Bhangra, giddha, Punjabi culture vs sikhi

[akaaliKhalsa1699]

Today I see many people mix Punjabi culture things with sikhi. Like I personally think that Bhangra, giddha and other things like this aren’t related to sikhi and aren’t allowed for Sikh to do. People need to understand that being Punjabi is different than being a Sikh. Do u guys think that Bhangra and giddha r forbidden in sikhi?? I wanna hear sum more people’s vichar in this

[MisterrSingh]

Damaging cultural anti-Sikh practices such as foeticide, dowry, and casteism need to be eliminated. Don't destroy the colourful aspects of our collective character. I don't personally like dancing or any of that crap myself, but as you get older and you look at culture as a subject that informs a unique group's identity, you cannot, or at least shouldn't, eradicate harmless "rang-brang" under the auspices of religious autocracy. The problem arrives when things are indulged in to excess, and that's a problem for Sikhs, because we are prone to extremes. It's a flaw in our character. 

I don't like this Sharia-esque mentality of khattar Sikhs. I'm one myself in certain respects but I know when to pull back and see the bigger picture. Unfortunately, the low-IQ hot-heads are unknowingly sowing the seeds for rebellion against their cause before they've even laid the first brick of the foundations of their movement. If you can't trace the evolution and subsequent stages of a scenario where this type of censorship will be rallied against by your own people who don't share your religious devotion, then you don't deserve what you're aiming for. Open a history book. History is littered with such examples.

Wake up and focus on REAL problems facing Sikhs; that require intelligence and tenacity to tackle, not superfluous, easy side issues that don't matter.

[dallysingh101]

That barndancing stuff has gone way too far in my opinion. When outsiders start to define our people by these things, you know something is going wrong. There was a time not long ago when random people, seeing your kara, would say: "Are you Panjabi?" and then start pointing upwards and moving their shoulders up and down, going "balle balle". It's clownish. 

I'm not saying that it should be banned, but the central role this type of crap plays in our society right now is damaging. It's shallow, looks gay and is usually craftily wrapped around insidious ideas of caste.

We need to be going in another direction altogether.

When younguns are going to 'Vasakhi celebrations', and generally getting the idea of it being a good ole knees-up, missing all the important themes of Khalsa (sacrifice, unity, bravery, honour, equality, political and social self-assertion, military confidence etc.) that define our dharam and helped our ancestors overcome unbelievable challenges, we are just dumbing them down and failing to impart any identity of depth to them. When we have our young girls dancing around on stages for all to gawp at (like what commonly happens these days), it just encourages the stereotype of wantonness and dumbness to communities who like to infiltrate these events but would never allow their own daughters/sisters to act this way. 

Let's not even talk about the whole drunkard thing wrapped around this culture too.......

   

[MisterrSingh]

39 minutes ago, dallysingh101 said:

 There was a time not long ago when random people, seeing your kara, would say: "Are you Panjabi?" and then start pointing upwards and moving their shoulders up and down, going "balle balle". It's clownish. 

Maybe they thought they could clown you because they could get away with it?  

[Ranjeet01]

1 hour ago, dallysingh101 said:

That barndancing stuff has gone way too far in my opinion. When outsiders start to define our people by these things, you know something is going wrong. There was a time not long ago when random people, seeing your kara, would say: "Are you Panjabi?" and then start pointing upwards and moving their shoulders up and down, going "balle balle". It's clownish. 

I'm not saying that it should be banned, but the central role this type of crap plays in our society right now is damaging. It's shallow, looks gay and is usually craftily wrapped around insidious ideas of caste.

We need to be going in another direction altogether.

When younguns are going to 'Vasakhi celebrations', and generally getting the idea of it being a good ole knees-up, missing all the important themes of Khalsa (sacrifice, unity, bravery, honour, equality, political and social self-assertion, military confidence etc.) that define our dharam and helped our ancestors overcome unbelievable challenges, we are just dumbing them down and failing to impart any identity of depth to them. When we have our young girls dancing around on stages for all to gawp at (like what commonly happens these days), it just encourages the stereotype of wantonness and dumbness to communities who like to infiltrate these events but would never allow their own daughters/sisters to act this way. 

Let's not even talk about the whole drunkard thing wrapped around this culture too.......

   

This is the kind of barnyard I like yee-haw!! 

[dallysingh101]

10 hours ago, MisterrSingh said:

Maybe they thought they could clown you because they could get away with it?  

It's really not that complicated. Pendus had made that balle balle culture so synonymous with Sikhs in the past, that even eastern europeans and other whites corelated the two (barn dance culture and Sikhs). Now that culture might be your culture (?) but it isn't the culture of a lot of Sikhs, and even with this, many Sikhs from this background don't really identify with all that colourful prancing about anyway. Remember this recently?

https://m.timesofindia.com/city/amritsar/sikh-and-punjabi-culture-different-takht-jathedar/amp_articleshow/73468164.cms

[dallysingh101]

The link between Sikhs and bhangra/giddah should be even less prominent than the link between english people and this poncey crap:

 

They don't exactly define themselves by their own barn dancing culture - some of our lot need to learn a lesson or two from this. Bwaaahhhh!!

[MisterrSingh]

1 minute ago, dallysingh101 said:

It's really not that complicated. Pendus had made that balle balle culture so synonymous with Sikhs in the past, that even eastern europeans and other whites corelated the two (barn dance culture and Sikhs). Now that culture might be your culture (?) but it isn't the culture of a lot of Sikhs, and even with this, many Sikhs from this background don't really identify with all that colourful prancing about anyway. Remember this recently?

https://m.timesofindia.com/city/amritsar/sikh-and-punjabi-culture-different-takht-jathedar/amp_articleshow/73468164.cms

True say. I also can't stand the excessive clowning around. I have come to value the sombre, authentic village depictions of it, which are comparatively tolerable to, say, the obnoxious diaspora interpretations of it all.

[dallysingh101]

1 hour ago, MisterrSingh said:

True say. I also can't stand the excessive clowning around. I have come to value the sombre, authentic village depictions of it, which are comparatively tolerable to, say, the obnoxious diaspora interpretations of it all.

Yeah, some of our indigenous culture has turned into some unrecognisable, out of control, embarrassing beast in the diaspora. The ostentation our lot frequently display is cringeworthy.......garish, superfluous - the very opposite of restrained. 

 

We need to get serious in an increasingly unpredictable world too. I mean look at these brothers currently in the US:

Rooftop Sikhs supporting Black Lives Matter while protecting their business

  

[MisterrSingh]

3 minutes ago, dallysingh101 said:

Yeah, some of our indigenous culture has turned into some unrecognisable, out of control, embarrassing beast in the diaspora. The ostentation our lot frequently display is cringeworthy.......garish, superfluous - the very opposite of restrained. 

I use to think the obnoxious materialism was perhaps an exclusively Punjabi trait, but having dug a little deeper in recent months, I've realised it's very much an Indian trait regardless of regional geography. It just manifests in different forms according to the common cultural traits of the group in question. Unfortunately for us, it's all-too in your face, and difficult to avoid.