What rights do deportees have to dignity? Sikhs arrived sans turbans

“Who will be responsible if any of you hangs yourself to death?” — that was the question Jaswinder Singh, 21, was asked when he and other Sikh deportees from the US asked to at least have their turbans back, a report in the Indian Express mentions today, 17 February.

Singh, who comes from the Pandor Arian village in the Moga district of Punjab, arrived in India as one of the 115 deported illegal migrants to the US who landed in Amritsar on the night of Saturday, 15 February.

However, he and others of this group were deprived of many personal articles throughout their time at the detention centre, where Singh was taken on 27 January. These included shoelaces, kirpans and turbans.

Singh would have to wait 20 days before he would have access to the articles of his Sikh faith again — when he landed in Amritsar.

The turban is a symbol of the dignity of many Indian communities, but a particularly mandatory accessory for Sikhs, whose five symbols of active faith include kesh (hair that is never cut, and hence the restraining of it in a turban for men), kanga (comb, for said hair and beard), kara (iron bangle), kachhera (loincloth or underwear) and kirpan (small dagger for self-defence).

While the confiscation of a kirpan as a weapon may be understandable, most nations understand that those bearing one are carrying an article of faith akin to a crucifix for a Christian or a rosary for several different faiths — all of which can, in some hands, be weaponised.

Then again, many a secular government also finds it hard to accept certain forms of dress — such as a hijab or a turban — as non-threatening in the same way a nun's wimple is.

Of course, in the DEI-averse Trump administration, this sort of acknowledgement might be hard to come by, certainly. But then one wonders too of the likelihood of a racist or Islamophobic underpinning, recalling the many persecuted Sikhs who were 'confused with' Osama bin Laden in the years following 9-11.

Singh, who was caught on 27 January as he crossed the Mexican border, had hoped he would be bailed out using the money he paid his agent — at least, this is what he was promised.

Instead, he is left hoping the 'authorities' — the Punjab government and police, in this case — will help him recover the Rs 44 lakh debt his family now faces, as well as the mortgage on their home. (He was trying to get to the US for work, having just passed class 10 and not having further education, with four siblings to support, while his father has been unable to work due to cardiac health issues.)

But it wasn't just the Sikhs who were humiliated by the loss of their turbans — all males were in shackles, and not just for the duration of the flight itself, as folks back home might assume.

Jaswinder notes they boarded the plane on 13 January (in the US), both hands and feet chained, and had no idea where they were going and how long they would be in the belly of the beast.

It turned out to be three days — 66 hours — of what he characterises as “mental torture”.

“If anyone stood up even for a minute to stretch, the US authorities on board would reprimand us and order us to sit down.

“We shivered in the cold, as we were given only plastic sheets, which were not enough in the biting cold,” he says.