SGPC scrutinising JK Rowling's Casual Vacancy

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) is closely scrutinising UK author JK Rowling’s latest novel ‘The Casual Vacancy’ for alleged derogatory portrayal of a female Sikh character.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) is closely scrutinising UK author JK Rowling’s latest novel ‘The Casual Vacancy’ for alleged derogatory portrayal of a female Sikh character.

SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar said on Saturday: “Though I have not read the book yet, I have told my OSD (officer on special duty) to go through it. If anything is written against the Sikh maryada (dignity), we will write to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and urge him to take up the matter with the government in the United Kingdom for action against Rowling. Nobody can injure our religious sentiments. If something has been written against the Sikh faith, I condemn it vehemently and strongly.”

In the novel, a baptised female Sikh student character is derided by her friends for hair on her body. It has a character, Fats, describing his classmate Sukhvinder as “mustachioed, yet large-mammaried, scientists remain baffled by the contradictions of the hairy man-woman”.