Sikhs to get ethnic status in British census forms in 2021.

[jkvlondon]

22 hours ago, KhoonKaBadlaKhoon said:

Not saying anything against this. But is this basically just to say we are not Indian? 

 

Just speaking on census though, US Sikhs need to do something to for next census, so we can get an idea of Sikh population there. Numbers range from 100,000-700,000 lol.

given that we never agreed to the Indian Constitution techniquely are we Indian? Given that we were born to be sikhs before anything else and that is where our first loyalty lies I see no wrong in calling ourselves sikhs ethnically since we have our own culture, written language /literature , History as a seperate nation prior to the Raj ... we have no real commonality with the ethos of brahmin led majority barring being humans. 

[KhoonKaBadlaKhoon]

8 hours ago, puzzled said:

what about all the illegal immigrants from Punjab? i don't think they are included in the census ? If they are then then our population would be a lot higher. places like slough, hounslow, hayes, southal etc are full of fojis lol 

Pretty sure no census includes illegals. 

6 hours ago, jkvlondon said:

given that we never agreed to the Indian Constitution techniquely are we Indian? Given that we were born to be sikhs before anything else and that is where our first loyalty lies I see no wrong in calling ourselves sikhs ethnically since we have our own culture, written language /literature , History as a seperate nation prior to the Raj ... we have no real commonality with the ethos of brahmin led majority barring being humans. 

I wasn't disagreeing with it. Just questioning their logic is on same page as mine. 

[FreshMind13]

Just Punjabi should be added, a census should never ask for religion one follows (reminds me of what Hitler did).

This would also leave non-Punjabi Sikhs in a odd position, do they chose their actual race or their religion?

[Ranjeet01]

Hindus in Punjab could not even be bothered to put down Punjabi as their mother tongue in India and yet we are worried that we should be Punjabi as an ethnicity instead of Sikh?

[FreshMind13]

18 hours ago, Ranjeet01 said:

Hindus in Punjab could not even be bothered to put down Punjabi as their mother tongue in India

Exactly, I expect Hindu Punjabi's outside of India will do the same thing, as they more identify with being Indian than Punjabi.

Your first point contradicts your second point of Sikhs being an ethnicity, because as you have stated, majority of people putting down Punjabi will be Sikh.

You can guess that 90%+ of people will be "Sikh" as the Hindus wont put Punjabi down.

[Ranjeet01]

54 minutes ago, FreshMind13 said:

Exactly, I expect Hindu Punjabi's outside of India will do the same thing, as they more identify with being Indian than Punjabi.

Your first point contradicts your second point of Sikhs being an ethnicity, because as you have stated, majority of people putting down Punjabi will be Sikh.

You can guess that 90%+ of people will be "Sikh" as the Hindus wont put Punjabi down.

What I meant with is Punjabi is synonmous with Sikh whether we like it or not.

Having Sikh as an ethnic group is what we are. We are a nation. That is how we are seen, let's tick that box. 

In 2021, more Sikhs will tick that box and it will be higher in 2031 

 

 

[proactive]

The fact that Census authorities in the UK are suggesting that Sikhs get an ethnic tick box in the next census and the fake news Indian media has started to claim that there is no consensus for this among Sikhs shows that it is a correct step. No doubt the Indian govt is also getting its lobbyists out in force to try and force the British govt to not give us as ethnic tick box. Rather that showing disunity the so-called Sikh leaders like Lord Inderjit Singh should accept that this a demand of a majority of Sikhs and not become barriers to Sikhs getting their rights.

We need to be realistic about this issue. Those who claim that we won't get converts because potential converts may be put off because they will view us as an ethnic group and not as a universalist religion need to understand some reality. Firstly if someone has made up their mind that Sikhi meets all their spiritual needs then it's doubtful then that person will take a step back just because a census taken every 10 years classes a Sikh as an ethnic minority. The advantages of being classed as an ethnic minority far outweighs the disadvantages. For the first time government bodies will have to count the number of Sikhs working in or seeking employment in the public as well as private sector. We will then be able to measure the amount of discrimination that we face and have real evidence rather than anecdotal evidence. Government departments will need to show how they are making sure that Sikhs receive their share of government social funding. This not the case now and as always we get ignored when it comes to the distribution of funding. 

When it comes to these kind of issues there is never a 100% correct solution. Those stating that Sikhs are not an ethnic group should then be consistent and be protesting against the classification of various ethnic groups like Gujaratis, Tamils, Bengalis etc who now have to tick the Indian tick box to list their ethnicity as Indian! So are prepared to accept Indian as an ethnic group which encompasses people who have neither speak the same language and have completely different cultures but don't want to class people who have 99% the same language and culture and religion!

 

 

 

 

[FreshMind13]

2 hours ago, Ranjeet01 said:

What I meant with is Punjabi is synonmous with Sikh whether we like it or not.

Having Sikh as an ethnic group is what we are. We are a nation. That is how we are seen, let's tick that box. 

In 2021, more Sikhs will tick that box and it will be higher in 2031

I agree would should have a box to tick (I'm from the U.S., so its going to take a while here to get added) but I believe we should keep it correct. Sikh isn't a ethnicity/race. It is a Dharam/Religion/Way of Life/etc. Punjabi is the correct term to be used in the Census.

But the thing is though, we can assume that pretty much everyone who put Punjabi on the Census will most likely be a Sikh, so it works both ways.

[Ranjeet01]

34 minutes ago, FreshMind13 said:

I agree would should have a box to tick (I'm from the U.S., so its going to take a while here to get added) but I believe we should keep it correct. Sikh isn't a ethnicity/race. It is a Dharam/Religion/Way of Life/etc. Punjabi is the correct term to be used in the Census.

But the thing is though, we can assume that pretty much everyone who put Punjabi on the Census will most likely be a Sikh, so it works both ways.

This is the UK we are talking about here though.

Sikhs have been seen by law as separate identity since the 1970's. 

The census tick box is a natural progression of that.

[FreshMind13]

2 hours ago, Ranjeet01 said:

This is the UK we are talking about here though.

Sikhs have been seen by law as separate identity since the 1970's. 

The census tick box is a natural progression of that.

Yea, I'm not too familiar with how things are across the pond.

I do know a Gora Singh in the UK who recently took Amrit after a few years of learning about Sikhi, he said it would put him in a dilemma on what box should he tick.

It's these type of situations, where a non-Punjabi Sikh has to do the census where it gets confusing.