During his speech at the opening of Kartarpur Gurudwara Congress leader and ex-cricketer, Navjot Singh Sidhu praised and thanked Pakistan’s Prime Minister on behalf of the entire “14 crore” Sikh community. He said, “Alexander the Great had conquered the world with brute force but you, Imran Khan, you have won the hearts of 14 crore Sikhs and the entire world with love.”
The video clip of his entire speech:
Part of the clip where he praised Imran Khan
Sidhu @sherryontopp expressing the love and adulation of 14 crore Sikhs for PM @ImranKhanPTI as #PakistanOpensKartarpur #KartarpurCorridor pic.twitter.com/CDGxdnoEJC
— Jawad (@WoShakhs) November 9, 2019
Twitter was quick to pick on the factually incorrect statement made by Sidhu. Soon after his historic speech, Twitter erupted into a disagreement over his claimed figures of “14 crore Sikh”.
Sikh are hardly 2 crore in whole universe. 14 crore my foot
— muhajir fee sabil lillah (@ImraanK27329647) November 11, 2019
Rabble rousing Navjot Singh Siddhu inflates around 3 crores of Sikh population to 14 crore in his speech in Pakistan.
— Ram Nayak Singh (@drrnsing) November 11, 2019
The present Sikhs population in the world is around 30 million (3 crore). May be 14 crore Sikhs he is referring to since inception.
— Glorious Punjabis Globally (@GloriousPunjab1) November 11, 2019
Bhai pehle ye batao…14crore ka no laya kaha se hai ye.2.7 crore hai Sikh duniya mein.Chlo koi Ni…iske Sher me 14 cr hi set baithta hoga.��
— DHARMA SEEKER (@vikrant2794) November 11, 2019
Fact Check
According to one of the most followed Sikh community websites, OxfordSikhs the population of Sikhs worldwide is around 27 million or 2.7 crore.
Again according to another website, worldatlas.com, India has the largest Sikh population with 2.2 crore Sikh individuals. Followed by Canada with 468,670 Sikhs. The United Kingdom has the third largest Sikh population with 342,429 Sikhs. According to world atlas, other countries which have a considerable number of the Sikh population are United States (250,000), Australia (125,904), Malaysia (100,000), and Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania (50,000 – 100,000 Sikhs in these countries combined), which is pproximately 2.4 crore.
According to the census data of 2011, the number of Sikhs in India is 20,833,116 which is slightly over 2 crores and India is home to more than 83 percentage of Sikhs of the world.
Even going by the words of ‘Sikhism by country’ reports of a free Sikh encyclopedia named Sikhiwiki the number of Sikhs worldwide are approximate around 25 million.
And, the Britannica’s official website simply seems to demolish Sidhu’s claim of “14 Crore” by clearly stating there are nearly 2. 5 crore Sikhs worldwide, the great majority of them living in the Indian state of Punjab.
Also Read:“Faith Corridor”: Easy Access For Indian Sikh Pilgrims To Revered Kartarpur Gurudwara In Pakistan
