This article of Mr. Baldev Singh is written with a good taste, meaning
that the reader will walk away thinking about something on "Hindus" and
"Hinduism" that is not talked about openly. This article will not be
printed by any Hindu publication and that should give a glimpse into the
mindset of the Hindu propaganda machine.
Many thanks for you review on the above film. No doubt...
Many thanks for you review on the above film. No doubt there are shortcomings, but positive criticism will help us in future to do better. Presently we are working to repackage GGS on the 400th commemoration next year
1. To add another audio track in French language.
2. To include a booklet giving all the background material as you have suggested in your review.
We are seeking advice from scholars, what can be included to give all the supplementary information, please let us know if you have any suggestions.
Regards
Joginder S. Kalsi
www.punjabimart.com
I'm in complete agreement with Dr. Baldev Singh...
I'm in complete agreement with Dr. Baldev Singh regarding Mcleod's misinterpretations. I had heard a lot about his controversial writngs. This article has proved one of those.
I am glad that you are bringing out a Second Edition...
I am glad that you are bringing out a Second Edition of the French version. I am available to assist you in any manner.
May I suggest if you can add Spanish track also. It will be very useful, as Spanish is fast becoming the second language in USA and Sikhs hardly have anything in that language. It is a very urgent need.
My comments are in your appreciation and in the spirit of making a very good product still better.
I have come to learn that the movie "mistaken identity" has two
versions...one which is shown to the Sikhs to raise money, the other
(which depicts Sikhs becoming non-Sikhs)will be used for TV airing. Do you
know how to guard against this kind of double versions?
Editor-- We passed this comment to Vinanti Sarkar. This is what she has to say:
May we ask first and foremost, Have you seen the film yourself ?
As the director and producer of the film, I would like to explain the fact
that documentary "Mistaken Identity" was produced exclusively for mainstream
America and non-Sikhs worldwide to understand the Sikh people, Sikhism as the
5th
largest religion on the world and how Sikh Americans have contributed to the
economy of this country for over 100 years.
If you have seen the film you will understand how and why 23-year old Amanda
Gesine prompted us to produce a film on Sikhs - because she knew nothing about
them - like so many educated Americans. She, too, was greatly disturbed by
the senseless shooting of Balbir Singh Sodhi following the tragic events of
9/11. Her mission was to educate mainstream America about Sikhs and their
positive
role in today's American society.
At the start, we were promised funding from four to five major Sikh groups -
but the checks never arrived, except for the first check from the
honorable members of the Punjabi American Heritage Society in Yuba City and
later the
Yuba City gurdwara. Instead of completing the film in 3-4 months,
it took us over 9 months to complete. This was followed by Amanda's tragic
accident, which left everyone involved with the project devastated.
The film became her legacy - "Mistaken Identity" was her story - asking for
tolerance and understanding of her Sikh neighbors. Yet, the financial editing
portion of the film's production was accomplished through independent means.
We did not receive much support from the Sikh community, and the film was
completed with funding from Chinese, Taiwanese, UK and American investors, who
expressed much more interest than the Sikhs in promoting "cultural diversity in
America". Thus, through angel investors, we ended up with two to three
different versions of the film -- 28 min., 40 min., and 56 min., as well as
trying to
complete an edit for schools for the sake of more understanding of Sikh
children.
So, there are about 4-5 versions of Mistaken Identity on the market. We have
encountered one particular Sikh from California, who invested in his own
edited version of our film, as pure piracy without permission from the producers
-
and has been distributing it to Sikh institutions, since Baishaki, when he had
promised and pretended to work with us. We tried to stop him with legal
notice, without no avail. Sadly, we believe the honor code of Sikhs is no longer
valid in America - only the worship of the green dollar bill.
To date, due to the lack of unified and public support from both the Sikh
community and other Asian Indian Americans, we may not be able to air the three
time award winning documentary (from American film festivals) on television.
