After the suppression of the 1857 War of Independence, a war in which all communities had joined hands in an attempt to oust the British Raj, the British set about systematically fostering divisions among the Indian people on religious lines. In this, they took help from the most retrogressive forces existing in Indian society, By the early twentieth century, in Punjab, for instance, the Arya Samaj, the Punjab Muslim League, the Singh Sabha, the Chief !Chaise Diwan and the Hindu Sabha had emerged.

All Punjabi, whether they were Hindu, Muslim or Sikh. spoke the same language. (Even today, the western half of Punjab, which lies in Pakistan, is 95 per cent Punjab speaking ) Various common customs prevailed among the various Punjabi communities. Class divisions were, however, distorted by the communalists into communal ones. In West Punjab peasants were largely Muslim, and money-lenders/landlords/traders were Hindu and Sikh. In Ease Punjab, which today lies in India, Sikhs made up the rural population and Hindus were moneylenders and traders.

It must be remembered that the Indian National Cougress which in Punjab consisted largely or Hindus vigorously opposed any measure to curb alienation of peasants’ land, Naturally this created bitterness among the Muslim peasantry. Hence their support for the Unionist party, and, much later, for the Muslim League. Among the Congress leaders who played a role in Hindu communal propaganda

was Lala Lajpat Rai. Certain elements of the propaganda from that period remain to this day. For example, the Arya Samajis insisted that the Sikh leaders constituted the Chief Khalsa Mayan, emphasizing their distinct identity.

 Electoral polities on religious lines:

 Electoral politics was introduced into India under the British, with it was also introduced the practice of dividing the electorate on religious lines. The 1909 Morley-Minto reforms came after the sustained four years of struggle against the notorious partition of Bengal, on communal lines and struggles such as peasant movements in Punjab and upheaval in Maharashtra. But even so, the Morley-Minto reforms were not a concession to these struggles so much as they were of dividing the struggling people,’ The ‘reform’ offered the propertied classes a role in the Viceroy’s Legislative Council and created separate electorates on comunal lines. This policy was continued under the 1919 Montagu-Chelmsford reforms. Both these Acts were passed against the backdrop of a major challenge to British rule in India the anti-Rowlatt Act agitation: the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre and Martial law atrocities in Punjab. Indeed, all elections upto 194d were held on the basis of such divided electorates.

The Akali Party in Punjab emerged out of the movement for ousting the mahants who controlled the gurudwaras. In February 1921, a jatha of 150 Sikhs were slaughtered at Nankana Sahib Gurudwara, Guru Nanales birthplace by tvlahaht Narayan Das’s henchmen. The backing which the British administration provided after this atrocity to the mahants made their connivance with the mahants clear, and the movement to liberate the gurudwaras rapidly became a secular anti-imperialist movement to which the common Hindu too gave support.

I, Morley (Secretary of State of India) made the following statement in the house of commons in London “There are two rival school of thought, one of which bellies that better of government of India depends upon efficiency and that efficiency’s in fact the end of British rule in India, The other School, while not neglecting efficiency to what is called political concession,”

2, Sir Charles Aitchison, a member of the executive council had referred so “then division of the people into creeds and castes and sects with varying and conflicting interests” which took practical shape in the Act of 1909 by the creation of separate electrorate such as Muslims. Land holders, chambers commerce etc, Site M.V. Pylee “Constitutional History of India 1600-1950″Asia Publishers, 1980.

The British, in order to appease a section of the leadership of the Akali movement and win them over, introduced the Gurudwara Act of 1925. By this Act, control of the gurudwaras was handed over to gurudwara committees. The Akalis made these committees their base, and the breeding ground for Akali control. The introduction of the Gurudwara Act was thus not an innocent action on the part of the British : the intention was to set up a separate Sikh political force which would counter the democratic forces. It gave a standing base to a political party formed on religious lines. .

Meanwhile, the Congress party in Punjab continued to base itself solely among Hindus. In fact, little distinction could be drawn between the Arya Sasnaj and the Congress in Punjab. Latter-day “secular” historians have tended to ascribe the failure of any community to enroll in the Congress in large numbers as a sign of their comrnuaalism or sectarianism; but they do not mention the fact that the Congress itself has historically been communal. The rivalries among the various parties dividing the people on religious lines were reflected also in the vernacular press of Lahore, which became notorious for every shade of communal propaganda.

