MisterrSingh

That's so cucked. Goodness me.

Thanks bhenji. Great stuff.

I don't believe right-wing is the solution. These people cannot exist on an equilibrium. They lurch from one violent extreme to its opposite in response to whichever idiotic social and political conditioning they've been exposed to over a number of years. Most, if not all, of this braying for right-wing authority is a result of the policies seen to have been put into place by the Left. Anyway, the Left-Right dichotomy is a fraud. Don't fall for it. It's smoke and mirrors designed to keep us engaged in a system in order to make us think we have some semblance of control over those who rule us. Put it this way: where's that wall that Trump promised his voters, lol?

Is this available elsewhere? Scribd is so inflexible.

Check out Sikh and Punjabi posts on Instagram. It's not all doom and gloom. Yes, this sounds weird coming from me considering I'm regularly referring to nightmarish and apocalyptic scenarios regarding our future as a community, lol, but there's a noticeable upswing in Sikhs identifying with our cultural symbols and practices in a way that bodes well for the future. Sure, the flip side of the situation would be that social media is a degenerate, shallow, and wholly worthless pursuit of superficiality, but for purposes of "optics" (that's a contemporary buzzword that is relevant in this situation) we've got to start somewhere. I realised recently that I needed to acquaint myself with a broad impression of where we are as a people instead of relying on my personal and immediate experiences and surroundings as an objective marker for my views. Things aren't perfect and if there's not serious change we are heading for problems, but there is hope.

Those with foresight who haven't lulled themselves into a false sense of security don't need to be told. Sometimes, I think matters of faith and a belief in something like Sikhi -- a way of life that appeals to our higher, enlightened, and compassionate selves -- is somewhat of a disadvantage in a vicious dog-eat-dog world, especially for those who just want to be told what to do in life (followers), rather than undertake a complex inner journey of self discovery rife with nuance and apparent paradoxical conundrums that require khoj and contemplation (seekers). Battles are won by doers and those who don't pause to agonise over the rights and wrongs of it all. The appeal to "the right and just way" isn't conducive to survival. This is something that I believe has been dulled by years of contentment and relative prosperity; the decline of our survival instinct; the ability to discern danger and spot the signs even when the immediate present perhaps doesn't seem to be much of an issue. Pain and experience is the only true teacher. Those who refuse to acknowledge the possibility of any future perturbations, because they've bought into the idea that life is, by default, a just and good experience, will be hit the hardest when such notions will prove to be demonstrably misguided.

We've become excessively docile and compliant. The aura of ankh and the fear-factor that was once our trademark has greatly diminished. Now, we play at those ideals; it's hollow posturing and a nostalgic harking back to those days, but there's nothing beneath the bluster. We're just so eager to please and disarm the other, even if it means putting ourselves on the backfoot and disregarding that which should never be compromised. That figurative law of the jungle (that dictates the pecking order of various "tribes" in society) is fast becoming a system that is alien to us. Even with the janta back home there's very little of that edge to them that was ever present even as recently as a couple of decades ago. The problem is they're exposed -- via the connected digital world -- to the exact influences that have successfully done a number on the West, and when one observes them developing those same behavioural patterns and lax attitudes that have run roughshod over the western consciousness for the past 30 or 40 years, it brings it home how we're teetering on the edge of oblivion. Sikhs are great at fighting amongst ourselves, entrenching divisions, and pulling each other down for personal gain, but when a hostile outside force comes knocking, then our desire to accommodate knows no bounds.

Inwardly, despite what they present on the surface, they laugh at Sikhs who get up to this cloying, embarrassing behaviour. I've been told as much by a few of them, though, of course, not in such an inelegant manner. Plus -- and this is another of those far-sighted issues our short-sighted bandhaars struggle to comprehend -- it's another invaluable quiver in their subversive sling that's used by Muslims to undermine the separateness of our religion and our ways, which is then further used as a tool by their recruiters to target the uninformed and downright idiotic amongst our own people. Wish them well, be cordial, etc., but why tie yourselves into knots to ingratiate yourself in such a demeaning way?

Like all of Jagsaw's offerings on this site, there's a subtext to his ideas, most of them based in a desire to undermine Sikhi and Punjabism, in particular that unique strand of our collective consciousness that harbours a discerning wariness and occasional hostility directed at Islam and Pakistanis, in general, for good reason. Our sianne broadly term what Jagsaw's is undertaking as "ani chalakhiyan" or "blind trickery / deception." The slightly more specific and accurate English term for it is 'disinformation' and perhaps an element of revisionism. The fact that I even have to spell this out astounds me. Admittedly, whilst there are undeniable historical and cultural confluences that form the common root of Punjabism, which, in part, can be traced to Middle Eastern cultural influences (architecture being the particular avenue of attack selected by our erstwhile Goebbels in this instance), Jagsaw's reason for drawing these parallels is not based in a benevolent desire to educate; no, he wishes to desperately propagate a specific idea so that it takes hold in the minds of whomever encounters his insidious little history lessons, namely that Sikhs and Muslims have a common history and culture; that we shouldn't bear any hostility toward them; that our collective roots should be enough for us to forgive and forget their historical transgressions against us, and that we should all let bygones be bygones and stop being so bl00dy proud of our unique religious, martial, and cultural history, because we were all Middle Easterners one distant day in the past! In simple vernacular, he's making mugs of you people who fall at his feet whenever he churns out his copied and pasted bakwaas that he first mangles through his critical theory filter (seriously, if you don't know what critical theory is just Google it) before vomitting up his various theories that are designed to chip away at the truth. He clearly thinks you're a bunch of uninformed, uneducated idiots who've never opened a history book in your entire lives. And if the fawning admiration for the prodigal son once he "returns" to these parts (that's if he ever leaves, the lurking weirdo) is any indication, I'm inclined to reluctantly agree with his assessment of the people on this forum. I hate getting serious. Life is one big and mostly unfunny joke, but when a wholly besharam individual takes the pashaab in such a consistently blatant and obvious manner, I feel compelled to speak up.

