Jump to content

T-shirts Stir Debate At Surrey School


2desi
 Share

Recommended Posts

Debate about freedom of expression after several students went to school on Friday with unique t-shirts carrying a possibly controversial message.

About 20 Sikh students showed up at Surrey's Princess Margaret High School wearing black t-shirts with white lettering that reads "Khalistan" on the front.

The shirts endorse the man who once led the controversial movement in India in the 1980s, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, which ended in widespread riots and violence.

Bhindranwale was killed in 1984 in India after the country's army led an uprising to storm the Golden Temple.

"(A teacher) asked me to take off the shirt, but I wasn't wearing anything underneath I didn't have anything else at school, so they said put on a jacket so I had to put on a jacket and zip it up," said one student, who declined to give his name.

"They're saying it's politics in the school, and the school doesn't do politics, you're not allowed to wear political shirts, right. But this has nothing to do with politics."

On the back, the t-shirts read "While we live, we shall live with dignity, when we die it shall be for the faith."

But some witnesses say they also saw similar t-shirts with images of AK47s on them, although the students deny that claim.

The students who wear the shirts say they are simply expressing their religion.

Dough Strachan, communications manager for the Surrey School District, says the issue is not just black and white.

"The school is trying to work through the problem," he said. "It is asking those involved to be respectful to everyone's points of view."

Strachan would not clearly say whether the board will condone or reject the students' position.

"It's difficult, or maybe even unfair to say this is acceptable ... and this is not, at least to some extent."

But at least one student says he will probably wear the shirt again.

"I don't care," he said. "Our tenth guru said, when all means of addressing the wrongs have failed it is righteous to raise a sword."

post-8681-1208733494.jpg

post-8681-1208733634.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 87
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I first didn't want to reply to this post as many more i know won't. But the simple thing is you can't be a missionary while (as my brother says) "murgey di latt ve ni chadde". Before we go in politics, expressing our religion we MUST learn it ourself.

I have done some workshops here on east coast with other singhs and one thing was common, A BIG KHANDA in the neck of a badmash munda and what so not. If you ask me they just wore it because of the "cool factor" (aa term i use for such things).

This incident has nothing to do with religion/politics or anything else. I quite don't feel like writing much as i feel it is self explanatory to those who want to understand it.

In my views, guru ka sikh is and should always be a simple man, because those who show are not left w/ anything; while those who have everything never show it. I quite forgot the gurbani tuk in gurmukhi but'll post if i remember (other are welcome to post if you know it)

WJKK, WJKF!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All the people wearing t shirts are clean shave. What religion are they trying to represent. I understand If you have turbun wearing these t shirts make sense.

Exactly my veer jio, it says, ""Our tenth guru said, when all means of addressing the wrongs have failed it is righteous to raise a sword." and my question to them would be, "Do you even know tenth guru?"

I know the working of this site so, now please don't post asking me whether i do or no...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Today at Malton Canada nagar kirtan. I saw these two guys in corrvet big big khanda hanging in their car. While nagar kirtan was about 15 min away from gurdwara sahib. Sangat was waiting for nagar kirtan. These two guys head not ever cover but had

yellow chuniya(feeling cool) around their neck and showing of their car.

They have no understanding about sikhi. These guys trying to show off shakti without any Naam Jaap. You have to be sant first and then solidier.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WJKK WJKF

I feel like the comments posted thus far are very ignorant. Since when was Khalistan or the right to autonomy, freedom and justice confined to those who have a dastaar. Khalistan is a land for a free Punjab, its link to Sikhi is the basic principle of human rights for all, not just Sikhs, or those with long beards and Dastaars. Khalistan would welcome ALL and provide them with human rights. If we all believe this then why cannot a mona, gora, etc not demand Khalistan, whu must they meet the pre requisite of a flowing beard and dastaar.

I personally support these students without attempting to measure their spirituality.

props. Finally someone thought about it logically and didn't jump into conclusions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

you know why thier's so much media coverage on sikh issues, right now their ppl in bc who arn't liking what their seeing and watching sikhs become british colombia's biggest success story's, 30 years ago surrey and vancouver use to be some of the most racist places in canada, read some of the struggles the first sikhs went through up till 30 years ago, sikhs were considered animals and looked down upon and surrey was extremely redneck skin head mentality city, but look at sikhs today they are the most successfull ppl in all of british colombia in all fields, in buisness the top buisness men in british comumbia are sikhs, in sports some of the most successfull athletes are sikhs in vancouver,(i also have a thread on sikh athletes and notice most the athletes come from vancouver) sikhs dominate in politics that it leaves other community's jealous of falling so far behind, because of this success some of the racists are now feeling insecure like kim bolan of the vancouver sun and will take any oppurtunity to attack sikhs, are community has issues but its funny how the media doesn't notice the good sides of our community and the racism we had to overcome, surrey was the dirtiest city in canada, now look at surrey the areas punjabis live in is probably some of the most beautiful areas in surrey and canada and the areas were the racist rednecks use to live in and still live in look like trailer park trash, pretty much half of surrey which is beautiful is beautiful cause of the sikhs who turned those areas around and built big beautiful homes in those areas and areas taht are poor are were the rest live but you wont' find punjabis living in dirty areas. Right now their is alot of jealousy over sikh success in british comumbia and get ready to feel more heat. Racists like kim bolan will never expose success story's but just the negative we need to fix the negatives also and really piss of these ppl

