CIBBON, the renowned chronicler, believed history to be rarely folklore. He believed history to be mostly “a register of crimes, sorrows, and misfortunes”. Cases of black ironies, human catastrophes or wily deception litter the corridors of history. Such landmarks remain, in perpetuity, to be studied, diagnosed and reviewed so that one can learn the lessons from the past in order not to repeat similar follies.
History may also be viewed, oft times, to reflect supernova like eruptions between the forces of good and the forces of evil. A time when noble, principled dogwoods collides with the forces of greed and corruption. Aside from being a continuum of past cautions, history e.g.; equally often, a present day monitors. For example, for any given situation it can help draw up a balance sheet of a probable outcome from among any of the available options to help what Carlyle considered “the living sum total of the whole Past”.
In 1984, however, as Punjab slumbered in the still and sweltering June night, history beheld a clash of wills. Goaded by her childhood fantasies of Joan of Arc and determined to show that she was the supreme Czar, Mrs. Indira Gandhi attempted to crush Sikhism’s honors under her iron heel. Like Ahmed Shah Abdali before her, she too irreverently first pillaged and then desecrated the Temple that God had fated to be built in His glory.
Flushed with victory she strode through the ashes in a mocking disregard of all that is godly. This was perhaps the hour, some say, when she truly started to believe she was divine and unassailable. And like Abdali before her, she, too, forgot that from midst the blood and the ashes Sikh faith will one day raise, once again, phoenix like ever stronger and recuperated.
June 5th, 1984 will remain etched in the minds of all Sikhs to the end of time. It was a day of infamy and sad to say some of the Sikhs remain untouched by the lessons of that day. History to them remains a romanticized narrative, a folklore deserving of reverential regard and only a little instruction. They need to be reminded of the noble sacrifices of the past which are so adoringly enshrined in the Sikh prayer “Ardas”. The “Ardas” punctuates every Sikh worship as a living reminder of those sacrifices which nurtured the faith. Every Sikh knows the “Ardas” by rote. Yet only some of the Sikhs draw out the collective lessons from the prayer to solve today’s problems.
From their inception the Khalsa has been charged by their Master to take up what William Bowles called “the cause of Freedom (which) is the cause of God”. In keeping with the Master’s decree the Sikhs are bound to a selfless service to all of mankind, to walk the straight path, to be free of fear to combat evil and injustice and to fight the good fight.
Since June, 1984, the Sikh people remain berthed at an inhospitable port. Again, there is no lack of those who wish to steer the Sikh ship of state out to sea. The problem is that none of them appear to hold the proper certification. Those who seek the captaincy are at odds with one another. They remain confused over which home port to go to. With no navigational charts, poor compass and with no ideas of the state of the sea, the Sikh ship of state remains docked in an unarguable port.
How come the Sikhs have got themselves all tangled up? To understand their plight one must first flip through the pages of the historical “register” to review the circumstances which have put them behind the eight ball. From among the many circumstances, the most compelling is the survival of the Sikh faith. The situation is strikingly analogous to a concern so aptly expressed by Samuel Johnson in the words that: “To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by Faith and Hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind, unless it be invigorated and re imposed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship and the salutary influences of example”.
Another equally telling Sikh grievance concerns the division of residual powers of governance. The excessive tilt towards a highly centralized form of government is seen to provide immense powers to the Centre who, of times, use such power indiscriminately. Center’s use of the stick and carrot as an instrument of sharing the nation’s largess means that the relationship between the states and the Centre is one of warship and not one of partnership. Such was not the intent of the framers of the Indian Constitution.
India’s diversity is highly compartmentalized and is basically regional in nature and at varying stages of development. Regional disparities tend to generate rivalries which in turn feed on distrust and envy. Balancing these conflicting needs and expectations is the fundamental responsibility of the:
Centre. But playing favorites has resulted in an unequal treatment of some regions.
India continues to locate fundamental economic infrastructure in States other than Punjab. Punjab owns the largest reservoir of technically competent Labour force more than any other State. Yet Punjab’s public sector remains deprived of industrial assets so essential for its growth. For example, in the mid 70’s sugarcane production had so outstripped the crushing capacity that Punjab needed five additional mills. Only one mill was sanctioned and the other four were reallocated to the neighboring States. And just as in the past, the Planning Commission which is responsible for the transfer or allocation of funds to the States continues to treat Punjab as a stepchild. For example, the 198788 allocation to Punjab is a mere Rs. 575 crore, the lowest per capita allocation of any State. Instead the Planning Commission expects Punjab to continue to mobilize its own resources or encourage private sector to inject additional funds.
The lifeblood of industry is the fossil fuels or electric power. In 1981 Punjab was short of coal for its furnaces, not because of the shortage of coal but because of failure by the bureaucrats to allocate Punjab its fair share of railway wagons. Erratic and insufficient, electric power supply also became the millstone around Punjab’s neck. Instead of keeping alive the economic miracle, Punjab is losing out its key industries e.g. Jullundur has lost out its sports industry to Meerut.
