Identifying The Different Forms Of "conscious" Sikhs

[natsilahk]

I edited this following excerpt to relate it to Sikhs and the Sikh struggle(revolution).

I feel its pretty on point, the main idea is identifying the different types of individuals who make up our struggle and what group they fit into it. This is for casual reading, and is not meant to be offensive. I thought it was rather humorous.

Definition of conscious = relating to one who is politically, racially, culturally informed, knowledgeable and aware.

The 1980ers: usually consists of leadership by older conscious members with young adherents. This group will constantly and consistently stress the importance of 1980s radical Sikh-awareness movements, personalities and organizations. Their main goal it seems is to bring about the level of political awareness that existed in the Sikh community nearly three decades ago.

Pros: means well; are genuinely concerned with the plight of Sikh people; are very good at organizing protests; marches and informing the younger generation on the monumental importance of history from three decades ago ago (from '78 to Dera Saucha Sauda)

Cons: it was near half a century ago; many of the staunch 1980’ers seem unable to deal with the realities of the 21st century; too few understand that different times require different tactics; they mean well but are generally antiquated (i.e., attempting to mimic Mao Tse Tung’s disastrous agricultural communal farming ideas, though they caused millions of Chinese to starve to death) and unable to reach the masses.

Suggestions: Adapt and change or perish. As the urban philosopher of Shaolin would say, these analog cats need to get digital.

The Doom Projectors: usually consists of older and younger “conscious” members. Their main focus is to inform us about all that is wrong with Sikh people, in their perspective. Doom projectors know every negative statistic relating to Sikh people and disease, the prison system, hair-cutting trends, female infoeticide, economics, dysfunctional families, teen pregnancies, drug abuse and just about any other social ill plaguing the community. In their estimation nothing is getting better for Sikh people, rather we are steadily marching towards an apocalyptic abyss.

Pros: shock and scare therapy sometimes works; can motivate and spur people into action; are human computers when it comes to statistic number crunching and predicting dire forecasts; help inspire really great Punjabi songs including the Immortal Shaheedi compliations.

Cons: scares the beejeezus outta you; by the time you’re finished listening to these horrible statistics you don't want to get mobilized, you want to crawl into a hole and listen to sorrowful songs from 2Pac’s "Me Against the World"; can't always trust their stats.

Suggestions: Discuss the negatives with a balance of the positive; point out Sikh achievements and progressive steps. By all means keep us abreast of what work needs to be done. But the world already tells us “Turbans suck” Another spokesman isn't necessary.

The Conscious Sikh Jatt Consortium: mostly consists of younger members who have managed to intertwine two seemingly unrelated words, "Sikh” and “Jatt” into an actual national movement. Conscious Jatts shun scholarly political work but instead embrace the philosophy of “street knowledge.” Believing that no one truly understands the plight of the Sikh masses but the Jatt (farmers), these individuals extol the virtues of the street team lifestyle but lace it with pro-Sikh ideologies. Thus in one sentence they may quote a farmer and in the next Guru Gobind Singh. Conscious Jatts can be found everywhere in Punjab, where they tend to blend in with the more common Jatt variety, but “kick knowledge” every now and again. They have proliferated in the modern Bhangra community.

Pros: unlike regular Jatts they can truly see that there is a struggle to be fought; in the current “Jatt Renaissance” sweeping the Sikh community they are quite relatable – especially to the mainstream Sikh crowd.

Cons: being pro-Jatt doesn’t always equal being “Sikh”; have hyper-patriarchal ideas of masculinity; they are proud in their sexism; their over-inflated ideas of manhood can't really allow them to accept Sikh women as equals, but rather in stereotyped categories of saints, gold-diggers or freaks; not above reverting to a common fratricidal Jatt over the slightest beef or insult; their dueling ideologies (Jatt vs Sikhism) makes them seem contradictory and garbles their messages often into incoherence; refuses to leave their limbo state but instead revels in the freedom it creates; the totality of their struggle seems to consist of greater access of every Sikh man to more alcohol, bigger Khanda-pieces, and bigger pughs.

Suggestions: There’s a ready-made place for castes. It’s called Hinduism/India. Indian society does indeed help make cases, by dividing and conquering, who in turn contribute to their own oppression by playing the role. It’s a nice little cycle. If you know about this caste-o-logical system, break it. Trim the Jatt-fat from your waistline. It’s unneeded and unhealthy. That would really be revolutionary.

