No Ballistic Helmets with Turbans!
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
9 February
2023
We're Indeed Primitive. Religions Have Blocked
Our Thinking And Rituals Have Hamstrung All Humans.
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According
to The Tribune News Service, Feb 3, The Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee
(SGPC) has refused to budge on the proposal of introducing ballistic helmets
for Sikh soldiers. Why? Because Sikhs are not supposed to wear anything else
other than the turban and even protecting that with an additional helmet is
against the tenets of Sikhism. This is ridiculous!
An SGPC delegation during a meeting with the
National Minorities' Commission chief in New Delhi. Tribune photo
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This committee
should know that there's a Persian dispatch at India House, London, written by
a Muslim gunner of Iranian origin who fought for the 10th Sikh Guru Gobind
Singh. He mentioned in his diary written actually in Dari that the soldiers in
the army of Guru Gobind Singh wore Ibnaaq (Persian/Dari for a helmet) to
protect the head and neck.
Maharaja
Ranjit Singh also provided his Sikh soldiers with specifically built helmets
which they used to wear along with the turbans.
Muslims are
often condemned for their extreme fanaticism but aren't the followers of other
faiths doing the same idiocy?
The essence
of all religions is lost in the welter of tokenism and obscurantism. Followers
of all faiths have begun to flaunt their respective religions by wearing their
religious symbols in public. Symbols have become much more important than the
message of spirituality and the core of a faith.
If you're
wearing a turban, why can't you wear a helmet as a protective headgear? Which
god or guru will ask you in heaven as to why you wore a ballistic helmet if you
happened to be a soldier on earth?
But then, all faiths have this tendency to
impose religious exhibitionism on their followers.
It's
because of that, you find Hindus applying Tilak on their foreheads and
Muslims refusing to apply Tilak. This happened recently in Nagpur when
two Muslim cricketers of Indian team didn't let the lady apply Tilak on
their foreheads. Now Muslims are sporting beard, Christians are hanging the
Cross like a dead albatross around their necks, Digamber Jain Munis roaming
naked on the streets and what not.
We're
indeed primitive. Religions have blocked our thinking and rituals have
hamstrung all humans.
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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul
is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He
has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several
languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/ballistic-helmets-turbans/d/129061
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