New Delhi: Social temperatures went soaring in hill station town of Shimla, nestled in the Himalaya range, when a Christian school last month barred students from the Sikh community to wear traditional turbans to the classroom. After several days of protests and threat of an agitation by the small, but powerful community has now forced the St Edwards school, located in Shimla, a capital of Uttar Pradesh to roll back its decision. “Wearing the turban is our right and not allowing this has hurt our sentiments. We will begin an agitation from Sunday if the issue is not resolved on Saturday and the boy is not allowed to wear turban,” said JaswinderSingh, who heads the Sikh religious committee and had threatened to go on warpath on the issue. “The school principal, Father John Bosco, asked the boy, a student of standard XI, to leave the classroom for having the turban on,” Singh added, even as the principal said that much was being made of a perfectly normal procedure. “There has been no controversy over wearing of turban. We had asked for an application from the parents of the boy seeking permission. It was done to ensure that religious sentiments are not hurt in case the turban fell off his head while playing. We had simply asked for this application, after which he could have worn a turban,” Father Bosco told reporters in Shimla. The truce between members of the Silk community and the school authorities was brought about by the state administration, who feared the issue taking a communal angle, because of the involvement of two religious minority communities of India. For the several million Sikhs in India, wearing a turban, a comb, an underwear, a dagger and sporting long hair (covered by the turban) is mandated by the Sikh religion. Silks are typically known as a hard working community, conventionally associated either with farming, managing businesses or being a part of the Indian armed forces.
