User:Kanwar Ranvir Singh

Kanwar Ranvir Singh also known as Ranvir Singh Kanwar is a human rights activist, writer and educator.

Human Rights. Ranvir made representations to the Hague Appeal for Peace in 1999, the United Nations Working Group on Minorities and the Working Group on Transnational Relations and was Head of NGO Media in the second PrepCom for the World Conference Against Racism in 2001. His main contribution to those fora was emphasising group rights for minorities and arguing that transnational corporations could be held liable by national governments as they effectively had control over certain territory. This is comparable to guerrilla groups having control over territory in a civil war and therefore having de facto, even if not de jure, aspects of statehood. This latter idea was based on his PhD thesis at the University of Warwick that was published as, Kanwar Ranvir Singh, International Society of Oil Companies and British and American Foreign Policy in the Middle East, Sandalwood, 2007. John Pace, former Chief of the Research and Development Branch of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations writes of “his professionalism and courage in tackling challenging issues.”

David Weissbrodt. Professor of Law, University of Minnesota and Member UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights was chair of the subcommittee on transnational corporations and in the blurb on the back of his book writes that, “Although limited to the period before, during and after World War II as to which corporate archives have become available, the book sheds light on the “special relationship” between the UK and the US as well as the role of transnational corporations in the formation of foreign policy.”

The political role of transnational corporations was also commented on by another reviewer. “Dr Singh has written a study of the corporate and interstate politics of oil that will provoke lively discussion among scholars of international relations as well as historians. His work is remarkable for its combination of scholarly archival research and theoretical accomplishment. Through an extended homage to Hedley Bull that takes the oil majors seriously as political actors in an anarchical world society, Dr Singh provides a convincing reinforcement of the English School approach to international relations on what has long been its weakest flank, international political economy.” Charles Jones, Director of the University of Cambridge Centre of Latin American Studies.

The idea of looking at non-state actors in the global system also influenced his work on paragraph 67 of the United Nations Declaration Against Racism in 2001. He argues that there are forms of governance without governance in the global system from the lex mercatoria of transnational corporations to the sovereignty of the Khalsa. Sangat Singh notes that, “It may be mentioned here that the wording of para 67 was the brain child of Dr Ranvir Singh Kanwar…Sikh sustenance derives itself from being a qaum – e.g. jassa Singh Ahluwalia being acclaimed Sultan-ul-Qoam in 18th century, and Sikhism not simply being a distinct religion but a Qaum – a nation or a nationality.” The international recognition of Sikhs as a people, and not merely a religion, is an important step forward for the protection of Sikh rights.

RE Education. In 2012 he wrote a Key Stage 3 textbook and teacher resource pack on Sikhism. He produces the “Sikhism” title as part of the Religions to Inspire series for KS3 published by Hodder. In 2013 he produced Sikhism materials for BBC Bitesize. From 2012-2015 he was a Board Member of the Religious Educational Council for England and Wales. He was part of the steering group that prepared the non-statutory National Framework for Religious Education. He introduced the term ‘worldview’ to promote the equality of theistic and non-theistic perspectives and, pedagogically, to promote teaching that emphasizes the importance of understanding the motivations and beliefs of actors within a tradition thereby building the capacity for understanding the ‘other’ on its own terms without seeking to reduce it to one’s own framework. Also, Ranvir Singh, Annual lecture to Hounslow SACRE, 10 March 2015. He has been Chair of the Standing Advisory Group for Religious Education (SACRE) in Hounslow since 2016 and in 2021 secured the recognition of dharmic traditions on their own terms. This was part of decolonising the curriculum and Hinduism was renamed as Sanatana Dharma, Buddhism as Dhamma and Sikhism as Gurmat.

Interfaith. Ranvir played a role in interfaith work as a member of the executive of the World Congress of Faiths but also in specific instances. In 1999 he was part of the Next Generation of faith leaders at the Parliament of World Religions in Cape Town, where he met the Dalai Lama. In 2002, he helped organize the ‘Faith in Action’ programme of the Sacred Space at the Rio+10 UN Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.

Social contribution. In Johannesburg in 2002 he arranged for langar for all the participants in the Sacred Space set up for those attending the Rio+10 Summit as well as food deliveries to people with AIDS in the Alexandra township. In the middle 1990s he was active in supporting Sikhs setting up Scout groups in Southall, Reading and Greenford and Gurmat camps on behalf of Akal Purkh Ki Fauj, UK. In 2016 he set up the cadet group at Khalsa Secondary Academy, Stokes Poges. He wrote a report on drug use among young Sikhs and in 2003 was awarded the London Mayoral Award for contribution to life in London.

Writer. Ranvir published several articles in ‘The Spokesman’, the largest circulation Sikh academic and current affairs monthly. These include a report of the third meeting of the Parliament of World Religions (April 2000), discussion of the Nanakshahi (proposed Sikh) calendar, (September 1999), Notes towards a Sikh jurisprudence (February 1999), and Gurmat and Jesus (August 1998). With Jatinder Singh he published a book, Jatinder Singh and Dr Kanwar Ranvir Singh, The Game of Love.

From 1993 he was a contributor to the Sikh Spirit, the first Sikh internet publication in the UK. Over the years he has written on other fora also, including Khalsa Net, Gurmat Learning Zone and the Facebook group, Guru Granth Sahib as well as on Medium. Reviewing Sikh writers today, one commentator notes that, “Some like … T. Sher Singh, Kanwar Ranvir Singh and many others have written less in books and paper journals and more for the Web.”