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Self immolation
threat produces result, Sikh busmen
can wear turbans
WSN
Network
WOLVERHAMPTON: Sikh busmen in
Wolverhampton have won the right to wear turbans on duty after a
long-running campaign. Conductors and drivers who are practising
Sikhs will also be allowed to have long beards - another requirement
for strict adherents of their faith.
The decision was taken with ill-concealed reluctance. It took
personal intervention by a Minister, sustained pressure from India,
and a very real threat by Sohan Singh Jolly, a Sikh leader, to burn
himself to death, to get the ban removed.
Wolverhampton's Transport Committee dropped the ban after the leader
of a Sikh group Jolly threatened to burn himself to death in
protest. Jolly, 66, said the ban on turbans and beards was a direct
attack on his religion. Jolly, a former inspector in the Kenya
police, had decided to burn himself on Sunday after 72 hours of
meditation and prayer.
Fourteen others had vowed to follow suit and set fire to themselves
if their request was not granted. However, Jolly's actions did not
receive whole-hearted support from all of Britain's estimated
130,000 Sikhs.
Dr A K S Aujila of the Supreme Council of Sikhs in the UK said: "We
are going to wage relentless war on the idea that individuals can
take this sort of action involving the whole community and very
likely lead to a worsening of community harmony in Britain".
But both the Transport and General Workers Union and the Indian High
Commission in London urged the Wolverhampton committee to change its
rules. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Employment and
Productivity, Ernest Fernyhough, also visited the city and warned
councillors of "wide repercussions" if Jolly carried out his threat.
After the committee's decision its chairman Ronald Gough said though
the eight-man committee felt their ban on turbans had been "right
and proper" none had vote against removing it.
"In the interests of race relations we have taken the decision to
relax the rule," he said. After the committee's change of heart
Jolly said he had been forced to make his threat: "I am a moderate
and religious man and would never have taken the extreme step of
threatening my life if they had not refused to listen to reason," he
said.
News of the lifting of the ban was received with mixed feelings by
many of the 104 Sikh drivers and conductors last night. Only a few
of the older ones, who discarded beards and turbans years ago,
reacted with excitement. One said: “My ties with India and those who
are protecting the Sikh way of life are not as strong as they should
be. I regret it in many ways, but now I regard myself as a British
workman.”
Fight continues
Most other English bus companies at the time already permitted Sikhs
to wear turbans and beards. After winning his fight in Wolverhampton
Sohan Singh Jolly moved on to tackle Nottingham's bus bosses where
turbans and beards were not allowed.
They are the Kirpan (sword or small dagger), Kesh (long hair), Kanga
(comb), Kara (steel bangle) and Kasherra (breeches). In 1982
Britain's highest court, the House of Lords, ruled that Sikhs were a
distinct ethnic group and entitled to protection under the Race
Relations Act. This effectively gave them the right to wear beards
and turbans in all walks of life.
11 April,
2007
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