☀️ JOIN SPN MOBILE
Forums
New posts
Guru Granth Sahib
Composition, Arrangement & Layout
ਜਪੁ | Jup
ਸੋ ਦਰੁ | So Dar
ਸੋਹਿਲਾ | Sohilaa
ਰਾਗੁ ਸਿਰੀਰਾਗੁ | Raag Siree-Raag
Gurbani (14-53)
Ashtpadiyan (53-71)
Gurbani (71-74)
Pahre (74-78)
Chhant (78-81)
Vanjara (81-82)
Vaar Siri Raag (83-91)
Bhagat Bani (91-93)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਝ | Raag Maajh
Gurbani (94-109)
Ashtpadi (109)
Ashtpadiyan (110-129)
Ashtpadi (129-130)
Ashtpadiyan (130-133)
Bara Maha (133-136)
Din Raen (136-137)
Vaar Maajh Ki (137-150)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗਉੜੀ | Raag Gauree
Gurbani (151-185)
Quartets/Couplets (185-220)
Ashtpadiyan (220-234)
Karhalei (234-235)
Ashtpadiyan (235-242)
Chhant (242-249)
Baavan Akhari (250-262)
Sukhmani (262-296)
Thittee (296-300)
Gauree kii Vaar (300-323)
Gurbani (323-330)
Ashtpadiyan (330-340)
Baavan Akhari (340-343)
Thintteen (343-344)
Vaar Kabir (344-345)
Bhagat Bani (345-346)
ਰਾਗੁ ਆਸਾ | Raag Aasaa
Gurbani (347-348)
Chaupaday (348-364)
Panchpadde (364-365)
Kaafee (365-409)
Aasaavaree (409-411)
Ashtpadiyan (411-432)
Patee (432-435)
Chhant (435-462)
Vaar Aasaa (462-475)
Bhagat Bani (475-488)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗੂਜਰੀ | Raag Goojaree
Gurbani (489-503)
Ashtpadiyan (503-508)
Vaar Gujari (508-517)
Vaar Gujari (517-526)
ਰਾਗੁ ਦੇਵਗੰਧਾਰੀ | Raag Dayv-Gandhaaree
Gurbani (527-536)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਿਹਾਗੜਾ | Raag Bihaagraa
Gurbani (537-556)
Chhant (538-548)
Vaar Bihaagraa (548-556)
ਰਾਗੁ ਵਡਹੰਸ | Raag Wadhans
Gurbani (557-564)
Ashtpadiyan (564-565)
Chhant (565-575)
Ghoriaan (575-578)
Alaahaniiaa (578-582)
Vaar Wadhans (582-594)
ਰਾਗੁ ਸੋਰਠਿ | Raag Sorath
Gurbani (595-634)
Asatpadhiya (634-642)
Vaar Sorath (642-659)
ਰਾਗੁ ਧਨਾਸਰੀ | Raag Dhanasaree
Gurbani (660-685)
Astpadhiya (685-687)
Chhant (687-691)
Bhagat Bani (691-695)
ਰਾਗੁ ਜੈਤਸਰੀ | Raag Jaitsree
Gurbani (696-703)
Chhant (703-705)
Vaar Jaitsaree (705-710)
Bhagat Bani (710)
ਰਾਗੁ ਟੋਡੀ | Raag Todee
ਰਾਗੁ ਬੈਰਾੜੀ | Raag Bairaaree
ਰਾਗੁ ਤਿਲੰਗ | Raag Tilang
Gurbani (721-727)
Bhagat Bani (727)
ਰਾਗੁ ਸੂਹੀ | Raag Suhi
Gurbani (728-750)
Ashtpadiyan (750-761)
Kaafee (761-762)
Suchajee (762)
Gunvantee (763)
Chhant (763-785)
Vaar Soohee (785-792)
Bhagat Bani (792-794)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਿਲਾਵਲੁ | Raag Bilaaval
Gurbani (795-831)
Ashtpadiyan (831-838)
Thitteen (838-840)
Vaar Sat (841-843)
Chhant (843-848)
Vaar Bilaaval (849-855)
