Why must the Sikhs be such simpletons as to recommend for themselves renunciation of political power, against all canons of common sense, against all lessons of history, against the historical experience of the Sikh community, against the traditions set by their ancestors, and against the teachings of the Guru?” 1.
In her address to a joint session of both houses of the Canadian Parliament in Canada on 19th June, 1973, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, on an official mission to promote India abroad, succeeded, by a certain omission, in misrepresenting to Canada that Sikhs and Sikhism are not of any significance in India.
The incident is of deep political significance. In modern times it elucidates what S. Kapur Singh, Ex. M. P., in his memorable thesis, “Sikhism and Politics,” was warning against. The episode exemplifies how inwardly the majority Hindu community of India regards Sikhs as menace to their own security. It shows that India indeed dreads Sikhs as its only surviving political contenders.
Mrs. Gandhi told the Canadian Parliament:
“…India has people belonging to every conceivable faith.””
and she went on graphically to name and discuss the presence of Hindus – the majority community – the Moslems, the Buddhist’s, the Christians, and even the microscopic group of Zoroastrians living in India. But Sikhs? No! Never! They must never be admitted to exist in India, or elsewhere! Her list of Indian religions and peoples was shrewdly chosen, as her speech showed she never mentioned Sikhs.
What must have been closer to truth is that the word “Sikh” disturbs, if not hurts, the Indian Prime Minister. It was painful to admit that there are twelve to sixteen million Sikhs in India; that Sikhs were third rival community during negotiations preceding the transfer of power by the British; that the bothersome Sikhs were still withstanding the efforts of the Hindu steam roller to demolish Sikh religious institutions in India. It must have been too frustrating for Mrs. Gandhi to attempt to admit that, even as she spoke in the Canadian Parliament, Sikhs were steadily agitating in the Punjab, and Sikh political prisoners were jamming the jails in the neighboring Haryana province, in their perpetual struggle to attain political freedom from the Hindu majority of India.
Really, was “Sikh” necessary at all when “Hindu” had been spoken of by the lady Brahmin Prime Minister? Wouldn’t it be a piece of classic.
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- Kapur Singh, “Sikhism and Politics” The Sikh Review, Calcutta August, 1971. See also, Politics and Religion, The Sikh Position, Sikh Review, Calcutta, Feb. 1978; “Raj Kare Ga Khalsa”, published by Shiromani Parbandhak Committee, Amritsar, 1979.