Though the film has received high acclaims from non-Indian film festivals, we
have removed its distribution from the TV market. Despite the wonderful awards
for BEST DOCUMENTARY, CREATIVE EXCELLENCE, and DIRECTOR DEBUT, Sikh Americans
have not recognized its importance and value to the American media. The impact
of the film reaches beyond current programming needs, yet aims to educate
popular
America in hopes of preventing future tragedies such as the shooting of
Balbir Singh Sodhi and the most recent killing of 21 year old taxi driver in
California on 13 September 2003.
We cannot control the piracy ironically committed by massive duplication of
the film among the Sikh community.. But I do challenge you, as a Sikh
American, to support our cause, if you believe in the long term effects of
educating
this country about Sikh culture. I graciously offer to speak to any single
person who doubts the merits of this film only after you have seen the released
film and kindly ask you to voice your concerns about its public airing, before
the film is "shelved" due to bankruptcy. Support the ignorance and fear of
Sikhs in America for the sake of Sikh children.
A request to S. Baldev Singh to write a supplement to this awesome
article on Gandhi. He should cover the "Bedroom Experiments of Gandhi", in
the context of Michael Jackson who is in the news these days.
I agree that Adam Harvey's comments are untrue. It is a very good example
of a reporter having limited knowledge about the subject and then making
sweeping generalizations. Rashmere Bhatti is the epitome of the modern
Sikh women especially in the diaspora.
Migrant parent's, with a strong Punjabi Sikh background, growing up in a
culturally based community, educated, with a strong affiliation and respect for
the cultural background and the Sikh religion including the institutions of arranged
marriage, religious worship, sewa, participation in promting and
developing an understanding of the Sikh faith, dedication to a career in
social work and community development and achieving significant outcomes
for the region. Excellent public image and procative in cross-cultural
awareness. The summary obviously speaks for itself.
Is Khalistan still a member of UNPO or not? It is never included in the
up-to-date lists.
I would like to know about the circumstances of...
-Avinty Lanaikey, Czech Republic
Below are comments from Avinty Lanaikey
Place: Uherske Hradiste, Czech Republic
Editor-- Avinty copied us this email which he sent to UNPO. If anyone has the answer to his question you can let us know and we will forward it to him. Or, if you know of someone who can answer his question, please send us his/her email and we will forward it to Avinty.
To: UNPO - Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
Representatives of UNPO,
I would like to know about the circumstances of the admission of
Khalistan into UNPO and the subsequent relations.
If I know, however from unconfirmed reports, Khalistan (Council of
Khalistan) was admitted, at first, but its admission was reversed
later. It was even said to be because of pressure by India.
I would wish if this were not so, because otherwise it would highly
devalue your organization. It would be of dismay if an organization
like UNPO made such concessions to imperialist occupation
powers like India. India has a fascist oppressive regime, with no
marks of democracy (which it pretends), it is shameful to resign
from its pressure.
In case it was really so and UNPO denounce the membership of
Khalistan, I request you emphatically to restore the membership of Khalistan and accept
the council of Khalistan a a representative of the Sikh nation.
Otherwise, there will be a necessity for an establishment of an
alternative to UNPO, associating oppressed, non-self-governing and
unrecognized nations without any bias and concessions to
expansionist powers. If UNPO rejects the admission of a national
representation it constitutes a second discrimination: firstly such a
nation is banned from United Nations, secondly banned from
UNPO. As you may understand, this would really require another
organization - alternative to both UN and UNPO.
I hope that UNPO will find enough courage to respond to this e-mail.
If this is not so and the membership of Khalistan was not rejected I
apology for my inconvenience.
This is absolute rubbish. Try to see the facts with your own eyes before
you write something like this. First I thought its from a Islamic website,
but I was stunned to see it from a sikh website. Its really unfortunate
that people like you have wrong notions about a great organization.
Editor-- The article is factual and there are references available including the names and contact information of its authors. If you feel that these facts are wrong then send us an article that contests these facts with references and contact information and we will publish it in the next issue that will go online on February 1, 2004. Thank you for your interest in SikhSpectrum.com.
