24 Jan
Dya Singh, world renowned Sikh musician, has issued the following appeal. You can contact him at dyasingh at gmail dot com. Basically, someone is arguing in an Australian court that Sikh children should not keep their hair. *update* All Sikh organizations are encouraged to support the cause of Sikh children keeping their hair.
Dear fellow ‘Sikhs’,
My daughter Jamel is going through a ‘child custody’ hearing in February of which the central point of contention is the question of ‘hair’. Jamel has made every effort to retain the hair of the children whilst her ex-husband, Harbalvinder Dhillon (and family) have made every effort to denigrate her efforts and also in the process, keep trimming the children’s hair, so that, the making of the top knot (for her son) becomes ever so frustrating as he (the father) does not allow the hair to grow to a length to facilitate the making of a top-knot as is done with boys.
Interim orders of the court have ordered Harbalvinder, the father not to cut the hair of the children. In spite of such orders, he continues to do so.
Now it is the central issue in the next hearing for the custody of the children and Harbalvinder is making a concerted effort in obtaining the legal right to cut his son’s hair immediately.
Harbalvinder Dhillon (and his family) claims in his affidavit that in accordance with today’s trends,in the interest of modernisation and to ensure that the children, especially the boy, Saffal does not develop an inferiority complex, it is imperative that their hair should be cut so that they do not feel out of place in today’s modern society, and in fact better fit in.
I request for letters of support from Sikh bodies to refute this claim by him. I especially request letters to support the retention of hair for Sikh children up till at least they are of age when they can make their own decisions regarding their hair. That should be the status quo. It will be a slap in the face of all Sikh bodies if the father and his family, in this case, are allowed to cut his children’s hair against the mother’s wishes and if I may say so, against the wishes of the whole Sikh community.
Jamel has made every effort to encourage the keeping of hair and in fact little Saffal is proud of his unshorn hair. Jamel makes certain that both children regularly attend Sikh youth camps, seminars and other gatherings with other Sikh children with unshorn hair. This, I am sure will be borne out by affidavits from such camps in Sydney and Melbourne. Such camps go on regularly in Sydney, Melbourne and in other cities and also overseas.
I request such letters especially from Sikh Council of Australia; United Sikhs; The Gurdwara Perbhandhak Committee of Gurdwara Sahib Blackburn, Victoria; The Craigieburn Gurdwara Sahib, Sikh Youth Camps, Australia; Sikh Naujawans Victoria and any other body who feels it can lend its support in this case.
I also take this opportunity to urge Sikhs not to support bodies which claim to be ‘Sikh’ but actually are doing more harm to Sikhi than good by encouraging its members and other attendees to cut their hair, partake liberally of alcoholic drinks and providing Sikh youth with a platform to, in fact, drift further away from the tenets of our faith. There are such bodies in Melbourne of which Harbalvinder Dhillon, the father of the children, is a product.
sincerely,
Dya Singh
PS - please feel free to distribute this email as far and wide as you like. Please feel free to email or phone me to discuss specifics of the case.
8 Responses for "An Appeal from Dya Singh"
WJKK WJKF!
I write to you in total disgust of a letter of appeal that is in circulation from DYA SINGH of Australia. In the letter he proclaims and names certain individuals of not practising SIkh values and requests that fellow ” Sikhs” from around the world condemn this poor individual. The whole of Malaysia and Australia know what a Rogue Dya Singh really is. He consumes alcohol, his daughters smoke as well as consume alcohol and participate in promiscouous relationships. How dare he be allowed to get away with this claim on your website. You obviously do not check or simply deliberately want to pevert the cause of true Sikhism.
Sikhism is not a front, not a business and definitely not a ‘extreme ‘ religion that caters for fraudulent ragis to further increase their worldly games.
I am afraid that there may be US, UK segments and the greater Sikh communities in the world who may not know the true Dya Singh and family and hope that respected Sikh outfits like yourselves denounce such disrespect and extremists actions by hypocritical “Sikh leaders” aka Dya Singh.
S Kaur
Hello fellow Sikhs,
I just like to be short and sweet.
I have seen and been to several “music festivals’ where i have ocassionsally seen the Dya singh performance. I must say that I think that he does spread the good name of God.
HOWEVER it is the way that he markets his agenda that is hypocritical. On 1 hand he says that ‘meditate on his name’ followed by ’satnam’ At the same time the crowd that is ijn attendance bounce around clearly intoxicated on ‘illegal substances’ rejoicing.
If only he and his daughter practiced Sikhism the way they preach i would even consider being in his corner. Live and let live.
My hair is cut but I AM a SIKH. I believe in Waheguru, i work, i share, i try and be humble and i look after my family. By this standards I am more SIKH then the Sikh Dya Singh is.
