Sikh T-Shirts Promote Basic Awareness
Author: ssingh19 Jul
Check out the “say it now” online t-shirt shop — it sells some cool Sikh shirts. Whether you’re American, Canadian, Thai, or any of several other nationalities, the site has a Sikh shirt for you. The shirts express Sikh and national pride and include national flags. Here’s an example.
The front of the shirt highlights a quote from Guru Tegh Bahadur, and the back does something I’ve never seen before on a Sikh shirt — it clears up any confusion as to who we are.
Some may be a bit surprised by this and ask, “Why does the shirt say we are not ‘Jain’ or ‘Arab’ for example?” Well the simple truth is that we as Sikhs are not any of the terms in the list, yet we’re often confused with these other groups, so this shirt hopes to clear the ever-present fog. It’s no different than what you’d learn in a world religions class. It’s definitely a great shirt to wear in an airport security line. It’s cool, expresses your country pride, and covers the basics about who we are — I’m ordering one!
15 Responses for "Sikh T-Shirts Promote Basic Awareness"
I wouldn’t order a shirt from them. They also have a shirt for ‘Indian Sikh’.
Interesting comment. I would never consider myself Indian, but I know of many Sikhs who are proud to be Indian and are working for justice — there’s no doubt the Indian state has committed many egregious violations of human rights and justice has yet to be served. Can you still be proud to be American? Given how we wiped out the native Americans? Note that the American Sikh shirt says “not to be mistaken for Indian.”
I’m not sure if this shirt makes me feel empowered or protected. Differentiating myself from society based on a t-shirt seems contradictory to the principles of Sikhi. I thought a Sikh is unique by their bana given by their Guru, and more importantly their character and personal spiritual practice. I was always under the assumption that in Gurbani the sense of differentiation from one another on the basis of caste, creed, culture, and even religion, is futile and immature, whereas people are differentiated based on their actions and the intention in their heart. I know the object of this shirt is to very overtly fight against discrimination, but why not work harder to make a name for ourselves by being so successful and doing so much professional public relations that people can’t NOT know what a Sikh is.
Thats a great idea, singh. Best wishes to you to being “so successful and doing so much professional public relations that people can’t NOT know what a Sikh is”.
The idea is to bring about a time when these t shirts will not be needed.
Singh, on further and careful reading of your email, I disagree with your differentiation statement as applied to religion. Are you implying that Guru Gobind Singh’s differentiation was futile and immature?
Do you think that Guru Gobind Singh did not perform good actions and that he did not have good intentions in his heart?
Defining who a Sikh is via negation is really not the way to go…All that this shirt will say is “what Sikhs are not”. It is better to present “what Sikhs are”.
The differentiation and distinguishing identity aside, basically by defining Sikh via negation is saying…”don’t hurt me, don’t be prejudiced against me…I am not them…”. Not the right message, no matter which way you slice it.
Fateh Tejasion,
Speaking as someone that has given at least 10 presentations at schools around the US and is 100% positive about everything, I think it’s important to distinguish ourselves from other faiths by saying “we are not X,” for the simple reason that kids and adults still assume that, no matter what positive things we say, we must be some sub-branch of Arabs, Muslims, or other group. I learned this lesson after presenting to about 100 7th graders in Washington state two years ago. At the end of the presentation, they asked, “so how does this fit in to your Arab culture?” and “Thanks for telling us about Arab Americans.” I was forced to say, “Well no, that’s not us, Sikhs are not Arab or Muslim, we are a distinct religion.” (The same line you find in just about every article about Sikhs in the newspapers these days — I see nothing wrong with putting it on a shirt.)
Again, I’m super idealistic, like you. Yes, the idealistic strategy is to never say the word “not” or “no” in your speech, but in this case I see no problem with it. Nor would the followers of other faiths. Yes, there’s the “oh, not us, them” thing–but obviously we don’t support that. No citizen deserves to be singled out and treated differently — but we do deserve to be recognized as distinct faith group from the others.
You have to think about the target audience for the shirt. It’s not the super-well-educated people that could put together that since Sikhism began in Punjab in 1469 it’s a distinct faith from those in the list. Anyway, thanks for your comment.
Thank you ssingh, I could not have said it better.
It is about time Sikhs got up and told the rest of the world who we are and who we are not.
There is no such thing as “AMERICAN SIKH”. Either one is a Sikh or something else. I am a Sikh that lives in America just like a Sikh that lives in India or Canada or Netherlands. I am a Sikh first then American, Indian, Punjabi etc.
Sikh is religion, American or Indian is citizenship. you can be Sikh American or American Sikh. Same thing. you can’t be Hindu Sikh, or Sikh Hindu, as some Sikhs seem to be.
