ABSTRACT
Malaysia has the largest Sikh community in Southeast and East Asia, their population being around 80,000 (according to Professor Dr. Saran Kaur Gill: Sikhs – 1,00,000). There is a chain of Gurdwaras (over 119), the first one being set up in 1881 in Cornwallis in the Police Lines. The first public Gurdwara was inaugurated in 1903 (foundation laid in 1901) in Penang. The country was known as Malaya when it got its freedom from the British rule on 31 August 1957. The country changed its name to Malaysia on 16 September 1963. Less than two years later on 9 August 1965, Singapore was expelled and it became an independent country.
