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Sikh News To Tackle A White Elephant

Jun 1, 2004
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Sat Sri Akal Ji,

I think the naming ,, white Sikhs '' is a big NON - SENSE word- play.
It does not represent anybody & anything really.It makes only confusion
around us. I am also sure that it has been set ( intentionally / or non knowingly ) here and everywhere from people
which have not understood what Sikhhism means. Those people still in 2011 stick
on racial, religiouse and national discriminations. :happykaur:
 

kds1980

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Apr 3, 2005
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Sat Sri Akal Ji,

I think the naming ,, white Sikhs '' is a big NON - SENSE word- play.
It does not represent anybody & anything really.It makes only confusion
around us. I am also sure that it has been set ( intentionally / or non knowingly ) here and everywhere from people
which have not understood what Sikhhism means. Those people still in 2011 stick
on racial, religiouse and national discriminations. :happykaur:

Dushanka ji

These type of tags are attached with several communities ,for example the muslims of mewat region haryana are called meo muslims because they were
originally Rajputs so I don't think there is anything wrong in term White sikh unless someone use it racially
 

Ambarsaria

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Dec 21, 2010
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Dushanka ji

These type of tags are attached with several communities ,for example the muslims of mewat region haryana are called meo muslims because they were
originally Rajputs so I don't think there is anything wrong in term White sikh unless someone use it racially
kds1980 sorry there is everything wrong in calling Sikhs by color. This is never positive and is either demeaning to others or egoistic for others. Both bad.

Sorry.

Sat Sri Akal.
 

kds1980

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kds1980 sorry there is everything wrong in calling Sikhs by color. This is never positive and is either demeaning to others or egoistic for others. Both bad.

Sorry.

Sat Sri Akal.

How is it wrong or egoistic? It is the tone which is either harsh or racial.People from Europe in India are called white's or gorey so if they embrace sikhism they will be called white sikh just like if chinese embrace sikhism they will be called Chinese Sikhs.If in future any other ethnicity will embrace sikhism in large number then Punjabi sikhs will be called Punjabi Sikhs.

Anyway in India people use word Sardar as derogatery or as respectful manner.If they want to use it in insulting manner they say " oye sardar" and in respectful manner they say "sardar ji" so it is the tone that determine whether the word is used as racial or respectful.
 

Ambarsaria

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How is it wrong or egoistic? It is the tone which is either harsh or racial.People from Europe in India are called white's or gorey so if they embrace sikhism they will be called white sikh just like if chinese embrace sikhism they will be called Chinese Sikhs.If in future any other ethnicity will embrace sikhism in large number then Punjabi sikhs will be called Punjabi Sikhs.

Anyway in India people use word Sardar as derogatery or as respectful manner.If they want to use it in insulting manner they say " oye sardar" and in respectful manner they say "sardar ji" so it is the tone that determine whether the word is used as racial or respectful.
Sorry I disagree and don't want to keep belaboring the point.

Every Sikh is a Sikh first and everything else afterwards.

If you see a Sikh who has a white/Caucasian skin tone they are still Sikh first. Why don't you call me "Brown Sikh" or I call you the same! Would you be offended if someone called you a Brown Sikh. Labels added to any one called "Sikh" only demean. I don't even like when some people are flagged as "Guru Ka Sikh" as it immediately raises a notion as others are "Some other types of Sikhs".

If you come across a Sikh who is Caucasian it is not respectful to that person to be described as "Gorah Sikh". If you need to describe it to some one you can say a Sikh and if needed to add value to the description and in context say " He was Caucasian". As White is also a misnomer as it is relative and changes across Europe, North America and other places.

I rest on this as that is about all I want to contribute on this.

Cheers.

Sat Sri Akal.
 

kds1980

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If you see a Sikh who has a white/Caucasian skin tone they are still Sikh first. Why don't you call me "Brown Sikh" or I call you the same! Would you be offended if someone called you a Brown Sikh. Labels added to any one called "Sikh" only demean. I don't even like when some people are flagged as "Guru Ka Sikh" as it immediately raises a notion as others are "Some other types of Sikhs".

Why would I feel offended if someone call me brown sikh,Indian sikh,Punjabi sikh,Khatri sikh, arora sikh.In common language people use these words I don't understand if someone feel offended

If you come across a Sikh who is Caucasian it is not respectful to that person to be described as "Gorah Sikh". If you need to describe it to some one you can say a Sikh and if needed to add value to the description and in context say " He was Caucasian". As White is also a misnomer as it is relative and changes across Europe, North America and other places.