For writing guidelines please visit http://www.sikhspectrum.com/forwriters.asp
This Bengali must quit writing, and our battle....
This Bengali must quit writing, and our battle against Islam must
continue, and must gain a tremendous force. Remember, we have not got back
our Sindhu yet. And, in the land of Sindh, today, Hindus are weeping in
tear. And, here in India, in this wasted land of slaves and dhimmis, we
are making the next plan to help Pakistanis and Bengalis to Islamise India.
But, far in the north-east corner of Bharat(India), a strong army of Hindus are
brewing up: the army of Lachit. And, soon we are going to change the
course of slave India to master India.
Here is a reality calling for all those
journalist and politicians who are dreaming to Islamise India. The real
fight against Islam has been always done by Hindus: and we have not come
to the end yet. The way you Islamise Sindh, Persia, Arabia and Egypt, by
terror and war, the way you suddenly erupted from the desert of Arabia to
storm into the heartland of Asia, the Hindutva force is preparing the
reverse flow of war: our energy, our determination is to crush Islam, and
recover the land of Persia, Arabia and Egypt from you. The battle has just
started. And, more is coming.
And those Bengalis who had not won a single war in their last
1000 years of slave history, you are soon goiing to be destroyed by the
warmonger of Kamrupa. We defeated Moghul 18 times, and Lachit send a big
army of Moghul bleeding like hell. Now, the great Hindutva army of Kamrupa
is preparing for its next battle against this new Moghul, the Indian
secularist. This war, I tell you, is goign to change India and the world.
Editor-- We appreciate your comments and sentiments. If you would like to provide facts to justify your claims please feel free to write an article for publication in our next issue.
Our readers are intelligent men and women and we would appreciate if you acknowledge our desire to publish views that have been intelligently written whatever those views might be. Thank you for your interest in SikhSpectrum.com.
For writing guidelines please visit http://www.sikhspectrum.com/forwriters.asp
I need not know what RSS is by reading articles....
-Ramesh, India
Below are comments from Ramesh
Place: Bangalore, India
Editor-- As requested before please do write your views in a detailed article, and we will publish it on SikhSpectrum.com.
Sikhs are expected to respect all people without any distinction and this is the reason why most Sikhs have rejected the views of RSS that consistently spreads misinformation about Sikhism. There have been many news reports on the
rejection of RSS and its chief Sudarshan by Sikhs (see the news reports below). If you think these protests were unfounded then please do send us your arguments in the form of an article. I hope you will
respect our desire to keep SikhSpectrum.com an intellectual magazine with intelligently written articles. We appreciate your cooperation and hope you will acknowledge this request.
For writing guidelines please visit http://www.sikhspectrum.com/forwriters.asp
I need not know what RSS is by reading articles or news papers.
I am born and brought up in a Sangh family.
We strongly beleive Sikhs are our brothers and I never saw them different.
What I mean was, to me Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains all are same to me unlike
Muslims and Chrirstians who don't believe in the fundamental of "Live and Let
Live". I have a strong respect for Sikhs and I just think the RSS chief
meant the same and it was un-necessarily misinterpreted and the all the fuss
about is definitely political.
RSS is not a communal organization, just see the kind of social service they
do and unlike the missionaries , the administritative overhead in the RSS
run organizations is less than 5%. Don't be carried away by the stupid
propaganda of the Indian Marxist Media about this great organization.
Its easy to criticize someone, but the greatness of a person lies in
understanding and appreciating the greatness of others. I can put before you
enough proofs to say how RSS is different than the way its projected to be.
The country and all its citizens owe a lot to Doctorji and Guruji who
created the close to 10 million SwayamSevaks (Patriots) in the country
today.
Come to Bangalore and I would love to show you the projects run by RSS and
Sangh affiliates. Unfortunately RSS is fighting a battle with its own
countrymen.
Recently Hindu Samajotsav happened here in Bangalore and I saw atleast 15-20
sikhs attending it (there would have been hundreds, but I saw atleast 15-20
sikhs in that crowd of 1.25 lakh people).