For the most part, during the 1920s and 1930s, the Akalis remained within the Congress fold. But in 1942, when the Congress gave the “Quit India” call, the Akali Dal under Master Tara Singh opposed it. Master Tara Singh, who had good relations with the British and with the princely states, campaigned for the Sikhs to offer themselves for Army service under the British. The efforts of Master Tara Singh, however, should not be confused with the attitude of common Sikhs, who were at the forefront of the fight against the British.

However, during this entire period, Hindu-Sikh tensions did not become acute partly because the main focus of communal propaganda was on the Hindu-Muslim divide. In this divide the Sikh communalists by and large sided with Hindu communalists—both on the political level and on the practical level—for example as when in the riots, Master Tara Singh drew his sword in front of the Assembly in 1946 and cut the flag of the League.

Of course, the Akali leaders did meet Jinnah, and Jinnah did make some promises of a special status for Sikh-dominated regions if they supported him. The Akali Dal also passed a resolution for Khalistan in one of the meetings. But all these were only bargaining chips with which to negotiate with the Congress for some special status for the Sikhs. This request for special status tai at.-a time when the Congress, the League and the British were busy devising a way in which to chop India in two. Nehru in response to the request gave a clever and ambiguity is statement to the effect that there should he some area of the country where the Sikhs can “enjoy the fruits of freedom”. This – had the effect of creating suspicion in the minds of Punjabi Hindus, -and of giving a handle to the Sikh communalists to argue that they had been promised an area where Sikhs would predominate.

The secular challenge:

 We cannot deal in detail here with the democratic movement in Punjab. Despite all the machinations of the British, Congress, _ League and Akalis, democratic movement put a stiff secular challenge to British rule. Whether during Swadeshi era (1905-09) or during the Ghadr movement (just before and dining the First World War) or during the rise of Bhagat Singh and the ‘Hindustan Socialist Republican Army (mid-1920s onward), Punjab’s democratic class-based movements bad a strong secular content. Ajit Singh, one of the main organisers during the first period, called the organisation be started Anjuman-i¬Watan, with a journal Bharat Musa, Its leadership and membership included Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. The Ghadr Party, again with e leaders from all communities, openly challenged religious men and -; brought its paper out in Urdu, Punjabi, and Hindi, The Hindustan Socialist Republican Army was not only secular; Bhagat Single was himself militantly atheist. It was this democratic force that posed a threat to the rulers most of all; and the nurturing of divisive move- -meats was aimed against this secular force. (In Appendix I we list a few of these powerful movements, which even today have left a legacy of secularism and traditions of struggle in much of Punjab.)

 Politicians create Hindu-Sikh issues :

 Alter partition, with the Hindu-Muslim divide no longer available for ruling class politicians, they turned swiftly to exacerbating the Hindu-Sikh divide, Although all Punjabis speak Punjabi as  the mother tongue, the Arya Samajis, the Jan Sanghis, and most of all, the Congress, campaigned among Hindus that they should record their mother tongue as Hindi in the 1951 Census, Prime among the cam- k Isaigners was the newspaper baron Lela legal Narain, who was then in the Congress, (It is a sign of the Punjab situation that his most influential paper, which campaigned for Hindi, was in Urdu.) Correspondingly. The Sikh communalists, including the Akalis, were props- s satiric that Punjabi was the language of Sikhs.

The Hindu-Sikh tension was further aggravated by the fact that, while various other states were reorganised on a linguistic basis in the 1950s, Punjab’s reorganisation was delayed by the Centre for purely electoral reasons: with a Hindu majority in Punjab at the time (which included the present states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh) the Akalis posed no serious challenge to Congress rule.

Meanwhile the Akalis refused to mobilize all Punjabis irrespective of religion for a Punjabi Subs. At first Master Tara Singh talked `openly of a Sikh state, such that his demand for linguistic reorganization was interpreted by Hindus as a communal demand Later, when Fetch Singh ousted Tara Singh, some efforts were made to project the Punjabi Subs demand as the demand of all Punjabis, Hindu or Sikh, and an agitation was launched. But the Akalis’ practice, even under Fetch Singh, of starting the morcha from the Golden Temple in the first place alienated Hindus from the agitation meanwhile the Congress and the Jan Sangh is propagated the idea of a much larger state, “Maha Punjab”, in which an overwhelming Hindu -majority would be maintained and in fact the Punjabi language would not be the basis of the reorganisation.

Creation of Punjabi Stiles with electoral considerations:

 The Central Government, in the hands of the Congress, finally conceded the demand for a Punjabi Suba. The Punjabi Saba came into existence only in 1966, a decade after the reorganisation of other states.

