Scotsman Obituaries: Amrit Lal, engineer, lecturer and community leader who spearheaded creation of Edinburgh Hindu Mandir​

Amrit lived a life defined by upheaval and perseverance. Raised in rural pre-Partition Punjab, and educated in fits and starts, he was shaped by hardship and resilience into an engineer and educator. He later settled in Edinburgh, where his enduring legacy would be the Mandir itself. Together with his wife, the trailblazing race relations campaigner Saroj Lal, he gave the city’s Hindu community a permanent spiritual home.

He was born into poverty in 1932 in Jandali Kalan, near Ahmedgarh, in the Sangrur district of Punjab. His mother, Parvati Devi Dhand, had returned to her parental village for the birth of her first child. His father Lachman Dass Tangri – known as Baoji – came from nearby Maholi Kalan. Baoji was a veterinary surgeon in the Remount Veterinary Corps of the British Indian Army, frequently transferred from post to post across the north-west frontier of British India.

Amrit’s early years were marked by deprivation and loss. Three siblings died in infancy – a sister and two younger brothers, Satinder and Bhushan. His education began late and was constantly disrupted as the family moved – from Sargodha to Ludhiana, Khanna and Ahmedgarh – in line with Baoji’s postings. Neither his mother nor his grandparents had any formal education, so no one could help with his lessons.

During the Second World War Baoji was transferred to Aden with the Bikaner Camel Corps, or Ganga Risala. He came home briefly on leave in 1942 and the family was visiting Maholi Kalan when Amrit’s paternal grandfather, Raja Ram, passed away. Baoji carried out the last rites before resuming his military duties – a memory that left a deep impression on Amrit.

Greater stability came when a maternal uncle, Jagiri Mal Dhand, himself a teacher, took responsibility for Amrit’s schooling and enrolled him at Khalsa High School in Kila Raipur in 1945. In the summer of 1947 Amrit was visiting Baoji, by then posted to Fort Sandeman (now Zhob, Pakistan), when tensions began to rise ahead of Partition. The family was moved to a Sikh regiment in Kohat for safety. As violence erupted in August 1947, they were evacuated by military aircraft to Rawalpindi and then transported in a special train across the new border. Despite the turmoil, Amrit reached Kila Raipur amid the bloodshed and passed his matriculation exam in August 1948. He then became a student at DAV Post Graduate College in Dehradun. His subjects were English, physics and chemistry, but coping with an English-medium education proved difficult and he initially failed his final exams. Downhearted, he took a year out, went back and eventually passed in spring 1952.

A turning point came the morning after his last exam. Through Baoji’s contacts, Amrit was introduced in Delhi to a British automotive representative who arranged an apprenticeship with Albion Motors in Scotstoun, Glasgow. Amrit arrived in Southampton on the MS Batory on 11 November 1952 with little money, limited English and no contacts.

For three years he combined his apprenticeship with day-release study at Stow College. Afterwards, he continued working in Glasgow while studying at evening classes. He was determined not to ask Baoji for financial help, believing this would enable his surviving younger brothers, Darshan and Shashi, to have the opportunities he had lacked. From these modest beginnings, he gained a series of professional qualifications in mechanical and production engineering.

In 1962 he returned to India, where he married Saroj Chanana, an economics graduate from Panjab University, on 11 December that year. They began life together in Madras (now Chennai), where Amrit was working for Binny Engineering. Their first child, a daughter named Pansy, was born in Ludhiana on 14 November 1963 but fell seriously ill and died on 25 January 1964 – a loss they bore quietly throughout their lives.

In August 1964 the couple moved to Singapore, where Amrit became a lecturer at Singapore Polytechnic and their son, Vineet, was born in June 1965. Still conscious of the gaps in his education, however, Amrit went back to the UK in 1967 to study at the University of Birmingham. His Glasgow qualifications had been recognised as being equivalent to a first degree, enabling him to complete an MSc in quality and reliability engineering – an achievement of deep personal significance, reflecting how the boy with fragmented schooling had prevailed. Shortly afterwards, he accepted a lectureship at Napier College in Edinburgh. The family settled in the city in November 1968 and a second daughter, Kavita, was born there in May 1969.

They lived in a single cramped room on Smith’s Place before Amrit bought a flat on Oxford Street. In the mid-1970s both Amrit and Saroj left teaching careers to open a small business, seeking greater flexibility to raise their young children. Lal’s Store on Balgreen Road brought them financial security; later, in the mid-1980s, Fabina in Marchmont became a meeting place for the South Asian community. In 1987 Baoji came to live with Amrit for a year, allowing them to share a companionship that had been largely absent during Amrit’s childhood. Baoji died on 13 September 1988, shortly after returning to India.

It was during this period that Amrit’s greatest contribution to Edinburgh began to emerge. In the early 1980s, local Hindu families had no permanent place of worship. In 1981 a small group formed a committee, and mid-decade Amrit became president of the Edinburgh Hindu Mandir. His outlook was shaped by his rigorous Arya Samaj upbringing, grounded in the teachings of the Vedas. In 1989, following negotiations with the council led by Saroj, the organisation acquired a disused church in Leith for a peppercorn sum. Through intensive fundraising and volunteer effort led by Amrit, it was transformed into a temple and cultural centre. On 13 November 1993 the Mandir celebrated its first Diwali in its new home.

The Mandir was not the only gift from Amrit and Saroj to the city. Supported by Amrit, Saroj established Ganga Ghat on the River Almond, where families could immerse the ashes of their loved ones. Amrit was present for the first official immersion – the ashes of Surendra Chandarana – on 17 July 1994. Both Amrit and Saroj were actively involved in the city’s interfaith networks, while Amrit also served on the board of MECOPP, a charity for minority carers.

Amrit will be remembered as a true gentleman: a noble, caring man whose legacy will outlast him and his beloved Saroj. As the First Minister, John Swinney MSP, said: “Together, Amrit and Saroj embodied compassion, courage and community… Their legacy remains an inspiration to us all.”

And in the stones of the Edinburgh Hindu Mandir, and in the sacred waters of Ganga Ghat, where, fittingly, the ashes of both Amrit and Saroj were finally laid to rest, their shared vision for the city lives on.

Saroj predeceased Amrit on 12 March 2020. He is survived by his daughter Kavita, granddaughter Isha and me.

Obituaries

If you would like to submit an obituary (800-1000 words preferred, with jpeg image), contact [email protected]