Raise Your Voice Against The Curse Of Casteism In The Sikhs

[Shaheed Singh Khalsa]

Sikhs aint allowed to have caste, so cant believe some people even believe in those lies

I'm with you there brother! But those that advocate racism, sorry I mean elitism oops done it agin I mean caste system in Sikhism are normally the same people who tie a string around their cousins, aunties next door neighbours ankle to profess that they will be BBF's forever and ever

[californiasardar1]

Here's a short pertinent video.

Please share your thoughts.

This is extremely interesting. Thanks for sharing!

[imhosingh]

Caste is becoming less of an issue in the west, but is still strong in Panjab (just look at which groups of people do which jobs and the places of worship they go to).

On a macro level its perpetuated and not challenged as it helps the 'divide and rule' activities towards the Sangat, also helps in terms of politics & power. On a personal/family level it just happens to feed into 'ego', making you feel above others.

Until people follow the path, then these things will persist sadly.

[sweetshera]

This is extremely interesting. Thanks for sharing!

He is right if there is a Khalistan it would not last 2 terms.

[rrss]

Caste is becoming less of an issue in the west, but is still strong in Panjab (just look at which groups of people do which jobs and the places of worship they go to).

As someone not brought up Sikh, the caste system boggles the mind. It's simply not part of Sikhism and is representative of eons of oppression and discrimination. I don't understand how difficult it is to accept Gurujis command and let go of caste, but I suppose that not knowing or caring what caste my ancestors were puts me in such a position to be able to preach, as I haven't faced any pressure from family or society to conform. That said, I know of plenty of young British Sikhs who are under absolutely no pressure to conform- they wholeheartedly embrace caste and celebrate it. That saddens me as they have a choice. In my experience caste is not becoming less of an issue in the west- what is being lost is Sikhism. I am aware of no study which estimates the proportion of caste believers and the proportion of Amritdharis or aspiring Amritdharis 40 years ago and now in the West. My personal observations would allude to the proportion of caste believers down by a small percent, whereas the loss of Sikhi being down drastically. I say this based on a) People I know and b) Looking at Sikh matrimonial advertisements in both Gurdwaras and online- 80% have no kes and are not religious and 60% want partners from specific castes (only). The 20% who are not religious and don't believe in caste either, are willing to marry any religion- they have lost their identity completely. I find it hard to believe that 80% of first generation immigrants didn't follow Sikhi- so Sikhism has failed but caste has not been lost.

On a macro level its perpetuated and not challenged as it helps the 'divide and rule' activities towards the Sangat, also helps in terms of politics & power. On a personal/family level it just happens to feed into 'ego', making you feel above others.

I fully agree, caste gives people the ability to feel good for themselves, feel special, i.e. ego and (especially in India), it's about power and politics.

[dalsingh101]

This thread has been very rewarding for those of us trying to understand caste amongst Sikhs, what I'm getting so far is that it has:

1) a strong political component in Panjab related to politics, especially with vote mobilisation

2) works along dimensions of attempts of majority domination over minority groups in some diaspora locations (leading to attempts at independence from majority domination which translates to caste aligned Gurdwaras, overt and discreet, at ground level)

3) works on a family/individual level as a mechanism to enhance ones sense of importance over other Sikh Panjabis

PS - RebelSingh, brother I'd be quite interested to hear about what you make of the rebuttal to Saka/Scythian theory that was posted earlier??

Please do share your opinion.