Japan: Tameez, And A Touch Of Class

[HSD1]

Tameez - [Noun, Punjabi, origin: Persian] - recognition, distinction, discrimination, good manners, decorum, politeness, respect, culture, class ...

[Punjabi Dictionary]

The highest compliment one can pay to a person in Punjabi - commenting on his/her being truly cultured - is that he/she has 'tameez'!

[The opposite is true as well: "bud-tameez" is, on the other end of the scale, an insult, alleging an absence of manners, class, culture ...!]

Tameez is a word and a world lost in current day East Punjab which lies in India, neglected and brutalized in a country which knows even less of the concept.

You'll have to go to Lahore across the border, into Pakistan, to get a flavour of what the word means - though, I must add, Pakistan too is drowning in its fundamentalist vitriol.

A little over four decades ago - at a time when we were still living in India - when my parents returned from a seven-month long holiday around the world, visiting and traveling through over 40 countries, we asked them to name their favourite place in all their travels.

Both were quick and unanimous in their reply: "Japan!"

It was head and shoulders above the rest of the world, they said. The Japanese, they reiterated, had "tameez!"

They had spent a bit of time in the country and regaled us with anecdotes to prove their point - and tales from other lands, in contrast, also to prove their point.

I took it all with a pinch of salt. Though I accepted their grading, I had my personal reservations about the Japanese which prevented me from instantly become their fan. I was then a voracious reader and one of the areas I had lapped up stories from was the era of the two World Wars.

And I was already a Hollywood movie buff, and made sure I had caught anything and everything Hollywood had to say on the evil unleashed by the Germans and the Japanese on the civilized world.

Six decades into my life journey, I now know better, even though I need no convincing that the Germans were as evil as humans can possibly get, and the Japanese had been no better, especially with those they conquered or imprisoned during the war.

But I have a better perspective now.

Not only do I know now in considerable detail of all the evil unleashed by the colonial powers around the world - by the British, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Belgians, Spanish, Italians, Australians, Afrikaaners, and so on - but also of what the Americans did to their native people and the black populace over the centuries.

We all know what the Americans have done in the Middle-East to satiate their greed, what the Israelis continue to do to the Palestinians, what India does every day to its women, children, poor and minorities ...

And, you know, sadly, no one in the world comes out looking better, no matter what gauge you use.

So, knowing what mischief the Americans and Indians and Israelis - taking but only three examples - are up to even today, I have no dispute with all that we are told the Japanese did to others during the first half of the 20th century. For as I look around me and at those who I call my own, there are none in that context who are worth writing home about!

For me, the general assessment of human nature by the King of Brobdingnag holds water. And I note that he left no room or doubt about the existence of any exceptions.

Having said that and starting from that point as a given, I have revisited my view of the Japanese and have no reason anymore - especially in view of the shenanigans of all nations in the last decade - to discount my parents' assessment from four decades ago any more.

Today, in the wake of last week's earthquake and tsunami that has devastated Japan, I share with the world their pain and grief as I too watch the images of monumental destruction brought into our living rooms through our TV screens.

And as I watch the people of Japan stagger and struggle under the unprecedented and precipitous challenges, my view of them as a people has soared to new heights.

Such natural disasters - many of them of similar magnitude - are neither infrequent nor unique. Lord knows we have seen so many in recent times.

There is no expectation of grace or a stiff-upper lip in such difficult tragedies.

But what we have seen in the images coming from Japan has been exactly what we have grown to expect from them.

A stoic nobility.

Efficiency.

Compassion.

Dignity.

Humility.

Serenity.

It brings together all that we know of Japanese culture.

Discipline.

Introspection.

Meditation.

Aesthetics.

Contemplation.

Selflessness.

Order.

Co-operation.

Generosity.

Sacrifice.

Harmony.

Spirituality.

Balance.

Resilience.

Equipoise.

Beauty.

In this time of extreme adversity, they are inevitably suffering from a paucity of resources. Despite the limitations, victims of the tragedy are being tended to with the grace and alacrity that we saw glaringly lacking in the world's richest nation when Katrina played its havoc on New Orleans only a few years ago.

I remember asking our parents, when they came back from their travels as sworn cheerleaders for Japan, as to what they saw there that moved them so much.

My father, who I know was a wise man in every sense of the word, said: "I knew we were dealing with an extraordinary people when we kept on seeing, no matter where we went - village, town or city; home, business or public place - that shoes were always lined up perfectly outside the door. Never, ever, was a single pair out of harmony. It was as if the whole nation was in tune with something bigger!"

In recent days I have been witnessing scenes - albeit from the comfort of our living room - of reporters coming upon survivors who are having their first meal in days. And one survivor invariably pounces forward and offers the newsmen some food!

