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Jab Lag Khalsa Rahe Niara
Sikh Kiwi Police officers stands tall and proud
Jagmohan Singh
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In the worldly race of success, it is rare to find people
adhering to faith requirements and even rarer for someone to
have relinquished the symbols of one’s faith and then regained
them with courage and conviction. The first Sikh Kiwi police
officer, Jagmohan Singh Malhi has just done that and the Sikhs
are proud of him. This is an Open letter to the 32 year old
first Sikh police officer to wear the turban in New Zealand,
acknowledging his bold decision and also congratulating
Amaninder Singh Sandhu, the first turbaned recruit in the NZ
police force. |
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 Dear
Jagmohan Singh Malhi
Sat Sri Akal !
It is a nice
feeling to write to another person who shares your name. It is
indeed satisfying to write to someone who has respected the word of
his Guru.
Since the last
week, when your decision to go public with full Sikh gear on in
public life was known, understandably there have been messages of
joy among Sikhs in New Zealand and far and wide in the Sikh world
beyond the geographical boundaries of the historic town of Nelson
where you live and serve as a police officer.
A martial
people, Sikhs like to be part of the military and police force
wherever they choose to live. They see it as a fulfillment of their
physical and martial capabilities. We have many Sikhs in the police
force in
Punjab
and the rest of
India. There are
many who occupy top positions too. However, there are not many like
you.
Some time ago,
during my brief stay in
Vancouver, I
came across a Sikh who had recently donned the turban. While
talking about this new phase of his life, he said, “Since I have
worn the turban, I am a more responsible citizen, I do not cross the
signal without the green light, I do not commit any traffic offence,
I function as if I carry the responsibility and image of my
community with me.” While the western world may not construe this
attitude as correct, this Sikh was essentially following the Guru’s
diktat. The reason and the rationale for the unique identity were to
make us stand apart and ensure that we do not hurt society and be
true to ourselves and to God. In a way, you carry a similar
responsibility on your shoulders.
I wish to
congratulate the New Zealand Police department and Amaninder Singh
Sandhu, who created the groundwork for the turban during his
recruitment to the
New Zealand
police force and who became a turbaned police officer even a few
days before you did. Perhaps the media fancied you because of
rediscovery of your faith.
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The various Sikh Councils of New Zealand will do well to seize
upon the opportunity provided by you and Amaninder Singh Sandhu
and engage the broader community in New Zealand with more
awareness programmes about the Sikh religion. |
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As you may be
aware Sikhs made New Zealand their home more than a century ago in
1890 and since then around ten thousand or so have settled in
various parts of the country, mainly in Wellington and Auckland.
Many Sikhs have contributed to their society in various walks of
life. The role of the Sikhs in the fighting forces of the Allies in
the early part of the last century is also well recorded.
Apart from Sikh
scholars, you have the veteran
New Zealand
scholar W. H. McLeod, whose vast contribution, though controversial
in parts, in creating an understanding of the Sikh religion and the
Sikhs, not only in New Zealand but all over the globe cannot be
wished away. He is today old and ailing and I feel that young Sikhs
should go up to him in this hour and provide him company and
solace. He has an immense treasure of knowledge and interaction
with him will be a major source of oral history, howsoever
contentious it may be.
Many years ago,
Kapil N Tiwari in his research Indians in New Zealand has
said, “The New Zealand Sikhs may have largely abandoned the outward
forms of Khalsa observance, but this for the rural Doabi does
not signal a renunciation of the Sikh identity. The identity is
explicitly retained by most New Zealand Sikhs, as one would soon
discover if one were to put the question to a member of the
community.”
 You
have provided the exteriorization to this internalization of the
Sikh identity by the members of the community. Though for you the
keeping of unshorn hair and beard may be an individual journey and a
personal commitment to yourself and your late father, you will
notice in the coming days, months and years that it is a social
commitment to society in general and the Sikhs in particular.
The various Sikh
Councils of New Zealand will do well to seize upon the opportunity
provided by you and Amaninder Singh Sandhu and engage the broader
community in
New Zealand with
more awareness programmes about the Sikh religion not only as a
matter of expediency but all so in a spirit of spreading the
Universal message of the Sikh Gurus.
I was amazed at
the Sikh-like remarks of Bill Moore -the editor of Nelson Mail- your
country’s oldest and well-respected newspaper, who editorially
commented on your achievement by saying, “Being different is
rarely easy. The only boy ballet dancer in the class….. ….…Opposing
the herd takes courage.” Does it not seem that he is referring
to Jab Lag Khalsa Rahe Niara?
In these days of
racism and all kinds of hate mongering in the air, it is a sheer
pleasure to read the accolades which the editor has showered upon
you. He says, “As the first Sikh in the
New Zealand
force to wear a turban as part of his uniform, Mr Malhi's step into
the unknown, is both significant and brave. Significant because his
move symbolises the changing face of the force in
New Zealand
which, just as surely (if a little belatedly) reflects the wider mix
of ingredients being poured into the general ethnic melting pot.
Brave, because - as he points out - some people in the world he
tries to keep in order, on our behalf, do not like the police, "and
will throw anything at you whether you are wearing a turban or not."
Your town Nelson
has a historical legacy including the Battle of Trafalgar. It would
be interesting to see how Nelsonians, who have had a small share of
the growing madness of abuse, will react when they see a ‘different’
Jagmohan Singh than the one they have known who moved there eight
years ago.
It would be
interesting to ponder on the advice of the Nelson Mail editor who
says that “Ethnicity and belief really are no barrier to being
what, and who, we really want to be. …that the most important thing
of all we can do for ourselves as we plod down life's highway is to
be ourselves, rather than living a lie to appease others'
expectations or avoid wrinkling up their comfort zone.”
You have indeed
done your family proud by saying that “it was a great feeling to
honour the request of my father who always wanted me to adhere to my
faith.” In
Punjab, we have
thousands of police people sporting the turban but rarely do we come
across any who would sport unshorn hair and beard. I painfully say
that I have personally yet to come across a police constable or
officers who like you has renounced the path of apostasy and
regained foothold in the mainstream of the Sikh way of life. Though
I must admit that there may be some who have quietly done so and
people are not aware about them.
It is reported
that when your father died last year, you started the journey of
rediscovery and you made the decision to change the protocols which
you had abandoned.
Sadly, your
father is not alive to see you with your turban, but I assure you
that wherever he is, he would be happy to see his son making the
waves not only in downtown Nelson, but globally, becoming a
trendsetter, the like of which are few and far between.
May Guru Gobind
Singh bestow his choicest blessings on you, your wife and kids and
may you continue to set an example to the Sikh community, the police
force and the Nelsonian citizenry by word and deed. I pray that
your wife and children also enjoy your journey on the path of
Sikhism.
Rab Rakha.
Jagmohan Singh
Jagmohan Singh
is a commentator based in Ludhiana.
He may be contacted at
jsbigideas@gmail.com
17 September 2008
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