When a U.S. deportation flight landed in Amritsar recently, 117 Indians arrived in chains and handcuffs, many with their turbans removed. The images provoked outrage across Punjab. Yet no one asked the obvious questions: Why were they in chains to begin with? Why are so many desperate to leave Punjab at any cost? And if they must leave, why not legally instead of by the “dunkey” route through Mexico or Canada?
These are questions for the Sikh organisations and political parties that protest whenever they believe faith is under attack. They must also introspect on these uncomfortable realities.
Too many among us seek Western opportunity without Western discipline. The sight of our youth being flown back in shackles is not American cruelty; it is the final symptom of a deeper cultural failure — a refusal to respect rules abroad while demanding sympathy at home. Illegal immigration is a crime; expecting honour in deportation is absurd.
A pattern of defiance
In just six months, four events have exposed the widening gap between faith, freedom and responsibility:
• April 2025: President Trump mandated that all U.S. truck drivers be proficient in English — a safety regulation Sikh groups called discriminatory (The Tribune).
• October 2025: The U.S. military reinstated its beard and hair restrictions, prompting protests from Sikh and Indian leaders (India Today).
• September 29: Harjinder Singh, an Indian-origin trucker, killed three people in a Florida crash (Hindustan Times).
• October 21: Jashanpreet Singh, reportedly high on drugs and living illegally in the U.S., caused another crash in California, killing three (ABC7 News.)
From language to grooming to traffic law, every rule is met with outrage, never introspection. And in both accident cases, blame lies not only with the drivers but also with trucking companies that hire them without verification or background checks.
Rules aren’t persecution
The U.S. military’s grooming code may feel harsh, but it applies equally to every soldier; its purpose is uniformity, not humiliation. The English-proficiency rule for truckers concerns road safety, not racial bias. Deportation is not collective punishment; it is due process.
Yet we have made a habit of treating every act of enforcement as an insult to identity. The language of victimhood has replaced the language of responsibility.
Is former Member of Punjab Public Service Commission
A farmer and keen observer of current affairs
As I wrote in “Adapt — Don’t Resist”, “Multiculturalism doesn’t mean putting every culture on a loudspeaker. It means co-existing peacefully by respecting a shared public culture rooted in civic responsibility and safety.”
The West is not asking us to abandon religion; it is asking us to behave as responsible participants in societies that run on law, not sentiment.
The road speaks English
A 40-ton truck on an American highway is not a job — it is a public trust. U.S. federal regulations explicitly require that drivers “read and speak the English language sufficiently to understand highway signs and respond to official inquiries.”
Those rules were written after tragedies like the ones in Florida and California. They are not racist; they are rational. A driver who cannot read a warning sign endangers everyone.
Yet when the U.S. enforces English proficiency, we call it bias. When it deports illegal migrants, we call it cruelty. When the army enforces grooming codes, we call it persecution. The pattern is the same: rules are treated as insults instead of instructions.
Punjab’s double standard
The same Punjab that switches to Hindi to speak to Bihari labourers refuses to learn English abroad. We expect others to adapt to us but resist adapting to them. Our villages glorify migration but not legality; our agents sell fake documents; and parents close their eyes — until the deportation flight lands and outrage begins.
We cannot demand dignity for those deported illegally while tolerating the networks that trafficked them. The chain does not begin in America; it begins in Punjab.
The state must therefore:
Establish Legal Migration and Language Centres in every district to train youth for lawful employment abroad.
Crack down on the agent industry that thrives on forged papers and false promises.
Launch a “Learn Before You Leave” campaign so migration becomes a skill, not a gamble.
Faith deserves dignity, not defiance
Sikhism is grounded in humility, courage and discipline. Guru Nanak’s message was universal — to live truthfully, work honestly and treat the world as one family. Faith loses moral force when it turns into perpetual grievance or arrogance disguised as piety. Religion is a private matter; when it spills into public defiance, it disrupts the host society.
Beards, turbans and prayers are symbols of spiritual strength — not shields against civic rules. Their sanctity lies in conduct, not confrontation.
In “Adapt or Be Rejected”, I wrote: “Adaptation isn’t assimilation — it’s respect.” The West does not reject Sikhs for being visible; it recoils when visibility turns into defiance.
The world isn’t racist; it’s tired
In “Racism or Repercussion?”, I noted: “When repeated misconduct by a few becomes perception about the many, the backlash that follows is not always racism — sometimes, it’s repercussion.”
That line now echoes across Western capitals. The West isn’t hostile; it’s weary. The tolerance that once embraced diversity now demands discipline.
Adapt or be disowned
The deportation flights, the beard ban, the English test — these are not random events. They are warnings. The West is saying: behave, or be sent home.
The Sikh and Punjabi community has earned immense goodwill worldwide. But goodwill is not permanent; it must be renewed through conduct.
If we wish to protect our dignity abroad, we must pair faith with discipline, pride with preparation, and emotion with education.
Because adaptation is not surrender — it is survival.
And without it, we risk being deported not just from countries but from respect itself.