According to the Sikh Rahit Maryada, “A Sikh must wear a kachh and a turban. Apart from these garments he may wear whatever he chooses. The turban is optional for women.”
Why do Sikhs today attach such pre-eminent importance to the turban? Why has it become a primary symbol—one of the two primary symbols—of the Sikh, or at least of the grown Sikh male? The answer is not quite as obvious as one might think, for the turban has symbolic importance.
The turban is regarded as desirable for a number of reasons. First, it is hygienic. Caps and hats are much more difficult to keep clean than the washing of a length of cotton fabric. Moreover, it is comfortable to wear both in hot weather and cold. In the heat the layer of hair conserves the coolness of the head, and the turban provides welcome protection from the cold. The turban provides greater protection for the head than standard head-gear, is inexpensive to purchase, and with a little practice is simple to wind on the head. It is firmly anchored on the head and does not blow off in a wind. Last, it is more suitable than the bare head when the wearer is handling food or other delicate items.
But these are merely reasons why the turban may be regarded as a suitable head-gear. They are not sufficient to justify it as mandatory and many people (in India as well as in the rest of the world) manage quite satisfactorily without one. Other people, though, do not have to retain their hair uncut. They do not have to maintain their kes. This is the key issue. Khalsa Sikhs are required to retain uncut hair by their religious faith: for them (at least for the adult males) the turban is a neat and tidy means of covering the hair which must be left uncut. There is no other satisfactory form of covering the hair. One need only imagine uncovered hair to realize how superior the turban is as a means of containing and controlling hair which has to be tied on the head in a top-knot. The hair could in theory be allowed to hang loose, but that would be quite impracticable. There are too many tasks which male members of the Khalsa are required to perform which would be altogether impossible if the hair were not bound up.
The turban is therefore of vital importance to the presentation of the male member of the Khalsa significantly adding to the dignity of his appearance. Women are not normally required to wear one, though at least two varieties of sectarian opinion do indeed require full-scale turbans for female members of the Khalsa. All orthodox Sikhs are, however, firm on the subject of turbans for male members of the Khalsa. For women there are alternative methods as their hair does not have to be knotted in a jura on the top of their heads.
The male Sikh has to knot his hair in a jura to keep it firmly under control because he is sometimes engaged in actions for which a free-flowing style would be entirely inappropriate. During the eighteenth century the activities of the Sikh misls would have been handicapped had they worn their hair loose, and likewise the work of Sikhs laborers in a factory or building site.
But surely it would be adequate to tie the hair in a knot on the nape of the neck rather than on the crown of the head. That is what women do when they are required to wear police or army hats. Why would it be impossible for the men? At this point one has to answer that such a style would be quite impossible because it is contrary to long- practiced and deeply-held tradition. It might in theory be possible, but it would be directly contrary to the intention of Guru Gobind Singh when he decreed that his Khalsa should be immediately visible. The place for the jura is on the crown of the head for only thus will the male Sikh be able to tie the turban that immediately causes him to stand out for all to see. Why should Sikhs be expected to amend their tradition in such a way as to destroy their visible image of being Sikh?
And so we reach the popular conclusion, the well- known feature of the Sikh Panth that constitutes one of the very few facts that the non-Sikh world knows about them. For the orthodox Sikh the wearing of a turban is an essential part of being a Sikh. Because he is a member of the Khalsa the adult male Sikh must wear a turban. For centuries part the turban has been compulsory for the male Khalsa and if he is to stand forth as an orthodox believer he must do so as the wearer of a turban.
There is no standard design or color although there is a strongly dominant pattern with the shallow inverted V in the center of the forehead. I am open to correction on some of these details, but generally the wearing of a certain design or color (or both) will tell the observer something about the wearer’s interest or origins. A dark blue turban designates a member of the Akali Party or its supporter. A saffron one means a supporter of the Khalistani cause. A white homespun turban tied horizontally across the forehead signifies a member of the Namdhari sect. Some Sikhs who believe that the traditional turban was worn horizontally also wear them in this way. A peak slightly off the center indicates a Sikh from East Africa whereas one from Southeast Asia frequently wears patterned cloth. Sikhs whose families came from the Rawalpindi area commonly wear turbans with the peak projecting as a ‘beak’. There are many more styles and colors in the wearing of turbans.
[Extracted from the author’s essay “The Turban: Symbol of Sikh Identity” (pp 57-69) in the book “Sikh Identity- Continuity and Change” edited by Pashaura Singh and N. Gerald Barrier published in 1999 by Manohar Publishers]