If what you're alluding to is true, I don't expect the police to allow the investigation and any public acknowledgement of its progress to head in a certain direction. I'm afraid the family may need to, in time, get their hands dirty with the authorities, as well as deal with their tragic loss.

Jagsaw's historical revisionism and critical theory in full flow once more on this forum. Seems like he's been brainstorming a folder full of ideas to mold supple and impressionable minds. "Just passing through, guys; been so busy." The living embodiment of a boomerang. ?

Apathy. Intellectual laziness. Physically, we certainly can never be described as lazy, but only the rare among our people possess that quality of a poetic soul that is channelled into the direction of something beyond material measure. Our people don't nurture thinkers and artists, because it's considered to be a fruitless pursuit that doesn't guarantee status and success. They think it's a risk not worth taking. The "dreamer" is brow-beaten into conformity sooner or later. We have an unfortunate and deep-seated mentality of being predisposed to following instead of leading: this is evident in how eager Sikhs are to champion the causes and ideologies of outside parties whilst unable to see the value and positives in their own. How on earth are great pieces of Sikh inspired art supposed to be created when deep down most Sikhs - even the supposedly educated - assume there simply isn't any substance from which such things can be derived? You're more likely to get a western born Sikh getting teary-eyed at the beauty in Communist and Marxist theory than feeling the same level of affinity for Sikh philosophy. Intellectual midgets and sheep.

Don't get me wrong, I don't consider overt expressions of westernisation to be a guaranteed template for the prosperity and integrity of a nation, but if the other extreme is a suffocatingly narrow religious rule of law that more often than not slips into authoritarianism, then the alternative doesn't seem so bad. Sometimes I think junglee people require junglee law so that they're induced to behave themselves, but invariably there are certain to be good people who'll suffer. Some issues to keep in mind if Sikhs ever find themselves in a situation where a Sikh nation is on the cards.

No... just no, lol. It's like you've completely bypassed the previous 30 years of societal and sexual politics. Plus, I suspect OP was searching for, in part, a spiritual answer.

"I thought this was supposed to be Sachkhand?! Why am I in hell?!!?" ?

Islam has been pushed onto a bigger stage on which its every word and move is analysed and dissected to death. The often referenced Christian reformation of the Enlightenment period may have been the moment when Christianity began to think twice about taking its Old Testament teachings literally, but Islam seemed to have gradually settled into a rhythm after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire and the subsequent rise of secular minded leaders who were beginning to introduce modern reforms to their lands. Was it a soft self-Reformation? Perhaps. It's hard to believe, but what are now hotbeds of instability and fundamentalism in the Middle East, were almost verging on the secularism of the West as recently as the middle of the last century. Islam still played a huge part in the lives of their populations, but the incitement to fundamentalism was nowhere near as widespread as it's become in the past 30 or so years. Sure, there was always conflict between places like Iraq and Iran, but there's always been such niggles between neighbouring countries in that part of the world. Thank the United States and their meddling for sending that part of the world back 300 or 400 years. It's an absolute tragedy.

Now? They've fought each other ever since the death of Mohammed. The issue of who becomes the caliph of Muslims is the essence of the Sunni-Shia divide. That didn't happen 50 years ago; they've been at it since 632AD.

You're forgetting the puppet master.

I'm thinking of the Thakur Singh who fought alongside the Singhs in 1984.

First-rate points. Not the kind of observations that can be learned from memorising statistics. You're spot-on about the notion of affinity. There's no more racial or ethnic solidarity, on my part, with an Indian from Kolkata than an African from the Congo. That has nothing to do with being born in the West. It runs deeper than anything to do with geography.

Makes one wonder how long the lid can be kept shut on such a tinderbox. I'm still surprised how India managed to wrangle their "United States of India." I'm guessing post-British Empire the anti-Colonial sentiment galvanised the country by channeling national sentiment and loyalty for one common purpose; the zeal of a newly independent country and the potential hope for a brighter future probably carried them through the first few decades since independence. I think the admittedly hopeful economic situation in the country is masking many serious regional issues that will continue to fester until an unfortunate tipping point.

Brainwashed in most cases. Otherwise, powerless and demoralised. That's a kind assessment.

I know of Baba Ji, it's the giani I wasn't certain of. A part of me was hoping those allegations might've been for another Thakur Singh I hadn't heard of. Disappointing.

How many Giani Thakur Singhs are there doing parchaar? For some reason I thought there was two, but there's just the one, isn't there, the Taksali Singh?

You sure about that, bro?