British Army Examines Plans To Create A Sikh Regiment

[Hammertime007]

There's pros and cons on this. It strengthens our classification as British Sikh, and for the first time will agree with jagsaw it does give us separate identity in the eyes of India.

Cons there could Be agenda to recruit our youth for their wars

Jagsaw will be surprised I don't support our wars in muslim countries like Afghanistan. if the taliban don't want to send their girls to school then that's their business how they run their country. If the Uk government are worried bout this type of extremism then they should worry bout the one in their back yard.bring back our troops and put them on the streets of London, Birmingham, Manchester, Luton, Bradford, Oldham and Rotherham where the real threat to this country is.

[ASKhalsa1]

There's pros and cons on this. It strengthens our classification as British Sikh, and for the first time will agree with jagsaw it does give us separate identity in the eyes of India.

Cons there could Be agenda to recruit our youth for their wars

Brother, the entire basis for this proposed Sikh regiment is that 'the Sikhs served the Empire loyally in the two world wars and fought with skill". The only trouble is we didn't do that. We didn't fight in those two wars with skill and bravery. We have never fought a war in our lives. Our forefathers did, and we Sikhs are still mooching off their legacy, strutting about in the warrior's bana pretending we're still a martial people. That reason aside, what other need is there for a regiment composed entirely of Sikhs? Does anyone seriously think that we would be better fighters now than most other people simply on account of our ancestry? This is the martial race theory at work all over again.

It makes very little sense. People are only talking about it because of some misplaced sense of nostalgia. That sycophant Prince Charles only wanted a Sikh Regiment because its the stuff of his toffish aristocratic fantasies, exotic Sikh warriors dying for king and country.

[Ranjeet01]

"He said: There arent that many Sikhs in the Army. A regiment needs a bit more. There needs to be some enticement to go, but with all the defence cuts, the Army may not look that tempting."

The bit I am concerned is about defence cuts. I do not understand how organisations work. On one hand the army struggles with depleting resources and on the other hand they suddenly find resources to fund a new regiment.

The army pays very poorly and I do not think it will entice enough British born Sikhs. The only way you could do it is they offered training courses and skills for the post army career. There are many telecoms engineers who come from an army background. In the U.S. a lot of CEOs have army background (a lot of them complete MBAs).

The only way in my opinion that Sikh regiment can be raised is if there recruitment from Punjab. There would be no shortage of eager recruits and they would suddenly start to grow their kesh.

[lsingh]

Fantastic news.

Unfortunately, this idea was disbanded after Sir Trevor Phillips, the then head of the CRE (Commission for Racial Equality) suggested it may lead to accusations of racism. He was wrong.

It is interesting and ironic to note that it is the former Conservative Defence Minister Sir Nicholas Soames who is urging his fellow ministers and the MoD to raise a Sikh Regiment. It was his grandfather, Sir Winston Churchill, who had heaped lavish praise upon the martial skills of the Sikhs 65 years ago.

Listening to the BBC Asian Network debate with Nihal, I was disappointed to hear that most of the Sikhs including the normally articulate Jagraj Singh come up stuck against the diatribe that was dished out by those opposing such a regiment. Furthermore, Nihal and other caller's in to the show couldn't quite grasp the fact that whilst Sikhs may have fewer contributors to the world wars compared to muslim's and hindu's, they were over-represented due to their small numbers in the population as a whole. As a percentage or fraction of the population as a whole, Sikhs were far over represented.

The fact is, regiments will demand uniformity. Attaching isolated Sikhs in various companies or regiments means lack of uniformity. A separate Sikh regiment will require all Sikhs to wear a turban and therefore look the same. It's part of the uniform and uniforms help instil discipline and order. This was not mentioned. I wish I could have called in but I couldn't get through and thereafter I was busy.

With us Sikhs its about quality not quantity.

I should however, also mention, that it is Paul Uppal MP and Sir Soames MP - two conservative politicians who are urging the MoD. Is this the tories trying to appease the Sikhs over the 1984 debacle I wonder?

Had Winston Churchill been PM in 1947 , Sikhs would have got their own state as he detested the sexual perverts Mohandas Gandhi and Nehru. He thought highly of the Sikhs , the Sikh regiment guarded Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin and De Gaulle at the Yalta summit during WW2, this picture has appeared on recent Facebook sites. It is not a bad thing if the Sikhs get their own regiment which follows Khalsa rules. I have also noticed the trimming of beards in the Indian Sikh regiments.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BMmILi0CUAAdYU1.jpg

[JagsawSingh]

The only way in my opinion that Sikh regiment can be raised is if there recruitment from Punjab. There would be no shortage of eager recruits and they would suddenly start to grow their kesh.