There is definitely such a thing as American Sikh, you are reading his email.
This t-shirt will make the same impact as a Muslim wearing a t-shirt that says I’m a Shite not a Sunni.
david1313: “Are you implying that Guru Gobind Singh’s differentiation was futile and immature?”
Guru Gobind Singh ji gave us our uniform to serve as a catalyst for truthful living. That is, to help us live with hope, compassion, forgiveness, equality, etc.
This t-shirt feeds off haumain. Haumain is just more than ego. It is an attachment to self, extension of the self, esp., to self interestand identity: My being, My community, My religion, My God, My family. In “A Sikh’s Paradigm For Universal Peace,” Dr. Meji Singh, writes, “We are attached to ourselves as individuals, to our communities, or our religious and national identities. These are all an extension of Haumain. A person who is connected with Whaeguru [God] perceives Whaeguru in everyone…”
I’ll buy the t-shirt that says, “I’m a Sikh, but proud to be mistaken as Muslim, Hindu, Arab, etc.”
i agree with many of the critiques of this shirt. i’m so fed up with sikhs practically having campaigns to say “we are not muslims” since 9/11/01, rather than pledging solidarity with muslims and arabs, who are probably the most vilified group of people in the world right now. the violence and bigotry they face is ultimately linked with the violence and bigotry we as sikhs face. sure, we should educate people about who we are as sikhs, but a t-shirt like this seems to sarcastically be putting down other religions/groups in an arrogant way and embracing “american” identity as something more enlightened. i like ns88’s t-shirt: “I’m a Sikh, but proud to be mistaken as Muslim, Hindu, Arab, etc.” let’s not fall in to an oppressive system’s pattern of divide and conquer.
My understanding is that Guru Gobind Singh Ji did not want the Sikhs to be mistaken for any other religion than what he made them to be. Remember that when the Moguls came down from the Afghan hills looking for Sikhs but instead found and attacked the Hindus, Guru Ji made sure that the Sikhs could be identified and stand out and be seen by the Moguls, instead of the Moguls mistakenly attacking the Hindus.
“American identity as something more enlightened” is only your biased inferiority complex perception, it is not implied by the T-Shirt. The other shirts are “Indian Sikh”, “British Sikh”, “German Sikh” etc… they are all equal, none “higher or lower” than the other.
The truth is that countless so called Sikhs today practice so many non-Sikh customs, it is no surprise that they are mistaken for others, so actually, there is no need for the t-shirt of the kind you propose:”I’m a Sikh, but proud to be mistaken as Muslim, Hindu, Arab, etc.”
“My understanding is that Guru Gobind Singh Ji did not want the Sikhs to be”
First of all, thank you for the “my understanding” part. I appreciate the humility.
The example you have given underscores the context of truthful living. Specifically in this case, Sabarat Da Bhalla. Guru Gobind Singh ji realized that we are all created equal. He did not want our Hindu brothers to be slaughtered. When he made sure Sikhs could be identified it was not out of pride and bombast intentions. He made us stood up for Hindus, and we must stand up for Muslims today. It is precisely why he proclaimed Bhai Kanahiya, who gave water to the fallen Muslims in the battlefield, to be a true Sikh. And let us not forget that Gurbani is layered with hymns from Muslim and Sikh bhagats.
The following quote has been widely misunderstood: The Tenth Master, “rehit piari mujh ko sikh piara nahin.” The true translation is I love the conduct of the Sikh, not the Sikh. The conduct, of course, is the one that deals with living truthfully—living with faith, hope, humility, love, forgiveness, and with courage to fight against oppression and for equality.
Lastly, I want to give credit to Fateh Singh-Tarney, who wrote an article in The American Scene: “I Am Not a Muslim, But I Am Honored To Be Mistaken For One!”
I read it a couple of years ago, but it still remains vivid in my mind.
http://gupt.wordpress.com/2006/09/25/profiled-with-pride-i-am-not-a-muslim-but-i-am-honored-to-be-mistaken-for-one/
Perhaps it can be posted in SikhSwim. After all, it is 9/11.
This will be my last post in this topic. We are all works in progress, and so are our understandings.
TO ns88:
I completely agree with you. Your thoughts were well put.
I dislike the idea of this shirt because our Gurus emphasized that it does not matter what you are. They also talked about the difference between the two types of pride.Why does it say “not to be mistaken for.. etc” that’s actually pretty offensive to other religions and cultures which is so not Sikhi. The shirt should emphasize that we are all the same not different and if we get mistaken for something else.. who cares. If there is racism toward us, fight against it on a humanist apporach rather than.. well i’m not muslim so you don’t have to beat me up. We all believe in One God.
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