[Although there were
Sikhs in the United States in the 19th century, their population grew rapidly
in the 1980s after a crackdown against an independence movement in Punjab
caused thousands of Sikhs to emigrate. Today the Sikh Coalition,
an advocacy group, estimates that about half a million Sikhs live in America,
concentrated in California and New York. There are about 30 million Sikhs
worldwide.]
By James Dao
 |
Richard Perry/The New York Times
“Asking a person to choose between religion and
country, that’s not who we are as a nation,”
said Maj. Kamaljeet Singh Kalsi, above, at home last
month in New Jersey.
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The Sikhs of northwestern India have for centuries cherished their rich military history. Wearing
long beards and turbans into combat, they have battled Mughals in Punjab,
Afghans near the Khyber Pass and Germans in the bloody trenches of the Somme.
But when Maj. Kamaljeet
Singh Kalsi, an American Sikh raised in New Jersey, signed up for the United
States Army, that tradition counted for nothing. Before sending him to officer
basic training, the Army told him that he would have to give up the basic
symbols of his religion: his beard, knee-length hair and turban.
In good Sikh tradition,
he resisted. Armed with petitions and Congressional letters, he waged a
two-year campaign that in 2009 resulted in the Army granting him a special
exception for his unshorn hair, the first such accommodation to a policy
established in the 1980s.
Since then, two other
Sikhs have won accommodations from the Army. But many others have failed. And
so now, as he prepares to leave active duty, Major Kalsi, who earned a Bronze
Star in Afghanistan, is waging a new campaign: to rescind those strict rules
that he believes have blocked hundreds of Sikhs from joining the military.
“Folks say, ‘If you
really want to serve, why don’t you cut your beard?’ ” said Major Kalsi, a
doctor who is the medical director of emergency medical services at Fort Bragg
in North Carolina. “But asking a person to choose between religion and country,
that’s not who we are as a nation. We’re better than that. We can be Sikhs and
soldiers at the same time.”
At stake for the
military is the uniformity in appearance that it deems necessary for good order
and discipline. “A neat and well-groomed appearance is fundamental to Army
service,” said Troy A. Rolan, an Army spokesman. “It is an outward symbol of a
disciplined military.”
But to Sikh advocates
and their supporters in Congress, the policies governing appearance are as
fundamentally discriminatory to them as racially segregated units were to
blacks, combat prohibitions were to women and the “don’t ask, don’t tell”
policy was to gay men and lesbians.
“They love this
country,” said Representative Joseph Crowley, Democrat of New York, who has
been urging the Pentagon to change its rules regarding Sikhs. “If they want to
serve, we should let them do it.”
Sikh leaders cite an
additional reason for their push. In the days after the Sept. 11 attacks, Sikhs
were attacked, and at least one was killed, by assailants who confused them
with fundamentalist Muslims. Last year, a white supremacist shot to death six Sikhs in
their gurudwara, or place of worship, near Milwaukee.
The more Sikhs wear
military, police or firefighter uniforms, Major Kalsi reasoned, the less often
Americans will see them as threatening outsiders. “When you see a Sikh
firefighter save your daughter, you’ll think, ‘That’s a member of my
community,’ ” said Major Kalsi, a 36-year-old father of two.
Although there were
Sikhs in the United States in the 19th century, their population grew rapidly
in the 1980s after a crackdown against an independence movement in Punjab
caused thousands of Sikhs to emigrate. Today the Sikh Coalition,
an advocacy group, estimates that about half a million Sikhs live in America,
concentrated in California and New York. There are about 30 million Sikhs
worldwide.
The first Sikh guru was
born a Hindu in the 15th century, but the monotheistic religion he founded was
more democratic than Hinduism, rejecting caste and embracing worshipers of both
genders and all races.
As the religion took
root in what is today northwestern India, Sikhs formed their own militias to
defend against marauding armies. When the British colonized the region, they
recognized that fighting spirit and created Sikh battalions to carry the
empire’s banner across the globe. Today, Sikhs continue to serve in the Indian
military in numbers far exceeding their small portion of the population.
Nikky-Guninder Kaur
Singh, the chairwoman of the department of religious studies at Colby College
in Maine, said the five articles of Sikh faith were established by the 10th
Sikh guru to give his people a sense of identity when they were chafing under
the Islamic Mughal court of Delhi.
The five articles are
unshorn hair, a comb, a wristband made of iron or steel, underwear (a symbol of
sexual modesty and personal hygiene) and a sword. The turban is worn as a sign
of religious respect but also as a matter of practicality, to bind up long
hair.
“To challenge that
oppression, guru said, ‘Be who you are: hold your sword, wear your hair
long,’ ” Dr. Singh said. “It was partly to instill courage.”
Until 1974, Sikhs were
allowed to serve in the United States military with unshorn hair and beards.
But in the 1980s, stricter rules regarding personal appearance were enacted.
Sikhs on active duty at that time were allowed to keep their articles of faith,
but future recruits were required to seek case-by-case exceptions. No one
succeeded until Major Kalsi in 2009.
Petitioning can be
time-consuming and difficult. And because accommodations are based partly on
military necessity, recruits without special skills like being doctors or
speaking foreign languages can easily be rejected. Moreover, exceptions are
viewed as temporary, meaning Sikh soldiers can be ordered to cut their hair and
shave their beards at any time.
Among the concerns
raised by the armed services — all branches have rules similar to the Army’s,
according to the Sikh Coalition — is whether Sikh men can safely wear helmets
and gas masks.
But Major Kalsi, who
spent seven months in Afghanistan in 2011 running a field hospital in Helmand
Province, said he routinely wore a helmet over his long hair, which he bound
under a special wrap. He noted that the Israeli military, as well as bearded
American Special Operations troops, had proved that gas masks worked over thick
beards.
Major Kalsi has even
created his own military turbans, which bear his rank insignia and are made
from the same camouflage material used in Army combat uniforms.
A more nuanced challenge
for Sikh recruits is overcoming the argument that uniformity of appearance is
essential for “unit cohesion,” the military’s shared sense of purpose and
tradition. But Sikhs point to the British, Canadian and Indian militaries,
where Sikhs are allowed to wear unshorn hair and beards, as evidence that their
articles of faith do not undermine esprit de corps.
“On the battlefield,
people won’t say, ‘You have a beard and turban — don’t save my life,’ ”
said Specialist Simranpreet Lamba, an Army medic based at Joint Base
Lewis-McChord in Washington State.
Specialist Lamba, 29,
said he had dreamed of joining the military as a child in India. After he
immigrated to the United States in 2006, he decided to enlist after Major Kalsi
received his exception. The Army granted him an accommodation under a program
for immigrants with foreign language skills.
Though Specialist Lamba
said he sometimes got quizzical looks, his commanders and unit mates had been
very welcoming. “My brigade is so used to me, they don’t look at me as someone
who is different,” he said.
Charanpreet Singh, 26,
who lives near Portland, Ore., was thwarted by the rules. He had planned to
begin basic training in April, but the Army did not approve his accommodation
in time, so he received a separation. But he still longs to enlist. “I liked
the ideals of the military life,” he said. “If they are able to change the
rules, I will try again.”
For Harmandeep S.
Grover, a 24-year-old immigrant, joining the Army is very much about becoming
an American.
He was recently accepted
into the same language-skills program that Specialist Lamba used to enlist. Now
he must wait for the Army to consider his request for an accommodation.
“I want to be part of
this country,” he said.