It would be from Punjab, as well as here, as well as Canada or indeed anywhere. Thats how the British Army operates generally. Unlike other nations, you don't have to be British to be in the British Army. The Gurkha Regiment is the obvious template in that Britain recruits directly from Nepal rathet than from the 100,000 strong Nepali Gurkha community in the UK but the British Army as a whole is full of Fijians, Somoans etc.

I have also noticed the trimming of beards in the Indian Sikh regiments.

Its not just the close trmming, which is the obvious norm among Sikh soldiers in India. The thing one really needs to both consider and remember is the effect on all Indian Army soldiers the official declarations during the 1980's and 1990's had on the psychee of the army. Lets never forget how the Indian Army bulletin 'Baat Cheet' (baat cheet special #153) instructed all Indian soldiers to be on the lookout for people who are called 'Amritdharis'. The Indian Army bulletin proclaimed that all Amritdharis are enemies of the nation and any sighting of an amritdhari should be brought to the attention of the authorities at once. In practice, what that meant was that being an amritdhari was more than enough reason for an Indian soldier to shoot you dead. Indeed, for a long time now, the Indian Army and that includes its Sikh Regiment, have been obsessed with amritdharis.:

The Army's obsession with Amritdharis becomes clear for the appeal the Army Gazette had released through Army Headquarters: it was published in Baat Cheet Special No. 153. The Appeal said. "Any knowledge of the Amritdharis who are dangerous people and pledged to commit murders, arson and act of terrorism should immediately be brought to the notice of the authorities. The people might appear harmless from outside but they are basically commited to terrorism. In the interest of all of us their idenity and whereabouts must always be disclosed."

There is no dearth of men who are ready to identify Amrtidharis and disclose their whereabouts. One such Amritdhari's presence in village Sadulal, Amritsar District was reported to the Army. Sohan Singh (32) of Longowal village of Gurdaspur - a small agriculturist had gone with his wife and small daughter to look after the land of his father-in-law who had fallen sick. "Some army men suddenly came to my father's house when we were sitting down to eat and asked my husband if he was an Amritdhari. He said he was a religious Sikh. The army men were abusive, they pulled his beard, opened out his turban and said Sikhs are badmashes, my husband said, "I am a small peasant, it does not matter if people think bad of me." At that those men threw him on the ground and began to beat him badly, then they dragged him out of house and took him in their jeep." The statement was made by his wife. Bhajan Pratap Singh of village Tarseka, Amritsar District, who was in the lock-up next to the rooms where Sohan Singh had been put told us what had happened there, "I could hear him cry and ask for water, I think an employee perhaps was going to give him some water when I heard someone abusing him.

"Is he your ?" Others who were in that camp used to hear him shriek and one day everything was quiet. We came to know that Sohan Singh's eyes had been gouged out and every joint of his body had been broken with steel rods. Later when his body was handed over to his widow and his elder brother Baldev Singh, they found the eyes were not there, the body was just pulp without joints and it had become unusually long, the Army had handed it over to the S.H.O. Jhandiala, District Amritsar, who had entered the case as one of suicide, and before giving the body to them, the police made the widow sign a statement that it was a case of suicide. There was no post-mortem report to prove that the man had died of torture. Sohan Singh's body was brought to his village Longowal and cremated there.

[lsingh]

Even senior Indian Sikh officers have their grey beards trimmed , some even wear turbans as a hat as they have cut their Kesh underneath. I have seen several examples of this.Most of the army officer kids I have seen nowadays are clean shaven Its all to look non religious in front of Hindu officers and therefore not hinder promotions.

[N30S1NGH]

What about this khalsa ji in indian army initially? Looks like full fledged dhari tied not trimmed.

[Guest Jacfsing2]

What about this khalsa ji in indian army initially? Looks like full fledged dhari tied not trimmed.

He's not in the Indian Army, he became a Shaheed at the Akal Takht.

[Guest Jacfsing2]

Brother, the entire basis for this proposed Sikh regiment is that 'the Sikhs served the Empire loyally in the two world wars and fought with skill". The only trouble is we didn't do that. We didn't fight in those two wars with skill and bravery. We have never fought a war in our lives. Our forefathers did, and we Sikhs are still mooching off their legacy, strutting about in the warrior's bana pretending we're still a martial people. That reason aside, what other need is there for a regiment composed entirely of Sikhs? Does anyone seriously think that we would be better fighters now than most other people simply on account of our ancestry? This is the martial race theory at work all over again.

It makes very little sense. People are only talking about it because of some misplaced sense of nostalgia. That sycophant Prince Charles only wanted a Sikh Regiment because its the stuff of his toffish aristocratic fantasies, exotic Sikh warriors dying for king and country.

The reason for a Sikh regiment is because the Sikhs in the military currently look out of place compared to everyone else, also starting a Sikh Regiment will guarantee an increase in youth recruitment with some extra incentives.

[N30S1NGH]

I said intially, he was under indian army under tied dhari. I am just discussing the dress military policy of indian army thats all.