PUNJABI by nature

You’re looking at an endangered species: Yes, a Sardar with a turban and moustache in the Jat dominated rural peasantry is exactly that? According to a 2005 Outlook report, Sikh organizations engaged in saving the turban estimated that about 80 per cent of the Sikh youth in rural Punjab have cut their hair and discarded their headgear. This trend has shot up, post 9/11 as the Punjabi farmer heads to South America and Africa too. Some blame the ... more 

You’re looking at an endangered species: Yes, a Sardar with a turban and moustache in the Jat dominated rural peasantry is exactly that? According to a 2005 Outlook report, Sikh organizations engaged in saving the turban estimated that about 80 per cent of the Sikh youth in rural Punjab have cut their hair and discarded their headgear. This trend has shot up, post 9/11 as the Punjabi farmer heads to South America and Africa too. Some blame the politicization of the Sikh clergy in losing their voice with Punjab’s young. With a Sikh ban on intoxicants, yet high drug and alcohol use in the state, shaving hair is seen as a physical conversion. ‘Kesh, kada, kirpan, kangha and kachha'— The 5 Ks made mandatory by Guru Gobind Singh for all Sikhs is also being contested as something never mentioned by the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak. The religious view is minus the locks, the Sikh is considered an apostate. The Mona Sardar, a term for one with a shorn crest, was once a minority. No longer true in India, even as Sikh identity is celebrated in non-resident pockets of Punjabiyat. less