Watching soldiers of a multicultural country do the bhangra (a Punjabi folk dance) on board a warship with the wreckage of a helicopter engulfed in flames in the background is a rather dramatic spectacle.
Gurdeep Pandher, an Indian migrant in Canada, made that happen last month.
Based in Whitehorse, Yukon, in northern Canada, Mr Pandher was recently filmed training the Canadian Armed Forces in Punjab’s famous folk dance.
Needless to say, the video has since gone viarl viral for the sheer visual treat that it is: a Sikh man sporting a bright turban, giving instructions on a mic to Canadian military personnel on a warship all the while making elegant moves to the dhol (traditional South Asian drum) beating in the background. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also shared it on his Facebook page.
Mr Pandher instructing a group of armed forces personnel during his bhangra class. Source: Gurdeep Pandher
“In my view, this is a secular way of promoting Punjabi culture and awareness about Sikhism. I don’t want to take the path of religious discourse to talk about my turban, beard and unshorn hair. When I make people of other cultures dance to the tunes of bhangra, they automatically become curious and ask me about who I am, where I come from, about my attire and bhangra,” Mr Pandher told SBS Punjabi.
He has been a bhangra aficionado since his school and university days in Punjab and Chandigarh.
“I work in the Yukon government’s IT department. During my free time, I teach Bhangra,” says Mr Pandher, who makes it a point to mark many occasions in the Canadian and international calendars by his public bhangra performance.
“I wrote a letter to the Canadian Armed Forces to seek permission to bring my art to their premises. A few months later, I was allowed and here I am, doing the bhangra with a multicultural military,” says Mr Pandher.
He has also been invited by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to deliver a speech on ‘Diversity and Inclusion’ this April.
His Facebook and Twitter timelines are replete with videos and pictures of him shaking a leg with Punjabis and non-Punjabis alike on community events like Canada Day, Mother’s Day and even some indigenous theatre performances.
Mr Pandher brought the bhangra with him in his heart from India 15 years ago from his village near Ludhiana in Punjab, thousands of miles away to Canada.
From his new home, he has taken it across the Canadian shores to far flung Denmark too. In March, he held a bhangra workshop in Copenhagen.
A man of several talents, Mr Pandher has also authored Among the Stars: Life and Dreams of Kalpana Chawla, a biography of the late NASA astronaut of Indian origin who died during a space flight in 2003.
Click on the player at the top of the page to listen to this interview in Punjabi.