So even Sikhs agree and feel that they are part of Hindustan, you people just
acted no different from Congressmen and made the RSS cheifs comment
political.
And one thing, writing these sort of articles about Sangh, I am sure you
can't do any damage to Sangh's image atleast in the view of its strong 10
million SwayamSevaks.
--Ramesh
Swords greet RSS chief Sudarshan in Chandigarh
The Asian Age, April 20, 2000
By Our Special Corespondent Chandigarh, April 29
Sikh women and men belonging to some 20 different religious, social and political organisations, brandished kirpans (swords) and chanted angry “ban RSS” slogans outside the Chandigarh venue where Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh chief K.S. Sudarshan arrived to address a conclave of the RSS sister organization, Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, on Saturday.
Referring to the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat as “a bastard child of the RSS,” Kanwarpal Singh of the Dal Khalsa and Jagmohan Singh of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) said that ?for the past one year RSS activists have embarked upon a dangerous design to subsume Sikh religion into Hinduism.
Towards this objective, they have been publishing and distributing highly communal propaganda material of the kind that the Nirankaris did during the late 1970s. The setting up of the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat and by organizing conclaves, they are now attempting to infiltrate into Sikh religion.?
Insisting that “Sikhs are a separate nation, and any attempt to change this status in word or indeed, will be contested and resisted,” the leaders of the protesting Sikhs warned that “though Sikhs are a peace-loving and god-fearing people, when all peaceful methods fail, then, as ordained by Guru Gobind Singh, “it is righteous to take to the sword.””
They said that “if the RSS is permitted to continue with its nefarious activities in Punjab, this will inevitably sooner or later lead to violent communal clashes in the state.” The protesters sought “a complete and immediate ban on the RSS in Punjab to prevent the situation from deteriorating any further.” Five senior leaders among the protesting Sikhs also courted arrest in order to drive home their point.
Meanwhile, at the venue of the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat conclave inside the Sarvhitkari School in Chandigarh’s Sector 40, the organisers claimed that as many as 90 of the 100 invited delegates had arrived from all over Punjab to participate in the conclave.
Reflecting quite a contrary sentiment to that on the street outside, the Sangat president, Mr Charanjit Singh, publicly honored RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan and thanked him and his organization for spreading the word of Sikhism.
Mr Sudarshan proclaimed that “in the firm belief that religion unites and politics divides people, the RSS has based a lot of its activities on the teachings of the Gurubani.” Proclaiming that “Sikhs and Hindus shared their culture and traditions,” he said that the RSS is working hard to revive the old custom where the eldest son of every Hindu family was raised as a Sikh. He also proclaimed the 10th Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh, as “a national hero.”
The dark mood of the protestors outside left hardly any doubt of the mean job that the RSS has ahead of it in Punjab. And this is despite, as the protesters say, the Parkash Singh Badal government’s patronage of the Hindu organization.
RSS remark ominous for Punjab -- PM told by minorities panel
RITU SARIN
NEW DELHI, JANUARY 8: The Minorities Commission has conveyed its concern to the Prime Minister over the ``anti-Sikh'' remarks of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leaders. The RSS brass has been called on January 16 for its first encounter with the Commission. According to sources, the outfit's attack on Sikhs, Muslims and Christians will be discussed.
The Commission's Vice Chairman, Tarlochan Singh, who says the RSS's attempt to amalgamate the Hindu and Sikh religions could pose a ``serious threat'' to peace in Punjab, recently held a meeting with Atal Behari Vajpayee on the issue. He had earlier written a letter to him saying RSS chief K S Sudarshan was silent on the subject and had not withdrawn his inflammatory statements.
The letter to the PM says an ``uncalled for'' controversy has been generated by the RSS statements that the Sikhs were a part of Hindu religion. ``The hardliners amongst the Sikhs were lying low after peace prevailed in Punjab. Now these groups have got an agenda and are going on organising meetings and protests in the state and have also been accusing Prakash Singh Badal and Gurcharan Singh Tohra of keeping silent on the issue,'' Tarlochan Singh said.
