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Minority
Fundamentalism
Jagmohan Singh
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In this open
letter to Baba Jai Vinder Singh, Incharge Akal Academy, Punjab,
Jagmohan Singh severely criticizes the move of the school
management to compel non-Sikh students to wear the turban in
their school at Cheema, Sangrur and also in other Academies,
where it has not yet become an issue. He points to the social,
religious, legal and political ramifications of this xenophobic
step. |
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 Respected
Baba ji
Waheguru Ji Ka
Khalsa
Waheguru Ji Ki
Fateh!
The
Akal
Academy
movement for education amongst Sikh students has put the name of the
Sikhs on the education map in the same way as the movement of annual
opening of a new Guru Harkrishan Sahib Public School by the Chief
Khalsa Diwan practised over the decades.
This movement by
the promoters and mentors of
Akal Academy is
all the more commendable because there is an understandable general
disdain about the role of Babas in the community for their
schismatic role. The Barru Sabib babas trudging the path of
learning is serving as a role model for other schismatic babas
to follow there are examples to show that this is happening.
My present note
is to express consternation at the reported move by the
Akal
Academy
management and staff to ask more than a 100 non-Sikh students in the
Sangrur branch of the Academies, to sport the turban as part of the
dress code.
Thirty-five
years ago I started my life as a teacher in the Jai Hind College of
Commerce, Mumbai. I went to college as a teacher with a flowing
beard. I was a little fanatical about keeping my beard flowing but
fortunately for me the atmosphere was not as surcharged as it is
today and my students (almost all of them non-Sikhs) and the even
the management did not consider me so.
During the first
year of my teaching career, I evinced interest in civil and
political rights and started taking part in the activities of the
Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights and the People’s
Union for
Civil Liberties.
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“Majority fundamentalism breeds minority fundamentalism and
while working for the rights of Sikhs and other minorities, you
should always bear that in mind.” |
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Knowing my
religious leanings, one of my first lessons, which came hurtling
down my memory when I read the news about the students in the
innocuous village Cheema of Sangrur district of Punjab being forced
to wear the turban, was from my colleague in the English department
of the College, Prof. Shahani, a thorough gentleman and a perfect
humanist. He had said, “Majority fundamentalism breeds minority
fundamentalism and while working for the rights of Sikhs and other
minorities, you should always bear that in mind.”
.jpg) The other
incident which I recollected over the past one week is also from my
Mumbai days. As part of Gurmat training, a group of young Sikh boys
and girls wanted to learn classical Hindustani sangeet from a
non-Sikh Ustaad, who was a master of Ragas. I was part of
the team which was organizing the module. Octogenarian Panthic
Sewadar Harbhajan Singh Kohli, an associate of Bhai Vir Singh,
accompanied us to the Ustaad to evaluate the coaching. Upon seeing
the students and the teacher learning the nuances of music,
particularly Gurbani Ragas, without covering their head, Sardar
Harbhajan Singh had remarked, “It is Sikh practice and even an old
Indian tradition to cover one’s head.”
The news from
Cheema has been disturbing me since it surfaced last week. It has
deeply pained me to know, though there were murmurs about it for
quiet some time, that non-Sikh students of the Barru Sahib Academy
and the various Akal Academies dotting rural Punjab have been
following this downright ridiculous, un-Sikh like, unethical and
totally sectarian code, forcing some students to wear the small
headgear “patka” and some to wear the turban. This is a total
antithesis of what Sikhism stands for.
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The Mughals used to forcefully take off people's Dastaars (for
they were the only ones "fit" to wear them according to their
logic and political persuasion). Would we be any less to force
someone to put one on? Please ponder on this. |
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The principal of
your academy at Cheema, Beant Kaur is reported to have said, “We are
not forcing them. This was in the school prospectus and it is on
this basis that we have asked them to wear turbans and there is
nothing wrong in doing so.” My response is that no law can be made
against the principles of natural justice. Retd. Colonel R. S.
Chatwal, the Academy spokesperson has said “the people who are
making a ruckus are those who cannot tolerate our success,
particularly in weaning youth away from drugs.” People jealous of
success and drug peddlers in the face of a successful de-addiction
movement do resort to the kind of tactics mentioned by your
spokesperson, but in public life, one cannot be wrong in one sphere
and right in another.
I was
particularly appalled by the statement of Dr. Balkar Singh of
Punjabi
University,
Patiala that “turban is the dress code and has got nothing to with
religion.” I am shocked that scholars of repute fail to realize the
mistake in their fallacious logic and its implications to the
community.
Sikhism is not a
proselytizing religion. We do not go about converting people to
our faith taking advantage of their status or position in society or
the atmosphere in which they live. Sikhs would be better off to set
examples of strength of character, of their martial skills, of their
spirituality, of being human beings par excellence as mentioned by
Arnold Toynbee in his magnum opus, The History of the World, rather
than resort to imposition of any aspect of Sikhism on anybody at
anytime under inducing circumstances.
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No non-Sikh follower of the Gurus, -Hindu or Muslim, was ever
forced into submission. The teachings of the Gurus, the
goodness of their followers and their work persuaded many to
follow them. We are supposed to follow the work of our Gurus.
