“I Always Had a Keen Sense of Justice”

I was born in April of 1951, in Nairobi, Kenya. My parents were from India and belonged to the Sikh religion. Because my father took his widowed sister-in-law as his second wife, he had two wives. His first wife, my mother, had no choice in the matter. My mother and stepmother often bore children about the same time. So I grew up with many siblings and half-sibs as well as a cousin—seven children altogether. In 1964, when I had just turned 13, my father died.

In Search of Justice

Growing up I saw a lot of contention and favoritism. As I later learned, our family life somewhat resembled the account of Leah and Rachel in the Bible. I noticed the mistreatment of our Kenyan servants, whom we were taught to view as inferior. My father wanted us to befriend our European neighbors, claiming that we could learn from them. But he asked us to shun Africans because he thought that nothing could be learned from them. We were also discouraged from befriending people of Pakistani heritage, as they were perceived as our enemies. I always had a keen sense of justice—and I felt that my father’s outlook was not right.

Sikhism was founded toward the end of the 15th century by Guru Nānak. I accepted Nānak’s teachings, including the idea that there is one true God. But the injustices I saw all around the Sikh community made me think that something was wrong.

That was not the only thing that concerned me. Since Sikhism was only several centuries old, I often wondered: ‘What was before that? What was the very first way of worship that God approved?’ Our family hung calendars with pictures of the ten historical Sikh gurus. But I wondered: ‘How do we even know what they looked like? Why should anyone bow down to images of the gurus as my family and others did, given that the gurus themselves advocate worship of one true God?’

In 1965, when I was 14, our family moved to India. Life there was challenging because we had very little means of living. About a year later, we gradually started to move to England. We moved just two of us at a time, settling in Leicester.

At age 16, I started working various manual jobs and attending night school to continue my education that had been disrupted. But I saw discrimination in the workforce. For example, English workers were paid better than immigrants. My sense of justice moved me to become a young labor union activist. I organized immigrant women to come out on strike for equal pay. I longed for fairness.

Finding the Answer

I first met Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1968 when two Witness men knocked on my door. The promise that the Kingdom would bring equality to all immediately appealed to me. One of the Witnesses returned with his wife. I started studying the Bible along with my sister Jaswinder and my half sister Chani. After covering just six lessons, we were convinced that Jehovah is the true God, that the Bible is his Word, and that only the Kingdom can bring real justice to all.

However, we faced brutal family opposition. After the death of my father, my half brother became the head of the family. Instigated by my stepmother, he started opposing us. He would beat my younger sisters Jaswinder and Chani, kicking them with steel-toed boots. He knew that as an 18-year-old, I had legal rights, but he assumed that my sisters were fair game. Once, he took a Bible, opened it, set its pages on fire, and pushed it right in their faces, saying, “Ask your Jehovah to put the flames out!” At the time, we had attended a couple of meetings in secret. But we really wanted to serve the only true God, Jehovah. However, that seemed impossible under our circumstances. So we began planning to leave home and run away to a safe place. How?

We secretly started saving our lunch money and bus fare plus a portion of my income, which I had to hand over to my stepmother. We bought three suitcases that we kept hidden in a locker and gradually filled with our clothes. In May 1972, when Jaswinder was almost 18 and we had 100 pounds ($260 U.S.), we took a train to Penzance in the southwest of England. After arriving in Penzance, we called the local Witnesses from a phone booth. The brothers warmly welcomed us. We found a variety of jobs, including gutting fish, so that we could rent a place and settle there.

We continued our Bible study with an older couple, Harry and Betty Briggs. In September 1972, while still in hiding, we were baptized in a small pool located underneath the platform of the Truro Kingdom Hall. Chani started pioneering, and Jaswinder and I supported her financially.

Serving Where the Need Is Greater

Harry and Betty, although in their late eighties, regularly went to the Isles of Scilly, near England’s southwest coast, to preach. Their example instilled in us the desire to do something similar. Therefore, in 1973, after our conversation with Brother Skinner, as described in the introduction, we knew what to do.

