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Star-studded honors for Indian-origin dentist who treated stars
Dr Marwah’s patients included Mohammad Ali, Elizabeth Taylor and Sidney Poitier and he once hosted Indira Gandhi at his home.
Dr. Amarjit Singh Marwah / LinkedIn @Dr. Rajwant Singh
Hollywood stars Elizabeth Taylor and Sidney Poitier and boxer Mohammad Ali were once his patients. He had a major role in getting Dalip Singh Saund, the first man of Asian origin, elected as a member of the U.S. Congress.
Prominent Indian-origin dentist from Malibu, nonagenarian Dr Amarjit Singh Marwah, is to have a street named after him and a star on Holly Boulevard as part of the civic honors the Hollywood Sikh Temple is bestowing on him for his services.
The Temple management listed his contributions to society in a recent report in Malibu Times. The paper quoted a statement by the temple lauding Dr Marwah for his role in the Punjabi community in the United States and philanthropy in Los Angeles.
Originally from Kot Kapura in Punjab’s Malwa belt, 93-year-old Dr Marwah arrived in the U.S. on a scholarship in 1950, according to a 2019 profile in The Malibu Times. He soon opened his dental practice in Los Angeles, which met with roaring success.
Dr Marwah, who was very close to Parkash Singh Badal, five-time Chief Minister of Punjab, often visited Punjab and his hometown, which he later adopted for its overall development under the Village Improvement Plan that was also promised government support.
This correspondent met and interviewed him a couple of times during his visits to India where he would fondly remember his early childhood and college friends, including Badal. During one such interaction, he narrated how he gathered members of the Punjabi community in the U.S. to work for Dalip Singh Saund’s election to the US Congress.
Incidentally, Saund hailed from Chajjal Wadi area of Punjab. He moved to the U.S., got a doctorate in mathematics, and was among the first to get U.S. citizenship in 1949 after the passage of a relevant legislation in 1946. This paved the way for him subsequently become an elected Congressman.
He thus became the first Asian American, first Indian American, and first Sikh to be elected to the U.S. Congress. He retained his seat twice thereafter and played a pioneering role in getting people of Indian origin in the U.S. American citizenship.
Even as his dental practice became popular, Dr Marwah took on multiple roles including as a commissioner of cultural affairs for the city and chairing the Bombay-Los Angeles Sister City Committee and teaching at the University of Southern California.
“Marwah is responsible for getting historic recognition for 200 monuments throughout L.A., including Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard. Even though it was a salaried position, he gave every cent back,” The Malibu Times reported.
The newspaper also said that Marwah also gifted one of his alma maters, Howard University, with an emergency dental clinic, paid the college tuition of more than 100 Indian American students, and funded the first Sikh temple in the U.S.–Hollywood Sikh Temple.
The Hollywood Sikh Temple wrote in their press release that Marwah “has hosted hundreds of weddings, bar and bat Mitzvahs, political and philanthropic events …” The Malibu Times reported that Indira Gandhi was once a guest of Dr Marwah and his wife, Kuljit.
The dentist owns a ranch along the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) in Malibu and several acres along it in Ventura County. He has lived at the Malibu address for more than 50 years, according to The Malibu Times. He has bred Arabian horses on his property for a while. His home is filled with pieces of art. He is known for his signature look, “a white turban and bow tie,” and drives a white Rolls Royce convertible, the news report recalled.
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