INDIA: Sikhs celebrated "World Turban Day" yesterday in a bid to spread international awareness about their religion after several community members were attacked and even killed in the US after being mistaken for Taliban fundamentalists following 9/11.
Sikh leaders asked community members to initiate local campaigns to inform Western communities about the significance of the turban in their religion. They called on Sikhs to wear the traditional hand-tied turbans rather than the casual, bandana-like casual "half" or "under" turbans.
For Sikhs, the turban and the kesh, or uncut hair, beneath it symbolise love and obedience to the wishes of its founders over 500 years ago. It is also an emblem of sovereignty, dedication, self-respect, courage and piety of the martial people.
"The idea behind Turban Day is to try and tackle the suspicion and hatred directed against turban-wearing (and long bearded) Sikhs in the West," Manjit Singh Calcutta, head of Sikhism's High Church, said in the north Indian holy city of Amritsar.
He added that the recent "uninformed" decision by the French government imposing a ban on wearing religious symbols, including turbans, stemmed from "ignorance" about Sikh religious customs and traditions.
"Sikhs do not wear a turban as another would don a hat. For us, the turban is not a headgear either to be put on or taken off at will, but a part of us that completes our whole being and body," retired Maj Gen Himmat Singh Gill said.
Community leaders selected April 13th as Turban Day as it coincides with Baisakhi, the festival that marks the formal establishment of Sikhism in 1699 by Gobind Singh, the last of 10 gurus. Sikhism was founded in the 15th century by the visionary peasant Nanak Bedi as a casteless religion preaching equality.
For over 22.5 million Sikhs including around 800,000 in the West (mostly in the US, Canada and Britain), Baisakhi is celebrated as a "collective birthday" with prayer services, fetes and religious parades complete with horse drawn carriages and sword-yielding bands of "warriors".
In the Sikh homeland of northern Punjab state, the day also signals the start of the wheat harvest season.