Letter to the Editor

Sikh corrections

Monday, February 12, 2007

Dear Editor,

I am writing in to express a few corrections and comments in regards to the article "Stories from Punjab" by Jeff Tidyman. It was a nice article and thanks for publishing it. It very nicely tried to highlight the Sikh beliefs by highlighting a Sikh family.

The few corrections:

1) The last Sikh Guru was "Guru Gobind Singh" and not "Guru Gobenda Singh" as mentioned in the article. There were nine Sikh Gurus before Guru Gobind Singh. Sikhism was started by Guru Nanak Dev, the first Sikh Guru. Guru Gobind Singh Transformed Sikhs into Khalsa (literal meaning "Pure.") Khalsa was established to fight tyranny and injustice.

2) The Sikhs are not a monotheistic branch of Hinduism as mentioned. Sikhs are a separate monotheistic religion and different from Hindus and Muslims. The Sikhs have been fighting Indian fascist forces that try to enforce Sikhs as part of Hindus.

3) Sikhs do not wear Turban to protect their heads in the battlefield. Although wearing a turban may help in the war scenario but I do not think that was the main reason. Turban has traditionally existed in the India and was mostly worn by Kings. Guru might have wanted all his Khalsa to be like Kings. This was necessary to empower the downtrodden and subjugated people.

4) I think that the Sikhs reason for having Moustache and beard is to have a God given look or pure look and not to look fearful like enemy. As I explained earlier Khalsa means pure.

Though it can be argued what were the Guru's reasons for telling Khalsa to have Turban and facial hair but my arguments look correct from the Sikh ideology point of view. Thinking in narrow sense of war may not help as earlier Sikh Gurus also wore turban and sported mustache and beard and there was no armed resistance to the tyranny and subjugation.

To know more about Sikhism please visit:

a) www.sikhs.org

b) www.sikhnet.com

Prabhujeet Singh

via e-mail

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