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Monday June 17, 2024 |
On February 5, 2008, at a preliminary hearing, a UK judge Sir Michael Harrison in Court 18 at the Royal Court of Justice in London decided not to allow a Sikh girl, Sarika Watkins-Singh to wear her Kara to school. The Kara is one of the five articles of faith which is worn by all practising Sikhs. The decision was made before the case was heard at a full hearing several months later. Fortunately, when the case was heard at a full trial by Mr Justice Silber, over 3 days from 17 June, 2008, he sided with the Sikh girl. The deputy High Court judge decision at the first hearing was surprising as in 1983 the House of Lords, the supreme court in the UK decided that a school had violated the rights of a student, Gurinder Singh Mandla when he was not allowed to join the school because of his turban which he used to cover his kesh (uncut hair); one of the 5ks or Articles of faith. (see the full judgement Mandla v Dowell Lee). In what appears an unbelievable statement, the deputy judge ruled: "Whilst I accept there will be detriment to the claimant (Sarika) if she is not able to wear the Kara in the interim, it does not seem to me that is anything like as significant as the detriment to the school if she were allowed to wear it." This surprised a lot of Sikhs as it appears to encourage other organisations to freely discriminate and break the law as the "detriment to the claimant" may be less significant than to the opposite party. .....More Daulat Rai, an Arya Samajist was living in India during the late 1800's and the early part of 1900's. He was so disturbed by the publication of books by some Hindu activists whose writings maligned the Sikh Gurus that he was forced to pick up the pen himself. The now famous book: "Sahib-e-Kamal (par excellence) Guru Gobind Singh" was written by him. In his book he reminded Punjabi and Hindus of the humiliation and degradation to which their ancestors were subjected under Mughal rule before the Khalsa liberated them. Quoting various historical sources, he wrote:
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Once Baba Bulleh Shah was sitting on the bank of a river when he saw this lady selling carrots. People were coming to buy her produce, but when they start picking and choosing the carrots, she would say, "I only sell carrots in volume; there is no pick and choose." So all these people had to buy carrots in volume/in bulk; not by selection. Then there was this handsome man, who came to her to get carrots. However, this time she herself picked the best carrots for him! Bulleh Shah was quite surprised looking at the incident. So after this men had left, Bulleh Shah went to the lady and asked her. "How come you let him hand pick the carrots; in fact you picked and chose the carrots for him yourself." She replied, "Bulleh Shah ji, he is my husband, there is no counting or accounting between lovers." ....More Akal Takhat (Punjabi: ਅਕਾਲ ਤਖ਼ਤ) means the Throne of the Immortal and is historically the highest political institution of the Sikhs. "Akal" means "The Timeless One" - another term for God. "Takhat" means "throne" in Persian. This is one of a total of five takhat of the Sikhs. The Akal Takhat is an impressive building that sits directly in front of the causeway leading to the Golden Temple in Amritsar. This institution was founded by Guru Hargobind on July 2, 1606 and was established as the place from which the spiritual and temporal (Miri Piri) concerns of the Sikh community could be acted upon. It stood as a symbol of political bulwark against the Mughal Emperors in the 17th and 18th century. Various attacks on the Akal Takhat and Harmandar Sahib have taken place in the past by Ahmed Shah Abdali and Massa Rangar in the 18 century. On June 4, 1984, the Indian Army damaged the outer façade of the Akal Takhat while attempting to flush out Sikh militants in a controversial military operation known as Operation Bluestar. .....More Sikhi FAQ...
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