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The Sikh STARS
WSN Bureau
Ishmeet Singh’s emergence as the Star Voice of India in a high
eyeball gathering Indian TV channel reality singing talent contest,
coupled by the increasing awareness about identity among the ethnic
minorities in an increasingly globalized world, and the high profile
300th year celebrations of the Guru’ta Gaddi Diwas. All
these have somehow combined in making the Sikhs realize that they
must take care of the one symbol that has caught the imagination of
the world. The Turban. Instantly marking out the Sikh from a crowd
of a million, a turban has done for the Sikhs what takes communities
many many years and efforts to achieve.
See
the last issue of the famous Time magazine (India 'Idol' Launches a
New Turban Legend) which features the 18-year-old Ishmeet Singh and
calls him as winner of the “glitzy American Idol-inspired Voice of
India contest on Star TV last month.” It wrote: “(T)he phone hasn't
stopped ringing at his family's home in Ludhiana, the busy
industrial hub of Punjab. But the kudos is about more than Singh's
impressive singing prowess; he has earned it by the fact that he is
a keshdhari (turban-wearing) Sikh.”
The
Time article continues: "It is his sabat-surat [appearance
conforming to the Sikh ideal] that has brought him where he is
today," says his proud father Gurpinder Singh. "He has shown other
Sikh boys that they don't need a trendy hairstyle to attain
stardom." At a time when more and more young Sikh men are
relinquishing the turban — considered the very core of a Sikh man's
cultural and religious identity — community leaders have hailed
Singh's win as, literally, a godsend. Sikh blogs have been pointing
out that Singh was declared
 a winner on Guru Nanak Jayanti, the
anniversary of the birth of the founder of Sikhism. And he has been
honored by the Akal Takht, the highest seat of the Sikh clergy.
The
event also gave the Time the opportunity to explain the Sikh faith
to a wider world audience. On Sikhism, it wrote: “Founded by Guru
Nanak in northern India during the 15th century, Sikhism drew from
Sufism, Islam and Hinduism, but rejected what it saw as their worst
traditions, such as the Hindu caste system. … The religion claims 23
million followers today, 76 percent of whom live in the Indian state
of Punjab…But the battle to preserve the turban may well be the
toughest facing the Sikhs since they were first rallied as a martial
nation by their tenth Guru, Gobind Singh, in 1699, to fight the
oppressive Mughal rulers of India.”
Such efforts help the Sikh community in explaining to the world that
they are a unique nation and cannot be confused with people of
Middle East origin, something the average American is prone to do,
as symbolized by the many hate crimes against the Sikhs in the
United States in the wake of 9/11.
The
Sikhism’s norms enjoin Sikh men to wear their hair long and sport a
turban. But Sikh scholars estimate that in some regions of Punjab —
home to 60% of India's 14.6m Sikhs — as many as 80% of Sikhs no
longer comply. And that may reflect the generational conflict in
many a Sikh household, between conservative parents and children who
want to break free. The Time magazine quoted the Chandigarh based
sociologist Dr. Rajesh Gill, whose 18-year-old son sports a turban,
and said she spoke for many
 Sikh
parents when she said, "A turban is a Sikh's pride, and I don't want
my son to shear his hair once he becomes more independent."
The
number of turbanless, clean-shaven Sikhs has grown astronomically in
the last two decades. "Thanks to the onslaught of satellite TV,
there's a drive towards mainstreaming," says Gill. As young people
travel far for work, they feel less obligated to adhere to the
demands of their culture. Some cite convenience as a factor since,
as per this argument, young, working mothers have no time for the
elaborate, early-morning practice of tying turbans and washing boys'
long hair on weekends. What kind of argument is that to cite for a
mother who brings the children into this world? That she assumes no
responsibility to transmit the religious, cultural values and will
merely feed well and send the kids to a good school? Efforts to
preach values to young Sikhs have lagged. Even Sikh schools do not
preach Sikhism, the Time article said quoting a Sikh scholar, who
added that as a result the children don't realize the philosophy
behind wearing a turban.
The
euphoria over Ishmeet Singh's victory reflects the need of the Sikh
community's elders to find turbaned role models. “Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, always seen with a spiffy turban, is an obvious
example, but cricketer Harbhajan Singh is no hero. Daler Mehndi only
to a certain extent, he does not put “Singh” in his name. “Sikh
organizations from Vancouver to Melbourne are renewing efforts at
prachar, or preaching, to the 3 million-strong Sikh diaspora,”
the Time said, adding the “how to tie a turban” schooling is part of
the initiatives.
Even on Baisakhi, the Sikhs, increasingly aware and worried about
the younger generation's attitude towards the religion and much
concerned about their outer identity symbol of the turban,
celebrated the festival simultaneously as the International Turban
Day.
In
Amritsar, as part of the Mr. Singh International, Sikh models walked
down the ramp and were feted not primarily because they were
beautiful or had perfect attributes of the body but because they had
all that but were also Sikhs, or at least sported all the outer
symbols of the religion -- the hair, the turban, the untrimmed
eyelashes, a perfectly tied turban and an impressively styled beard.
At
a time when the human body has started to pre-empt all other
measures of value in the West, the effort by certain organizations
to ensure that the sabat-soorat Sikh also remains in the
race, and in fact, becomes the in thing in fashionable circles are
being appreciated by the community.
Social isolation is a dreaded state and the turban must not be
allowed to become a symbol of that in a world where the clean shaven
hair styles are being marketed as fashionable. Contests like Mr
Singh International and efforts like that of Ishmeet Singh have made
a contribution in this regard upon which the community must build
further.
 A
string of successful Sikh modeling contests will lead to similar
pressures closer home. It makes our youth take a pride in a
stylishly worn turban.
The
majority of children between three and twelve in the United States
spend more time in front of a screen - television, computer,
video-game, mobile phone - than with their parents, teachers or
their friends: on average more than five hours a day, as against
four with teachers, less than three with friends - and scarcely more
than an hour with parents. In these conditions, the transmission of
customs and values that was once assured by the family is not
happening. The imaginative and moral distance between progenitors
and their offspring is growing. In such circumstances, the child or
our youth will learn more from what goes on in a modeling contest or
on a TV reality show than the traditional channels of value
transition. It is necessary that the community learns how to hog
that space. Ishmeet Singh is helping us. Initiatives like that of
Jaswinder Singh, the SGPC member who has been a prime force behind
many Sikh modeling contests, are to be appreciated. The turban
wearing achievers must be celebrated.
That is why the fact that the Time magazine features Ishmeet Singh
in a thorough report instead of dismissing the Idol-ization in a
passing reference should be celebrated.
But
while we must do that, we must also remember, as the WSN had pointed
out earlier also many a times, whether we have indeed thought
through all the implications of celebration of the youth, of the
human shape, of the Sikh modeling contests, of the images that will
beam eventually in gurdwaras after any Ayur Herbal Sikh Value-laden
Turban Tying and Eyelashes-preservation Contest? We must ensure that
our youth realizes that even while it celebrates turban, it is
necessary to understand that the gurbani hymn being played in the
background of the modeling contest is commensurate with value system
that they have in their lives.
19 December, 2007
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