Bhagat Bani (855-858)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗੋਂਡ | Raag Gond
Gurbani (859-869)
Ashtpadiyan (869)
Bhagat Bani (870-875)
ਰਾਗੁ ਰਾਮਕਲੀ | Raag Ramkalee
Ashtpadiyan (902-916)
Gurbani (876-902)
Anand (917-922)
Sadd (923-924)
Chhant (924-929)
Dakhnee (929-938)
Sidh Gosat (938-946)
Vaar Ramkalee (947-968)
ਰਾਗੁ ਨਟ ਨਾਰਾਇਨ | Raag Nat Narayan
Gurbani (975-980)
Ashtpadiyan (980-983)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਲੀ ਗਉੜਾ | Raag Maalee Gauraa
Gurbani (984-988)
Bhagat Bani (988)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਰੂ | Raag Maaroo
Gurbani (889-1008)
Ashtpadiyan (1008-1014)
Kaafee (1014-1016)
Ashtpadiyan (1016-1019)
Anjulian (1019-1020)
Solhe (1020-1033)
Dakhni (1033-1043)
ਰਾਗੁ ਤੁਖਾਰੀ | Raag Tukhaari
Bara Maha (1107-1110)
Chhant (1110-1117)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕੇਦਾਰਾ | Raag Kedara
Gurbani (1118-1123)
Bhagat Bani (1123-1124)
ਰਾਗੁ ਭੈਰਉ | Raag Bhairo
Gurbani (1125-1152)
Partaal (1153)
Ashtpadiyan (1153-1167)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਸੰਤੁ | Raag Basant
Gurbani (1168-1187)
Ashtpadiyan (1187-1193)
Vaar Basant (1193-1196)
ਰਾਗੁ ਸਾਰਗ | Raag Saarag
Gurbani (1197-1200)
Partaal (1200-1231)
Ashtpadiyan (1232-1236)
Chhant (1236-1237)
Vaar Saarang (1237-1253)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਲਾਰ | Raag Malaar
Gurbani (1254-1293)
Partaal (1265-1273)
Ashtpadiyan (1273-1278)
Chhant (1278)
Vaar Malaar (1278-91)
Bhagat Bani (1292-93)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕਾਨੜਾ | Raag Kaanraa
Gurbani (1294-96)
Partaal (1296-1318)
Ashtpadiyan (1308-1312)
Chhant (1312)
Vaar Kaanraa
Bhagat Bani (1318)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕਲਿਆਨ | Raag Kalyaan
Gurbani (1319-23)
Ashtpadiyan (1323-26)
ਰਾਗੁ ਪ੍ਰਭਾਤੀ | Raag Prabhaatee
Gurbani (1327-1341)
Ashtpadiyan (1342-51)
ਰਾਗੁ ਜੈਜਾਵੰਤੀ | Raag Jaijaiwanti
Gurbani (1352-53)
Salok | Gatha | Phunahe | Chaubole | Swayiye
Sehskritee Mahala 1
Sehskritee Mahala 5
Gaathaa Mahala 5
Phunhay Mahala 5
Chaubolae Mahala 5
Shaloks Bhagat Kabir
Shaloks Sheikh Farid
Swaiyyae Mahala 5
Swaiyyae in Praise of Gurus
Shaloks in Addition To Vaars
Shalok Ninth Mehl
Mundavanee Mehl 5
ਰਾਗ ਮਾਲਾ, Raag Maalaa
What's new
New posts
New media
New media comments
New resources
Latest activity
Videos
New media
New comments
Library
Latest reviews
Donate
Log in
Register
What's new
New posts
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Welcome to all New Sikh Philosophy Network Forums!
Explore Sikh Sikhi Sikhism...