Or when the Japanese Ambassador to Canada appears on news programmes and is asked how we can help. And he gushes, over and over again, with gratitude for the mere offer of help!

Did you notice that for days after the dual tragedies hit Japan last week, the official death toll from the local authorities remained under 100? Why?

The Japanese are masters of the understatement. No exaggerations, no hyperbole for them, to garner sympathy or support. Just exactitude!

In India, any local journalist will tell you, the authorities will downplay the figures by 90% if their culpability is involved , or magnify it in the same proportion if it will arouse sympathy or attract aid dollars.

In the U.S., when the 9/11 tragedy struck, they began with highly-blown figures of casualties, and then, slowly, reluctantly, whittled them down over the weeks that followed to the real figures.

A marked contrast to what we see unfolding in Japan.

I know that Japan will bounce back from this severe setback before long.

But in the meantime, I have acquired new respect for them, their nation, their people, their culture, their way of life.

They say a man's true character discloses itself only in time of adversity.

It is true for a people and a nation, as much as it is for an individual.

I humbly offer a rei - a bow in respect - to them in this most difficult hour.

http://www.sikhchic.com/columnists/japan_tameez_and_a_touch_of_class

[dalsingh101]

Nice piece.

Makes you wonder when you just know if something similar happened in Panjab there would be a lot of pendu women screaming like wild banshees doing that crazy self hitting thing across the chest.

[HSD1]

Nice piece.

Makes you wonder when you just know if something similar happened in Panjab there would be a lot of pendu women screaming like wild banshees doing that crazy self hitting thing across the chest.

If east punjab was faced with floods, earthquakes and nuclear disaster it would turn into one big free for all. Like partition but on a smaller scale with everyone just out for their own survival. If this happened in England we would all be ripping each other's throats out on a race level and people would be fighting for control of supermarkets and petrol stations etc.

The question is where did it all go wrong? In that book about the 1st Anglo-Sikh war by Amarpal Sidhu he talks about common Punjabis deriding the invaders and sikh civilians coming to help the wounded Khalsa troops and cremate the dead. Why were people so patriotic and stoic back then when nowadays Punjab just seems to show a sikh nation no longer in harmony or with their backs to each other, facing external enemies?

All credit to the Japanese people as well. They are a credit to asia. Hopefully one day sikhs and punjabis will foster their own version of Yamato Damashii, to turn Punjab back onto the track it was on before the British Indians came and derailed it.

Edited March 20, 2011 by HSD 2

[dalsingh101]

Hopefully one day sikhs and punjabis will foster their own version of Yamato Damashii, to turn Punjab back onto the track it was on before the British Indians came and derailed it.

Why blame British Indians? Whites just roped in whatever phudus they could to help when they invaded us. Subsequently, our own pendus replaced them and went on do the same in other lands for the whites.

[HSD1]

Why blame British Indians? Whites just roped in whatever phudus they could to help when they invaded us. Subsequently, our own pendus replaced them and went on do the same in other lands for the whites.

Well using that logic the white working class who formed the rank and file could absolve themselves too. In the long run india as a country benefitted from these wars as it expanded hindustani dominion into Punjab, reversing the work of the Sikh Misls who pushed maratha rule away from east punjab.

[dalsingh101]

You equating the modern Hindustani with the Maharattas is problematic. They are two different beasts to me. The former is a newer invention in my books.

[HSD1]

You equating the modern Hindustani with the Maharattas is problematic. They are two different beasts to me. The former is a newer invention in my books.

I should have been more comprehensive in my answer. The Sikh Confederacy and Khalsa Empire both worked to push back Gurkha/Mughal/Maratha rule and 'civilization' and replace it with a Sikh Punjabi one. The wars with British India (as it was called then) reversed over a century and a halfs gains. Even though there is a clear lineage in power from the Mughals to the British to the modern Hindustanis, there is a certain romanticism amongst many hindus to the Maratha empire. It is used as a popular source of pride to many indians, as well as the use of Svasti symbolism fits in with the whole aryan superiority that many indians have going on (amongst sikh jatts/khatris as well as hindus before you ask).

[dalsingh101]

I'm really beginning to doubt people will or even can subjugate their perceived ethnic/caste (however the f%$k they justify it these days) 'identity' for a greater Sikh one.

Seems like the micro identity is at least 'as important' if not 'more important' than the macro Sikh one for lots of people.

Edited March 20, 2011 by dalsingh101

[HSD1]

I'm really beginning to doubt people will or even can subjugate their perceived ethnic/caste (however the f%$k they justify it these days) 'identity' for a greater Sikh one.

Seems like the micro identity at least as important if not more important than the macro Sikh one for lots of people.

