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Young Sikhs opt for Bollywood hairstyles
Tuesday,
April
03,
2007
First
they
did
it
in
1984
from
fear
of
being
targets
of
public
backlash
following
the
assassination
of
Indira
Gandhi.
Now
they
are
at
it
again,
but
for
fashion.
Young
Sikhs
are
abandoning
the
turban
in
favour
of
'Bollywood
haircuts'.
The
younger
generation
of
the
community
is
doing
away
with
Sikhism's
most
distinguishing
symbol,
the
turban.
They
are
abandoning
the
traditional
headwear
and
the
elaborate
ceremony
of
maintaining
long
hair
and
knotting
it
in
six
yards
of
starched
cotton.
"Across
Punjab
a
large
number
of
Sikh
youth
have
cut
their
hair
and,
sadly,
the
turban-tying
ceremony
for
teenage
boys
has
also
become
rare,
even
in
villages" lamented
Avtar
Singh
Makkar,
a
senior
clergyman.
As a result barbers in rural Punjab who historically had to supplement their incomes due to lack of customers, are now back in business. Cutting the hair renders a Sikh apostate, or "pati". But many boys are now copying the hairstyles of Bollywood stars.
Alarmed by the trend, Sikhism's leading religious group, the SGPC, has declared the April 13 harvest festival of Baisakhi as International Sikh Turban Day.
In addition, two turban-tying schools have been set up in the community's holiest city of Amritsar, and a competition to select "Mr Singh International", is expected to attract widespread participation.
Every region in Punjab has its own unique style of tying a turban, with each claiming theirs to be the best, and 'Mr Singh' contestants are to be judged on how stylishly their headgear is tied.
The reigning champion, Navjot Singh Sidhu, an MP and former cricketer, recently held a procession in Amritsar to instill a sense of pride among Sikh youth.
Overseas campaigns are also on to 'dignify' the headgear in the backdrop of acts of violence against the Sikhs in the West where they are often mistaken to be members of the Taliban, who also sport turbans.
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