Tributes to Peterborough's 'Mother India' community champion who opened first Asian owned shop in Peterborough

Tributes have been paid to a Peterborough community champion who spent decades helping others across the city.

Ranjit Kaur was well known across a number of communities in the city, having moved to Peterborough in 1961, and was known as ‘Mother India’ by many.

Sadly, Ranjit, a mum of five, grandmother of 27 and great grandmother of 51, died last week aged 84.

Today her son, Del Singh, who himself has followed in his mum’s footsteps by helping others, paid tribute to her.

‘Mum helped so many from other communities who simply wanted to earn an honest living’

He said: “Mum had a great sense of community and paying it forward and went out of her way to help others. There are well over 100 relations over 3 generations in Peterborough and farther afield across the UK who are here today and prospering because my mum and dad bought them here and gave them a head start.

"Also mum knew as the first just how hard it was to build a life in Peterborough as a foreigner which is why she helped so many from other communities including the city’s Pakistani community who simply wanted to work hard and earn an honest living. So to help local Indian and Pakistani families who’d migrated to Peterborough she started up a community chest scheme referred to in Punjabi as “Kamatee”. It was a savings scheme where a group of 20 ladies would meet each Tuesday afternoon at our house and put £10 into the community chest and one ticket bearing the names of one of the 20 ladies in the Kamatee would be drawn at random, and that lady took home the £200 collected that day. This would go on until everyone had received their £200, so there was no gambling, interest to pay or profiteering, just a way ordinary people could get a lump sum of cash to help buy their own home and move out of squalid rented accommodation, or to buy a car, or fund a wedding.

"To this day I still meet people many from Peterborough’s Pakistani community who recall with fondness and gratitude how, “Soni Singhny” (Beautiful Sikh Lady), the nickname given to my mum, helped their families when they were first starting out in Peterborough in the 1970’s.”

Ranjit was born in the village of Bhadewale, Punjab in India, before moving to the UK in 1952.

The family originally stayed in Wisbech, before moving to Nottingham, then to March, and eventually setting in Peterborough.

‘I remember on more than one occasion coming home from school to find three or four English ladies in our kitchen learning how to cook curries.’

It was in Peterborough where she opened the Rathore Continental Store in Cromwell Road with husband Gurdial Singh Rathore.

Del said: “Rathore Continental Store was the first shop owned by Asians in Peterborough, but some local shopkeepers weren’t happy with the new competition. So, rumours about the poor hygiene of the "brown people" and the fact that the dark colour would come off their hands and poison the fresh foods they sold started to circulate. So much so that customers stayed away and after just a few weeks it looked like the business would have to close.

"But my mum Ranjit wasn't going to give up without a fight and even though she didn't need help in the shop and couldn't afford it, she asked a friendly English lady Margaret who lived opposite if she could do some early morning shifts in the shop.

"Having a white face in the shop or standing on the doorstep made a huge difference as now people would stop and talk to Margaret and even venture inside. Soon they got chatting to mum and even us kids, and realised there were no hygiene issues, and the racist lies were just that.

"Local housewives were curious as to aromas of Indian food coming from our kitchen and soon mum was making to order chicken curry, aloo gobi and samosas as an alternative to the fish and chips or bangers and mash local ladies were feeding their husbands after a long day at work.

"Back then there were no Indian restaurants and eating out was seen as an expensive luxury, so home cooking was very important. Mum realised this and I remember on more than one occasion coming home from school to find three or four English ladies in our kitchen learning how to cook curries.”

But above all, Del said Ranjit was ‘the best mum ever.’ He said: “I know I am biased as everyone has the best mum, but my mum in juggling business with family life made sure that as kids we never went without. By that I don’t mean things like fresh cooked food and clean clothes, but also the one thing that money can’t buy, love!

"My siblings and I were all blessed to have such an amazing loving mother who always thought of us before she thought of herself and made so many sacrifices over the years. A devout Sikh she did a great deal for those well off by feeding the homeless on the streets of India when making her pilgrimages to Sikh Gurdwaras around India.”

Hundreds expected at today’s funeral service

Ranjit Kaur’s funeral is taking place today (Friday, September 1), with mourners able to pay their respects at the Sikh Temple, Gurdwara Baba Budha Ji at 23 Royce Road at 1pm and at the funeral service at Peterborough Crematorium at 2.30pm. Having led such a long and full life, and as such a well-respected figure in the Sikh community locally and globally, many hundreds are expected to attend her funeral with many more watching around the world via a livestream.