The Sikhness Gestapo: a rogue and more extremist wing of the Sikhness Police whose primary goal is to seek out, expose and verbally abuse other Sikh individuals that are deemed religious-traitors, Hindus, etc. What places the Sikh Gestapo apart from the Sikhness Police is the extremely high standard they set for what is deemed appropriate Sikh political and cultural behavior, leaving little room open for deviance from this line (i.e., one offense can render a lifetime of work in the struggle null and void). Their usual targets are Sikh political leaders, Sikh political groups, and Sikh entertainers.

Pros: highlights elitism in the Sikh community; holds Sikh leaders, entertainers and others socially responsible; not afraid to level criticism.

Cons: their idealistic idea of what it means to be Sikh and proud is unreachable by just about anyone; they focus more attention on harshly criticizing other Sikh people than dealing with numerous other worthy issues; incapable of building any type of encompassing Sikh coalition with anyone outside their grouping; cause more disunity and chaos than anything approaching a semblance of Sikh unity; have created a type of “Sikh McCarthyism” in their hunts for religious-traitors; their dangerous rhetoric can at times often call for intra-sikh violence directed against the accused; their focus is rather narrow, somehow only going after politicians, leaders and entertainers for acts of “betrayal” but silent on deeds of punjabi drug dealers, youths and others who sow seeds of destructiveness in the community; may be afflicted with severe EAPS.

Suggestions: The Sikh world is multi-faceted and diverse. Try to find what we agree upon before picking apart the differences.

Supa-Dupa Sikhs: a segment of the conscious population that has taken the Punjabcentric and Punjab-centered academic movement, and adopted these scholarly pursuits as an everyday lifestyle and way of living. Though many have done this, these individuals represent a more extreme caste. Members will usually dress in a mix of Punjabi and modern Sikh-American garb; wear assorted bits of Punjabi jewelry; make greetings in one or two Punjabi words; sport a claimed “Pure-Punjabi” pugh and extol Punjab.

Pros: have a devout love and pride about themselves as Sikh people and Punjab; may be quite informed on aspects of Sikh-Punjabi history and elements of culture; often push for a healthy dietary lifestyle, fight against discrimination and more.

Cons: makes everyone else feel they are somehow lacking in their own Sikh-ness; thinks walking around in a complete kurta is acceptable at any venue; have never stepped foot on the land of Punjab but have been planning to go there for the better part of a decade; often think they can out-Punjabi even Sikh people who live in Punjab; a lot of what they think is Punjabi, really isn't; have grand spiritual, economic and political ideas for Punjab but have a general misunderstanding of traditional or moder Punjabi spiritual, economic or political institutions; romanticism of pre-colonial Punjab may leave them very unaware of political, social and other events in modern Punjab; horrific occurrences like 1984 genocide completely shakes their foundation.

Suggestions: Punjab’s complex. Don't treat it like a singular entity. Make the trip, meet some people, get some connections, cause some real change on both sides of the Atlantic.

The E-Sikh Generals : a segment of conscious Sikhs who learned to utilize technology as their main base of information. E-Sikhs are all about internet, and email as communication and information. Generals because they demand other Sikhs to become active over the internet rather than going outside to lead their revolution. This is one of the more global segments, and is possibly reproducing the fastest.

Pros : love meeting other Sikhs, and have a general interest in the well-being of their community. Love reaching out to Sikhs that they will most likely never meet or see in their life

Cons : Often ask other Sikhs in the home continent to start a revolution, so that the E-Sikh can receive an email update. Asks for Sikhs to make sacrifices when he lives on the other side of the world, so the E-Sikh can read an update on panthicweekly.org. Tend to be very right-winged, and often can not relate to events happening in a different culture and a different part of the world. Sits on the internet far too much.

lol, if there are errors its probably because I didnt get a chance to edit it properly yet.

I'll add more if I have time.

[soormah]

you forgt 2 mention ramgharias who dnt care abt sikh movement and the baba followers and the traitors

[Punjabi_Link]

HAHAHAHAHA! :lol:

Nice!

You should post this in the general section.

[wjkk wjkf]

wow - eye opener... but its a bit egotistical to assume that people who behave even slightly in the ways highlighted will fit into these categories and cant move around in them or be a part of both or all...if you get me - u havent said that they cant but u havent said that they can..

bhul chukk maaf jio :lol:

[maqsoospuri]

wow - eye opener... but its a bit egotistical to assume that people who behave even slightly in the ways highlighted will fit into these categories and cant move around in them or be a part of both or all...if you get me - u havent said that they cant but u havent said that they can..

bhul chukk maaf jio :lol:

good observation