The Minorities Commission despatched a second letter to Sudarshan on New Year's Day, asking him to take ``immediate action'' to defuse the issue. It read: ``During all these months, the problem has not been solved, but due to other statements the problem has been aggravated. The Sikh minority community leaders have been issuing statements alleging that there is some conspiracy going on and there is a threat to the community's identity. Even the Jathedar of the Akal Takht, who occupies the highest religious seat, has taken notice of these statements.''
Its first letter to Sudarshan as early as on April 11 stated: ``It is reported that it is being publicly said that the Sikhs are a part of the Hindu religion. Such pronouncements are interpreted by the Sikhs as (being) hostile to the Sikh religion and identity.'' There has been no reply from the RSS to any of the missives from the Minorities Commission.
Tarlochan Singh says all members of the Commission are unanimous on initiating this action and claims that the RSS leaders have agreed with him verbally but its chief had not responded. ``Everyone is aware of what happened in Punjab in the eighties and nobody should try and create bad blood again,'' Tarlochan Singh warned. ``Sudarshan should withdraw the statement he made earlier and recognise that Sikhism is a separate religion and Sikhs a separate identity. After all, the whole controversy began with the first statement made by Sudarshan himself.''
It was on June 30 that Sudarshan joined issue with right-wing Sikh organisations and asserted that Sikhism was a panth of Hinduism. He had added that after accusing the RSS of being anti-Muslim and anti-Christian, some ``forces'' had launched a propaganda to dub the RSS as anti-Sikh.
Soon the Akalis go into the act and began voicing concern about how the RSS was preparing the ground for the BJP to emerge as an alternative to the Akali leadership in Punjab.
Tarlochan Singh says it is now imperative for the Minorities Commission to step in and therefore the invitation to RSS leaders for a meeting on January 16.
CHANDIGARH Oct. 11, 2003. The speech of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad general secretary, Praveen Togadia, in Amritsar on Friday has provoked various organisations including political parties. The Central and State Governments have been asked to initiate action as the utterances carried potential to disturb the delicate communal balance in the State.
According to reports, Mr. Togadia, in his speech at a function to mobilise participation for the October 17 rally at Ayodhya, is reported to have remarked that like all Brahmins, all Sikhs were also Hindus first. He even accused secularism of being the worst hurdle in achieving the target of a "Hindu rashtra".
Reacting to Mr. Togadia's utterances, the president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and senior Akali leader, G.S. Tohra, said Sikhs did not need any certificate for their identity, which had been bestowed on them by their Tenth master, Guru Gobind Singh. It was unfortunate that even after having made the greatest sacrifices for achieving and then guarding the country's freedom, Sikhs were being provoked unnecessarily. Mr. Tohra said it had been accepted the world over that Sikhs had an identity of their own, they followed a different faith and had an independent religious as well as cultural practices. He warned that utterances made by leaders like Mr. Togadia smacked of a mischief and appealed to all Punjabis in general and Sikhs in particular to defeat the design.
The general secretary of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Kanwaljit Singh, said there was absolutely no reason to disturb the sentiments of any minority community. Under the Constitution, each community was guaranteed freedom to follow its religious beliefs, and it should be left to the members of the sects to decide about their identity and religious thought. He appealed to the people of the State to avoid any reactions to any provocation.Kanwarpal Singh Bittu, general secretary of the radical Sikh organisation Dal Khalsa, said the RSS and the VHP had been regularly insulting the Sikh identity and were deliberately compelling the community to take drastic steps.
He warned that if such organisations did not end their mischief making machinery, Sikhs in defence of their faith, would have to react in a manner, for which the Sangh Parivar would be solely responsible.
Appealing to the veteran leaders like Mr. Tohra and the former Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal, to stop submitting to the forces of "Hindutava", Mr. Bittu also urged the Sikh community to give up brahmanical rituals.
Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs are treated the same as....
-Ramesh, India
Below are comments from Ramesh
Place: Bangalore, India
Here is the second shloka from Ekatmata Mantra sung by Millions of Swayam
Sevaks across the world everyday.
