A turbaned American Sikh actor is taking a stand after an airline wouldn’t let him board
But it’s a 300-year-old tenet of the Sikh faith that really kept him off his flight
By Tim Townsend
When a Mexico City airport security official asked Waris Ahluwalia to remove his turban Monday before a flight to NYC, the Sikh American actor’s answer was simple.
“I won’t be taking off my turban here,” he said.
Ahluwalia has since turned the situation into a social media teaching moment — his tweets and Instagram shots have included the hashtag #FearIsAnOpportunityToEducate.
But initially it wasn’t the impulse to take a stand against discrimination that led Ahluwalia to refuse to remove his turban. It was a 300-year-old teaching that represents one of the most hallowed moments in Sikhism.
Every year on April 14, Sikhs celebrate Vaisakhi, the day in 1699 in Punjab, India, when Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th and final Sikh guru, created the Khalsa, the order into which all Sikhs are initiated.
Khalsa comes from the Arabic for pure, and Gobind Singh created a body of believers, or “saint-soldiers,” by asking each initiated Sikh to carry five symbols of the faith at all times. They’ve come to be called the five symbols, or the five K’s:
- Kesh — uncut hair
- Kanga — a small comb
- Kaccha — baggy “warrior” shorts
- Kara — a steel bangle
- Kirpan — a small sword or knife
It’s typically the final K, the kirpan, that causes problems for modern Sikhs in airports. Many now simply carry a picture of a kirpan when they fly. In 2010, the US Department of Homeland Security told rights group the Sikh Coalition that Sikhs “should always expect to undergo secondary screening in the form of a turban patdown.” (Sikh TSA Pre members get a pass.)
But it’s what’s underneath the turban that Ahluwalia was protecting at the Aeromexico gate — his uncut hair. His kesh.
“Asking a Sikh to remove his turban at an airport would be like asking someone to strip down to their boxers,” said Mark Juergensmeyer, a sociology professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “It’s about custom and dignity — no Sikh would appear in public without his long hair covered in this distinctive style.”
The reason Gobind Singh mandated that every Sikh keeps his hair uncut is murky. Some scholars have argued that kesh is a sign of virility. Others say it’s a way for Sikhs to be one with nature, or to identify with the mountain tribal background of the original Sikh communities.
“There’s a belief that the Sikh warrior class simply didn’t have time to shave,” said Juergensmeyer. “There’s a mystique about uncut hair, like in the Bible long hair gives someone power and strength. But there’s no one explanation.”
Ahluwalia is a model, and the poses he’s been striking in the Mexico City airport seem to highlight his turban and beard as he tries to convey a powerful lesson about tolerance.
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