dallysingh101

Great thread!

Man, that painting in the video clip in the OP is awesome. I've always wondered what Bhai Maharaj Singh Ji looked like since I first heard about him as a kid, and now we can see. Sad but totally predictable how the brits killed him slowly but cruelly through neglect. Shame on them. Tossers.

Here's a picture of some items of the 'Bhai Maharaj Singh Collection' in the British Library. I think goray took these things off him when they shipped him off to Singapore. Notice the flat karas. This was the best image I could find and it isn't exactly great. I tried blowing up the chitti in Paint to try and read it but it was too pixelated to make sense of.

What did the mushrooms do to you? How did they affect you? Just out interest. I heard that some pharmaceuticals were considering using small doses for depression?

Why don't you give examples of this.

Will there (or has there) ever only been one interpretation? It doesn't look like that from what I gather from precolonial Sikh literature. I think the greater danger is how the SGPC and various universities in Panjab and abroad are rewriting Sikh history along western influenced racialised/casteist lines. It's the unique Sikh 'social vision' that is under attack the most. This strikes deeply at cohesion which is always difficult given Panjabi nature anyway. If we are talking about bhagti marg or spiritual side of Sikhi through naam simran and paat. It's our own personal journey into that that expresses itself to us. If people are excessively relying on other people to hold their hands in this (various gianis and babas they subjugate themselves to) - are they even getting it? And it looks like for most people the 'sangat' is more of a social/community thing than anything else? Yes, people have always tried to subvert this thing (and not only 'Hindus' but especially the british), but I think it is the uninformed and gullible pendu masses that keep falling for this. They don't really like thinking for themselves in any case - and don't like reading - so that is inevitable. They bring it upon themselves with their cultural norms. Farmers make me laugh - they cry out about the surreptitious 'bahmunization' of Sikhi, whilst themselves sitting in some pseudo-Sikh, protestant anglicised colonial product 'religion' themselves. The irony.....

You keep asking this like a fudhoo. I told you before that Sikhi differs from 'Hinduism' in its meritocratic, militaristic egalitarian social vision for Sikh society - which ironically very few Sikhs actually practice - so they aren't any different from Hindus in that respect - at the moment.

Thing with Gurmukhi (compared to English/Roman) is that it has strict grapheme (the visual symbol or letter) and phoneme (the sound associated with that letter/symbol) mapping. That's why I think Gurmukhi can be easier because you can generally only pronounce a word one way.

Yep, and we've got over a crucial period now, where those attempts to subvert have been successfully thwarted.

Whats a 'md5 checksum'??? I've never been a fan of transliterations myself. Do you think that they help you with pronunciation?

You get Sikhs marrying Sikhs who have indifferent, irreligious children too. What's your point? Anyway, you're missing my small point about Singhs 'bhoging' sulliyan appearing to be a major no no, and turning them into sullay. You can see how this original thinking persevered amongst Akalis even into M. Ranjit Singh's raj, with how they reacted to marrying Mohan compared to his other Hindu wives. It was just a historic observation. I can see you're in a dramatic mood....... <sigh>

And what's to stop you going into Teja Bhausaria territory with such thinking? Look where that has got us so far. People have conjured up a protestant christianised 'Sikhism' and sold it to the rural masses by having kneejerk insecure reactions to 'theological' challenges from outside. I expect an unparh pendu to get duped (they mostly always seem to), but the way you go on is like we are all dimwitted morons. It's this same thinking that had people abusing Dasam Granth because it contained so many references to wider Indic culture, that they couldn't get their heads around after goray had come and brain-screwed them for a 100 years.

You're being a drama queen dude. It's art. Appreciate it for what it is, and explore any potential symbology. And if any symbology crosses over different cultures - it's not anything to get your kashera in a twist about.

Yeah, but 'bhoging' a sulli was a major one for Singhs - it turned them into sullay.

That narrative occurs a number of times in earlier sources. That kureit of having bhog with sullis was changed to all extra-marital relationships during the Singh Sabha reformations.

I'm careful of such narratives myself. Until I find an early/earlyish source.

They were scared of becoming sullay by the pollution. Early accounts strongly suggest that having sexual relationships with a sulli automatically made a Singh a sullah according to Sikh code of conduct.

I suspected there was a lot of messy things going on in the panth in the states undercover! hhmmmm.... Things weren't handed on a plate for the UK Sikhs, some had to fight to get to where we are now. My family has just started it's fifth generation here btw.

I think some of them (and I mean respectable ones - not the money/status obsessed ones), aren't as puritan as one might imagine. And you're right, it is ex-monas who've gone keshdhari. I think that they are a bit more realistic than the lifelong hyper-conservatives. Dude, you're getting young apneean meeting up with young thirsty ar45e apnay too. I've worked in colleges - I know how it goes. Even kurian meeting guys they met in Panjabi classes at Gurdwaras. I think given what has been happening lately, they are probably thinking - 'This is bad but not as bad as some older sullah grooming them.' ???

This is true in my opinion.

<Thumbs up!> I've been exploring it a bit lately. I'm wondering if the average Panjabi parents might actually find reading it uncomfortable and 'ashleel'?? Parts of it doesn't hold back - and have even shocked me - and that is saying something because I haven't been remotely 'sheltered'.

I think parents and wider families (especially the young men) need to be aware that we have this sort of crucial period between about 13 years old and mid twenties, when many (but not all) kurian would skank the hell out (given the opportunity), and disrupt this as often as possible. Also subtle but clear intimidation towards potential romeos is also a strong deterrent. That whole nerd, momma's boy emasculated apna, and the other 'modren' type pendu boy who rides around in a flash car blaring bhangra out has to to end quickly - if I was a girl and these were the types of guys I was limited too - I'd probably run too. lol

From another (unpopular angle), some of these hoes need 'redemption', if some apna is going to make 'decent' women out of them (something I couldn't personally do), then so be it. We don't have to do it ourselves, but let's not knock the guys that would. Some of them probably come from challenging backgrounds themselves - not just closeted papoos. And from what I've seen lately, desi families are less obsessed about the 'purity' issue (for whatever reason) than some of us raised in the diaspora might imagine.

A heavy part of Indic dharam seems to be a separation of the eternal (paraatma), from the impermanent (maya), so maybe that's why they don't really value the actual vessel? Plus it being a hot region, those bodys would start to decompose really quickly. Maybe that plays a part? I don't think our bodies being cremated or buried really plays that big a deal on what subsequently happens according to Sikhi. It's not like say Islam where a body being burnt has significant impact according to beliefs - where having no physical remnants means that they will be unable to rise again on judgement day as per their prophecies.

You also keep threatening to permanently leave but never do. Give the dramatics a rest maybe.