Since ancient times mankind has formulated customs for the different phases of life. Thus every society/culture has followed the customs prescribed for various events in life. These can be correlated to birth, death, wedding, and other aspects of life. The Sikhs have distinct customs for these aspects of life. One of these, the customs adopted for weddings has been analyzed in the following paragraphs. The Sikh wedding ceremony is…
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According to Police sources, Sardar Satnam Singh, a well-known Sikh ‘hakeem’ was shot dead by unidentified gunmen inside his clinic in Peshawar, Pakistan.Satnam Singh, was at his clinic when attackers barged into his cabin and opened fire at him, killing him on the spot. A police team rushed to the site, however, the killers managed to escape. The reason behind the murder was not ascertained yet, but in all probability,…
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The National Commission for Minorities stated that it has come to its notice that Sikh students are asked to report at centres for examinations like NEET and JEE hours in advance for scanning of ‘Karas’ and ‘Kirpans’, and urged the National Testing Agency to ensure there is no discrimination against Sikh candidates on the basis of their articles of faith. In an official release, the commission said that in light…
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Since I sat down with this editorial in mind, competing alternate titles have flashed their presence and pushed their appeal, even though I am not yet clear about the contents and the direction that I prefer. For instance, The Last Frontier sounded just right as the title. Or perhaps of Life is Full of Rude Awakenings. Life offers many a closed box to honestly parse some ideas imaginatively and honestly. …
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Borrowing from scholars of Sociology, I have often argued that religious traditions and practices are the glue that unite a people and creates a community. People, then, need to elaborate a statement like the Articles of Confederation as the defining document of a community’s basic connecting glue. For a religious people, the prayer–Ardaas–is that. The many faiths of humanity agree on that One fundamental, although they continue to quibble over…
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There are several drawbacks to emigrating, as well as a major gain. One has to recast one’s assumptions and cultural framework in terms of the new, host culture and in a new language. Such transformation is not easy. Since culture and language are inseparably intertwined, many of the religious and cultural concepts cannot be adequately or accurately expressed in a different language. Yet, effective communication requires that we try. The…
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In his prolific writings, Dr IJ Singh has drawn attention to a very vital issue of Sikhism and re-structuring. The training, employment and wages of Granthis have been neglected for far too long. Any type of training, more so of Granthis or Katha Vachaks, requires a professional approach, to ensure consistency of quality. This quality is achieved by building a body of knowledge, careful training of people in that knowledge…
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This is about an institution in New Delhi, India which has been doing amazing service for our Sikh community for nearly 30 years. This is a wonderful charity that I have been lucky enough to be involved with my whole life and I wanted more people in the UK, the US and Canada to know what fantastic seva is being done on behalf of the Panth at the Sri Guru…
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This Editorial owes its birth to some of the last brief conversations and contacts with the late Pushpinder Singh, the illustrious Founder of Nishaan-Nagaara. Even though he lived in India and I was on the other end of the globe, I always thought that his base was not India but the greater globe itself. We enjoyed our many exchanges, though sometimes quite brief. But I learned rapidly that for a…
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Since I sat down with this editorial in mind, competing alternate titles have flashed their presence and pushed their appeal, even though I am not yet clear about the contents and the direction that I prefer. For instance, The Last Frontier sounded just right as the title. Or perhaps of Life is Full of Rude Awakenings. Life offers many a closed box to honestly parse some ideas imaginatively and honestly. …
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