born around 1880, in Raikot, near Ludhiana India. Prior to the partition of India, Raikot was a predominantly Muslim city and a judicial center during the Mogul rule. Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th. Master met with Rai Bhular, the ruler of the area in that period. Rai Bhullar is recognised for offering Guru Sahib milk in the Ganga Sagar which is a part of Sikh history. Gurdwara Tahliana Sahib a is located in this historical city and Sikhs travel to visit this shrine from all over the world. Nika Singh was the youngest son of the three children of Sardar Wadhawa Singh. His older brother was Hari Singh and he had a younger sister, named Ralli. When Nika Singh was only 9 years old , his father died and his maternal uncle (Mamaji) who worked in Karachi took him along to work in a joinery shop. Child worker Nika Singh started by learning to make glue from animal bones and dried hides. He learnt the trade fast and soon became a very skilled carpenter, but more than that he became the leader of those who worked in that shop. He was not very tall, only 5foot 4 inches tall, but he was very agile and quick. He could take on a man twice his size at wrestling and speed pursuits. In 1894, he was recruited by the British East Africa Railways in Karachi, now in Pakistan at a monthly wage of 12(twelve) Indian rupees per month. He was hired as an Indentured Carpenter and had to sign a release bond of 100 Indian rupees, an undertaking to refund the Railways 100 Indian rupees if he quit his job. On arrival in Mombasa he lived in the worker encampment and his duties included working on bridge construction, laying the track as well as construction of accommodation and wagons. Since he was a young man, he learned to communicate in Kiswahili as well as some everyday English as required for his survival. He worked between Mombasa and Nairobi for six years and at the turn of the century he moved to the central workshops in Nairobi. Nika Singh established friendship with Sardar Gyan Singh, a friend ship that lasted as long as Gyan Singh lived. Gyan Singh owned a large tract of land by the Nairobi river, where he established a sub-division, called Shamba Gyan Singh. A lot of Sikhs and Muslims lived in that sub-division including the famous Haji Illam Din and Haji Jhanda whose wife Bebey Jhando was a renowned midwife. As a young tradesman Nika Singh established a reputation for being a go getter and the ability for taking on challenging assignments. In around 1904 a British settler who had a farm in Nyeri wanted to install a Posho Mill a turbine driven mill on a stream on his plantation. His inquiries with friends in the Railways led him to Nika Singh who offered his knowing how Kharas and Gharat were built in India to grind wheat as proof of his experience. This was his first assignment as an independent contractor. Nika Singh agreed to work on the assignment provided the settler reimbursed the Railways the bond money of 100 rupees and secure his formal release. The release bond was paid and Nika Singh went back to Karachi on the Dhow to get all the components required for the installation of Gharat the Posho Mill. He came back after four months built the large wagons and transported all the components andhardware to Nyeri and set about the task of the first industrial installation in Upstate Kenya. He lived in Nyeri for six months and worked all kind of hours to get the mill commissioned early in 1906. Many other farmers in the Nyeri and Nanyuki area hired Nika Singh to help them with similar installations on their farms and he established himself a s a reputable builder and industrial contractor. While in Nyeri he lived among the Kikuyu and the settler community improving his ability to speak very little English and becoming fluent in Kikuyu. During this period of high activity Nika Singh worked on several outstanding projects including several developments for the Jivanjee family and construction of the first Isrmaili Jamaat Khanna, a building with rough sawn timber walls and corrugated tin roof. He invested in several commercial buildings on River Road and owned several shops in the Indian Bazaar near Jivanjee Gardens off Government Road. He also established a workshop of his own on land he bought from his friend, Babu Gyan Singh, who worked as legal assistant in a lawyer’s office. His friendship with Gyan Singh, inspired Nika Singh to get a good understanding of legal procedures He would spend a lot of time attending hearings in the Nairobi High court and observe civil disputes. He was able to understand spoken English very well for a man with no formal education. Sardar Chanan Singh of Sheffield, in 1990, narrated the story of Nika Singhs legal expertise in advising the lawyer working on the case of his daughter who was involved in a car accident. He started manufacturing wood products and furniture for sale to meet the growing demand by the European and Asian population. He went and recruited carpenters from Karachi and Ludhiana area. He provided them with free housing and boarding. Nika Singh had learnt to read Gurmukhi by recognition since he could not write. He would read the daily Nit Nem banis every day getting up at 5.oo a.m. He was a teetotaller and a vegetarian who kept his food intake simple and small. When and if he was sick, he would rest and refrain from eating till he fully recovered. That was his self remedy. He was President of Gurdwara Bazaar for several years and helped build the first Sikh place of worship in Nairobi. In 1910 Nika Singh went back to Punjab and got married to Basant Kaur and brought her with him to Kenya. His wife was almost six feet tall, a very imposing figure. The couple were blessed with five boys: Inder Singh, Harnam Singh and Gurpal Singh were born in Nairobi, Two sons Tara Singh and Sucha Singh and the only daughter Kartar Kaur were born in Raikot. In 1924 Nika Singh assumed ownership of the Star Soda factory originally started by one of the tenants in his complex at Shamba Gyan SIngh. He continued making soft drinks and sales grew when he established a network of distributors to whom the product was delivered and the empties collected by persons in his employment. His businesses flourished and he also manufactured wagons and ox carts and started a forge and metal shop. To celebrate the birth of his first born, he decided to buy a Buick car made in United States, amongst the first luxury vehicles seen in Nairobi. Around 1938 and prior to the outbreak of the second world war, Nika Singh felt he had amassed enough wealth and decided to consolidate and liquidate his assets and to return to India, his roots. The whole family moved back to Raikot where Nika Singh was chosen President of the Tahlianaa Sahib Gurdwara an important historical Sikh heritage place of Guru Gobind Singhs period In 1954 Nika Singh came back to Kenya to visit his family who lived in the Shamba Gyan Singh near Ramgharia Hall Gurdwara in Nairobi. He came back to Nairobi, now a city, that had grown into a Vast metropolis after the war and he must have felt like Rip Van Winkle. He decided to develop his old shop at Shamba Gyan Singh into a commercial establishment and rented the four shops to his Kikuyu friends from the Gatundu area. He was able to find an old friend from Nyeri, Thakar Singh who was now living in the Ngara Road area. The two would get together around 9.00 AM and could be seen every week day as they walked from Ramgharia Hall Gurdwara to the Post Office on Delamere Avenue and back.In 1959 one morning when Nika Singh was doing the Daily Nit Nem, he heard a thief entering Karanjas Gatundu General store. He got up and tip toed into the store and grabbed the thief single handed, keeping him pinned to the floor while shouting for help. The physical stress of this citizens arrest kept Nika Singh in bed for two days. In 1962he travelled to Uganda and spent time with his son Harnam Singh and his family in Kampala. He also visited Budongo forest staying at the Forestry Guest house with his grandson, a civil engineer working in the Butiaba area. He also visited a Batwa (Pygmy) village deep in the jungle on the Zaire border. In 1968 Sardar Nika Singh Lotay, returned to India, and to his native city of Raikot and died there on June 9, 1969. One morning while on the morning walk to Gurdwara Tahliana Sahib he fell, was taken to hospital but never recovered. He passed away to eternal bliss two days later. A pioneer, small in stature, great in ambition, an entrepreneur extraordinaire, who lived a great life and helped so many in the early settlement days and inspired future generations to excel by setting an example to be cherished. The Development of Africa started by Sardar Nika Singh is being carried on by the next generations of his family, by his grand children and by his great grand children.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 11:00:12 +0000
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