My understanding from Indian friends is that Sikhs are no different to any other Indian except that they have different religion. In fact they are not even a race. Since we are familiar with South Indians, we think they are different only that they a not southerners but North Indians. If we treat them as a separate race, they would not even make the GRC cut as their numbers are small and pretty much like Eurasians. Anyway. If they entered via GRC and obtained the minority cert, the expectation is to represent all minorities and I expect there is a sense of accountability towards people of their geographic origin.
Abit late but I think this broad brush statement needs to be clarified - what needs to be distinguished is race from religion - the local Singaporean Sikhs (and counterparts in Malaysia) are very much clueless as to their identity - India is a sub-continent i.e. from a geological perspective it was once a separate continent from Asia (this is pre-partition 1948 India incorporating Pakistan and Bangladesh) - India drifted towards Asia ("continental drift"), crashed into the Asian continent hence the Himalayas.
Hence as a sub-continent its land mass is substantial - through a mix between geography, geology, and history the peoples of India have rather diverse identities (they are until today defined by provincial/regional identities as seen through language, food, music, culture) - because of the history of conquests, the various religious identities were formed - a simplistic approach would be Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam (and Sikhism being a youngest, only 500 years old).
The Sikh religious adherents originate from mainly the Punjab province - this is the seat of the religion and the conversions into the faith by inhabitants who were either Hindu or Muslim under the Mughal empire about 500 years ago.
However, not all Punjabis are Sikhs - there are more Punjabi Muslims in numbers (in Pakistan today) and Hindus than there are Punjabi Sikhs. The partition of India cut into the province of Punjab and the sectarian violence there was between people with the same provincial identity slaughtering each other in the name of faith - whoever was on the wrong side of partition because of their faith were slaughtered - this was again repeated in Yugoslavia after Tito died - Slavs turned on Slavs because of their faith/regional identity (Croats and Serbs are Christians but one being Catholic due to the influence of the Venetian Empire, and the other Orthordox due to its Slavic heritage - the Bosnians being Slavs who converted to Islam under the Ottomans).
If you put Inderjit in a room with Nawar Sharif - they would speak with the same accent and language i.e. Punjabi. If Inderjit spoke to Ali Zardari they would probably have difficulty understanding each other as he is Sindhi (not Punjabi) and the common vernacular is distinct. They may understand each other to an extent but the accent
and grammar is very different.
Singkie Singaporeans are absolutely clueless about this - to them being Punjabi means automatically being a Sikh - they have never been taught otherwise because ethnicity has been synonymous with religion.
The Singkie Sindhis of Singapore are also in the same boat - clueless and interbreed because they believe they are more "atas" than other "Indians" - a lot of their disdain is towards to Southern Indians of Singapore originating from Tamil Nadu - intermarriage between Sindhis and any other denomination of "Indian" Singaporeans is taboo and adds to them sense of "entitlement" (Royal Bros are Sindhis as are the Melwanis) - the Sindhis are also clueless about the fact that they are not a "race" of people but rather a group of people who originate from the Sindh province.
Since the Indian FTs started coming into Singapore the traditional local (Tamil) Indians immediately started to feel threatened - all along the idea of being an Indian in Singapore was mostly determined by the Tamil definition (and to a small extent the Keralites from Malayalam who had been absorbed culturally into the Singapore Tamil
culture) - the ancient North (fair skinned) against the South (dark skinned) prejudices surfaced (matrimonials in India, UK, Canada until today cite the skin tone of the prospective bride/groom never mind this being the 21st century) - linguistically, culturally, religious observations all differed - the bedrock of antagonism has been the color of one's skins and the typical differences it signaled based on prejudice.
Suddenly, the Tamils of Singapore are no longer the only "Indians" of Singapore.
In school it was not uncommon for Tamil boys to want to tackle the one bayi girl - sort of a trophy of sorts to show off and eventually marry (note the number of Tamils married to Punjabi Sikh girls) - the very small Punjabi Muslim community in Singapore was absorbed by the Malay community and culture hence other than looking very
different they had also lost their sense of Punjabi heritage.
So the Sikhs in Singapore are indeed quite different and even within their own community there has been a backlash against the Punjabi Sikhs who had poured into the local temples - the local Sikhs have been unhappy that the newbies are taking advantage of their free kitchens for meal, hoarding space during prayers etc. - just
like the Tamils in their temples - so even if they have the same provincial ethnicity and religion, they are distinguishing themselves as being Singkie Sikhs.
p.s The same has happened here to the Arab community (mostly from Hadramut) - most cannot speak Arabic, speak Malay and eat Malay food - ask them whether they know what "khabsa" is and you will be met with a blank look - the revival of Arab Street has contributed to a soft
awakening of their cultural identity and ethnic distinction (other the usual desire to only marry other Arabs to maintain "purity" long eroded) - they have a fantastical idea of what it means to be an Arab without any real sense having had no exposure further than Arab Street (I am yet to see any of these Singaporean Hadramutis donning
a sarong, chewing kaat and versed in the art of honey cultivation and falconry).