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India's Sikhs: Simmering at the Boiling Point
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10871 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1986 |
3,305 Words |
| Author
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Kuldip Nayar
Kuldip Nayar is a nationally syndicated political columnist
who lives in New Delhi, India. |
The battle for Khalistan, a Sikh state independent of India, has begun in earnest in Punjab. Confined to a few extremists, the Sikh uprising can be likened to the Mormon dream of a separate state in America. It is a battle that cannot be won, and most Sikhs know it.
Hurt and alienation among the Sikhs, whether justified or not, have increased over the years to such an extent that even the more enlightened and liberal among them have begun to look for a separate political identity within or without the Indian Union.
The Sikhs constitute 2 percent of India's population of 750 million, but they are more affluent than any other minority. Gobind Singh, their tenth and last guru, urged his followers to develop an identity apart from that of the Hindus. He enjoined his followers to be Keshadhari (with unshorn hair and beard) in an effort to stem the Hindu assimilation of Sikhism that had happened to Jainism and Buddhism.
Nevertheless, the dividing line between Sikhs and Hindus remains extremely thin. They intermarry, follow the same customs, and believe in the same scriptures. The Granth Sahib, the Sikhs' Bible, has the name of Lord Rama, one of the Hindu Gods, mentioned 6,000 times. In Punjab, the Sikhs, who predominate, and the Hindus speak the same language - Punjabi.
AT the root of the trouble is the Sikhs' lack of political power. The British, through communal electorates, gave the Sikhs independent voting rights designed to elect Sikh representatives. That right was lost when the Indian government did away with separate electorates after the British quit the subcontinent in August 1947. Before independence, the Sikhs had tried to bargain with the British for a Sikh homeland - if the Muslims could get Pakistan, why not the Sikhs Khalistan? The British never conceded the demand.
Many Sikhs nourished a grievance on that count. The quirks of history and partition had thrown them more or less together on the Indian side of Punjab, in the districts bordering Pakistan, Although Sardar Vallabhai Patel, India's first home minister, saw the danger in this, there was little he could do. The districts were those that the Muslims had left behind, abandoning their homes and lands, when they emigrated to Pakistan. The states bordering Punjab that were ruled by Sikh princes during the British occupation also accepted Sikhs coming from the other side. The merger of these princely states with Punjab increased the number of Sikhs, but
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