India takes the advice of Guru Gobind Singh: Difference between revisions

Sikhs have long taken to heart the words of Guru Gobind Singh who once, spotting a tabacco plant, dismounted his horse and grabbed the plant pulling it out roots and all. He told his Sikhs to have nothing to do with the plant telling them of its evils.

Salman Khan of Bollywood fame who is playing a Sikh in Samir Karnik’s 'Heroes' , as a source close to him has said in a recent interview, “Salman refrained from smoking whenever he was on the set sporting a Turban tu. When his co-stars and director tried to find out the reason, Salman told them, that Sikhs consider smoking unsociable and dirty. So it was out of his sheer respect for the Sikh community that he was didn't smoke when he had his turban on for the role of a Sikh.” Khan who is said to be a chain smoker never lit a smoke while he spent as many hours a day in his Sikh garb according to the film's producer Vikas Kapoor.

But for the Sikhs tobacco is much more being thought to be dirty and unsociable, for Sikhs its use is actually banned as tobacco is listed in the Sikh Rehit Maryada (Sikh Code of Conduct ) as one of the four transgression (Kurahits).

While it has taken much of the world hundreds of years to discover the dangers associated with smoking, chewing or sniffing tobacco Guru Gobind Singh more than three hundred years ago, according to many stories, was once riding with his Sikhs when he suddenly stopped his horse, dismounted and proceeded to pull up a wild tobacco plant, roots and all. Astonished why their Guru would do such a thing, the Sikhs asked why he had stopped to do this. The Guru replied, that while alcohol was avoided because it destroyed a generation, tabacco's use could destroy several. The Guru then forbade his Sikhs to ever use tobacco.

Its not as if the Guru had never seen a tobacco plant or anyone smoking tobacco for by his time tobacco use had become common by the Mughal nobles. We can be fairly sure that its dangers now well documented were fairly unknown at the time but Guru Gobind Singh for whatever reason was way ahead of the world in condemning tobacco.

Thurs., Oct. 2, 2008

Today India banned smoking in public places, leaving public health officials with the task of getting the nation's estimated 120 million smokers to drop the habit which can be just as addicting as afim (heroine).

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As other countries around the world have clamped down on smoking in recent years, Indians have puffed away at playgrounds, railway stations, sidewalk cafes and even hospitals, but now a violator will get a $5 fine.

In India tobacco companies have even fought the government to keep warnings off boxes. Officials hope an extensive anti-smoking campaign and tighter enforcement will make this ban successful, but the country's health minister, Anubamani Ramadoss, knows getting people to quit won't happen overnight. "This is going to be a continuous process," he said.

Smoking bans have taken Europe and the U.S. by storm in recent years, with most European countries and several American cities prohibiting or severely limiting smoking in a host of public places, including bars, restaurants and cafes. Even businesses realizing the costs to their medical insurance programs have made their plants 'smoke free'. Employees now often have to walk to sidewalks off of their companies property to get their nicotine fix.

India's smoking ban — which was opposed by the hotel industry and tobacco companies — includes offices, hotels, restaurants and hospitals. It also widens the earlier failed ban to cover college campuses, bars and discos.

Starting off with the $5 fine, officials have plans to raise the penalty to $25 in future.

A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine said India is in the grip of a smoking epidemic that is likely to cause nearly 1 million deaths a year by 2010. More than half of these deaths would be among poor and illiterate people, the study said. It estimated that there are 120 million smokers in India.

Ramadoss, Indias Minister of Health criticized India's top Bollywood stars, including Shah Rukh Khan, about smoking on screen, saying that many children have their first cigarettes after watching the actors do it.

On Thursday, Khan, who had visited the Harmandir Sahib recently, sounded amused. "A better step would be to ban cigarettes, make them illegal and hang anyone found smoking," Khan told the CNN-IBN television news channel. He did not say whether he was planning to give up smoking.

Today Sikhs can marvel at the foresight of Guru Gobind Singh who by instructing his Sikhs to, not just keep it at arms length but, abstain from any use of it has saved generations upon generations from its curse.

Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan (2nd R) is seen on the sets of his new movie "Rabh Ne Bana Di Jori" at Golden Temple or holy Sikh shrine complex in the northern Indian city of Amritsar September 2, 2008.(Reuters)