Dhanna Singh Mahay
When Dhanna came to the UK, he was leaving behind a wife and three young children in the village of Mitapur, Punjab to give his family a better future. Dhanna had attended technical college and was a carpenter with plenty of skills to offer in a new country. On reaching the UK under the voucher system, Dhanna stayed with family and quickly found work with George Dodd Builders based in Frederick St Luton. Dodds specialised in doing up houses and selling them on, other larger properties were converted to flats. Dhanna was in demand as a carpenter because doors and windows on many of the properties he worked on were not standard sized and had to be made to bespoke measurements.
All of this time, Dhanna stayed in touch with his young family, and managed to go back to India to visit them, but it was five years before he could bring them over to Luton and the family initially settling, with family in Claremont Road. With two families living together there was 16 people living in one house in the early years. Eventually Dhanna bought his first house in Havelock Road, later in 1980 moving to Reginald Street. Dhanna’s wife soon found employment in a Hat Factory near to home where she did machine work. All of this was new to her, as culturally it would have been unusual for a woman to work outside the home, unless she was in a profession like the Civil Service.
Fortunately, Dhanna had quite a lot of family in Luton and they helped one another, often meeting up at the SKF Social Club for a drink and a chat. Dhanna later worked at SKF, Vauxhall, Wimpey Builders and found it easy to find work. At Vauxhall Bedford Trucks, Dhanna was trained in spot welding, welding the body work on lorry cabs. Bedford Trucks operated a night shift and Dhanna worked from 6.00pm to 7.00am, catching up on his sleep while the six children were at school.
Dhanna was a founder member of the Shri Guru Ravidass Sangat Gurudwara, fundraising and bringing his practical skills to refurbish the building. Other Sikh (Ravidassia) communities across the UK also donated and there was a sense of shared purpose in creating local worship spaces. Sadly, in December 1992 there was an arson attack on the Gurudwara which was a terrible setback after all the time and money that the community had contributed. Literally everything was burned apart from the Holy book (the Shri Guru Granth Sahib), which miraculously was unscathed and the exterior walls. Fortunately, the Gurudwara was insured, and the slow process of rebuilding could take place. The rebuild took around 18 months and today it is a beautiful multi-purpose building with a welcoming atmosphere and a feeling of peace and friendliness.
Like many immigrants, Dhanna only intended to stay for four or five years and then return to India, but over time he realised that his children were very settled in the UK and for them, going back would be placing them in a very different society. It would be a culture clash, and they were now British Indians and would find the transition into Indian society difficult. The India that he had left had changed and sadly some people had passed away. Dhanna and his late wife Pritam Kaur visited India regularly to stay in touch with family but when Dhanna’s wife died, he no longer wanted to go back. Dhanna feels grateful that his children are happy and thriving in the UK and he is now a proud Great Grandad, although he mentioned that his Great Grandchild is in danger of replacing ‘Baba’ (Grandad) with a new puppy!
Dhanna feels that it’s important to maintain traditions but also sees benefits in adapting them with the times.