But in the actual carving of the state a great crime was committed. The J. C. Shah Commission was formally told to place majority Punjabi-speaking areas in Punjab., and majority Hindi-speaking areas in either Haryana or Himachal Pradesh, depending on which side they lay.. However, as Punjabi-speaking Hindus had recorded their mother tongue as Hindi, many Punjabi-speaking areas were left in Haryana and Himachal purely because the majority in them were Hindu. Thus, in the north, Una, Palampur, Hamirpur, Kangra, and part of Jammu (which speaks Dogri, a Punjabi dialect); and in the south, Ambaia, Kurukshetra and Sirsa districts; went to Himachal, Jammu and Kashmir, and Haryana, Parts of Ganganagar district in Rajasthan, too, arc Punjabi-speaking,

The Akali Dal. in its representation before the Commission, had in fact formally demanded all these areas; but after announcement of the award, they dropped the issue. The reason was that, if all these areas had been included, Hindus would have constituted whereas without these districts Sikhs constituted 60 per cent of the population. Again, for both Congress arid Akalis, electoral politics sustained common ahem, However, the Akali Dal did contest vigorously the decision to keep Chandigarh, which had been built on Punjabi speaking territory, in Haryana. Finally, in 1969, Chandigarh was awarded to Punjab, but on the condition that two areas of Punjab—Fazilka and Abohar be granted to Haryana. Since Chandigarh was to have gone to Punjab in the first place, where was the question of exchange? Fazilka and Abohar areas were censused as majority Hindi-speaking (k, in reality, Punjabi-speaking Hindu) but they could not be attached to Haryana because they were not contiguous. So, the 1969 Indira Gandhi award concluded that a corridor be created between Haryana and these two areas to connect them. The absurdity of the who proposition, and the obvious fact that the Centre was playing electoral politics with the issue, gave a handle to the Sikh communalists.

Thereafter, the electoral history of Punjab is that of a bitter and thoroughly unprincipled struggle for the seat office between these two major parties—the Akalis and the Congress. In 1967, an Akali ministry came to office, but was brought down in 1969 by Congress-engineered defections of the most communal sections of the Akali Dal. The Congress in this period offered open support to the short-lived rebel Akali ministry of Lachbrnan Singh Gill, which lasted for a year. This ministry had, as one of its members, Jagjit Singh Chauhan (who later set himself up as President of the National Council of Khalistan.) This ministry collapsed in 1970, and the Akali ministry of Prakash Singh Badal came into power after elections in an alliance with the Jana Sangh. Although there could be no genuine secular politics through such an alliance, the-slogan of Hindu-Sikh unity was raised, and communal tensions were not evident.

The continuing secular challenge :

 It was also during this period that the communist revolutionary movement, which based itself on the secular class issues of the exploited, became powerful in Punjab. The Badal ministry adopted a policy of brutal suppression and fake “encounters” towards it. Despite the killing of over 70 cadres of revolutionary groups, the mass movement led by them posed a serious challenge to the ruling parties. In particular, the Punjab Students’ Union commanded considerable following among students; and youth organisations Ied by communist revolutionaries were active in the villages. In that process of greater exposure to scientific and atheistic ideas, the youth, of Punjab shed many of their ieligious labour. Unita the end of the 1970s, while the communist revolutionary-led student movement was strong and lively, the A I S S F could get no real foothold anywhere among students An Punjab.

The main two political parties had to fulfill two Objectives one, to increase their strength vis-a-vis each other, and two, divert the democratic movement. Towards this end the Congress and Akali fostered the growth of every possible communalist and retrogressive force,

Hew be Congress fuelled fundamentalism :

in 1972, the Akali ministry was dismissed by the Centre, and fresh elections were held under President’s Rule, Congress thus came to power, with Giani Zail Singh as Chief Minister. Zed Singh attempted to undermine the Akali base ‘among the Sikhs. For this he sponsored a variety of Nihang chieftains, who in exchange endorsed the Congress to their following, in an elaborate ceremony, a pierces-siori was taken through Punjab along the route that Guru Gobind is said to have travelled; the route was proclaimed “Guru Gobind Marg”. The horses which were displayed in the procession were claimed to be the descendants of Guru Gobind’s horses. The dung of these horses was carried by the Chief Minister himself, in a vessel on his head. The Nihang chieftain, Baba Santa Singh, participated in the entire procession.

– Best known, of course, is the Congress’s patronage of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Everywhere the team visited in Punjab. people mentioned this as an accepted fact_ Even a senior Congress-1 leader confessed : “Giani Zeit Singh said privately : ‘Communists have been laying emphasis on non-communal issues, and where art they? If you want to fight Akalis in Punjab, you must have the backing of religious men.’ And, in this way, he went on a hunt for saws.”

