By Ram Narayan Kumar
and George Sieberer.
Published by Chanakya Publications Delhi. Pp.396 Price Rs.380/=.
“God cannot alter the past the historian can” wrote Samuel Butler celebrated English author. The hyperbole was clearly intended to underline the virtues of truth and objectivity. For over a decade Punjab has remained the disaster area of India’s domestic policy. Many books have been written documenting the events before and after Operation Bluestar and offering a multiplicity of interpretations. Mark Tully’s account represents one kind of the Western view cynically dismissing the Sikhs’ quest for a “glow of freedom” as having been anchored in fundamentalism. In contrast Patwant Singh’s “Fatal Miscalculation” offered a broader spectrum of editorial comment on recent developments stressing the political rather than historical elements.
Most writings by Indian journalists find it safer to follow the populist pattern of relying heavily on official feedstock. They like to view Punjab as a somber morality play where Sikhs are the villains militants are misguided and the security forces are the knights in shining armor engaged in crushing the secessionists inspired and armed by the enemy across the border. They are even indignant that Sikhs with the highest per capita income can have any grievances and are willing to grant the government unlimited powers to suppress the community and force it back to the “national mainstream” a euphemism for perpetuating the majoritarian hegemony. Typical of this line of argument is the prolific writer and ideologue of the Left Satya Pal Dang quoted in the book under review as an ardent advocate of suspension of right to life which Art 21 of Indian Constitution purports to guarantee. Indeed Dang unabashedly holds that the draconian Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act is “too soft”. The government granted his wish and amended the Constitution recount the authors blandly. Such propagandist writings have so colored the perception of common man as well as intelligentsia that there is no desire to probe reality or look for the truth.
An objective analysis by outsiders has been precluded by Indian government’s steadfast refusal to let any observers visit the affected state. Human rights organizations such as the London based Amnesty International have been denied access to detenus and their families for probing Specific reports of violations of basic freedoms. Last May India’s Attorney General G.Ramaswamy intoned sanctimoniously. before the UN Human Rights Committee; “Gentlemen I want to assure you that ours is the largest democracy in the world” disdainfully disregarding the fact of detention of several thousand Sikhs routine torture of suspects and the daily toll of those shot in fake encounters even as Punjab is denied democratic rights under a dispensation wholly repugnant to the basic principles of India’s Constitution.
Against this backdrop publication of the Sikh Struggle marks a significant departure from the run-of-the-mill historical studies churned out in the past. Ram Narayan Kumar a civil libertarian and his Austrian brother-in-law George Sieberer have shown extraordinary courage insight and understanding in tracing the historical background of the Sikhs. Their evolution as a distinctive religio-political nationality that refused to submit to repression and within a couple of centuries established a sovereign secular kingdom in an incredibly modern mould under Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
In a systematic if racy analysis the book’s first three chapters provide insight into the religious and socio-cultural dynamics of the Sikh people correlating the past with the present Chapter 4 brings the reader to the momentous developments during the last phase of the British colonial rule and the widening communal gulf that compelled the last Viceroy Lord Mountbatten to hasten the partition and creation of Pakistan in August 1947 The Sikhs’ sense of discrimination and aspirational deprivation by the Congress government synchronizes with Indian independence. Its causes and course have been painstakingly researched and narrated in Chapters 5 to 8. The denial of the unified Punjabi speaking province in mid-1950’s when the rest of India was reorganized into linguistic units not only created heartburning but led to a bitter struggle aggravated by the curious spectacle of the Hindu segment of Punjabi population disowning their mother tongue under the influence of chauvinistic leadership. The authors recall how eventually Justice J.C.Shah sitting as reorganization commission in 1966 allotted Chandigarh to Haryana “to appease the Hindu sentiment” in cynical disregard of the historic truth that the “city beautiful” had been designed to compensate Punjab for the loss of Lahore.
The “elemental issue” of river waters has been examined in a separate chapter in the same spirit of enquiry and objectivity that permeates the rest of the narrative. Undoubtedly the key to the Punjab problem: Anandpur Sahib Resolution as the Sikhs’ Magna Carta has been examined in depth from diverse angles including the oft-repeated charge of its inherent separatism. Perceptions may continue to differ but at the root of the Sikh demand for an autonomous status for Punjab is the community’s complete distrust of the Centre’s monopoly of power using the Constitution as a tool to reduce Punjab to the status of a colony Characteristically the authors decline to clinch the argument concluding the chapter with the rhetorical quotation from the Irish struggle “Damn your safeguards we don’t want to be ruled by you!” Which fairly sums up today’s mood?
By far the most disturbing disclosures in the book are the specific instances of State terrorism comprising Chapter 9 which brings us face-to-face with the horror of torture and extra-judicial murders by the hostile para-military apparatus installed in Punjab by a ruthless regime in Delhi. It is in this chapter covering nearly one-fifth of the entire volume that the principal author adept in investigative reporting excels himself revealing inquisitorial torture chambers and genocidal killings that should shock not only every decent Indian but civilized people everywhere. Only a perusal of this text can explain the raison d’etre of the Sikh alienation Using the investigative technique of professional journalism interviews eyewitness accounts and reference to documents Ram Narayan kumar has marshaled a formidable array of cases of blatant abuse of the draconian laws It is hardly surprising that simultaneously with the publication of this damning account the Union ministry of home affairs hastened to enact legislation granting immunity to the police add para-military personnel against any prosecution for acts of omission and commission. The recital also unmasks the manner in which the judiciary abdicated its powers of habeas Corpus and suo-moto writs calling executive action to question. Even otherwise the special laws in Punjab like TADA bar or sideline the courts and virtually give the police unlimited powers without accountability.
The publication of this books owes not only to the courageous enterprise of the publisher as well as dogged perseverance of the authors but also to the short lived thaw in the Centre’s Punjab policy fortuitously occasioned by the exit in November 1989 of the Congress (I) government in Delhi and the advent of a somewhat liberal if befuddled government first headed by Mr.V.P Singh and later by the maverick Mr. Chandra Shekhar. We seem to be sliding back to square one with the return to power of perpetrators of the repression depicted in the book under review.
Not with-standing the obvious limitations of the book the summary treatment of the historical period of the ten Gurus the high price and many inaccuracies symptomatic of the haste in publication the Sikh struggle represents a most timely and valuable contribution to an understanding of the genesis of crisis in Punjab. Ata time when disillusionment in pervasive the need to reestablish moral imperatives of governance and the credibility of Constitutional guarantees is paramount. The book should be compulsory reading for » political leaders and policy makers for it can help the new government restore its emerging image as a symbol of Justice and statesmanship rather than as a badge of oppression and tyranny against a valiant community struggling to assert its identity and regain is pristine glory.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 26, 1991
