Tragedy - Too Deep For Words

Dr G. S. Dhillion

The 'White Paper' issued by the Indian Government to justify the brutal massacre of the Sikhs in Punjab was nothing but a bundle of distortions and fabrications. Now that Mrs. Gandhi's true image was being exposed; she was making a desperate effort to hide her misdeeds. She was trying to mislead the world opinion by dubbing the Sikhs as extremists and terrorists, in order to ignore the real issues and justify the policy of discrimination against the Sikhs. By distributing the 'White Paper', another attempt was being made to add fuel to the fire and inflame Sikh passions. It was not difficult to judge the truth behind Mrs. Gandhi's utterances and press releases which have often been self contradictory and half truths.

1. Why did Indira Government impose news censorship?

2. Why didn't the government allow the foreign journalists to gather independent and first hand information of the military operation in Punjab?

3. Why did the Government snap all postal and telephone links with Punjab, isolating it from the rest of the world?

4. Why did the Government keep on changing the causality figures?

5. Why doesn't the Government release the list of all those who were killed in the military operation?

6. How does the Government justify the use of tanks inside the Golden Temple complex? Why has it violated the international norms not to use armoury against places of worship and civilian population agreed in the UN charter and the Geneva Convention?

7. Why was it essential for the Government to demolish the sacred Akhal Takhat building? How will the Hindus react if one of their sacred temples is demolished?

8. Why couldn't the Indira Government find a political solution to the Sikh problem instead of treating it as a law and order problem only? Was Indira Gandhi ever serious and sincere in imparting to the political demands of the Sikhs, which in fact concerned all the Punjabis?

9. How does the government justify the killing of innocent children, women and old people during the military operation?

10. Why hasn't the Indian government banned the Shiv Sena, R.S.S. and other such Hindu organisations? Why has it banned the Sikh organisations only?

11. Did Mrs. Gandhi ever try to hold talks with Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale who is the most popular Sikh leader of the 20th century and is most pious, peace loving and a strict vegetarian? Did she ignore the real issues and complicate matters by simply dubbing the Sant as a leader of the extremists in her effort to please the Hindu majority and emerge as a Hindu nationalist?

Sikhism a monotheistic religion was founded by Guru Nanak in the fifteenth century. It rejects idolatry, casteism, ritualism and the use of intoxicants. It believes in universal love and brotherhood of mankind. It views God as formless, beyond conception and beyond description. Sikhs believe that God communicates from time to time through the medium of chosen ones. They had a succession of ten Gurus, the last being Guru Gobind Singh whom conferred Guruship on to the Adi Granth, the holy scriptures of the Sikhs, containing spiritual and moral instruction. The tenth Guru ordained his followers to live as 'Saint- Soldiers' in order to face the tyranny of the times. He also bestowed upon the Sikhs a unique physical appearance and instructed them to wear a turban over their uncut hair. Thus the Sikhs emerged as a martial race, regarding it their moral duty to help the weak and downtrodden.

With the establishment of the Sikh kingdom in Punjab, the homeland of the Sikhs, by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Sikhs came to their peak of glory. Punjab was the last state to be annexed by the British. The loss of their rule, gave a moral setback to the Sikhs. They joined the Hindus to fight for the independence of the Indian sub-continent. On the eve of partition of India Hindu leaders promised that after independence no constitution shall be framed by the majority community unless it is freely acceptable to the Sikhs. 'When the Indian constitution was framed in 1950, this promise was completely ignored. Gradually all the Sikh laws were abolished and Hindu laws were enforced on them. As per the constitution of India there was no Sikh in India and the Indian laws only recognise them as Hindus. The Sikhs had to struggle very hard to get a Punjabi speaking state in line with the rest of the country. Many Punjabi speaking areas including Chandhigarh the capital city were deliberately left out; to foster the interests of neighbouring Hindu dominated Haryana state. By giving 76 per cent of the total water and energy from Punjab to the neighbouring states, the Indian Government gave a setback to Punjabi farmers who contribute 60 per cent to the food basket of the country.