But at the same time the sikh community does have some serous issues like kids joining gangs getting into drugs and dropping out of school, it would be a real shame if we went from being the biggest success story in canada who just got stronger with racism and everyother wall that was put in our way to being the biggest failures in the next 25 years. We do have issues but for what the sikhs have overcome in last 30 years to become most successfull comunity we now really need to come together to handle these challenges.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share


  • advertisement_alt
  • advertisement_alt
  • advertisement_alt


  • Topics

  • Posts

    • There is nothing wrong with starched pagg. The Guru is omniscient (all-knowing). You think he doesn't know our intentions? If somebody wears a starched pagg but still respects it as a crown then whats wrong with that? People think that starch automatically makes people lose their respect for their pagg but thats just false.  And dont make this a caste thing I’m Rajput Jatt sikh (not an ounce of Tarkhan or anything else) and we all starch our INDIAN style punjabi paggs (patiala shahi), but respect them as our crowns and our literal lives. A respected starch pagg is better by far than a freshly tied one which people just disrespect. And people forget that these are not ready made or pre-tied turbans. You still tie them initially but just of course not as frequently. What’s wrong with that?  When your relationship is that strong with the Guru then you know what he means. Speak to him directly, explain why and ask him if it’s okay. Btw I know people who dont starch their turbans (all punjabi/morni style btw) and they just wear it again the next day without tying it if they have toed it really nicely the day before. 😂 You cant really even tell who had tied it and who just wore it again without starch. At least we’re open about it. Bhul chuk maaf    
    • Its called a “fifty” becuase when Singhs were fighting in the British army, they would recieve an 8 metre pagg, with a cour four base, because the base layer was half (50%) of the main turban, it’s called a fifty. The practise of tying a keski under your main one is now seen as pretty weird (except for a patka), but the small coloured strip inder the pagg is still used as a fashion statement since its pretty visually appealing. And so, people now just tie a small little “kung-fu strip” sort of thing under their pagg to imitate that effect.
    • Found how to do it. For anybody else wondering, heres how. No one even helped me btw. So much for Guru Ji’s lhalsa always ready to help (and having their Singhs’ backs smh). (Notes: Aim to do this on a hot summer’s day, and dedicate a full day to this, since you only have to do this once every 4 months at least (normally the turban will stay in shape until you wish to untie it and physically pull it open again). This helps it to dry faster, since you have to starch it, HALF DRY IT, pooni it, tie it and then wear it for around four hours for the rest of it to dry, all in the same day. It’s a one day process but it serves you for months). This works for both the UK/Kenyan style (starch is best for this style) as well as the normal Punjabi paghs (such as Patiala shahi, wattan wali and morni paghs). Not sure about dumallas though. Probably not . Pagg Starch: 1) Boil 6 cups of water in a saucepan on low heat (always low heat) 2) Seperately dissolve 4 tablespoons of maida (all purpose flower) with a little water until it is 100% smooth.  You could also use rice or corn starch. Add more water if it is not a smooth liquid 3) Once completely smooth, pour this mixture through a strainer (to make it even smoother) into the boiling water. 4) Now continuously stir it until it goes completely see through. Keep on stirring it on the low heat until it goes totally transparent (it can take a little while to cook, but the pagg will last you for months!) It will at become a thick paste first, but keep stirring until it becomes see through and thinner.    5) Once it’s transparent, pour the starch (again through a strainer) into a big enough, clean bucket to cool down. 6) Once cool, take a clean, dry turban and completely and mix it in with the starch for around 5 minutes. Make sure that it is all evenly and completely soaked and wet with the starch. (Most people use mal-mal material, but I use full voile and I have used Rubia too. They’re all fine. Maybe use Rubin for smaller turbans and mal mal for larger ones) 7) Leave it out in the sun to HALF DRY ONLY!!!!!!! (Don’t ever let your starched turban fully dry before you tie it. If you do, then you will have to spray/ sprinkle water on it which will weaken the starch and ruin the turban) ONLY HALF DRY THE TURBAN IN THE SUN!!! 😎 Once HALF DRY ONLY take the now semi damp turban, and fold/pooni and then tie it like normal (straight on your head, with no base layer such as a Keski or patka underneath). Leave it on your head for around 4 hours just to fully dry and it will be ready and set for months now. Like I said, do try to tie your dastar every day, but if you can’t or really don’t want to, I hope this helps! Like I said this works on both the traditional Punjabi/Indian style paggs, and the more recent UK/Kenyan style paggs. It does for my morni pagg, but the first larr slips up in to the pagg. This is normal dw. Wjkk, Wjkf
    • I guess easier ways of learning have taken precedence. There are so many Youtube channels and podcasts available that people are more ready to listen for knowledge at their own leisure. There are so many great kathas available online that take months to listen, so that people may not really get the time to come here and write.
    • *Bump The current conflict (w/ Iran getting involved) is being orchestrated by a 3rd party in my opinion. We all are going to blame the Jewish community (how they run the banks, how they are brutal and etc.) but they have a point in this conflict.  As soon as people start finding about the truth that's when the real movement will begin. 
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use