Two heroic Sikh men have broken religious protocol by removing their turbans to help save four men from drowning.

Inderpal Singh, 34, jumped to take off his turban, unravel it and throw it out as a life line, after spotting the men struggling to keep their heads above the gushing water in a canal at Sular Ghaat, in the Punjab region of northern India.

Later, another Sikh man named Kanwaljit Singh followed suit and tossed his turban into the water to help rescue the men.

Mobile phone footage shows the dramatic moment Mr Singh leapt to action from where he was sitting on the canal embankment, on Sunday, reports NDTV.

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Springing into action: Footage has surfaced showing a heroic Sikh man Inderpal Singh used his turban to rescue four drowning youths

Heroes: The two men, Inderpal Singh, left, and Kamaljit Singh, right, according to NDTV, who eschewed religious protocol to help save the lives of drowning men in the canal at Sular Ghaat

The four drowning men, aged 18-25 years, had entered the canal as part of a religious ceremony to submerge a Ganesha idol when a gush of water made them lose their footing.

After attempting to pull them out with a wire that was lying on the embankment which broke in the act, Mr Singh took off his turban and tossed it into the water.

'I had no time to think and quickly removed my turban and threw at the drowning boys and pulled them in,' he said.

A turban - or Dastaar - is worn to protect the Kesh (uncut hair), one of the five articles of faith in Sikhism. It is a doctrine of Sikhism that one can only remove their turbans at home, while bathing.

Inderpal Singh spotted the four young struggling to swim in a canal they had entered for a religious ceremony

Kanwaljit Singh later helped in the rescue by doing the same thing.

'My immediate reaction was to jump into the canal and try to save them. But I cannot swim. So I removed my turban and used it to save the boys,' he said.

The rescued teens, identified as Jiwan Singh, Kamalpreet Singh, Inder Tiwari and coincidentally another man named Inderpal Singh, later praised the men for their quick-thinking and bravery.

The rescued men later praised their saviours for setting aside a strict religious protocol to rescue them

Footage of the incident has been widely circulated online, with the two men being heralded as heroes.

The scenes echo a similar incident from New Zealand in May, when Harman Singh used his turban to save the life of a boy who was bleeding from the head after being hit by a car.

Mr Singh was heralded a hero across the world when photographs emerged of him without his turban and it tucked under the boy's head in South Auckland.

He received thousands of messages and comments on his Facebook page.

Mr Singh said he was overwhelmed with all the praise.

'Thousands of people have said 'well done'. I was only doing what I had to and trying to be a decent member of the community,' he said.

'Thanks to all who messages, calls... thanks all the worldwide Facebook members who messaged me. I think i just did my job nothing else.'

After the story went viral, Good Samaritans donated new furniture for the 22-year-old student's sparse home, which contained a mattress on the floor and only a couple of plastic garden chairs.