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Combat Intolerance
Jagmohan Singh
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The Sikh nation
must engage the Akal Academy to drop its plan to force Sikh customs
on non-Sikhs. World Sikh News calls upon the Sikh Sangat, thinkers
and devout Sikhs to defeat attempts to redefine Sikhism in a
parochial manner. |
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“It is a dress
code in our school.” “Hindu students must wear turbans because even
Lala Lajpat Rai used to wear one.” “It was already there in the
prospectus.” “It is an old rule.” “Fine, the non-Sikh students can
wear ‘patka’ for a few weeks.”
Punjab has a
Punjabi government, is ruled by Akali Dal led by Parkash Singh Badal.
Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa was also intervening at one stage. There is no
end to leading educationists and religious leaders who are well
versed with the tradition and ethos of Sikhism. The Jathedar of
Takht Damdama Sahib is just an hour’s drive.
Yet, it required
the intervention of the deputy commissioner of Sangrur to intervene
and “sort out” the case of the irregular order of the Akal Academy
to force non-Sikh students to wear the turban to school. The Deputy
Commissioner, Mr. V. K. Ohri and the additional deputy commissioner,
Ms. Indu Malhotra intervened and typically issued the “passing the
buck” order, deferring the issue to next year. The parents of the
affected students, not wanting to upset their annual studies,
accepted the plan of “no fine but at least ‘patka’ must”. The school
authorities grudgingly accepted the “compromise” for this year with
the stern announcement that they would continue its policy from next
year.
Such a
settlement is unacceptable. Dr. Manbir Singh, a devout Sikh and an
able medical practitioner wrote in to say that, “I compliment the
World Sikh News for its stand on the turban row at Cheema, Sangrur.
The reporting of the incident last week and the Open Letter have put
the Sikh viewpoint in the right perspective. I do wonder what we
would have been doing had we been in a majority!” This fear of the
learned doctor would have had no meaning but for the current trend
of minorityism that is engaging a section of the community to
reorient the fundamentals of Sikhism according to their own whims
and fancies.
This
brahamanisation of Sikhism is a very serious development. At no
stage of their glorious history did Sikhs force themselves on
others. Any kind of mass lumpen communal tendency amongst the Sikhs
is non-existent. The last time any such massive socio-religious
frenzy was seen was during the partition riots. Some eyewitnesses
and historians suggest that even then the Sikh participation in the
rioting was more as a matter of strategy to save their counterparts
than raw communal zeal.
As mentioned in
my Open Letter to the Academy last week (carried by the WSN and
accessible at
www.WorldSikhNews.com), the comparison with the French turban
ban is inappropriate, for the simple reason that two wrongs do not
make a right, though to my mind the brutality of the school
discipline in Sangrur is no less than that of the government school
in Paris.
Honestly, I am
scared of the portents of such radicalism. Sikhism has no place for
it and all constituents of the Sikh nation must rise against this.
Individuals and organizations must write to the
Akal Academy
authorities urging them to see reason.
(Jagmohan Singh
is a commentator based in
Ludhiana,
Punjab. He may be contacted at
jsbigideas@gmail.com)
28
May,
2008
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