Well thats because a macro one doesnt really exist for most people. Telling sikhs that we once had an empire with the worlds best military is usually met with scepticism by most raised on the notion that sikh identity is just what their parents stand for, not a history that stretches for hundreds of years where sikhs lived in a completely different mindset, as a sovereign nation.

Trying to change this love/pride in caste and the culture that goes with it may end up with people who prefer the 'new' culture being called neo-sikhs or KhalsaPunks but at the end of the day it's better than whats being going on for the last 150 years.

This topic has gone wildly off topic, maybe there should be a thread on why caste still exists and why people still believe in it.

[Xylitol]

so at what point did sikhs lose their national pride? I mean, it's pretty clear that a fair number still retain this pride. But when did the bulk of sikhs lose it??

Did it occur pre-partition or post-partition??

[HSD1]

so at what point did sikhs lose their national pride? I mean, it's pretty clear that a fair number still retain this pride. But when did the bulk of sikhs lose it??

Did it occur pre-partition or post-partition??

Most non-sikh sources point to our defeat in the end of the Second Anglo-Sikh war as the point when sikhs ceased to be a nation. Considering how we rolled our movement for freedom against the british into a general Indian Azaad movement, only to lose a lot in 1947 and then in the next 60 years afterwards to suffer reversal after reversal, I have to agree that our national pride was lost along with our dignity, sense of community and national character on 21st February 1849 on the streets and fields around the town of Gujrat.

[Xylitol]

hmmm... That was around the time that Sikhs fought against and caused the shaheedi of Naurangabad wale Mahapurkh...

Afterwards, that unit was considered cursed and people labeled them as those who committed Gurumaar. It was, i'm guessing, the first incident of khalsa killing a mahapurkh. if that's true it would signify an incredibly gigantic divergence from Sikh tradition.

[laalsingh]

Most non-sikh sources point to our defeat in the end of the Second Anglo-Sikh war as the point when sikhs ceased to be a nation. Considering how we rolled our movement for freedom against the british into a general Indian Azaad movement, only to lose a lot in 1947 and then in the next 60 years afterwards to suffer reversal after reversal, I have to agree that our national pride was lost along with our dignity, sense of community and national character on 21st February 1849 on the streets and fields around the town of Gujrat.

ਹਾਂ, ਦਿਲ ਦੁਖਦਾ ਹੈ। ਪਰ ਇੱਕ ਦਿਨ ਵਿੱਚ ਕੁੱਝ ਨਹੀਂ ਹੁੰਦਾ। ਖਾਲਸਾ ਫੌਜ (ਭਾਵੇਂ ਪੂਰੀ ਖਾਲਸਾ ਨਹੀਂ ਸੀ ਰਹੀ) ਨੇ ਓਹੀ ਵੱਢਿਆ, ਜੋ ਬੀਜਿਆ ਸੀ। ਇਤਿਹਾਸ ਅੱਸੀਵੀਆਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਫਿਰ ਦੁਰਹਾਇਆ ਗਿਆ। ਭਾਰਤੀ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਨੇ ਕੁੱਝ ਨਹੀਂ ਕੀਤਾ, ਖਾਲਸਾ ਆਪਣੀ ਅਸਫਲਤਾ ਦਾ ਆਪ ਜਿੰਮੇਵਾਰ ਸੀ। ਕਾਰਨ ਇੱਕ ਗੁਰਸਿੱਖ ਬਹੁਤ ਆਸਾਨੀ ਨਾਲ ਸਮਝ ਸਕਦਾ ਹੈ।

[dalsingh101]

ਹਾਂ, ਦਿਲ ਦੁਖਦਾ ਹੈ। ਪਰ ਇੱਕ ਦਿਨ ਵਿੱਚ ਕੁੱਝ ਨਹੀਂ ਹੁੰਦਾ। ਖਾਲਸਾ ਫੌਜ (ਭਾਵੇਂ ਪੂਰੀ ਖਾਲਸਾ ਨਹੀਂ ਸੀ ਰਹੀ) ਨੇ ਓਹੀ ਵੱਢਿਆ, ਜੋ ਬੀਜਿਆ ਸੀ। ਇਤਿਹਾਸ ਅੱਸੀਵੀਆਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਫਿਰ ਦੁਰਹਾਇਆ ਗਿਆ। ਭਾਰਤੀ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਨੇ ਕੁੱਝ ਨਹੀਂ ਕੀਤਾ, ਖਾਲਸਾ ਆਪਣੀ ਅਸਫਲਤਾ ਦਾ ਆਪ ਜਿੰਮੇਵਾਰ ਸੀ। ਕਾਰਨ ਇੱਕ ਗੁਰਸਿੱਖ ਬਹੁਤ ਆਸਾਨੀ ਨਾਲ ਸਮਝ ਸਕਦਾ ਹੈ।

For HSD's benefit:

Yes, the heart hurts but nothing happens in a single day. The Khalsa army (despite it not remaining fully Khalsa), harvested what they had sown. History repeated itself in the 80s. The Indian government did nothing. The Khalsa is responsible for its own failures. The reasons for this can be very easily discerned by one who is a Gursikh.