Specifically, when the earlier Sam, Gurbachan Singh Bhindranwale, died, there two claimants to this seat. One was backed by the Akalis. The other, backed by the Congress, was Jarnail Singh. And he became the now-famous Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. In the 1977 Lok Sabha. and Assembly elections he extended support to Congress candidates, and in the 1979 gurudwara election, the Congresse-l openly supported him in order to wrest the control of the gurudwaras from the Akalis. Further, during the 1980 elections his men also manned the polling booths on behalf of the Congress-I. A Congress-1 leader himself told the team t “Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder (the Congress-I MP from Gurdaspur and wife of Sanjay Gandhi’s close supporter, police official P, S. Blainden) won her election with 40 booths manned by Bhindranwale’s men. Balbir Singh Sandhu (later general secretary “National Council of Hhalistare) himself managed the show.”

Akalis do not lag behind :

But during the same period, the Akali Dal quite simply tried to outdo the Congress in all its communal posturing. Thus, a year after being removed from office, they passed the 1973 Anandpur Sahib Resolution. This resolution was drafted by those who now pose as ‘secular’ and ‘moderate’, as well as those who are labeled extremist. The drafting committee was chaired by S. S. ,Barnala, and included G. S. Tohra, Jiwan Singh Islatranangai and so on. According to the resolution, the very first purpose of the Akali Dal is the “removal of un-Sikh ways of thinking.’ (the English translation of the Resolution reads “propagation of Sikhism”) and “denunciation of atheism”. Such phrases, in real, terms, become blows directed against the democratic-secular movement which at the time had a powerful influence among the youth.

The Resolution goes on to list among its central objects various measures for the propagation of the Sikh religion. First among the basic postulates of the Akali Dal, as adopted at Anandpur Sahib, is that “The Shiromani Akali Dal is the very embodiment of the hope and aspiration of the Sikh Nation…-. Later it says : “The Shiroinani Akali Dal considers it its primary duty to inculcate among the Sikhs, religious fervour and a pride in their rich religious heritage” and proceeds to list towards this end a number of measures (mass baptism, grooming religious men, and so on). Obviously, such a resolution could not voice the aspirations of all Punjabis as such; and in fact it furthered the communal schism.

In 1978, after the Akalis assumed power in alliance with the Janata, a watered-down resolution was passed by the Akalis at Ludhiana; in this various populist demands were voiced, including a demand for greater federalism. (Aside from these populist slogans, various demands were raised designed to cater to the elite—such as the exemption from the wealth tax to the farmers). However, the communal demands and objects were maintained as before.

In this situation of a jockeying for power between the Akalis and the Congress by means of whipping up communal sentiments, the groundwork got prepared for subsequent developments. Nevertheless it needs to be underlined that, despite nearly a century of efforts to create and use such a divide, till the end of the ‘1970s there was no social tension between the Hindus and the Sikhs.

Part of the reason for this was the conscious organised force of the secular parties and groups of communist leaning who commanded a considerable influence among, all • sections of employees, workers, peasants and students. But another reason is that, although Hindus and Sikhs practice by and large different occupations, they are too closely interdependent: and culturally too intertwined to afford much success to the communalists. Whether it concerns going to each other’s’ marriages, inter-marrying, or practicing similar customs (many Sikhs are clean-shaven and many Hindus grow beards and wear turbans), or using the same language, the daily lives of 1-linda and Sikhs are too closely bound together for them to be easily torn apart. No doubt, communal forces were active: but they did not command much mass sympathy or following. It needed the two parties who plunged themselves into intensive warfare based on communal mass appeal, and a train of communal and State terrorist violence over years, to plant the seed of mutual suspicion

 Bhindranwale’s murders with Congress hacking :

 When the Akalis were in power, Bhindranwale, with the support of the Congress.! began a campaign against the Sikhs of the Nirankari sect (who have a somewhat different interpretation of the religious texts and derive support from Harijan Sikhs, who face upper caste oppression) Bhindranwale’s men would murder Nirankaris, and Bhinciranwale would openly praise the killers. On April 24, 1980, while Akalis were still in office-in Punjab, but when Congress had again assumed power at the Centre and Giani Zail Singh, was Home Minister at the Centre, the head of Nirankaris, Baba Gurbachan Singh was murderd in Delhi. Bhindranwale’s name was put in the First Information Report on the murder, and he was charged with “hatching the conspiracy”. Yet, he was neither arrested, nor were his movements restrained.