Let me ask you a question Punjabi Sikh Girl want to marry white sikh boy and she say this to her Father that she wants to marry a white Sikh then is she racial when she uses the word White sikh, no she is not she is just defining the ethnicity of her B/F to her Father
 

kds1980

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SIKHISM DOES NOT TEACH US STILL TO CLASSIFY ANYBODY , ( sure we can say when we talk this person is fair , darker etc.. but please no castism !!! )
OTHERWISE WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SIKHS AND
CAST SYSTEM CLASSIFIED HINDUS???peacesignkaur

Discrimination and defining are 2 different things.Hindu's discriminate on the base of caste
 

Ambarsaria

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Why would I feel offended if someone call me brown sikh,Indian sikh,Punjabi sikh,Khatri sikh, arora sikh.In common language people use these words I don't understand if someone feel offended



Let me ask you a question Punjabi Sikh Girl want to marry white sikh boy and she say this to her Father that she wants to marry a white Sikh then is she racial when she uses the word White sikh, no she is not she is just defining the ethnicity of her B/F to her Father
kds1980 ji you are so upside down on this.

This is how the dialog possibly will go in a respectful family,
Girl says: Pitah ji: Jivane mein tuhana dasia see, maenu it lraka pasand ah gaya si (As I told you, I had started liking a boy)

Father says: Puttar oh Sikh taan hai. (he is a Sikh though, Eh)

Girl says: Pitah ji: Haan Oh Sikh hai. Par Pitah ji burah nan manayeo, oh Gorah hai (Yes he is Sikh. But dear father don't be upset, he is Caucasian)

Father says: Puttar burah ki manaona, teri khushi wich sadih khushi. Naley sareh Rab de tey bandeh haan. Sikh taan Sikh he hai bhavaen Gora, Kala or Kanak vannah (Daughter why should I feel bad. Our happiness is to see you happy. Also isn't everone coming from same creator! Sikh is Sikh whether he is White, Dark or whet colored.)

Sat Sri Akal.cheerleader
 

kds1980

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This is how the dialog possibly will go in a respectful family,
Quote:Girl says: Pitah ji: Jivane mein tuhana dasia see, maenu it lraka pasand ah gaya si (As I told you, I had started liking a boy)

Father says: Puttar oh Sikh taan hai. (he is a Sikh though, Eh)

Girl says: Pitah ji: Haan Oh Sikh hai. Par Pitah ji burah nan manayeo, oh Gorah hai (Yes he is Sikh. But dear father don't be upset, he is Caucasian)

Father says: Puttar burah ki manaona, teri khushi wich sadih khushi. Naley sareh Rab de tey bandeh haan. Sikh taan Sikh he hai bhavaen Gora, Kala or Kanak vannah (Daughter why should I feel bad. Our happiness is to see you happy. Also isn't everone coming from same creator! Sikh is Sikh whether he is White, Dark or whet colored.)

Sat Sri Akal.

Ambarsaria ji

Good writing but I am afraid things don't go in this way in real life
 

spnadmin

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It came as a shock to me that the thread is really about the Singh twins, not white Sikhs. So I am wondering how white elephants and white Sikhs somehow got connected. But I can guess.

:grinningkaur:

This is how the article begins:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/640a7eae-78ac-11d9-9961-00000e2511c8.html#ixzz1HT7dMlD7

It was in 1980 that the British twins Rabindra and Amrit Singh made their first visit to India. As a result of that visit, their painting changed. At art school in Chester, England, they had absorbed traditional western methods of perceiving the world, but their travels in India showed them that there were other, Asian traditions of painting - different uses of per-spective; different ways of using colour; different ways of perceiving the symbolic importance of particular objects (birds and flowers, for example).

As British-Asians - they come from an extended Sikh family that continues to live in the Wirral, in Cheshire, although they attended a Catholic school - they began to feel a duty towards these traditions of Indian and Persian painting, and wanted to give them renewed validity in the modern world. Not to have done so, they felt, would have been a betrayal of what they regarded as their heritage.

On their return from India they started to evolve a unique amalgam of British-Asian art, one that echoes and mimics and makes use of the traditions of the past - the tradition of miniature painting from the royal courts of Mughal India, for example - but also incorporates recognisable imagery from the present, including politicians, sportsmen and pop stars. This is not a post-modern exercise in cultural cherry-picking, however. That would suggest a cool, distancing irony. The Singh twins paint in earnest. Their work is a commentary on the state of our world, its corrupt politics, the cult of fashion. They do not paint merely to please; they have a deliberate design upon us. This is both a strength and a weakness of the work.
 

Ambarsaria

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Ambarsaria ji

Good writing but I am afraid things don't go in this way in real life
kds1980 ji it was not written to show how things go but just an Example to indicate the proper context of identifying "color" and Sikh.:interestedmunda:

nuff said already, be as you want to be.

Sat Sri Akal
 

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