ABSTRACT

Sikhs have constituted a large ethnic minority in the British population and its armed forces since Britain's imperial era. As citizens of the Commonwealth and servicemen from the British military, then as British citizens forced out by new African governments in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania after independence, and finally as enterprising immigrants from India and other countries around the world, Sikhs have been arriving and settling in the United Kingdom since the mid-19th century. The most significant and unusual protection for British Sikhs is their inclusion as a separate racial group for purposes of the Race Relations Act. For most of its history, the UK did not have a specific law proscribing discrimination on the basis of religion in any of its territories. The British government has explicitly shown support for Sikh turbans by affording them a right not available in other Western countries the right to refuse to wear hard hats or helmets where they would otherwise be required.