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Casteism Raises Head, Cremation Stopped


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Sad news.

Casteism raises head, cremation stopped

FEROZEPUR: Many in the country face the evil of caste-based discrimination in their lives. But in case of a Dalit woman in Bholuwala village, it continued even after she died. The dominant Jat Sikhs of the village did not let Dalit families cremate the body of Gurdial Kaur, 75, at the common cremation ground on Tuesday. She had died on Monday.

Jat Sikhs of the village allegedly threw out the pyre wood from the cremation ground following which the situation got tense. District administration sent the local executive magistrate and SHO of Ghal Khurd police station to the spot to diffuse the tension and persuade the Dalits to cremate the body at a vacant land in the village late on Tuesday afternoon.

According to sources, some Jat Sikh families had filed a case some time back to prevent Dalits from using the common cremation ground of the village, but the court had issued a stay order in favour of the Dalits pending a final decision. However, Jat Sikhs of the village claimed they hadn't received any such orders from the court.

They said Dalits had been given a separate piece of land, measuring about one kanal, for use as cremation ground for the last many years. Jagtar Singh, a resident of the village belonging to the dominating caste said Dalits had unnecessarily raised this issue at the behest of some local politicians to create tension.

Some people said similar tension had gripped the village when a Dalit man Gurdial Singh had died. That issue was resolved peacefully. Caste-based discrimination has deep roots in the village, which actually has two separate gurdwaras for the two communities. Dalit residents of the village alleged that being a minority and a financially depressed community, they were being discriminated against by the influential Jat Sikhs of the village.

Caste Concerns in Cremation Grounds in Punjab - Totally Contrary to Sikh Teachings

OTTAWA(Canada): The World Sikh Organization (WSO) expresses shock and outrage at the caste-based discrimination disallowing cremation of Gurdial Kaur in the common cremation grounds in the village of Bholuwala, Punjab.

Guru Nanak Dev Ji strongly condemned the ugly caste system prevalent in India over 500 years ago. He advocated equality of all individuals. "Amongst Sikhs, there is no caste" said, Ram Raghbir Singh Chahal, International President of WSO. Guru instituted langar, a community kitchen where all people, regardless of caste, race, religion or gender, sit side by side to eat.

Guru Gobind Singh Ji, the 10th Guru, put his final seal on the concept of equality at the first initiation ceremony of the Khalsa. He offered sacred Amrit, to all people, regardless of caste, creed or gender. It is relevant to note that he declined to admit so-called upper caste Rajputs to the new order of Khalsa, as they desired a special initiation ceremony, separate from those, they believed to be, of lower castes. The Panj Piarey (the five beloved ones) came from different caste backgrounds. "It's shameful that hundreds of years later, we're still arguing about cast based cremation grounds in Punjab" said, Gurpreet Singh Bal, WSO Canada President.

"Clinging on to the discriminatory divisions like Jat, Ramgharia, Khatri or Dalit Sikh is contrary to Guru's teaching and reflects ignorance on part of some Sikhs. This incident highlights a pressing need for strong educational campaign among Sikhs to rid our society of the lingering effects of the caste system and other social evils like drugs, dowries and female infanticide", said Gian Singh Sandhu, WSO Senior Policy Advisor.

The WSO urges the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) to launch a community wide educational endeavour to understand and practise Sikhism as it was intended to be. We also urge public media in Punjab to accept these and other societal challenges and become agents of desirable and necessary changes.

More sad news.

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Notice how the Indian media will pump this to cause beef

Notice also how Sikhs will try and play it down and refuse to face caste discrimination as an issue.

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Notice how the Indian media will pump this to cause beef

Notice also how Sikhs will try and play it down and refuse to face caste discrimination as an issue.

Right, notice how the police told the socalled 'dalit' Sikhs to have the Antum Sanskar on some vacant land instead doing the proper thing and allowing them to it at the cremation ground which is their legal right.

What's up with this Jatt surpremacy anyways, I've even seen this with my own relatives who call it pride but there is clearly a hierarchy and its just wrong.

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thats sad..

but to the jatts who think they are the bosses in punjab

heres some info

last time when i was in punjab (1yr ago) there was a big fight at phagwara brahmin boys vs jatt boys

brahmins were of the village of my cousin and surrounding

the brahmins beated the hell out of those jatt boys and the jatt boys ran away

so don't be take too much pride, this is to jatts and other castes who think they are superior to others

and the only 'upper cast' that doesnt take too much pride in punjab are the rajputs, as i have witnessed it myself in my area (which is rajput dominated area) and all my relatives arent too much into casteism, and all my relatives are rajputs lol

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Seriously. No personal offence to anyone but the people who need to sort out the caste discrimination thing the most are Jatts. Notice how all seem to go quiet when the time comes to face it and talk about it.

However anything from outsiders is jumped on with a vengeance and hyped up. Come the time for some honest self reflection - the energy seems to evaporate into thin air.

The truth is that casteist Sikhs are just as bad as their Hindu counterparts. So we should do away with all this talk of the great egalitarian principles of Sikhi etc. because the majority of Sikhs don't really believe in it. The level of hate and contempt amongst Sikhs due to caste is as bad as any other community. The sad truth is that casteism IS a part of Sikh society - we should face that ugly fact.

Before we talk about being discriminated against by flana timka we need to take a look at ourselves. But I doubt your average jatt/jatti will even want to hear that his/her society is at the heart of some seriousl nazi type ideology that seems to think others are beneath them by birth or something. Personally I don't get it. I've met some solid guys and girls from this background who are salt of the earth but conversely this society seems to also produce a disproportionate amount of people who are unbelievably narrow minded and bigoted.

Can some honest khoola dil wallah jatt explain this phenomena to me? I don't believe it is simple variance in the population but something that stems from jatt upbringings.

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