Jasbir Singh is a bank executive who lives in Amritsar. He earns 110,000 Indian rupees a month—an attractive salary. With such remuneration nobody might expect him to have any grievances.But he has one. “Yes, I do earn a handsome salary. But not all Sikhs are as fortunate as I am. We, the Sikhs, as a nation, are not living with dignity in this country. Hindus have been trying to suppress us wherever they can.”
Jasbir is one of the tens of thousands of Sikhs who are not happy with what is granted to the Sikh community by the Indian government. It is a common perception among the Sikh community in India that the conditions of living for the Sikhs today are far worse than they were under the British rule. The Sikh community has a long list of grievances. The sense of deprivation among Sikhs has been increasing since 1947, say their leaders.
Jasbir says most of the Sikh youngsters are earning their livelihood through menial jobs, particularly by driving auto rickshaws.
Sikhism is a major world religion with more adherents worldwide than Judaism. There are about 25.8 million Sikhs across the globe. Around 75% of them live in the Indian state of Punjab, where they form 60 percent of the population. However, Sikhs are only about 2% of the Indian population.
It is said that in 1947, the British offered Sikhs a separate state, but trusting the promises of a Sikh state made by Gandhi and Nehru, the Sikh leaders of that time refused to accept that British offer. Gandhi and Nehru failed to keep their promise. “It was the worst mistake ever made by Sikh leaders,” says Balbir Singh, a 40-year-old trader, who lives in Amritsar. “Today the whole Sikh community is paying for that wrong decision.”
The shadow of 1984 Golden Temple incident, in which Sikh pilgrims were killed on charges of terrorism, can easily be seen on the lives of Sikhs and Sikh politics in India. Famous Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bhaindranwale was also killed during this “Operation Bluestar”. About 12,000 Indian Army troops participated in the operation to overcome Bhindranwale and his 300 followers. It was reported in the New York Times that Bhaindranwale received 72 bullet wounds.
Sikhs believe that the Golden Temple is the holiest place of this universe. It was constructed in 1574 on land donated to Sikhs by Emperor Akbar.
The massacre of Sikh community in Delhi after the assassination of Indra Gandhi with the support of the government was another nightmare for Sikhs. The Sikhs were slaughtered, their women were raped and their houses were torched by radical Hindutva elements with support from the law enforcement agencies.
On August 12, 2010, the Indian Supreme Court stopped the case of Sikh genocide against one Sajjan Kumar. Sikh political parties termed it a clear indication of “Sikh slavery in Indian State” and said that it is “a gift to Sikh nation” for the sacrifices they have made “for the freedom of this country”.
“The government has been denying the Sikhs a separate religious identity for the last 63 years,” says Madanjeet Singh, an activist of a Sikh group (Madanjeet is not his real name). “Till date, they are called ‘long haired Hindus’, not Sikhs, in official papers of India. Anand Marriage Act of 1908, which is implemented even in Pakistan, was cancelled by the Indian government soon after Independence. Sikhs are forced to obey laws enacted for Hindus in all of their traditional and cultural affairs.”
Sikh rights activists claim that the Indian government robs Punjab of its share of water. Punjab is on the edge of becoming a desert, says Madanjeet. “The riparian law has been approved by the United Nations. In India, it has been followed in all states but Punjab. Punjab has the exclusive right to Punjab river waters according to the riparian law. This plundering of Punjab water is unlawful, unjust and unconstitutional.”
Sandeep Singh, a farmer, says Punjab has no river waters to spare. “In fact, its water resources are insufficient even for its own needs. The total flow of all the three river waters of Punjab is 32.5 maf, while the need for Punjab lands is 52.5 maf. The distribution of Punjab river waters to other states leaves it with water sufficient for only twenty five percent of its land.”
Sikh leaders say that the government of India and the Parliament have no jurisdiction over waters of Punjab. The distribution of Punjab river waters among other states obviously violates constitutional provisions, they add.
Separation of some Punjabi speaking areas from Punjab has led to increase in anger among the radical Sikh groups. Some areas that had been in Punjab have been included in Himachal and Haryana. “Now the capital of Punjab is also out of Punjab. What a joke!” said Madanjeet.
Sikh outfits in India demand equal rights, regional autonomy, return of Chandigarh and other Punjabi speaking areas to Punjab and separate status for Sikhs in the Indian Union.
Various Sikh scholars say that the problem is that India is not a nation. It is a geographical entity where diverse nations with diverse languages, cultures, beliefs, history and ethnicities reside. “Modern India is an outcome of the British colonial era. Here nations are forcefully tied with the tag of ‘diversity in unity’ of the so-called Indian nation, and are reduced to the status of communities,” says Jaipal Singh, a college teacher who lives in England.
These scholars demand freedom for Sikhs as well as Nagas, Mizos and Kashmiris. “The existing incompetent system is not going to work for long. It has to collapse,” says Jaipal.
The Indian government has banned various Sikh nationalist political parties. “We cannot even hold peaceful protest demonstrations,” says a leader of a banned group who did not want to be named.
At the end of last year, US President Barack Obama said during his speech in the Indian Parliament that “speaking up for those who cannot do so for themselves is not interfering in the affairs of other countries. It’s not violating the rights of sovereign nations”. Sikh organizations welcomed his speech and expected him to put pressure on the Indian government for giving the Sikhs all their due rights. However, the US president refused to make his scheduled trip to the Golden Temple, which dampened the excitement of radical Sikh groups.
Decades after the Sikh massacre, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in the Indian parliament, “On behalf of our government, on behalf of the entire people of this country, I bow my head in shame that such thing took place.” On the occasion he termed the events of 1984 a “negation” of nationhood. Jasbir says that this was the only thing that the Indian government has so far done in regard with the sorrows of Sikh community since the massacre.
Famous Indian author and scholar Arundhati Roy said after Manmohan’s speech in the parliament, “We call ourselves a democracy but as a society we tolerate the 68,000 dead in Kashmir, we tolerate deeply undemocratic laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, we had the Sikh genocide and what happened in Gujarat, all of these things I question. Congress has killed masses of Sikhs in 1980s and 1990s. Later the prime minister belonging to congress apologized for what happened to the Sikhs and Sonia Gandhi visited the Golden Temple. Would it be enough for any person, if someone killed his parents and raped his wife and the Prime Minister apologizes?”–A Farooq
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