For a long time Gurumustuk Singh and I have lamented the absence of inspiring "princess" models for young Sikh girls.
In 2011, thinking over the raising of his own daughter, Charanjeet Kaur, Gurumustuk Singh wrote a profound MrSikhNet blog post called "Mirroring the Princess" which was about the pervasiveness of Disney style role models for young Sikh girls along with the general lack of "Kaur" role models and activities. The post inspired a copious stream of comments from other parents who felt the same need.
Recently a young mother in our local Sangat took this task to hand. Her name is Siri Guru Dev Kaur and she is an excellent artist. Although the project started as a gift to her own young daughter, Sat Kartar Kaur (see photo right) she got a lot of feedback from the Sangat that it was worthy of a wider audience and so she decided to make it available to everyone. She also decided to donate all the proceeds from the sale of the coloring book to our local Gurdwara for improvements and grounds beautification.
Raising our daughters in the grace, strength, courage and beauty of Kaurs in the midst of a culture filled with fantasy imagery and sexual context is of paramount importance to us as parents.
The 30 original drawings in the book are not just beautiful, but exquisitely detailed and inspiring images of Khalsa princesses in many settings. It is a gift from one mother to the parents of daughters everywhere.
The book is now available inexpensively here at Panjab Mall.
Here are some of the charming drawings from the book:
The coloring book can be ordered here.
