Revival of Dastaar? (Turban)
When I was growing up, I remember how rare it was to see females wearing dastaars. Up until I was around 6 or 7 years old, I regularly mistook the odd dastaar-wearing girl for a boy. That is how sad things had become.
A necessary and vital part of the Sikh uniform was completely abandoned by nearly half (the female half) of the supposedly Amrit-dhari or baptized Sikh community. The numbers today aren't where they should be, and I personally rank the issue of females not wearing dastaars as the most pressing panthic issue out there, but there has most definitely been a spike upwards in dastaar-wearing in recent years.
There's probably a hundred different reasons for this trend, but let me discuss a few.
When whites started converting to Sikhi in the 60s and 70s, I think it meant a lot that all of the female converts donned a dastaar. Not only was it such a logical step for an outsider converting to Sikhi to take, but it also showcased that to the larger Sikh community. (The conversion of white Sikhs also helped highlight how most Punjabis aren't born as Sikhs, but are Sikhs because of how they live their lives - but that's another topic altogether).
I also think that many Sikhs and Sikh organizations have made an effort to showcase women with dastaars in a more positive light than they did before. For example, when my university's SSA was hosting its annual conferences these past two years, we had 4 female speakers, all of whom wore dastaars.
I think one of the other major reasons for a spike in dastaar-wearing (at least in North America and the United Kingdom - I'm not aware of any spike in India) has to do with demographics. Most Sikh immigrants started arriving in Canada, the US and England during the 70's and 80's. Their children are now growing up to be in their teens and in their 20s, and since the dastaar is seen to be a symbol of empowerment, royalty and a strong identity, instead of say, religious-wear for women in other faiths which is the exact opposite of that, it's only naturally becoming more frequent for teenage Sikh women to wear dastaars.
I was thinking about this issue when I was at the Nagar Keertan (Sikh parade) in Abbotsford yesterday and I saw the likely hundreds of Sikh women wearing dastaars (undoubtedly some of them for the Nagar Keertan alone), and I realized that only a decade ago, we would have probably seen less than half of those dastaar-wearing women at a nagar keertan.
While there definitely has to be more education about the Dastaar and its importance and necessity for all Sikhs (instead of the sexist idea that it was made for men alone), we will probably see another doubling of Sikh women wearing dastaars in the Nagar Keertans to come.
As I was walking past the main float yesterday afternoon, I was struck by a young girl of around 5 years of age who was being carried by (who I presume to be) her mother. The mother as you can see was not wearing a dastaar, while the daughter was. This is in stark contrast to the usual practice.
This is an excellent trend. Even Sikh mothers who (for whatever reasons) choose to not wear a dastaar themselves, are recognizing the importance of the dastaar for their daughters.
A necessary and vital part of the Sikh uniform was completely abandoned by nearly half (the female half) of the supposedly Amrit-dhari or baptized Sikh community. The numbers today aren't where they should be, and I personally rank the issue of females not wearing dastaars as the most pressing panthic issue out there, but there has most definitely been a spike upwards in dastaar-wearing in recent years.
There's probably a hundred different reasons for this trend, but let me discuss a few.
When whites started converting to Sikhi in the 60s and 70s, I think it meant a lot that all of the female converts donned a dastaar. Not only was it such a logical step for an outsider converting to Sikhi to take, but it also showcased that to the larger Sikh community. (The conversion of white Sikhs also helped highlight how most Punjabis aren't born as Sikhs, but are Sikhs because of how they live their lives - but that's another topic altogether).
I also think that many Sikhs and Sikh organizations have made an effort to showcase women with dastaars in a more positive light than they did before. For example, when my university's SSA was hosting its annual conferences these past two years, we had 4 female speakers, all of whom wore dastaars.
I think one of the other major reasons for a spike in dastaar-wearing (at least in North America and the United Kingdom - I'm not aware of any spike in India) has to do with demographics. Most Sikh immigrants started arriving in Canada, the US and England during the 70's and 80's. Their children are now growing up to be in their teens and in their 20s, and since the dastaar is seen to be a symbol of empowerment, royalty and a strong identity, instead of say, religious-wear for women in other faiths which is the exact opposite of that, it's only naturally becoming more frequent for teenage Sikh women to wear dastaars.
I was thinking about this issue when I was at the Nagar Keertan (Sikh parade) in Abbotsford yesterday and I saw the likely hundreds of Sikh women wearing dastaars (undoubtedly some of them for the Nagar Keertan alone), and I realized that only a decade ago, we would have probably seen less than half of those dastaar-wearing women at a nagar keertan.
While there definitely has to be more education about the Dastaar and its importance and necessity for all Sikhs (instead of the sexist idea that it was made for men alone), we will probably see another doubling of Sikh women wearing dastaars in the Nagar Keertans to come.
As I was walking past the main float yesterday afternoon, I was struck by a young girl of around 5 years of age who was being carried by (who I presume to be) her mother. The mother as you can see was not wearing a dastaar, while the daughter was. This is in stark contrast to the usual practice.
This is an excellent trend. Even Sikh mothers who (for whatever reasons) choose to not wear a dastaar themselves, are recognizing the importance of the dastaar for their daughters.
posted by Japnaam Singh at
9:03 PM
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