‘The Peach King of California’ presented a sword to Jerry Brown.
By The American Bazaar Staff
WASHINGTON, DC: The ‘Peach King of California”, Didar Bains, who is the largest peach grower in the United States, was honored by California Gov. Jerry Brown in Sacramento, on Sunday.
Bains, who emigrated to the US from Punjab in 1958, at the age of 18, is now a multimillionaire and owns with family members more than 40,000 acres of land in Sutter, Yuba, Butte, Sacramento, Glenn and Tehema counties.
Brown honored Didar Bains at the Sikh Temple of Sacramento, an acknowledgment of the three decades of political support he has received from the Indian American farmer, reported the Sacramento Bee.
Brown praised Bains and thousands of other immigrants from India who he said have enriched the nation with their culture and work ethic.
“It’s an honor and a privilege to be here,” Brown told some 2,000 Sikhs from as far away as Los Angeles who filled the West Sacramento gurdwara.
Brown’s inaugural visit to the temple comes as more Sikhs engage in politics. Narinderpal Singh Hundal, a Sikh newspaper publisher and businessman, ran for mayor in West Sacramento, losing November 4 to incumbent Christopher Cabaldon, the Bee reported.
Brown, elected this month to a record fourth term as governor of California, said the world needs religious and ethnic tolerance more than ever – and the nation and California benefit from immigrants.
“We tend to get stagnant without the replenishment of new people and new ideas,” Brown said. “We need to welcome people to California, to respect people here – we don’t have to look the same, think the same or worship the same. We can all flourish.”
At the ceremony, Brown, 76, quipped: “Didar’s younger than me. The reason I look younger is because I don’t work as hard as he does.”
Bains, 74, presented Brown with a ceremonial orange sash and Sikh sword, which Brown promptly unsheathed.
In 2012, Brown signed into law two legislative bills – Assembly Bill 1964 and Senate Bill 1540, both hugely popular with Sikhs in the state.
AB 1964 protects workers who wear sacred turbans, hijabs and yarmulkes; SB 1540 changes how history and social sciences are taught in schools so that students learn about the history, tradition and theology of California Sikhs.