Five years prison for mocking Sikhs
A movement to stop people making fun of Sikhs is gaining momentum in India.
India’s Supreme Court last month asked an organization representing followers of the religion to frame rules on how to implement a ban on jokes or negative remarks about Sikhs, if such a ban were announced.
The committee petitioned the court last year seeking a means of “curbing the menace of Sikh jokes” and other derogatory remarks about them and other social, religious and ethnic communities.
A five-member team of retired judges and others is working to come up with guidelines before the end of March, says Jaswinder Jolly, one of the petitioners.
Sikhs comprise around 2% of India’s population, but they are a prominent community known for being hard-working and entrepreneurial, and for their bravery as part of the Indian armed forces. But they are also on the receiving end of a large number of jokes, which typically portray them as dim-witted.
Jokes around a fictitious Sikh pair named Santa Singh and Banta Singh, have flourished on the Internet and, in recent years, on messaging service WhatsApp.
>Santa Singh: Have you heard of the Suez Canal? My father dug it.
>Banta Singh: That’s nothing. Have you heard of the Dead Sea? My father killed it.
“They are making fun of us and making money through advertising," said Mr. Jolly.
On 17 March, The Supreme Court today indicated that it might ban "Santa Banta" jokes from being circulated for "commercial" motives on the Internet and other media "if the entire (Sikh) community is being aggrieved by it". Such a ban will apply to all publications and broadcasters but not to jokes told during private conversations.
The religious organisation has urged the court to determine whether the circulation of these jokes violated Sikhs' fundamental right to live with dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution, their right of equality under Article 14, and their right to profess and propagate their religion, as enshrined in Article 25.
The lawyer behind the petition, one Sikh woman called, Harvinder Kaur Chowdhury, seeks a ban on the 5,000-odd websites that carry "Sardar jokes". She has argued that through such jokes, websites portray Sikhs as "unintelligent", "foolish" and "naïve", making them an easy target for ridicule and racial abuse. She wants such websites to be prosecuted under laws that carry a prison term of six months to five years.
http://archive.is/Ifwcb (March 2016)
http://archive.is/M96bi (March 2016)
http://archive.is/6eJr8 (Nov 2015)
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