It is as if the Sikhs have been condemned to carry on as cultivators of crops for ever and ever, every schoolboy knows that care mechanization has led to an increasing displacement of Punjab’s farm Labour. In the 20 years between 1961 and 1981 the landless farm Labour rocketed from 17% of the rural population in 1961 to about 40% in 1981. Driven from the land a goodly number of the unemployed were able to find factory work in cities. With the decline in Punjab’s industry such is not the case now. These displaced workers, mostly young Sikhs, keep on expanding the pool of new young unemployed. In the past some of them found their way into the Armed Forces, and now even this door has also been slammed shut in their faces.
Thus religious prodigality, economic bondage and the tragic wasting away of the sons of Punjab all fused together, in the fall of 1973, to proclaim a Sikh Bill of Rights. The Sikh demands were framed into a petition now popularly known as the Anandpur Sahib Resolutions. In the following few years these resolutions were refashioned and distilled into a series of 12 demands which were unanimously adopted at the 1978 All India Akali Conference.
These Ludhiana resolutions were revised and rewritten, in 1981, into a list of 15 demands which were then formally, and for the first time, submitted to the New Delhi government. These Solutions may be classified into four major groups:
CENTRESTATE RELATIONS: The intent is to redistribute the powers of governance aimed at providing greater autonomy to the States. This was considered to be in keeping with the intent of the founding fathers that the States ought to be equal partners and not mere client States.
RELIGIOUS DEMANDS: These demands crystallized the need for freedom to protect and enhance the Sikh religion, language, culture and identity.
TERRITORIAL CLAIMS: Aside from an outright claim to ownership of Chandigarh, these resolutions addressed redrawing of the State boundaries along linguistic lines and a mechanism for resolving interstate disputes (e.g.: water sharing formula).
ECONOMIC PARITY:
The main object is to obtain an unencumbered control over economic resources, fair price for the produce and removal of employment quotas, especially in entry to the Armed Forces.
Negotiations, usually, means an attempt at settling a quarrel or irenics between the contending parties. A prerequisite to any meaningful negotiation is goodwill. A good settlement normally calls for willingness by all for give-and-take and a readiness to compromise. Sadly, the negotiations on the Anandpur Sahib Resolutions which began in October, 1981, and stretched to February 1984 lacked most of the ingredients essential to an honorable settlement. From the very start the negotiations got bogged down in recriminations or sidetracked as to who and not what is right and even the agreed to yesterday understandings got quickly denied the following day. It was all a farce reminding one of Sir Walter Scott’s words:
Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive All along the Indian negotiators kept on monkeying with the historic, geopolitical divisions within the Sikh clan. Their object was to drive a wedge between the Akalis and the rest of the community. They demonstrated that the past voting patterns proved that the Akali Dal did not represent all the Sikhs. To that end the Indians set out to dub the Anandpur Sahib Resolutions as Akali demands and not as Sikh demands. Breakdowns in negotiations were almost always held out to be the fault of the Akali Dal. Akali leadership were portrayed as parochial, with no end in sight, the Indians shifted their strategy. The object this time was to divide the Akali triumvirate. Playing with their inflated egos, the Indians caused a breach within the trinity. It was thus that the Indians put the curse of Cain on the Sikhs.
Time stands still for no one. It marches on relentlessly leaving in its wake sad tales, unfulfilled hopes and broken promises.
Seldom does it carry any excess baggage from the past. And as time rounds another corner, the mind begins to play funny tricks with the memory. No wonder that today the Anandpur Sahib Resolutions are in the forgotten past. The 1984 attack on the Golden Temple and the November carnage changed all that. Those cruel events spawned yet another crisis which brought about yet another concord, commonly known as the Punjab Accord. Now even these highly trumpeted accords lie in the dust of yesterdays. Time has, as its custom, wrought its own attrition on the Sikh demands and aspirations.
Today for the ninth time Punjab has been placed under direct rule from New Delhi. Most Sikhs wonder who is now minding the store: the Akai Dal (Longowal) or the Unified Akali Dal or some other pretender to the throne. As usual, the Sikh hegemony is in disarray. No one is ready and willing to rally less than one banner. And just as in the past the Sikhs remain cursed with a Hydra like headship.
Forty years ago the Sikhs were cajoled to join India and enjoy “the glow of independence”. Twenty-one years ago the Sikhs got back what was theirs all along, namely, the Punjabi Suba. Fourteen years ago the Sikhs authored a manifesto at Anandpur Sahib seeking their rightful place in the sun. And only three years ago the Indians rode roughshod over the Sikh psyche at the Golden Temple. All this tends to support the theorem that the Sikhs are perpetually in agitation for one cause or another. Thus, the history of Sikhs in India is a gruesome history of assertion of god given rights. It is a tale that is unfolding savagely in its details and hauntingly uncertain in its conclusion.
Once each year U.S. President gives his State of the Union address to the American people. The address is meant to inform the people of the state and health of the nation. It is also meant to give the nation a vision of the future. Likewise, once each year CEO’s give an accounting of their stewardship to their shareholders. The shareholders get a view of managerial performance and a peep into the direction the Company is headed. The Sikh people, too, need a helmsman who will periodically tick off the failures and accomplishments and to give his people a vision of a hopeful tomorrow. Kierkegaard held that life must be lived forward, but can only be understood backward. This flashback and invocation of memory is really meant to make one understand the past so as to prevent its indignities from recurring. Ignorance of history and blackouts over betrayals will damn the Sikhs to a permanent state of stalled, suspended animation. Zoologists believe that in his ever abiding love for his.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 5, 1987
