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Subscribe to the Monitor. Monitor Daily current issue. Monitor Weekly digital edition. Community Connect. People Making a Difference. The most distinctive one is kesh : keeping uncut hair, to be maintained in a turban.
The other four are: kara , a round steel bracelet symbolising strength and integrity; kirpan , a ceremonial sword to emphasis martial strength; kanga , a small wooden comb to keep uncut hair in place and symbolising cleanliness and order; and kachhera , cotton shorts for chastity and readiness for battle. Sikhism was founded by Guru Nanak who was born into a Hindu family in in Punjab and emerged as the preacher of a revolutionary spiritual and temporal message that went against both Hinduism and Islam, the chief religions of India at the time.
He railed in particular against the oppressive Hindu caste system, insisting that there was only one God and that all humans were equal.
The turban was already a status symbol within India, worn by spiritual teachers such as Guru Nanak the succeeding nine Gurus also wore them , the nobility and the wealthy while long hair was an established symbol of holiness and spiritual power. So in ordering his followers to wear a turban and never cut their hair, Guru Gobind Singh was attempting not only to create a unique separate identity for ordinary Sikhs until this time there was no way of distinguishing them from Hindus or Muslims , but to infuse them with spiritual strength and reinforce the idea that in the eyes of God they are all noble and equal.
From such beginnings, Sikhism is now the fifth largest religion in the world, with an estimated 27 million followers, the majority in Punjab.
This Uttariya could be worn having at the back. It is interesting to note that beneath the Uttariya skull cap was worn to keep the headdress firm in its place. Apart from these, it is gathered from archaeological sources that different strata of society donned different kinds of head-dresses. For example, the archer of Taxila used to wrap his head with a thin strip of cloth.
The attendant of the archer covered his head with ample piece of cloth which resembled the contemporary head-dresses of an artisan or peasants. Gupta Period to AD : In the Gupta period, only royal entourage and high officials, like the chamberlain, ministers, military officers and civic officials wore turban. It had become a distinctive symbol of their respective ranks.
It could be of fine muslin tied over a large knot of hair at the centre of the forehead or a striped turban worn flat and twisted giving a rope like effect to the cloth when wound. The ministers were often Brahmins with their hair shorn keeping only the ritual top knot. Islamic Era 12th to 17th Century : The Islamic era brought about several changes in the head-dress in India. Akbar gave immense importance to turban. It is said that he even changed his turban style from Mughlai to the Hindustani, which encouraged a lot of Hindus to wear turban.
Perhaps from this time Kashmiri Hindus started sporting long turbans with pride on such occasions. This practice was later passed on to Rajasthan and Punjab where also long turbans were worn especially during festive occasions. However, later on Aurangzeb 17th century tried to suppress the custom of wearing of turban by non-Muslim population.
His logic was that only the ruling class Muslims had the privilege of wearing turban as a mark of social superiority and authority and since non-Muslims mainly Hindus were ruled class, they were to be considered socially inferior and therefore, they could not wear turban.
It was a time when 52 American diplomats and citizens were taken captive in Iran and tension between the two countries was high. These slurs reflected the racist backlash against those who fitted the stereotypes of Iranians. Our family faced a similar racist backlash when the U.
News reports show that in comparison to the past decade, the rates of violence against Sikhs have surged. Elsewhere too, Sikhs have been victims of hate crimes. An Ontario member of Parliament, Gurrattan Singh, was recently heckled with Islamophobic comments by a man who perceived Singh as a Muslim. As a practicing Sikh, I can affirm that the Sikh commitment to the tenets of their faith , including love, service and justice, keeps them resilient in the face of hate.
For these reasons, for many Sikh Americans, like myself, it is rewarding to maintain the unique Sikh identity. This is an updated version of an article first published on Aug. Want more? Edition: Available editions United Kingdom.
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