In this Indian name, the name Nijhar is a patronymic, and the person should be referred to by the given name, Karnail Singh. The abbreviation "s/o" or "d/o", if used, means "son of" or "daughter of" respectively.
Nijhar was born in Pengkalan Hulu, Perak, on 2 July 1936, on a bullock cart somewhere between Kroh and Kelian Intan.[3][4] His father, Amar Singh, an immigrant from Punjab, moved to the Malaya in 1926 as a labourer in Rahman Hydraulic Tin Mine. Growing up, Nijhar lived in a kampung house without basic amenities and depended on wells for water and Hindu temples for free meals. He never owned a pair of shoes as a kid and was illiterate until the age of nine.[5]
While a student at St Xavier's Institution in Penang, he earned money as a ball boy at clubs with tennis courts. He continued to excel at school however, and between 1947 and 1954 received high scores on examinations.[2]
Early career
Before he joined politics as a MIC member in 1974, he was a lecturer in economics at the University of Malaya and one of two Indians with a PhD in economics in Malaysia at the time.[citation needed] The Malaysian government sought his help for various initiatives during his early years as an academic, such as for the development of "academic staff salaries for Malaysian universities" for the Justice Harun Hashim Commission. Arshad Ayub, director of Institut Teknologi Mara, engaged him as a part-time lecturer and to help develop the curriculum for the school of business administration.[5]
Politics
Nijhar was the highest-ranking Punjabi and Sikh in the MIC, since MIC President V. T. Sambanthan's time in 1955, to hold any national-level portfolios in the Tamil-dominated party even as a Punjabi Sikh who spoke no Tamil.[6] He was one of seven MPs from the MIC, causing him to be a minority within a minority. In 1980, began to be a close confidante of then MIC President Samy Velu, he was appointed by as Chairman of the Economic Bureau and Education Bureau of MIC where he had contributed setting-up the MIC's educational arm, Maju Institute of Educational Development (MIED).[2] In 1981, he started to gain stature within the MIC, first as a central working committee (CWC) member and later as treasurer-general for nine years, secretary-general for four years, and vice-president for nine years.[5]
He was appointed a Senator in 1985, the first time MIC nominated a Punjabi Sikh for the Senate and the second Punjabi Sikh in Malaysia's history to sit in the Senate, after Senator Paramjit Singh, president of People’s Progressive Party (PPP).[2] He was re-appointed for the second-term Senatorship in 1988. Around this time, he was appointed parliamentary secretary to the ministry of trade and industry during which time he also served as a member of the first National Economic Consultative Council.[5]
Nijhar had resigned as MIC Vice-President following a heated row with party chief Samy Vellu in 2008.[9] His last position held in CWC, was the MIC Discipline Committee after being replaced by the new MIC President G. Palanivel in 2015.[10]
Business
Nijhar left politics at 72. He had run with his son, Rabin a security company, Cisco (M) Sdn Bhd which he acquired in 1979.[5][11]
Personal life
Nijhar married lecturer Molina Kaur Nijhar.[3][12] The couple has a daughter Premeeta Kaur Nijhar and son Rabinder Singh Nijhar.[5] They had two children.[5]
Death
Nijhar died on 15 June 2021 after having a stroke.[5][13] His final rites were performed along with a service held among close family members at his home in Bukit Pantai, followed by cremation at Xiao En Memorial Park in Nilai the next day.[2]
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