(correct me if if I've gone wrong anywhere Laal Singh veer).

Addition: I'd like to add, whilst I agree that the events subsequent to the wasp invasion was a watershed moment in our descent, some aspects of our lack of decorum as a quom can't be blamed on that. Some of our backwardness stems from our own Panjabi culture itself. I'll give you an example. A few years ago a friend from the UK went to a cousins-brothers wedding in Panjab (who was also British born and raised). The father of the groom sadly passed away on the evening of the wedding in all the revelry from a heart attack. When they conducted the funeral, local women came out in force (he told me) wailing like demented banshees, in some strange demonstration of 'grief'. This was despite the fact that they had no connection to the deceased man or his family. We have to face that we aren't exactly a reserved people. Under the surface usually a lot of passion and unbridled emotion exist which come out in very undignified ways. Plus we are very uneducated overall. This is very different to the Japanese. (By the way the incident I related to you above wasn't in a backwater pind but in Ludhiana).

-- --------------------------------------------

What happened to these types of brothers huh? They would have been the grandfathers (or possibly fathers) of the Sikhs who later fought the wasps.

I have conversed with several Sikhs, who were sent to me by different chiefs on complimentary messages; and I perceived a manly boldness in their manner and conversation, very unlike the other inhabitants of Hindostan, owing no doubt to the freedom of their government. Browne (1788)

His answer, when I asked him the name of his chief, was wholly conformable to observations I had made of his nation. He told me (in a tone of voice, and with an expression of countenance, which seemed to revolt at the idea of servitude) that he disdained an earthly superior, and acknowledged no other master than his prophet! Forster (1783)

Edited March 21, 2011 by dalsingh101

[HSD1]

hmmm... That was around the time that Sikhs fought against and caused the shaheedi of Naurangabad wale Mahapurkh...

Afterwards, that unit was considered cursed and people labeled them as those who committed Gurumaar. It was, i'm guessing, the first incident of khalsa killing a mahapurkh. if that's true it would signify an incredibly gigantic divergence from Sikh tradition.

Could you tell me more about what happened? Like date, location, reasons for the murder and the regiment/battalion involved?

Yes, the heart hurts but nothing happens in a single day. The Khalsa army (despite it not remaining fully Khalsa), harvested what they had sown. History repeated itself in the 80s. The Indian government did nothing. The Khalsa is responsible for its own failures. The reasons for this can be very easily discerned by one who is a Gursikh.

I agree that Sikhs need to work on themselves a lot otherwise we fall into the same pitfalls that our ancestors did. Having said that we are 20 million strong now. In our Guru's time it was a lot easier to form sikh communities due to the rural lifestyle is what the majority of the world was like. As civilization moved forward to turn small fiefdoms into national states and people moved from the countryside to the city we sikhs grew in size as a community but this didnt make us stronger. We failed to come up with a political system of rule that incorporated sikhi but at the same time was reasonable to secular punjabis. This led to us being infiltrated by the very people who wanted to bring us down. Today the world has moved even further on and yet we havent come up with solutions to the very problems that we faced a century and a half ago. These manifest themselves today as our lacklustre running of Gurudwaras to an inability to have any sense of cohesion or even leadership. My question is, is the sikh diaspora far too large for us to ever get numbers to make a difference?

[GtLoc]

The question is where did it all go wrong? In that book about the 1st Anglo-Sikh war by Amarpal Sidhu he talks about common Punjabis deriding the invaders and sikh civilians coming to help the wounded Khalsa troops and cremate the dead. Why were people so patriotic and stoic back then when nowadays Punjab just seems to show a sikh nation no longer in harmony or with their backs to each other, facing external enemies?

Culture, community, and connection.

Hunter-gatherer groups have about half of people living to 65 or older.

In 1845 we would have had many people alive who would have told youth about the ghulugharras or later fights. Remember the time period; we took Delhi and then left it, ahluwalia, baghel singh, and so many others were all there. We had a Sikh raaj. They grew up in a time where,

Let me put it like this, who else do you know gets the strongest military in the world less than 100 years after being created?

--

I see the same culture coming back though, look at this:

//

It'll take some effort, but we'll be fine.

Edited March 18, 2013 by GtLoc