Sign up
Log in
Discussions
Hard Talk
Interviews
American Sikhs Fight For The Right For Turban On Duty
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="spnadmin" data-source="post: 187391" data-attributes="member: 35"><p>American Sikhs Fight for the Right for Turban on Duty</p><p></p><p>by James Dao</p><p></p><p><a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/nri/working-abroad/american-sikhs-fight-for-the-right-to-keep-turban-on-duty/articleshow/20979961.cms" target="_blank">http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/nri/working-abroad/american-sikhs-fight-for-the-right-to-keep-turban-on-duty/articleshow/20979961.cms</a></p><p></p><p>The Sikhs of India have for centuries cherished their rich military history. Wearing long beards and turbans into combat, they have battled Mughals in Punjab, Afghans near the Khyber Pass and Germans in the bloody trenches of the Somme.</p><p></p><p>But when Major Kamaljeet Singh Kalsi ( pictured), an American Sikh raised in New Jersey, signed up for the United States Army, that tradition counted for nothing. Before sending him to officer basic training, the Army told him that he would have to give up the basic symbols of his religion: his beard, knee-length hair and turban.</p><p></p><p>In good Sikh tradition, he resisted. Armed with petitions and Congressional letters, he waged a two-year campaign that in 2009 resulted in the Army granting him a special exception for his unshorn hair, the first such accommodation to a policy established in the 1980s.</p><p></p><p>Since then, two other Sikhs have won accommodations from the Army. But many others have failed. So now, as he prepares to leave active duty, Major Kalsi, who earned a Bronze Star in Afghanistan, is waging a new campaign: to rescind those strict rules that he believes have blocked hundreds of Sikhs from joining the military.</p><p></p><p>SIKHS & SOLDIERS</p><p></p><p>"Folks say, 'If you really want to serve, why don't you cut your beard?' " said Major Kalsi, who is the medical director of emergency medical services at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. "But asking a person to choose between religion and country, that's not who we are as a nation. We can be Sikhs and soldiers at the same time."</p><p></p><p>At stake for the military is the uniformity in appearance that it deems necessary for good order and discipline. "A neat and well-groomed appearance is fundamental to Army service," said Troy A Rolan, an Army spokesman. "It is an outward symbol of a disciplined military."</p><p></p><p>But to Sikh advocates and their supporters in Congress, the policies governing appearance are as fundamentally discriminatory to them as racially segregated units were to blacks, combat prohibitions were to women and the "don't ask, don't tell" policy was to gay men and lesbians.</p><p></p><p>"They love this country," said Representative Joseph Crowley, Democrat of New York, who has been urging the Pentagon to change its rules regarding Sikhs. "If they want to serve, we should let them do it."</p><p></p><p>Sikh leaders cite an additional reason for their push. In the days after the September 11 attacks, Sikhs were attacked, and at least one was killed, by assailants who confused them with fundamentalist Muslims. Last year, a white supremacist shot to death six Sikhs in their gurudwara, near Milwaukee.</p><p></p><p>COMMUNITY MATTERS</p><p></p><p>The more Sikhs wear military, police or firefighter uniforms, Major Kalsi reasoned, the less often Americans will see them as threatening outsiders. "When you see a Sikh firefighter save your daughter, you'll think, 'That's a member of my community,' " said Major Kalsi, a 36-year-old father of two.</p><p></p><p>Although there were Sikhs in the United States in the 19th century, their population grew rapidly in the 1980s after a crackdown against an independence movement in Punjab caused thousands of Sikhs to emigrate. Today the Sikh Coalition, an advocacy group, estimates that about half a million Sikhs live in America, concentrated in California and New York. There are about 30 million Sikhs worldwide.</p><p></p><p>Until 1974, Sikhs were allowed to serve in the United States military with unshorn hair and beards. But in the 1980s, stricter rules regarding personal appearance were enacted. Sikhs on active duty at that time were allowed to keep their articles of faith, but future recruits were required to seek case-by-case exceptions. No one succeeded until Major Kalsi in 2009.</p><p></p><p>Petitioning can be time-consuming and difficult. And because accommodations are based partly on military necessity, recruits without special skills like being doctors or speaking foreign languages can easily be rejected. Moreover, exceptions are viewed as temporary, meaning Sikh soldiers can be ordered to cut their hair and shave their beards at any time.</p><p></p><p>SAFETY CONCERNS</p><p></p><p>Among the concerns raised by the armed services - all branches have rules similar to the Army's, according to the Sikh Coalition - is whether Sikh men can safely wear helmets and gas masks.</p><p></p><p>But Major Kalsi, who spent seven months in Afghanistan in 2011 running a field hospital in Helmand Province, said he routinely wore a helmet over his long hair, which he bound under a special wrap. He noted that the Israeli military, as well as bearded American Special Operations troops, had proved that gas masks worked over thick beards. Major Kalsi has even created his own military turbans, which bear his rank insignia and are made from the same camouflage material used in Army combat uniforms.