Britain: Sikh Religious Bangle...a Bottle Opener

[BABBAR KHALISTANI]

i think the guy is reasonable .. she is not following all the 5 kakkars.. why aint she wearing the kirpan ???

i think the guys reasoning is fine ..

and the article has alot more .. than just bottle opener thing !!

and dont be so mad.. abt the bottle opener thing ,. we dont expect a bong to understand what kara is .. we all know what significance does kara hold..

ppl mailing him back..will just make him succeed in creating agitation amongst us..

we shud be indifferent ..

For a moment i thought same as well, why she aint an amritdhari and wearing other Kakkars and yet creating all that noise for wearing a Kara? But in today's world everyone follows their religion to a certain degree. In Sarika's case she is probably not amritdhari or even might not be of religious views but that doesn't disqualify her from wearing her article of faith. For example had the case been in a 'Sikh' court Sarika probably would have lost the case because she doesn't even qualifies as a Sikh coz she aint an Amritdhari but in today's democratic and politically correct world you are what you declare: if she declares she's a Sikh then she is and it's entirely upto her to practise the religion to any amount of degree. Merely not wearing other articles of faith should not disqualify her from wearing Kara.

Now this poses another serious question: Should mone an non-amritdharis then be allowed to carry Kirpans? Now Kirpan requires a certain level of responsibility to qualify for its posession, even in Sikhi Kirpan is bestowed upon Sikhs along with a strict rehat and loads of naam simran and bani. Kirpan has a very different purpose than a kara and can't be equated with it. Therefore Kirpan is only Kirpan (Kirpa-aan) if it is carried by a person who adheres to scrictest sikh rehat otherwise a non-practicing person carrying kirpan is literally akinl to a thug carrying knife and is a potential threat to society but not so a person wearing Kara.

Hope that clarifies a little bit.

[rupinder singh]

This article highlights the stereotypes due to examples set by “kara wearers” who over the years have used the kara to open bottles of beer or to whack someone over the head. In my view the problem is, collectively, we are unable to explain that a kara in isolation does not constitutes the whole Sikh belief and wearing a kara on it’s own does not encompass a Sikh jeevan. So before we pat our own backs we need to realize whether we are merely promoting “symbols” or whether we are promoting the actual lifestyle.

The Watkins-Singh case in my view is not a landmark victory but a further enhancement of confusing views of what Sikh maryada actually is. We can’t loosen parameters to win people over, it’s not that simple. When we loosen parameters we create a comfort zone for people to hang in on, this case may have set a precedent that the kara is the most important “article” in expressing a Sikh belief and that is simply not true!!

[apne]

Atul Chatterjee is a hindu. This proves hindus hate Sikhs deep in their heart. Being an Indian origin person he could have praised another indian origin person, but no, he is a hindu and hates Sikhs.

Rupinder singhji i agree with you but we cannot expect everyone to follow five k's, esp. girls. Something is better than nothing!

[BABBAR KHALISTANI]

This article highlights the stereotypes due to examples set by “kara wearers” who over the years have used the kara to open bottles of beer or to whack someone over the head. In my view the problem is, collectively, we are unable to explain that a kara in isolation does not constitutes the whole Sikh belief and wearing a kara on it’s own does not encompass a Sikh jeevan. So before we pat our own backs we need to realize whether we are merely promoting “symbols” or whether we are promoting the actual lifestyle.

The Watkins-Singh case in my view is not a landmark victory but a further enhancement of confusing views of what Sikh maryada actually is. We can’t loosen parameters to win people over, it’s not that simple. When we loosen parameters we create a comfort zone for people to hang in on, this case may have set a precedent that the kara is the most important “article” in expressing a Sikh belief and that is simply not true!!

I don't think any person would view Kara as the most important article of faith though it is as important as ay other kakkar but no kakkar has any kind of preference over another. It's not only Kara, Sikhs have fought for turbans and kirpans in the western courts and those cases never changed the public perception that the article concerned is the most important in the faith. If someone percieves in the way you stated then it has to be said that the concerned individual would have to be very ignorant and dumb.

[N30S1NGH]

Atul Chatterjee is a hindu. This proves hindus hate Sikhs deep in their heart. Being an Indian origin person he could have praised another indian origin person, but no, he is a hindu and hates Sikhs.

I wonder if this same article was written by gorrah, you wouldn't stereotype him as he is christian.

He is racist period. This has nothing to do with dharam. Racism and fascism has nothing to do with religion, we got our own racist breed here who have no problem singing anti hindu slogans and spewing death threats to kill 50,000 hindus at one go.