Saivayamisam Siva itya vocham, Em vaishnava vishnu ritushnuvanti,
Budha stadarhan iti boudha jaina, sat sri akaleticha sikhasantaha
Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs are treated the same as Hindus by RSS. Now I get
a doubt that either your site is run by communists or atleast Congress men.
Coming to Asian Age and Indian Express articles, I know what they write.
They are pure marxists. Hindu and Times of India are no different. I stopped
buying them long back vexed with their biased stand on BJP/RSS/VHP. Local
and regional news papers are the best and try to present facts without bias.
I neither want to visit your site again nor continue this thread.
Bye,
--Ramesh
Editor--There is no need to make allegations against any newspaper, magazine or a website unless you have enough evidence to support it.
You are welcome to write why you feel that SikhSpectrum.com is run by "communists or atleast Congress men", and we will publish your views for our readers to read and evaluate. Regarding other newspapers from India, namely
Indian Express, Times of India, Hindu, and Asian Age we suggest that you contact their editorial board and let them know of your views regarding the quality of their news reporting.
There is nothing wrong in reporting facts on human rights abuses and communal violence. Though we feel welcome by the thought that RSS would like to consider Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs as Hindus, this should only be in the spirit of friendship and co-existence and not at the
cost of denying any community its independent identity. In April 2002, former Chief Justice of India, Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah recommended the need for amendment to Article 25 of the Indian
Constitution (read the news story below from Tribune, which is a regional newspaper). We would also suggest that Muslims and Christians should not be victims of threat and violence, which has been on the increase for a few years now. Thank you for your time and interest in SikhSpectrum.com
Sikhism favoured as separate religion Tribune News Service
T.R. Ramachandran
New Delhi, April 2, 2002
After battling it out for decades, the Sikh community has succeeded in ensuring that the distinct and independent identity of Sikhism is duly recognised in the Constitution.
The Sikh community, including political leaders of all shades and hues as well as the religious authorities, have all along maintained that clubbing Sikhs with Hindus in Article 25 of the Constitution had impinged on its status as a separate religion.
The perseverance of the Sikh community that any dilution of Sikhism vis-a-vis Hinduism or any other religion should be removed has found favour with the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution headed by the former Chief Justice of India, Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah.
On the "Right to Freedom of Religion" and the specious issue of Article 25 diluting the identity of the Sikhs, the commission observed that the reference to Hindus "should be construed as including a reference to Sikhs etc."
The recommendation of the commission in this regard said: "The commission, without going into the larger issue on which the contention is based, is of the opinion that the purpose of the representations would be served if explanation II to Article 25 is omitted and sub-clause (b) of clause (2) of that Article is reworded as follows - (b) providing for social welfare and reform or the throwing open of Hindu, Sikh, Jain or Buddhist religious institutions of a public character to all classes and sections of these religions."
At present explanation II under Article 25 states - "In sub-clause (b) of clause (2), the reference to Hindus shall be construed as including a reference to persons professing the Sikh, Jain or Buddhist religion, and the reference to Hindu religious institutions shall be construed accordingly."
The NDA government will have to come forward with the necessary amendment to Article 25 as suggested by the commission to remove the impression that Sikhism is being diluted. This applies to the Jain and Buddhist communities as well.
The commission submitted its exhaustive report containing more than 240 recommendations in two volumes to the Vajpayee government on March 31.
National Commission for Minorities Vice-Chairman Tarlochan Singh had appeared before the Soli Sorabjee subcommittee of the commission several times and put forth forcefully the contention of the Sikh community. While maintaining that Sikhs and Hindus had common ancestors, Mr Tarlochan Singh said there was no ground to club them together. Elaborating, he said members of the Constituent Assembly were not conversant with the history of Sikhism, its tenets, traditions and culture.