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="spnadmin, post: 187391, member: 35"] American Sikhs Fight for the Right for Turban on Duty by James Dao [url]http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/nri/working-abroad/american-sikhs-fight-for-the-right-to-keep-turban-on-duty/articleshow/20979961.cms[/url] The Sikhs of India have for centuries cherished their rich military history. Wearing long beards and turbans into combat, they have battled Mughals in Punjab, Afghans near the Khyber Pass and Germans in the bloody trenches of the Somme. But when Major Kamaljeet Singh Kalsi ( pictured), an American Sikh raised in New Jersey, signed up for the United States Army, that tradition counted for nothing. Before sending him to officer basic training, the Army told him that he would have to give up the basic symbols of his religion: his beard, knee-length hair and turban. In good Sikh tradition, he resisted. Armed with petitions and Congressional letters, he waged a two-year campaign that in 2009 resulted in the Army granting him a special exception for his unshorn hair, the first such accommodation to a policy established in the 1980s. Since then, two other Sikhs have won accommodations from the Army. But many others have failed. So now, as he prepares to leave active duty, Major Kalsi, who earned a Bronze Star in Afghanistan, is waging a new campaign: to rescind those strict rules that he believes have blocked hundreds of Sikhs from joining the military. SIKHS & SOLDIERS "Folks say, 'If you really want to serve, why don't you cut your beard?' " said Major Kalsi, who is the medical director of emergency medical services at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. "But asking a person to choose between religion and country, that's not who we are as a nation. We can be Sikhs and soldiers at the same time." At stake for the military is the uniformity in appearance that it deems necessary for good order and discipline. "A neat and well-groomed appearance is fundamental to Army service," said Troy A Rolan, an Army spokesman. "It is an outward symbol of a disciplined military." But to Sikh advocates and their supporters in Congress, the policies governing appearance are as fundamentally discriminatory to them as racially segregated units were to blacks, combat prohibitions were to women and the "don't ask, don't tell" policy was to gay men and lesbians. "They love this country," said Representative Joseph Crowley, Democrat of New York, who has been urging the Pentagon to change its rules regarding Sikhs. "If they want to serve, we should let them do it." Sikh leaders cite an additional reason for their push. In the days after the September 11 attacks, Sikhs were attacked, and at least one was killed, by assailants who confused them with fundamentalist Muslims. Last year, a white supremacist shot to death six Sikhs in their gurudwara, near Milwaukee. COMMUNITY MATTERS The more Sikhs wear military, police or firefighter uniforms, Major Kalsi reasoned, the less often Americans will see them as threatening outsiders. "When you see a Sikh firefighter save your daughter, you'll think, 'That's a member of my community,' " said Major Kalsi, a 36-year-old father of two. Although there were Sikhs in the United States in the 19th century, their population grew rapidly in the 1980s after a crackdown against an independence movement in Punjab caused thousands of Sikhs to emigrate. Today the Sikh Coalition, an advocacy group, estimates that about half a million Sikhs live in America, concentrated in California and New York. There are about 30 million Sikhs worldwide. Until 1974, Sikhs were allowed to serve in the United States military with unshorn hair and beards. But in the 1980s, stricter rules regarding personal appearance were enacted. Sikhs on active duty at that time were allowed to keep their articles of faith, but future recruits were required to seek case-by-case exceptions. No one succeeded until Major Kalsi in 2009. Petitioning can be time-consuming and difficult. And because accommodations are based partly on military necessity, recruits without special skills like being doctors or speaking foreign languages can easily be rejected. Moreover, exceptions are viewed as temporary, meaning Sikh soldiers can be ordered to cut their hair and shave their beards at any time. SAFETY CONCERNS Among the concerns raised by the armed services - all branches have rules similar to the Army's, according to the Sikh Coalition - is whether Sikh men can safely wear helmets and gas masks. But Major Kalsi, who spent seven months in Afghanistan in 2011 running a field hospital in Helmand Province, said he routinely wore a helmet over his long hair, which he bound under a special wrap. He noted that the Israeli military, as well as bearded American Special Operations troops, had proved that gas masks worked over thick beards. Major Kalsi has even created his own military turbans, which bear his rank insignia and are made from the same camouflage material used in Army combat uniforms. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Discussions
Hard Talk
Interviews
American Sikhs Fight For The Right For Turban On Duty
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
Accept
Learn more…
Top