Badass Of The Week: 21 Sikhs

April 11, 2012 2:44 PM

Badass Of The Week: The 21 Sikhs

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posted by jason's_planet (19 comments total)

Great story, but I don't care for the writing. It's like there's a Cracked Manual of Style out there somewhere.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:57 PM on April 11, 2012 [15 favorites]

For those having issues parsing the article, The Battle of Saragarhi
posted by Blasdelb at 3:04 PM on April 11, 2012 [3 favorites]

I'm pretty sure Badass of the Week predates Cracked's web iteration (I could be wrong but it seems like its been around forever). I'd say the writing is more like The Best Page in the Universe / Alphabet of Manliness.

The website has a lot of very cool information on it, and informed me of a couple of my favorite badasses, Hideaki Akaiwa and Simo Häyhä. I haven't been to the site in a while, but I have to think that the guy has got to be running short on boner metaphors by now.
posted by jabberjaw at 3:10 PM on April 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

It's amazing how many assumptions are encoded in the word 'tribesmen'.
posted by benito.strauss at 3:11 PM on April 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

This is sikh!

Surfer voice.
posted by Fizz at 3:16 PM on April 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

I just ran across Thomas Pynchon's definition of The Badass: "There is a long folk history of this figure, the Badass. He is usually male, and while sometimes earning the quizzical tolerance of women, is almost universally admired by men for two basic virtues: he Is Bad, and he is Big. Bad meaning not morally evil, necessarily, more like able to work mischief on a large scale. What is important here is the amplifying of scale, the multiplication of effect. ... When times are hard, and we feel at the mercy of forces many times more powerful, don't we, in seeking some equalizer, turn, if only in imagination, in wish, to the Badass -- the djinn, the golem, the hulk, the superhero -- who will resist what otherwise would overwhelm us?"
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:49 PM on April 11, 2012 [3 favorites]

Youtube search is failing me, but there is some footage in the Andrei Codrescu movie Road Scholar of some Sikhs in either Taos or Sedona where the men were all security professionals and they were messing around with machetes and they looked extremely bad ass.
posted by bukvich at 4:01 PM on April 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

"Singh himself didn't make it back– in an effort to buy his men time to fall back he drew his Kirpan dagger, charged into the horde, and died valiantly in hand-to-hand combat..."

This is the sort of man I can get behind. I would like him to come back and sort out the banking crisis in a similar fashion.

Also, nthing the Cracked style writing complaint.
posted by marienbad at 4:04 PM on April 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

"There is a long folk history of this figure, the Badass. He is usually male, and while sometimes earning the quizzical tolerance of women, is almost universally admired by men for two basic virtues: he Is Bad, and he is Big. Bad meaning not morally evil, necessarily, more like able to work mischief on a large scale.

These days I think you can find examples of female badasses in literature. Ellen Ripley, for example.
posted by delmoi at 4:09 PM on April 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

I could complain about the lack of content of this post, but I love BAotW too much.

Partly because he took my suggestion to feature some Maori, who imbibed badassery with their mums' milk.
posted by Sebmojo at 4:29 PM on April 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Nice. Is there an English version available online?
posted by Naberius at 6:11 PM on April 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

More badass tales from Param Vir Chakra winners e.g. Naik Jadunath Singh:

In the first light of dawn the men on the post saw thousands of hostiles creeping up to them. On the crucial day of February 6th, Naik Jadunath Singh was in command of a forward post of picket No.2 at Taindhar. 9 men garrisoned the post.
The enemy launched their attack in successive waves to take this post. At this juncture Naik Jadunath Singh displayed great valour & superb leadership and used his small force in such a manner that the enemy retreated in utter confusion. When four of his men were wounded he re-organised the battered force for meeting another onslaught. The post did not give in despite its being outnumbered. When all men including him were wounded, he personally took over the bren gun from the wounded bren-gunner. The enemy was now right on the walls of the post. Naik Jadunath Singh, unmindful of personal safety encouraged his men to fight. His fire was so devastating that what looked like a certain defeat was turned into a victory. Thus the post was saved a second time.

By now all men of the post had turned into casualties. The enemy put in his third and final attack determined to capture the post. Naik Jadunath Singh, wounded and alone, rose to give a battle for the third time. He came out of the Sangar and firing his sten gun charged on the advancing enemy. The surprised enemy fled in disorder. He met a gallant death, in this third and last charge, when two enemy bullets pierced him in the head and the chest. At a most critical stage in the battle for the defence of Naushahra, he saved his picket from being overrun by the enemy.

posted by unliteral at 8:55 PM on April 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Youtube search is failing me, but there is some footage in the Andrei Codrescu movie Road Scholar of some Sikhs in either Taos or Sedona where the men were all security professionals and they were messing around with machetes and they looked extremely bad ass.
posted by bukvich at 4:01 PM on 4/11
[1 favorite −] Favorite added! [!]

Those Sikhs were likely friends of mine! I knew a few of them when I lived in New Mexico. They did excellently with their security industry! Who doesn't want a pair of hairy big Sikhs on either side of the gate?
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 10:23 PM on April 11, 2012

Oh and it was Taos!
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 10:26 PM on April 11, 2012

Who doesn't want a pair of hairy big Sikhs on either side of the gate?

Indira Gandhi.
posted by codswallop at 12:42 AM on April 12, 2012 [5 favorites]

Speaking of which, here's a theory that the new Mirror, Mirror movie, directed by Tarsem Singh, is an allegory for the assassination of Indira Gandhi.
posted by ooga_booga at 1:25 AM on April 12, 2012

A member of the Sikh Polo Team. If these guys take polo this seriously, you can only imagine how they handle war.

Oh hell, that's my cousin and he's a member of the Indian Polo Team (I don't think there's a Sikh polo team). He does take polo very seriously indeed. War too I suppose, though as a senior officer in the 61st Cavalry his job is mostly to play polo a lot.
posted by vanar sena at 6:49 AM on April 12, 2012 [4 favorites]

Er I take that back, apparently he's a member of the Sherdil Sikh polo team too. As I said, he does play polo a lot.
posted by vanar sena at 6:59 AM on April 12, 2012

i fear my in-laws even more now.
posted by joeblough at 11:52 AM on April 12, 2012 [1 favorite]