Dear Editor, Both (Ranjit Singh Gill and Sukhminder Singh) of us have been incarcerated in meteropolitian Correctional Center, New York for the last nearly Seven years. We are held on the basis of a extradition request filed by Indian Government on various charges related with ongoing Sikh Political Struggle in Punjab, India. During all these years from time to Ume to fulfill our Religious needs inside the prison we are Required to contact the prison Chaplin, Since the course of our Stay, three Chaplin’s have been replaced in MCC. Every time a new Chaplin came and in due Course when we get to see him and inform him that we belong to Sikh Religion. To our dismay and amazement each and every Chaplin has shown ignorance about Sikh Religion, So every time we have to educate him who Sikhs are and what are our Religious requirements? Last week a new Chaplin who recently joined the MCC came to see us. Like his predecessors he ShoWed ignorance about Sikh Religion, and confused Sikhism as some kind of a Hindu sect We explained to him about the Sikhism. We educated him about the simplicity, uniqueness, independence and monolithic nature of the Sikh Religion.

Meanwhile, during the conversation in our cell a Webster’s English dictionary was sitting on top of our locker. To clear up the confusion the Chaplin looked for the meaning of word “Sikh” in the dictionary. And according to this Webster’s New World Dictionary, the word “Sikh” is illustrated as follow:

“SIKH ‘n’ [Hindi, a disciple}, “a member of a Hindu religious sect founded in northern India about 1500 and based on belief in one God and on rejection of the caste system and idolatry.”

This definition was contrary to what we have explained to him, which left us speechless and astonished, Even though we were taken aback by this in front of the Chaplin but still we tied to explain to him that this is only partly right; and Sikh is a separate Religion and is not a sect of Hinduism or Islam. .

After our meeting we checked Random House Dictionary, in this dictionary word Sikh was defined as:”SIKHA member of a Hindu religious sect refusing to recognize the caste system.”

Furthermore we checked the “Oxford American Dictionary. This illustrated the word Sikh as follows:”SIKHA member of a certain Hindu Religious Sect.”

In our view all the above mentioned definitions are questionable according to unquestionable ethos of Sikhism. We do not know if this is nonsense, or maliciousness, or just a honest mistake. It is hard to digest that three different dictionaries who have about similar definition of Sikhism have made a mistake.

We urge all the concemed Sikhs to take up this matter with the Editor’s of these Dictionaries, so that they can rectify the mistake and set the record straight. Ranjit Singh Gill, Sukhminder Singh, New York.

Article extracted from this publication >>  December 3, 1993