When it comes to Punjab in general and Sikhs in particular, a quick glance at history reveals that all the prevailing Governments, or Centers – right from the invading Mughals to the invading British to the home-grown Hindu-dominated politicians, have succeeded in keeping the Sikh homeland of Punjab in a permanent state of mild chaos and destabilization, with persecution of Sikhs a common thread throughout history.
How have the various Centers always managed to pull the so perceived rebellious Sikhs back into their arms only to discriminate against them time and again, politically, religiously, economically and socially, until the Sikh masses rise up to revolt and yet are ultimately pulled back in to the Center again, and the cycle repeats?
The answer lies in the very forces that shaped Sikh history.
Some six hundred years ago, a young Hindu refused to put on the sacred thread that would mark him as one of high caste, chosen by God, and chosen by Him to rule. In the course of time this Hindu would feel the presence of God, and see Truths rarely seen by anyone in 15th – 16th Century India. He saw the evils of the prevailing caste system, and preached against the dangers of meaningless rituals and idolatry. He saw the benefit of equality between men and women, and of living a life of compassion and peace and nonviolence. Like Jesus, he practiced no formal religion, but lived a life that inspired others to follow in his footsteps, and soon a religion blossomed in the spiritual wake and radiance of each man.
The young Hindu was Nanak, now known as the founder of Sikhism. Sikhs, literally “students,” inhabit the most volatile, dangerous and valuable region of India: its doorway and its breadbasket. For centuries before and after Nanak, Mughals and Afghans attacked the Punjab looking to conquer and rule over whatever they valued, and the Punjab was at the top of the list.
The Mughals succeeded in their march through the Punjab, but found no fault in Sikhs under the benevolent and liberal leadership of the Muslim Emperor Akbar (1542-1605).
But his conservative Muslim son, Jahangir, felt threatened and even offended by the Sikhs and ordered their Guru tortured to death, traumatizing a peaceful people, many of whom faced persecution, and others who fled into the nearby Himalayan mountains. Further executions and persecution by other Muslim Emperors so alarmed Sikhs that their leaders, notably Gobind, transformed Sikhism into a martial religion, ready to defend not only themselves, but any and all victims of discrimination, injustice, and hatred, no matter their religion or social standing.
And that is where the lofty and otherworldly ideals of Sikhism stand today: a desire to become soldier-saints dedicated to peace, yet willing to draw blood in defense of the defense-less. The number of Sikhs throughout history who have met “soldier-saint” standards remains up for debate.
But how ironic that in 1984, in both Amritsar at the Golden Temple, and in Delhi on the streets of the capital, and in scattered cities across India the “martial race” of Sikhs–pledging to defend the defenseless–could not manage to defend themselves against the furious onslaught of a superior force: at Amritsar by the Indian Army of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and in New Delhi by the murderous minions of her political party, Congress-I.
Just as gruesome were the pogroms that followed, conducted around Punjab against Sikh village youth, essentially state-ordered murders directed by the Chief of Police, K.P.S.Gill, himself a Sikh. Today he is referred to as “Super-Cop” for “cleaning up the Punjab” of disaffected, and allegedly Khalistani-minded “terrorist” youth.
To learn how this Sikh journey from pacifism to ferocity to incapacity came to pass, one needs to look back no further than the 18th-19th century Sikh Empire of Maharajah Ranjit Singh (1780-1839).
At that time, Punjab in all its magnificence, rebuffed the British Empire’s ambitions to conquer all of India. Sikhs enjoyed a formidable reputation and were in general respected and even feared. The land-hungry Ranjit conquered Lahore at age 19, and was crowned the ruler of the Punjab by age 20; his coronation conducted by a descendent of Guru Nanak himself. The volatile blend of Sikh religion and Sikh politics (when is it not volatile?) gained full prominence and uprightness that it retains today, despite wreaking havoc everywhere from the seat of the Akal Takhat at the Golden Temple, to every gurdwara in the land.
Today’s separatists, dreaming of a land of milk and honey, want a return to Ranjit’s Sikh Raj, as if it were the “natural state of being” for Sikhs. Those glory days, however, lasted only some forty years, until Ranjit’s death of a stroke, age 59. Court intrigue and British subterfuge resulted in the Sikh Empire sliding into the hands of the eager British, and now all of India was Queen Victoria’s. And the descent of the Sikhs began, culminating in its nadir with the Indian Government’s operatives butchering Sikh men, women and children in Delhi in 1984.
However, the start of the descent at the time of the British did not seem immediately apparent. They shrewdly recruited the famously fearless Sikhs to be “the sword of the British,” defending the Empire for the sake of the ruling white classes. Why did Sikhs agree to this arrangement of servitude? Why not battle the British till death instead?
How did the Sikh reputation as the bravest and most trusted of soldiers, lead to the 1984 assault on the Golden Temple, and the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and the vengeful massacres that followed, 30 years ago today?
The answers to these questions lie in geography, and the political and religious personalities at work and at play between the Sikh homeland and the Centre Government.
(Michael Singh is an eye witness to one of the Delhi massacres of 1984. His July article will explore these and other questions regarding the forces and factors that led to the explosion of 1984. Michael is a documentary filmmaker whose latest film, “Valentino’s Ghost”, exposes the forces behind the denigration of Muslims and Arabs in American culture. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival, Italy, to a standing ovation. It will be available later this year on DVD.)