In January 1974, we bought one-way tickets to New Delhi, India, where Brother Dick Cotterill allowed us to stay in the missionary home as guests. Chani regular pioneered while Jaswinder and I significantly increased our time in the ministry.

Eventually we were directed to Punjab, a state in northwest India, where we stayed for a while in a missionary home in the city of Chandigarh and then rented an apartment. I started regular pioneering in September 1974 and was invited to become a special pioneer in 1975. Preaching helped me to realize that there was a great need for literature in Punjabi so that more people could learn about Jehovah’s love and justice. In 1976, the India branch office invited the three of us to help with translating literature into Punjabi. Without typewriters or computers, this was very labor-intensive. We had to handwrite the translated text and manually check and proofread it. Then we worked with an archaic local commercial printery, typesetting the text by hand one letter at a time.

Joyful Despite Health Challenges

Our circumstances changed rather quickly. Jaswinder met a brother who became her husband, and they moved to Canada. Chani married a German brother visiting from the United States and moved there. I had become very sick and returned to England in October 1976. My own mother and brother, who were not opposed to the truth, were living in Leicester and kindly took me in. I was diagnosed with Evans syndrome, a very rare autoimmune disorder that damages blood cells, and needed various treatments, including the removal of my spleen. I had to quit pioneering.

I prayed earnestly to Jehovah that if I got well enough, I would resume full-time service. And I did! Despite relapses, I moved to Wolverhampton in 1978, pioneering in a predominantly Punjabi-speaking area. We made handwritten meeting invitations and had them duplicated at local shops. We then distributed them to Punjabi-speaking people, inviting them to the public talk. Now Britain has five Punjabi congregations and three groups.

The Britain branch was aware of my work as a Punjabi translator in India. So the branch office contacted me in the late 1980’s. I started commuting to London Bethel in connection with preparing fonts and software and to help establish publishing standards for the Gurmukhi script. I had a grueling schedule earning a living, caring for my mum some distance away, and commuting to Bethel. But it was wonderful to be involved.

In September 1991, I was invited to be a member of the Bethel family and to work with translating Bible literature into Punjabi. This was completely unexpected. I felt unqualified, had an illness, and was over the age requirement for a new Bethelite. Yet, Jehovah granted me this amazing privilege. While happily serving at Bethel, my health problems continued. Numerous times I faced the blood issue in conjunction with chemotherapy and other treatments. My hematologists were so impressed with my recovery that I was invited to a seminar with some 40 medical professionals at a large London hospital. I gave a 10-minute testimony on my nonblood stand, followed by a question and answer session handled by a brother from the Hospital Information Desk.

During these difficult times, my sisters Jaswinder and Chani lovingly stood by me, and I greatly appreciated the support and kindness of the Bethel family and other friends. Through all my trials, Jehovah empowered me to continue in my assignment.—Psalm 73:26.

The Blessing of Jehovah Makes Rich

The past 33 years at Bethel have enabled me to “taste and see that Jehovah is good.” (Psalm 34:8; Proverbs 10:22) The examples of faithful older ones inspire me. Looking back, I rejoice in having seen many of my Punjabi Bible students become loyal servants of Jehovah. I have a good relationship with my immediate family members. My mother and brother are not Witnesses, but my mum often says, “You are really dedicated to God.” And when I offered to leave Bethel to care for our elderly mother full-time, my brother commented: “You are doing a fine job. Stay there.” Although my mum lives in a care home far from Bethel, I visit her as often as I can.

Whenever I have faced a trial in my life, in my mind I would say to myself: ‘Do not fear, Kamal. Jehovah is a shield for you. Your reward will be very great.’ (Genesis 15:1) I thank Jehovah, the “God of justice,” for noticing me as a young girl and for filling my life with meaningful work. (Isaiah 30:18) And I look forward to the time when “no resident will say: ‘I am sick.’”—Isaiah 33:24.