Harbhajan Singh Minhas, Sardar Flying Officer

Harbhajan Singh Minhas, Sardar Flying Officer, a decorated World War II veteran, who campaigned for Sikh veterans rights to wear turbans on veteran official ceremonies in Canada. He was born in Padhiana, a village in the tehsil (district) of Jalandhar, Punjab. India.

You will have to remove my neck!

On Remembrance Day in 1993 he was one of five elderly, decorated Sikhs who had served in the allied armed forces, who had been invited by the Royal Canadian Legion branch in Newton B.C., to march alongside other legion members in their annual Remembrance Day parade. When the parade approached the legion hall to listen to speeches from dignitaries in the legion's canteen, the five Sikh veterans were denied entry because they wore turbans. The reason given was that wearing any "headgear" or hat was disrespectful to the memory of the war dead.

"We were invited there. They knew weeks in advance that we were Sikhs and that we have turbans. If they had no intention of letting us in I don't understand why we were invited to participate… To ask a Sikh to remove his turban is an insult, not only to him, but to the Sikh religion. You will have to remove my neck before I remove my turban." (Harbhajan Singh Minhas)

Thanks to (www.sikhs.org) and wikipedia

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