From May 1980 to September 1984, murders of Nirankaris continued, but none of the murtiereres was traced. The police, on the one hand, said that the murderers had escaped to the Golden Temple. On the other hand, the police, in the name of controlling terrorism, arbitanly harassed and attacked innocent villagers. Bbiodranwale meanwhile operated freely. On May 31, 1931, he led a procession in Amritsar demanding a ban on tobacco sale in the Holy city, and his men burnt a few cigarette shops.

On September 9, 1981, Bhindrawale’s campaign took a new twist. 1 ala Jagat Narain, an Arya Samaji leader, Hindu communalist, and owner of several papers, was killed by Bhindranwale’s men, shortly after Bhindranwale had criticised him. From this point on, the killings were not of Nirankaris but largely of Hindus.

Bhindranwale was among the accused in the Lela Jagat Narain case. Against the background of this fact, the story of his arrest is indicative of how the Congress I government was consciously projecting him. Despite warrants for his arrest, Bhindranwale travelled in Delhi with some Congress-I leaders and then visited Bombay, where he met pressmen. Still he was not arrested. Nor was he arrested on his way back. in fact, he rode in a car the entire length of Punjab, right up to his home base in Chowk Mchta, Amritsar, where a large mob was actually allowed by the police to gather. There after requesting -.is surrender, the police fired on the mob, killing several persons- Bhindranwale’s photograph was displayed in all the papers for several days thereafter, and he was set free on October 15, thus increasing his prestige. This was the only time Bhindranwale was ever arrested. It is significant that, in the process, he was also made a hero_ The Congress-I purpose was to erode Akan, strength in the process-.

Bhindranwale took up residence in the Golden Temple in July 1983 and launched a morcha for the release of two of his men arrested by tee police. He raised the slogan that discrimination against the Sikhs must be removed.

 Akalis join forces with Bhindranwale:

 Meanwhile, the Akali Dal had launched a morcha to stop the construction of a canal which would take some of Punjab’s waters to Haryana. But they realised that, if Bhindranwale occupied the Golden Temple, one of their sources of authority would be lost. They immediately called of their morcha and joined Bhindranwale in the Golden Temple. And, on July 24, they embraced his agitation. The “Disarm Yudh Morcha” was started with Longowal, Akali Dal President, as its “dictator”. The slogan raised was for removal of discrimination against Sikhs. _

From this stage a new phase started. Investigations of killings continued, but now massacres of bus passengers also took place; side by side with these, negotiations between Akalis and the Centre took place. Nevertheless the situation of violence persisted inexplicably,

24 No important culprits were discovered and no settlement was arrived at in the negotiations. On three occasions, negotiations between the Akalis and the Centre actually arrived at a settlement; it is important to recall that on each occasion Prime Minister Indira Gandhi made statements scuttling the settlement. Said a Congress-I leader to the team; “They did not let the problem get solved; they said, let it go on a little time !angel…”

But while rejecting most of the Akali political demands, the Prime Minister on February 13, 1983, accepted the religious demands. The Akali leaders who had been spreading communal poison for this whole period were in no way curbed. At the same time, on April 4, 1983. a Rasta Roko Andclan called by the Akali Dal got a mass response. In it, the police resorted to unprovoked firing, killing 21 common people. On the same occasion, Akalis such as Tohra and Sukhjinder Singh who were making inflammatory speeches were treated by the police with great respect and rare. In other words, the Centre was pursuing a policy of allowing communalists and communal terrorists to operate freely, but repressing the people. The Akali Dal, for its part, merged itself with Bhindranwale’s outfit and raised slogans against the purported “discrimination against the Sikhs”, even as killing of innocent Hindus went on unchecked.

It was also during this period that, with the help of Congress leaders, the fanatic Hindu communal organisation. the Hindu Suraksha Samiti, was formed (Congress support was confirmed to the team by none less than the HSS leader, Pawan Kumar Sharma, in an interview with the team.)

Throughout this period, Bhindranwale operated openly from the Golden Temple; his armed men moved in and out freely; trucks carrying weapons drove into the Golden Temple complex without being searched by the police; and Bhindranwale continued to issue open communal incitements. Yet the Congress ministry in Punjab did not arrest him. Bhindranwale continued also to have the patronage of the Union Home Minister Giani tail Singh, whose rivalry with Chief Minister Darbara Singh for control of the Punjab Congress persisted unabated,

 Who supports the communal terrorists :

 It is clear from this picture that communal terrorism in Punjab cannot be seen as an autonomous phenomenon or as emanating from the so-called “Sikh psyche”. On the contrary, the base of the communal terrorists lies among different political parties, particularly the