The current Sikh agitation, started two years ago, was instituted by the Sikhs to raise their voice against discrimination in such matters as religious, territorial, economic, control, of river waters and greater provincial autonomy. More than two hundred thousand Sikhs peacefully courted arrest and more than 400 Sikhs were killed, mostly in police firing and fake encounters. The irony of the fate is that the Indian Government ignored the Sikh grievances and treated the agitation as a law and order problem only: Mrs. Indira Gandhi's own nominee Mr. B. D. Pande, the Punjab Governor, who resigned to express his disapproval of the recent massacre in Punjab repeatedly advised the government to find a political solution to the Punjab problem. But in her efforts to emerge as a Hindu nationalist, Mrs Gandhi ignored the advice and deepened the Punjab crisis.

By the storming of the Golden Temple Amritsar, the holiest of the Sikh shrines and 38 other Sikh Temples by the Indian military troops, the Indian Government has declared its intention to crush the Sikhs once for all. Three thousand Sikhs including children, babies in the laps of women, old men and women were brutally killed inside the Golden Temple complex alone, and many more were murdered at other Gurdwaras throughout India.

The entire state of Punjab was virtually isolated from the rest of the world during the reign of terror. All postal and tele-communications were snapped. Curfew was clamped all over the state, including the villages. All railway and road traffic was completely stopped. Even the bullock carts were not allowed to move. News blackout was strictly enforced to hide the most heinous crimes being committed by the Indian army on the innocent people. Isn't it a violation of human rights? All the foreign Journalists were rounded up and expelled from the state under military escort, so that they may not gather independent and first hand information. So much so, that all the leading newspapers of the state suspended publication for a period ranging from 10 to 15 days. Army troops played havoc with human lives. They indulged in merciless and indiscriminate firing, killing young and the old, women and small children.

But gradually the facts are gaining publicity. The government itself kept changing the casualty figures in Amritsar massacre from 250 to 450 and ultimately to 600. Other unnamed but reliable sources of information estimated the casualty figures of 2500. Brahma Chellany of the Associated Press (quoted in 'The Times' London, June 14, 1984) the only foreign correspondent who managed to stay in Amritsar during the storming of the Temple met a Sikh doctor and a police official who narrated tales of horror. They reported that several of the Sikhs killed in Amritsar their hands tied at the back were shot at point blank range by military troops. The doctors, who conducted the post mortem examination, were rounded up and taken to unknown places under military escort. The doctor said it has been a nightmare. "Even when I sleep at night I dream of all those decomposed bodies lying in the dead house." Faces were swollen and in some cases tongues had come out of mouth." He said that because of the lack of space the bodies were piled on top of each other. A local journalist said that he saw a dozen Sikh youths arrested inside the Temple being made to pull their trousers above their knees, kneel and march on the hot road.

The entire Punjab is still under a thick blanket. News censorship is imposed so that the news of the atrocities may not spread outside Punjab and Indira Gandhi may not be exposed in her true image. Indira Gandhi, who is clamouring for Nobel peace prize, does not want the outside world to know that she is on war-path with her own countrymen. Under the circumstances, the Sikhs have been left with no other choices except to fight for an independent Sikh state so that they could preserve their independent religious identity.

The Hindus, who constitute the majority community in India, were a docile and down trodden community during the Mogul rule and 300 years of British rule in India. Their leaders have become aggressive after independence due to the encouragement given to them by the Indian government and the congress party. The majority community is frequently involved in rioting and fighting against minorities such as Christians in Kerala, Muslims in Bombay, Assam, U.P., Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh and Sikhs in Punjab. During the recent Hindu-Muslim riots in Bombay, more than 300 people were killed in a week yet the Indian Government took no steps to ban Hindu organisations like R.S.S. and Shiv Sena. Why has it banned the Sikh organisations only? Obviously, the Indian democracy which poses as a champion of secularism and human rights is going to the dogs. Indira Gandhi is making all out efforts to create Hindu Swaraj a state with Hindu Supremacy. This is also a political stunt that she is trying to use to win the coming elections. She has failed to keep the promises made to the Indian masses in the past and is now trying to divert their attention from grave problems like poverty, inflation, starvation and unemployment.

The recent large scale genocide of the Sikhs has left very deep scars on their minds. The Sikhs tragedy is even grimmer than that of Muslims or Christians in India. If Muslims in India are facing crisis they at least evoke sympathy from Muslim countries. The same is true of the Christians. The Sikhs can only forward to international forums, which protect human rights, to plead their case for justice and mercy. At the moment the Sikh tragedy is too deep for words.