Military service is in Captain Kamaljit Singh Kalsi’s blood.
His father and grandfather were part of India’s Air Force. His great-grandfather served in the British Indian army. So when US Army recruiters talked to him during his first year of medical school, he readily signed up.
But his plans to go on active duty next month are now on hold. An Army policy from the 1980s that regulates the wearing of religious items would mean he would need to shave his beard and remove the turban he wears in accordance with his religious precepts.
PHOTO: AP
Kalsi and another Sikh man with the same concerns, Second Lieutenant Tejdeep Singh Rattan, are the centerpieces of an advocacy campaign launched by the Sikh Coalition as it tries to persuade the Army to let them serve without sacrificing their articles of faith.
“I’m an American, there’s no reason why I can’t serve,” Kalsi, 32, said.
The Army has a long-standing interest in how its members carry themselves, with policies that ban exotic hair colors, long fingernails or certain colors of lipstick. Army officials declined to comment on the reasoning behind its policy that would force the Sikh men to give up their religious displays. Sikhs who were active-duty military when the policy was adopted were allowed to continue serving without shaving their beards or removing their turbans.
The Pentagon and other military institutions would not comment.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group, was unfamiliar with the policy’s origins.
As the Sikh diaspora has spread across the world, the issue of turbans and beards on Sikhs in uniform has come up in a number of places. In New York City, for example, Sikh traffic officers took successful legal action to force the city to allow them to wear turbans and beards.
The Sikh community is hopeful it will win the policy appeal; in an April 29 letter to the Sikh Coalition, the director of the Army’s Human Resources Policy Directorate said senior leadership was aware of the issue and was gathering information to make a decision. Toni Delancey, a spokeswoman for Army personnel, said the appeals were under review.
Sikh Coalition executive director Amardeep Singh said he hoped that not only are Kalsi and Rattan allowed to serve, but that the rule would be changed for all turbaned and bearded Sikhs who would want to enlist.
“Our country’s military needs to reflect what America is right now,” he said. “It’s a diverse country, it’s a country that puts forth for the rest of the world the values of liberty, particularly religious liberty.”
Allowing Sikhs to serve with beard and turban “will send a very strong message to the rest of the world that we are who we say we are,” he said.
The Sikh faith requires adherents to follow certain rules, among them that hair is not to be cut and for men, the wearing of a turban. Both Kalsi, an emergency room doctor, and Rattan, a dental surgeon, say they were following those rules when they were recruited and never had any problems or were told they would not be able to serve with their beards or turbans.
Both said they raised the issue over the years and were reassured, and that it was not until the end of last year when they were told they would not be allowed to serve as they were.
The idea that he would have to choose between his country and his faith is hard for Rattan.
“I’m offering my life, but I’m not willing to sacrifice my religious beliefs,” he said.
Singh said it would be in the military’s best interest to lets Sikhs serve. The community has a long tradition of military service, both in India, where most of the faith’s adherents are, as well as in the countries where Sikhs have made their homes, like Canada and the UK.
“As part of our religious heritage, we’re taught that we have an obligation to actively serve and protect the communities in which we live,” he said.
In Canada, regulations for the armed forces allow Sikhs to keep their turbans and beards and even determine what colors the different military branches can wear. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police allows turbans as well.
The British Army allows Sikhs to generally keep their articles of faith. For Sikhs who serve as civilian police officers, the British Police Sikh Association is pushing for development of bulletproof turbans. That would allow Sikhs to be part of firearms units, since safety helmets do not fit over them.
In a market in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, customers flock to Ache Moussa’s stall to have their long plaits smeared with a special paste in an age-old ritual. Each strand of hair, from the root to the end, is slathered in a traditional mixture of cherry seeds, cloves and chebe seeds, the most important ingredient of all. Users say the recipe makes their hair grow longer and more lustrous. Local and natural hair products are gaining popularity across Africa as people turn away from commercial cosmetics. Moussa applies the mixture and shapes the client’s locks into a gourone — a traditional hairstyle consisting of
RALLYING CRY: Former US president Donald Trump has raised suspicions about why Chinese migrants are going to the US and advocacy groups worry about his rhetoric The US Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday said that it sent 116 Chinese migrants from the US back home in the first “large charter flight” in five years. The flight, which happened over the weekend, comes as Chinese immigration has become the subject of intense political debate in the upcoming US presidential election. “We will continue to enforce our immigration laws and remove individuals without a legal basis to remain in the United States,” US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement. The department said it was working with China to “reduce and deter irregular migration and to disrupt
‘ONE FELL SWOOP’: Overturning a landmark ruling that said judges should defer to experts would ‘cause a massive shock to the legal system,’ a dissenting opinion said Prosecutors overstepped in charging Jan. 6, 2021, rioters with obstruction for trying to prevent certification of the 2020 presidential election, the US Supreme Court said on Friday, throwing hundreds of cases into doubt, while another controversial ruling struck down 40 years of legal precedent on federal agencies’ ability to regulate critical issues. The matter was brought to the court through an appeal by former police officer Joseph Fischer, a supporter of former US president Donald Trump who entered the Capitol with hundreds of others in 2021. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said prosecutors’ interpretation of the law would “criminalize
The US yesterday wrapped up its first multidomain exercise with Japan and South Korea in the East China Sea, a step forward in Washington’s efforts to enhance and lock in its security partnerships with key Asian allies in the face of growing threats from North Korea and China. The three-day Freedom Edge increased the sophistication of previous exercises with simultaneous air and naval drills geared toward improving joint ballistic-missile defense, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and other skills and capabilities. The exercise, which is expected to expand in years to come, was also intended to improve the countries’ abilities to share missile warnings —