Dr Amarjit Singh Marwah, an Indian American community leader, philanthropist, and scholar, is among the few Indian Americans whom the US honored by renaming major thoroughfares and intersections after them. The City of Los Angeles immortalized Dr. Marwah by naming the intersection of Vermont and Finley Avenues, Marwah Square, in 2019, just 2 years before Berkeley City got a street named after Indian American Kala Bagai in 2021.
A pioneer of American Dream for Indian students in the 1950s, a decade of possibilities and uncertainties for a free India; Dr Marwah took his last breath on January 7, 2025 at the age of 98. His journey from Pakistan to India to the United States after the 1947 Partition became a legacy of achievements, community activism, and unparalleled philanthropy. Air India having started international flights in June 1948, gave a runway to the dreams and aspirations of young Indians amidst the socio-economic volatility across the country. Dr. Marwah was one of them.
Not many Indian immigrants in USA know that it was Dr Amarjit Singh Marwah who founded Hollywood Sikh Gurdwara, the first Sikh temple in America, in 1969. Early in the 1950s, he came to the US on a Fulbright Scholarship after 4 years of practice as a dentist in Punjab. He graduated in dentistry from King Edward Medical College in Lahore before his family of physicians shifted to Punjab after the partition. He dared to dream big while the aftereffects of the partition continued to linger.
Turban-clad Amarjit in his 20s was an anomaly in the 1950s’ New York. Owing to his bushy beard and inherent benevolence, he earned the nickname “Young Santa” alongside having secured the Guggenheim Foundation’s Pediatric Dentistry Fellowship in New York. His pursuit of American Dream took an exciting turn with an MS degree in Pathology from the College of Dentistry at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
In 1954, he became not only a Doctor of Dental Surgery at Howard University in Washington DC but also the first Indian to obtain a license to practice dentistry in America. In the same year, he returned to his alma mater, the University of Illinois, as a faculty member, very much in line with what he had grown to be known for – a man of roots.
At the same time, Amarjit was not blind to the underlying social alienation faced by Asians, particularly Indians, in the 1950s USA. He recognized that increasing the community’s representation within the establishment could be of great help. In 1957, he managed the election campaigns for Dalip Singh Saund, the first Sikh and the first Indian American to be elected to the US Congress, thus opening doors for Indians in the American corridor of power.
In 1957, Dr. Marwah was granted U.S. citizenship, the culmination of his American Dream. This was the first brick to the first-ever Indian home that came up in Los Angeles after he relocated to Baldwin Hills, as a professor at the University of Southern California.
Dr. Marwah’s skilful hands in dentistry quickly earned him a prominent place in the field. His fame spread, attracting some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Among his clients were Gregory Peck, Elizabeth Taylor, sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, spiritual teacher Harbhajan Yogi, and champion boxer Muhammed Ali. Singer-actor Barbra Streisand was one of his neighbors at 14-acre Malibu Ranch where he owned a property.
As Dr. Marwah’s influence expanded, he became well-acquainted with influential personalities from different walks of life. He hosted both President Zail Singh and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at his California home. The Marwah family property at Malibu Ranch overlooking the Pacific Ocean served as the wedding venue for the 38th US President Gerald Ford’s son.
The experience of social depravity brought Dr. Amarjit Singh Marwah close to Tom Bradley, Los Angeles’ first Black mayor. Bradley appointed Dr. Marwah as a City Commissioner, a position he held for 18 years, setting a record for any Indian American. During his tenure, he chaired both the Cultural Heritage Commission and the Hollywood Art Commission, overseeing the protection of nearly 300 historical sites, including the Walk of Fame and Roosevelt Hotel. This was poetic how an immigrant conserved the nativity of a foreign land.
Dr Marwah built a community nest in California and offered warm hospitality to many Indian immigrants there. Additionally, he supported many humanitarian causes in USA and India. He helped establish a Los Angeles High School in Mumbai, with an annual contribution of $10K to support the school. He adopted two villages, Guru Ki Dhab and Guru Nanak Basti, in Punjab. He founded KK Marwah College for Girls (named after his wife, Kuljit Kaur Marwah) in Punjab. He co-founded the Bank of Punjab, a precursor to present-day HDFC Bank.
