AHC: A greater Sikh immigration to the post ACW American West

After being partially inspired by this thread I'd like to challenge you to cause a larger immigration of Indian Sikhs to the post 1860's American West than there was in OTL. According to Wikipedia-

Sikhs have been a part of the American populace for more than 130 years. Around the start of the 19th century, the state of Punjab of British India was hit hard by British practices of mercantilism. Many Sikhs emigrated to the United States and began arriving to work on farms in California. They traveled via Hong Kong to Angel Island, California, the western counterpart to Ellis Island in New York Harbor.

Please try to find a way fro most of the immigration to occur before 1890 if you can.
 
Hmmm. Okay, a bit of googling seems to indicate that the first significant Sikh migration to the United States occurred in the late 1800s. In particular, a key point was Sikh units of the British Army being stationed in Canada during the 1880s. They sent word back home about the opportunities and available land in the New World.

Emigration starting post-Civil War but before 1890 is difficult. Having them take the place of the Chinese who came over en masse starting in 1852 would make things a lot easier. But for that to happen, China has to be a far more difficult place to obtain labor.

How about this - the Taiping Rebellion never occurs. Instead, starting in 1851, a conflict similar to the second Opium War occurs - Chinese ports are under blockade or otherwise inaccessible to foreigners. American agents hunting for a source of labor instead head for western India. Masses of Sikhs, displaced or impoverished by the recent British conquest of the Sikh Empire, sign up en masse. A longer and bloodier Indian Mutiny strikes in 1866, leading to even more refugees sailing the Pacific. Sikhs by now are the dominant Asian immigrant group to the West.

From, there, well, it's a bit hard to predict. Would racial tensions be lesser than with the Chinese? How much of a back-lash would exist on the west-coast? Would equivalents of the anti-Chinese laws be lesser in scope and harshness? Would an Indian Exclusion act take off in the early 1880s, be delayed, or even not happen in that century?
 
At this point would we have a world famous Sikh Indian 'Chinatown' in San Francisco? And I think having a force similar to the Gurkhas on the US side is an interesting place to go. A possible successful holding action in the Phillipines come WWII?
 
I vaguely remember a scenario posted way, way back about pre-US Civil War migration of Sikhs to the US. Basically after the British crush the Khalsa at the Battle of Sobraon large numbers of disaffected Sikhs decide to migrate to the New World rather than live under the rule of their now British-vassalised kings.

Large numbers of them happen to settle in Kansas forming self contained villages that don't bother much about the outside world.

However they get caught up in the struggle over whether Kansas should be a slave state or a free one and the Khalsa irregular cavalry ride once more. Whether for the Union kr the Confederacy is up to you
 
I vaguely remember a scenario posted way, way back about pre-US Civil War migration of Sikhs to the US. Basically after the British crush the Khalsa at the Battle of Sobraon large numbers of disaffected Sikhs decide to migrate to the New World rather than live under the rule of their now British-vassalised kings.

Large numbers of them happen to settle in Kansas forming self contained villages that don't bother much about the outside world.

However they get caught up in the struggle over whether Kansas should be a slave state or a free one and the Khalsa irregular cavalry ride once more. Whether for the Union kr the Confederacy is up to you
I know I have a link to that in my OP. But I'm working on a TL now which has a POD during the ACW and I'd like to see how I could fit a situation like the one in that thread into my own TL after the ACW.
 
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