Mr. Singh Seeks More Keshdari

By Madhur Singh - Time - U.S.A.
Thursday, December 13, 2007

Ever since 18-year-old Ishmeet Singh won the glitzy American Idol-inspired Voice of India contest on Star TV last month, the phone hasn't stopped ringing at his family's home in Ludhiana, the busy industrial hub of Punjab.

But the kudos is about more than Singh's impressive singing prowess; he has earned it by the fact that he is a keshdhari (turban-wearing) Sikh.

"It is his sabat-surat [appearance conforming to the Sikh ideal] that has brought him where he is today," says his proud father Gurpinder Singh. "He has shown other Sikh boys that they don't need a trendy hairstyle to attain stardom."

At a time when more and more young Sikh men are relinquishing the turban — considered the very core of a Sikh man's cultural and religious identity — community leaders have hailed Singh's win as, literally, a godsend.

Sikh blogs have been pointing out that Singh was declared a winner on Guru Nanak Jayanti, the anniversary of the birth of the founder of Sikhism. And he has been honored by the Akal Takht, the highest seat of the Sikh clergy.

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Cutting one's hair is not new among Sikhs, but the number of turbanless, clean-shaven Sikhs has grown astronomically in the last two decades.

"In India, education has become so secular that even Sikh schools do not preach Sikhism," says Dr. Kharag Singh, editor of the journal Abstracts of Sikh Studies. "As a result, children don't realize the philosophy behind wearing a turban."

The euphoria over Ishmeet Singh's victory reflects the need of the Sikh community's elders to find turbaned role models.

While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, always seen with a spiffy turban, is an obvious example, Sikh leaders also hail pop culture icons such as the "turbanator" — cricket hero Harbhajan Singh — and popstar Daler Mehndi, whose glittering turbans are said to have inspired many a short-haired Sikh to take to the turban.

Sikh organizations from Vancouver to Melbourne are renewing efforts at prachar, or preaching, to the 3 million-strong Sikh diaspora.

Schools to teach young Sikhs how to tie a turban have opened in many cities, and an organization called Akal Purakh Ki Fauj has brought out "smart turban software" to help users identify the style of turban that would best suit them.

Turban-tying competitions are held across Punjab on Baisakhi, the Sikh New Year, and a Mr. Singh International contest is held for turbaned Sikhs every year — as all Sikh men use the surname 'Singh,' which means lion — in which participants get points on how well they tie their turbans.

Sikh clergy are to meet this week for an annual convention at which their battle plans will be refined in the escalating culture war to restore the turban to its place atop the head of the Sikh male.

[Picture: Young Indian Sikhs. Photo by Ajay Verma/Reuters].