Plucked hair versus medical seat

Gurleen Kaur, a girl aspiring to be a doctor, approached Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Amritsar, for admission relying on sikhs minority quota. The institute refused to admit her for she had plucked her eyebrows. Similar fate awaited boys who had trimmed their hair. The controversy reached the Punjab & Haryana High Court which finally concluded as, “For the present controversy, we hereby, accordingly, hold that retaining hair unshorn is one of the most important and fundamental tenets of the Sikh religion. In fact, it is undoubtedly a part of the religious consciousness of the Sikh faith.” This decision was reached after going through reels and reels of paper on the evolution of sikh religion and do’s and don’ts prescribed by various gurus.

Individuals and organizations gave their views on significance of “unshorn hair” to sikh religion and supported the decision of the institute of not giving seats to the kids who had tampered with their pitch. It seems the majority of the community had turned against the kids. The judges handling the case also received letters advising them not to venture to define sikh religion.

Without going into the nitty-gritty of the judgment and beliefs of sikh religion, was it fair on the part of the sikh community members to gang up against their own kids in order to deny education. What was established to wrangle out of the clutches of muslim seers and brahmins holiness has become subject to myriads interpretations. The kids ought to have been forgiven for “it is manlike to punish but godlike to forgive”. Was not giani zail singh, who was charged a tankhahia (liable to religious punishment) following the army action within the golden temple precincts, exonerated?

The entire mission of the tenth guru has been summed: ‘a Sikh must worship Akal alone, must take the Word to be the measure of personal conduct, must consider the Khalsa physical form to be ideal and must ever strive for the welfare of the entire humanity’. Time has come to introspect whether the denial of seat is an act towards welfare of the entire community.