I think the previous two comments are missing the point of the appeal and the reason why it was posted on the blog. I’m not impressed either by Dya Singh’s comments on the Melbourne Sikh community, and he’s understandably emotional. But let’s ALL get away from the question of who’s “more Sikh.”
A boy’s father wants to have the right to cut his son’s hair against the wishes of the boy’s mother and, perhaps, the boy himself. According to the appeal, the father’s affidavit states that we wants to cut his son’s hair to “better fit in.”
Without passing any comment on the act of cutting one’s hair, I think it is sad that a little boy’s father wants to teach his son to bow to peer pressure and to always value “fitting in” before religious principle. I agree with Dya Singh that the default for a Sikh child (boy or girl) should be to not cut their hair, to teach them the significance of unshorn hair for Sikhs, and then they can make a decision when they get older how much that significance means to them.
In general, I think Dya Singh is right in trying to encourage the Panth to refute the claims that unshorn hair is less “modern” or socially acceptable. I have heard this a lot from Sikhs who cut their hair, that short hair is supposedly more “modern.” This seems to be an ignorant opinion. The Khalsa is a decidedly modern institution, way ahead of its time regarding its views on religious freedom and equality, for example.
But anyway, I don’t want to digress too far. For purposes of letting an Australian judge know that Sikhs can lead really great lives with uncut hair, I say we support Dya Singh. Ugh, can you imagine having Australian legal precedent that says otherwise, that to succeed in “modern” society you need to cut your hair?? What a horrible message that would be for Sikhs all over the world.
I think Jasminder it is not up to you or me to say what to do. I have heard that the child wants his hair cut but fears this Dya Singh. It is what the boy wants not what you or I want. It is a issue for the father and mother and more importantly the child. To bring the community into this is wrong, it is a domestic issue. The letter by Dya Singh who is a drinks and has had affairs himself and to name the people involved is very wrong. You know 2 of his daughter live with their boyfriends withoput marriage. This is not the kind of family I would want my kids around.
Looks like everyone already knows Dya Singh and his family. he’s just using Saahiel and Saffal as a marketing tool and hence want his daughter to win custody.
Dosen mean that one who’s hair is cut is not a true sikh. THat’s rubbish. If that’s the message he’s sending then isnt alcohol and smoking is a totall NO NO which i would say is worse than cutting one’s hair? He’s obviously just using this website to attract sympathy and luring us into it. How did he get past posting this message in the first place?
And DYa Singh…go fight a clean battle. Dun try using dirty tricks.
Fortunately, our religion is one of ideals, and we all know what those ideals are — namely those given to us by the Gurus and the Panthic Rehat Maryada. Whether you or Dya Singh practices them or preaches them is not the issue. The issue is an Australian court creating a horrible precedent, as Jasminder Kaur points out in her comment. So to be part of the solution, help the Australian court understand that Sikh children have no problem keeping their hair. It seems like you guys are saying, “well Dya Singh does bad things, therefore he must be wrong.” Ask yourself if you are perfect. Since you’re not, should I disregard your opinion on that basis?
@Gagaandeep — if it’s about what the child wants, then can we take the court out of it and remove the harsh language that attacks our faith, saying that Sikh children should cut their hair? If a court wasn’t involved, you’re right, this is a family thing. But now the courts are involved, and the courts should understand Sikhi. The court needs to watch the video that’s shown to all US Gov’t Law Enforcement Officials — “On Common Ground” (click to watch).
SSA all.
It’s quite disheartening to read the above. Says a lot about the ‘do gooder’ self promoting ‘Sikh Leaders’ of this world…….. get in touch with reality I say.
I am a clean shaven Sikh and a sinner. I go to Gurdwara when I can, to repent and learn from my mistakes through the teachings of my religon. I enjoy being a Sikh. When someone asks me about my background, they are fastinated about my ‘Modern’ (only 500 odd years old) religon that is so user friendly and progressive.
After all the inroads our religon has made, the small minded will still revert to ‘hair’ as an arguement in defining a Sikh.
Well the letter just goes to show character of the writer.
I agree with Sardar Dya Singh Ji, that all sikh should have unshorn hair as per the instructions of our Guru ji, What is mordern mentality I’ve not understood. My Nephews in USA are tying their turbans in school in Tennesse, USA. My own sons were the only sikh children who were tying turbans in 8th & 10th classes & lot of other children seeing this started tying turbans. It looks that the the persons who do not follow the the sikh path are not aware of the sacrifices of our sikh ancestors. They are no more sikhs as they have no faith in th tennents of sikhism, as they must know that faith is blind and unquestionable, just follow, questioning is digressing from the sikh path. In the end one can pray that waheguru should impart some SAHMAT to your son in law.
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