Mohinder Kaur is a singer and pioneer of Punjabi folk music in the UK. Born in Uganda in the mid-1930s (having also lived in Kenya and India), she moved to the UK with her husband and children and settled in Southall, Greater London, in the early 1960s. 

Mohinder reflects on the obstacles for women to develop their singing and musical interests and skills as she was growing up in East Africa and India:

‘It was never really allowed to be developed because of the mindset. If you were to do it, then family members would say in a derogatory way “who do they think they are, minstrels?” The general attitude was that geet [folk songs] should not be performed by girls but kirtan [Sikh spiritual hymns] was seen as acceptable. It did not look good to people if we went somewhere and sang geet. So there wasn’t that much freedom to sing at home or outside of the home.’

After settling in Southall, she began performing kirtan at the gurdwara (Sikh temple) and soon after started to perform geet and ghazal at events where her popularity rose as a singer. She could sing songs that were appropriate to the setting of a particular event, tailored to the occasion that was being marked. Mohinder’s depth of knowledge of music, the meanings of the lyrics, and of the social customs associated with the music became her hallmark.