23, February 2016 Response to letter writer A.K. Sharma
A.K Sharma, ‘A Tale of Two Sikhs’ (I-W Feb
19, 2016) seems to be confused with the basic tenets of Sikhism. In his letter
he acknowledges the courage of Amish Singh who held up a “Stop Hate” sign at a
recent Trump rally in Iowa to protest his Islamophobia policies but then goes
on to criticize Bhajan Singh Bhinder who held a sign outside the Indian
Consulate in San Francisco protesting the tragic suicide death of a Dalit
student at Hyderabad University.
Contrary to his assertion that Bhinder acted
inappropriately, his actions should be applauded as they were conforming
precisely to the basic tenets of Sikhism. Sikhism is unequivocal in rejecting
separation of people based on their caste. The death of the Dalit student
should have been a wakeup call for the whole of India to remove the scourge of
caste which affects 200 million Indians.
Out founder, Guru Nanak, denounced the caste
system as a complete violation of God’s laws which enjoins his people to treat
all human beings with dignity and complete equality.
Sharma makes the preposterous argument that
Bhinder should have booked a flight to India where he could have more
appropriately protested the disgusting practice of caste apartheid. Sharma
seems more concerned that India’s ‘great image’ was being indelibly tarnished
by exposing caste injustices in the U.S. Sharma would be well advised to
support all efforts to eradicate the caste system and diffuse his own
insecurities for the greater good of human-kind.
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