TIMES ONLINE: Thousands of Sikh men, each with a unique work of art perched on his head, will take to the streets of India today. Their mission: to prove to the world that the turban is not old hat.
Scores of rallies, prayer vigils and tying competitions will mark World Turban Day, an event conceived amid concerns that young Sikhs are abandoning the most conspicuous emblem of their faith — six to eight metres of cloth wrapped around their heads — in favour of close-cropped Western-style hairdos.
“We are inviting Sikhs who have forsaken the turban to return to the fold,” said Jaswinder Singh of the Akaal Purkh Ki Fauj (Army of God), a Turban Pride movement. “This day is their chance to reconnect with our gurus.”
Sikh men — and some women — have worn turbans since 1699 when Guru Gobind Singh, the religion’s tenth master, prohibited them from cutting their hair. Every man was given the surname Singh — lion — and was required to wear a steel bangle, long cotton underwear, a sheathed sword and wooden comb.
In recent decades many Sikhs have preferred to blend into India’s Hindu-dominated society. Their turbans and beards are often confused with those of Islamist extremists and count against them when job hunting, young Sikhs say.
“People think I’m Taleban,” said Gagandeep Singh, 26, a founder member of the recently formed Sikh Turban Pride Organisation. “The prejudice is ridiculous: I’m not a terrorist, I’m on Facebook.”
Others trace the demise to 1984 when Indira Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister and a Hindu, was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. In the riots that came after people wearing turbans were attacked.
There are no official figures but Sikh leaders say that about half the community wear turbans, compared with 80 per cent to 90 per cent a few decades ago. The trend must be reversed, they believe, if Sikhism is to endure. >>> Rhys Blakely | Tuesday, April 13, 2010
