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Engaging the
French on the Turban
Harbans Lal
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World Sikh News
presented its viewpoint in an Opinion piece (dated 14 May 2008)
and an Op-ed piece (dated 27 May, 2008) categorically expressing
disapproval of the role of the school authorities, who are
otherwise engaged in a mammoth movement of education revolution
in the Punjab. World Sikh News has received commendation and
reviews from its readers. We present some of them here with the
hope that many more would write in and that Sikhism will not be
allowed to go astray. Saner elements within the community should
begin a dialogue with the organisers and hopefully better sense
will prevail. |
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Reading the
story of enforcement of the turban in Sangrur has prompted to me to
write this note. I share with your readers my conversation with the
French Ambassador to the UN on the question of turban restriction in
schools in
France. The
occasion was a United Nations function in
New York
in September 2005 where the ambassador spoke to NGO representatives
from all over the world. I was in the audience.
At the end of
his presentation, questions were invited from the audience. A Muslim
woman questioned the French policy on the Muslim head-cover,
hijab. When the minister was leaving the hall I greeted him and
asked if he could repeat the answer he gave to the Muslim woman as I
could not hear his response. He told me that his answer was that
“they did not answer these questions in public.”
With his
permission I asked him about French policy of banning Sikh turban in
French schools. He declined to respond but a woman in his entourage
took me aside and continued this conversation.
She asked me if
I knew Sikhs and their schools in
India. My
response was a confirmed “Yes” and I continued to tell her that I
was privileged to be educated in a Sikh high school and was very
familiar with those schools. She asked me about the policy on
wearing a turban in Sikh schools in Punjab. When I told her that
Sikhs respected beliefs of others and there was no restriction on
the religious dress on any one community, she was amused and
immediately refuted my claim.
She said that
they had concrete data on Sikh schools in
Punjab who had
punished students for taking off their turbans and some schools did
not even admit students who did not adhere to the turban culture.
Obviously I
tried to explain that if such a rule existed it applied only to the
baptized Sikhs, but she was adamant and was convinced otherwise on
the basis of her research data. At the end of our conversation, she
asked me to tell my Sikh friends to grant freedom of practicing or
not practicing a religious code in their own schools before they
point fingers at the French.
I was amazed to
learn how much inside information she had on some of the Khalsa
schools in
Punjab.
Certainly the current propaganda in the press about Sikh managements
not allowing Hindu students an option to wear or not wear a turban
will weaken our struggle for seeking rights of Sikh students to wear
turban in the French schools when they so desire.
 Dr.
Harbans Lal is Emeritus Professor and Chairman, Department of
Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of North Texas and
Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies,
Guru
Nanak
Dev
University
at
Amritsar.
Based in
Dallas,
Texas,
he is a highly acclaimed scholar and lecturer. He is one of the few
Sehajdhari Sikhs around who have unflinching faith in the tenets of
the Sikh faith and have been honored by the Sikh nation. He has
published over 400 research papers and 20 books. He is an
outstanding Neuroscientist. He is also a member of the Interfaith
Council of the Center for World Thanksgiving.
He may be
contacted at hblal@tx.rr.com
28
May,
2008
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