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Sikh boy’s patka burnt in NY,
Punjab school tells Hindu boys to wear turban
In post 9/11 world, Sikhs must grapple with identity issues more
carefully
WSN Bureau
 NEW
JERSEY/SANGRUR/MOHALI:
In the post 9/11
world in which questions of identity and ethnicity are becoming
aggressively important, it is all the more necessary that the Sikh
community is careful about the signals it sends out to the larger
world. In the week that passed, ‘Turban’, a symbol perhaps most
potent when it comes to identity question for the community, was in
the news for varying reasons.
A school in
Sangrur, run by a Sikh organisation, directed even its Hindu
students to wear a turban, an action which led to much hue and cry,
a lot of negative publicity in the media and all around condemnation
— all because the management in its wisdom tried to chart a course
not in consonance with the Sikh ethos and becoming an unwitting
violator of human rights of others.
Such an action
took away the focus from utter foolishness displayed just days
earlier by another school management in Mohali which turned out
three teenaged boys from the school simply because they wore
turbans instead of the ‘patkas’. Actions of the Sangrur’s Akal
Academy, which has branches across the country, only helped the
perpetrator of a crime in Mohali to escape sharper gaze and arm of
the law. Thankfully, the SGPC, the Dal Khalsa and most Sikh
organizations have taken the right approach in both cases.
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■ In New
Jersey, a fellow student sets afire patka of a Sikh boy
■ In Sangrur,
a Sikh body-run school tells Hindu children to wear turbans
■ In Mohali,
a school turns out teenage Sikh boys because they wore turbans
and not patkas |
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Regretfully, on
Tuesday, 12 Hindu students wore turbans to school. The school
claimed that parents of 40 Hindu children have given it in writing
that they have no problems in making their kids wear turbans. The
school authorities are arguing that the turban is a symbol of pride
and Swami Vivekananda and Lala Lajpat Rai also wore turbans, so
Hindu kids should wear it.
It is a sad day
when Sikhs will have to convince the point on turban by quoting
examples of rank communal and brahmanical leaders of India.
Even as the
community was dealing with this comes the news that in New Jersey, a
Sikh boy’s patka was set afire even as he was wearing it by a
miscreant, obviously a clear instance of hate crime. Most such
incidents have featured miscreants who had little knowledge about
Sikhs and Sikhism and are not aware that this is one religion which
has always stood up for truth and has the core motto of Sarbat Da
Bhala, Welfare of All, enshrined in every aspect of life.
The Hightstown,
N.J., high school senior has been charged in the patka burning case
and a group representing Sikhs is calling for a full investigation
and asking for the school to do more to combat discrimination
against followers of the religion.
The Sikh
Coalition has said the fire was lit on May 5 during a fire drill
while the Sikh student – one of only two in the school who wear a
turban – was talking with a friend. The student, a 16-year-old
junior, was singed but not seriously hurt. The New York-based
coalition says the school should hold an assembly, publish a
newsletter article and require classroom discussions about the
incident.
The student
suffered minor burns but it has raised outrage in the Sikh community
which has also asked the school to do more to combat discrimination.
The culprit,
identified as an 18-year-old Hightstown senior Garrett Green, was
arrested hours later and charged with arson and criminal mischief.
He has also been suspended from the school. Police is investigating
the incident which occurred on May 5 in Hightstown High School in
Mercer County in New Jersey during a fire drill. The Sikh student,
who is a teenager and would not like to be identified, was chatting
with a fellow student when Green, whom he did not know, came up from
behind and set “patka” on fire using a lighter. A teacher helped him
to put out the fire. The “patka,” shown by his relatives, had at
least two big burn holes.
“No mother
should have to worry that her child could be hurt at school because
of the way he looks,” said Sukhjot Kaur, the teenager’s mother.
14
May,
2008
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