The clubbing in the relevant clause of Hindus and Sikhs gave a wrong impression and had proved detrimental to the interests of the Sikh community . He recalled that as a mark of protest, two Sikh members in the Constituent Assembly representing the Shiromani Akali Dal refused to put their signatures on the final draft of the Constitution of India. Mr Tarlochan Singh emphasised that Sikhism should be harmoniously mentioned in the Constitution and other laws of the land as an independent religion in keeping with its history, traditions and culture. He pleaded with the commission to do "proper justice to this simple demand" of the Sikhs.
This is a very beautiful article by the author who....
This is a very beautiful article by the author who happens to be my friend
during my college days. When we used to go to tuitions in Manicktala in
the early hours of the morning, Kolkata was already awake and bustling
with life. It is this characteristic of the city that makes it unique.
Full of life and colour. Thanks Jubeet for making Kolkata your home. We
are all missing you. Wish you a very happy married life.
Suman
Is the Dr. Kirpal Singh referred to in this article....
Is the Dr. Kirpal Singh referred to in this article the same Kirpal Singh
who spread the teaching of Surat Shabd throughout the West?
And is the condition of war in Iraq a concern to Sikhs?
Editor -- We are not sure if he is the same as Kirpal Singh of sant mat. Kirpal is a common name and Singh a common lastname. If we get more information, we will let you know. As for Sikh concerns in the present day Iraq, I am not aware of any particular concerns except protection of the historical Gurdwara in Baghdad.
Quiet an intresting reading that has touched the realities....
It is a very interesting interview. I would have liked some summary,
comments and his own views of the interviewer too.
I wish some questions on Hinduttva (Fascist movement in India) were also
discussed. It turned the focus from "YOU" to "ME". No in depth
analytical questions were discussed from the historic perspective,
where from all the feelings of distrust arise.
The global interaction is increasing rapidly. Even...
SCRIPT: Yes it can be Gurmukhi, Persian (Shahmukhi), Devnagri or even
Roman.
WORDS: The global interaction is increasing rapidly. Even
human knowledge is expanding at jet speed. Finding and coining exact
Punjabi word is a futile effort, as on one hand it becomes outdated
faster, secondly it takes more effort to popularize it. It is better to
adopt the original word no matter from which language it came, slight
modification to give it Punjabi tinge is fine. Want to share two personal
examples: I found out that there is only one word representing "election"
and "selection".
In '50s Punjabi writers started adopting lots of Hindi words that the
literature became very tasteless.
Hope scholars recognize this trait of living languages that it should be flexible
enough to assimilate and adopt words from other languages. It also brings
us closer to other cultures, and builds bridges.
Regards,
Jasbir Singh Sethi
I have just read your article, Sikh Soldiers in....
I have just read your article, Sikh Soldiers in World Wars, and was
touched by it, especially by the words of the Kohima Memorial.
(http://www.sikhspectrum.com/122002/soldiers_ww.htm)
I've made a short item containing a few excerpts from your
article and a pointer to the complete article. Blogged at
http://homepage.mac.com/leifsmith/iblog/B904767415/C1493777782/
E842292125/index.html
This will eventually appear in an online database sponsored by The
Explorers Foundation (in formation, no website yet). A one page description of the foundation is available and I will send
it to you if you ask me for it.
Meanwhile, here's a pointer to something that may be of interest. I
should be glad to know what you think of this concept. It's an
introduction to an idea designated by the word "Anglosphere" in James
C. Bennett's "An Anglosphere Primer".
If you know of others involved in SikhSpectrum who might find Mr.
Bennett's "Anglosphere Primer" of interest, please feel free to pass
this on to them.
Thank you for your article!
Leif Smith
Pattern Research
Denver, Colorado
http://www.pattern.com
Editor-- I am not aware if information is available in Arabic. If anyone knows of a source please let us know. You can email us at editor@sikhspectrum.com.
Dear Sirs,
I am Akram Hafez and I am trying to know more about your religion
SIKHISM but I don't read English well so I would be happy if you would
help me by sending me a link or some documents that contain all information
about SIKHISM but written in Arabic. That will be great so please send
me that as soon as possible.
This article of Mr. Baldev Singh is written with...