Isn’t it? |
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I have studied
at the St. Anthony’s High School, Mumbai and at no point did the
Christian authorities force us to wear the crucifix or attend the
church. Sometimes, though very rarely, they did create a set of
circumstances to influence children into the benefits of
Christianity. Sikhs are not even supposed to do that. No non-Sikh
follower of the Gurus, -Hindus or Muslims, was ever forced into
submission. The goodness of the Gurus, their followers, their work
persuaded many to follow them. We are supposed to follow the work of
our Gurus. Isn’t it?
When Guru Tegh
Bahadur said that the “martyrdom of a great person” was needed save
the right to religion of the people of Kashmir, Gobind Rai, the
10-year old son of the ninth master had boldly but politely
mentioned, that it would have to be him for “who else would be a
more religious and dedicated person that the master himself.”
Protection of the right to religion of members of another faith was
considered more sacrosanct than the right to life of a father. Such
is the core substance of Sikhism.
As expected,
your action will give rise to a more sinister kind of majority
fundamentalism. Already, there are comments like, “Sikhs were born
to protect the Hindus”, “How will Sikhs pursue their case in
France?” I
refuse to buy the argument by making comparison with the case in
France or the recent trouble in Adelaide where young Sikh taxi
drivers, even without turban are subject of racial attacks. However
I am conscious of the fact that incidents like the one in Sangrur
will scandalize the Western people making attempts to learn more
about the Sikhs and their religion. Sadly, the muted response of
SGPC and the Punjab government has allowed the matter to aggravate
further.
Babaji, the
Sikhs are already facing numerous problems and challenges socially,
religious, legally and politically. The question of Sikhs being a
minority in
Punjab has yet
to be settled by the apex court of the land. The rationale advanced
by the SGPC and the
Punjab
government seriously hampers the social and religious status of the
Sikh people. This action of your Trust would be adding another
dimension and begin another legal battle drawing the already
constrained resources and energies of the Sikhs. While I would not
like to jump to gun, but I shudder at the possibility of the Akal
Adademy losing its affiliation of the Central Board of Secondary
Education -CBSE (from which it has received plenty of laurels for
its academic and spiritual approach of teaching), on such a trivial
matter in the same year as the promoters are gearing up to set up
the Eternal University at Barru Sahib in Himachal Pradesh.
A segment of
Sikhs, supporting the rationale of your measure, say, “Does wearing
the turban infringe anyone’s religion? They also say, just as the
school spokesperson has said, “we are not forcing anyone to join
this school.” Covering one’s head while reciting Gurbani is
understandable and appropriate, but to force some one to wear the
turban infringes the right of the individual to be subjected to
wearing a symbol of another religion. If the Sikh management in
Punjab is
not forcing non-Sikhs from joining the school, surely the French
government in France is not forcing Sikhs to join the government
school in Bobigny, Paris. On the contrary, the French government is
persuading Sikhs to join non-governmental schools wherein they can
uphold their right to wear the turban.
Some years ago,
two students belonging to a Christian sect, refused to recite the
Indian national anthem, saying that it was against their religion.
The Supreme Court of India upheld their right to do so. Can you
imagine the dangerous implications of judicial intervention in case
of the turban?
An anonymous
writer on a blog discussing this issue has put it pertinently. He
says, “We as Sikhs have to ask ourselves whether we want to turn
into the very thing we fight. Perhaps we need those T-shirts like
the Christians have: "What would Guru Sahib do"? Guru Sahib never
forced anyone to become Sikhs...they were drawn to it because of the
beauty of it. They willingly gave their heads. When they bowed their
heads in front of the Guru in the position of the supreme beggar,
Guru Sahib placed the crown we call Dastaar on their heads and told
them to rise...to look as Kings and Queens, but to embody that lowly
beggar on the inside. We must ask ourselves, are we any less than
the Mughals if we employ these forceful tactics? The Mughals used to
forcefully take off people's Dastaars (for they were the only ones
"fit" to wear them according to their logic and political
persuasion). Would we be any less to force someone to put one on?
Please ponder on this.
Babaji, the
turban is the crowning glory of the Sikhs. We have taken
appropriate pride in wearing it and have faced the onslaught of
tyrants and unrelenting governments who have disallowed us to sport
the same. No other individual, whatever his background should be
forced to sport the same in the name of a dress code. Restoring the
pride of the Sikhs in the turban is more important than forcing it
on others.
It is indeed
true that
Akal Academy is
providing ample opportunity amongst Sikhs who can afford it, to
maintain the best traditions of the Sikhs and to work for survival
and resurgence of the ethos of Sikhism. However, in the race of
upholding tradition, it seems to be loosing out by reinventing the
religion, perhaps going the schismatic lane.
The
Akal
Academy
website acclaims, “We are proud to have students from a myriad of
ethnic, social and nationality backgrounds. Upholding Guru Nanak's
message of universal brotherhood, no distinction is made on this
basis in any opportunity offered by the Akal Academy.” Undoubtedly,
the present move is a clear violation of this Mission statement and
the earlier it is consigned to the dustbin the better it is for the
Academy and for the Sikhs. All students who may have left the school
should be readmitted and the voice of malice and injustice against
them should be shut forever. Another young Sikh has appropriately
mentioned on a blog, “If we do not make it compulsory for non-Sikhs
to wear turban to a Gurdwara, how can we make it compulsory to wear
it to a school? Need I say more?
Jagmohan Singh
Jagmohan Singh
is a social activist and commentator based in Ludhiana. He maybe
contacted at
jsbigideas@gmail.com
21
May,
2008
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