How a French Man abandoned his Nationality to become an Amritdhari Sikh!

Darshan Singh Rudel, 57, a French national, earlier known as Michael Rudel, had converted to the Sikh faith and married a Sikh woman. Now settled at Nurpur Bedi in Ropar district, Rudel is doing organic farming for the past 17 years. This french man renounced his citizenship for embracing the Sikh faith.

Rudel had requested a French court in 1995 for changing his name from Michael Rudel to Darshan Singh Rudel, which was declined. Thereafter, he renounced French citizenship and became a UK national, which had issued him a passport in his new name — Darshan Singh Rudel.

In 1997, he became an amritdhari (baptized) Sikh at Anandpur Sahib – the place of birth of Khalsa — and married Malvinder Kaur, who teaches English at a college in Nangal. The couple is living at Nurpur Bedi since then. He strictly follows the tenets of Sikhi and has even written outside his house that “drunkards are not allowed to enter.”

Darshan Singh, a dedicated Sikh missionary with profound knowledge of “gurbani” and “gurmat”, said that Sikhs were known for their honesty, integrity, hard work and bravery. But today the virtues are evaporating in the present environment of Punjab .

Harvesting wheat at his fields, Rudel states, “Politicians in Punjab are confined to making money and fighting each other. They don’t focus on larger social issues of the state and have almost forgotten the concept of ‘sarbat da bhala’ (welfare of all).

Today, Punjabis have stopped working in farms, become drug addicts and distanced themselves from hard work and have become money-centric.”

“Youth from Punjab, once considered a nursery for defence forces since British era, have stopped joining the Army,” he stated.

Rudel uses only organic methods at his farm.

~ Source: DailySikhUpdate