Darlene R. Dhillon, Berkeley, Calif. ‘Mrs, Dhillon is planning to write a more in-depth article for the American Media. She would appreciate if first hand experiences are shared with her by those who have recently been to India or Pakistan. Identity of the person concerned will not be revealed. Please send your comments or experiences care of World Sikh News.
With very little news coming ‘out of Punjab, it is very difficult to know the state of affairs in that troubled area. There is hardly any Sikh press operating in Punjab by now, and so the Hindu press sable to amplify incidents beyond their actual scope. The international – press then picks these up, and we read paragraphs about “Sikh terrorism” on the same pages of the Chronicle or Examiner as we find accounts of terrorism in the Mid- die East.
Before the expression “Sikh terrorism” takes such a hold in the minds of Americans as to equate ‘or confuse a Sikh with a “tourist”, what can the Sikh communities do to counteract these misperceptions? It seems to me that Silt organizations should have given a very high priority since Day One to the area of public relations. There were some sporadic attempts on the part of some ‘organizations to do pro-Sikh public ‘relations work but there was little lasting result. Now, these efforts are needed more than ever. The struggle for Khalistan will not so much be won on a physical battlefield, as it will be won in the concourse of world opinion. If the Government of India succeeds in portraying the image of the noble ‘Sikh as a craven, cruel, and blood- thirsty “terrorist”, then world opinion will be different o the fate of the Sikhs when the next invasion of the Golden Temple occurs, when tanks again roll into another 40 01 400 Gurdwarasin Punjab to Kill innocent Sikhs in the name of uprisings by “bloodthirsty terrorists”. The devout Sikh pilgrims, (women, old people, children, young men with hands tied with their own turbans,) who perished in Operation Bluster, were all projected as “terrorists”.
In the same way hundreds and thousands of Sikhs, perhaps millions would perish in the next stage of the government-planned holocaust. They too would be lit lamented because; the whole word has been too misinformed as to consider them nothing more than “terrorists”.
The time to unite is NOW. It is time to put aside the usual local politics, and renew all our efforts to concentrate on presenting as much of the true picture of conditions in Punjab (and the rest of India) as we can, How can we do this? First, the factual accounts of People who come out of Punjab must be given wider audience than just family and friends, Also, Professional-looking pamphlets must be distributed to American groups. (Some laudable efforts in this line have already been made.) In general, the press in this country (and in Canada and U.K.) should be exposed to more in-depth substantiation of the Sikh point of view. This is all going to be easy. Many people have depended for some time now on the BBC accounts of events in Punjab. Recently. The Indian government has been putting more and more pressure on the British Government to crack down on all abated Sikhs and their sympathizers. One effect has been the erosion in the neutrality of the BBC reports; there is now a perceptible slant in the direction of New Delhi.
Meanwhile, according to recently retuned Sikhs, in every major city in India, the militant Hindu groups such as the Shiv Sena and RSS are putting up posters which say, in effect, that if all Sikhs do not clear out by October 1986, and go wherever else they can, they will suffer severe consequences.
Is the re-movement back to the Punjab?
Yes, most definitely. All the Sikhs I spoke to who had recently returned from India spoke of the tremendous influx of Sikhs, especially of retirement age people, back into the Punjab. Some people had been able to trade property with Hindus in Haryana or UP., but this is forbidden by the government. Also, returnees were struck by the number of Sikhs who had gone back to the wearing of Sikh symbols of identity.
‘What is the sentiment in Pun- Jab for self-determination?
Openly, very few people feel that they can safely say they are for it, Within Punjab; there is much wearing of saffron turbans. Out- side the borders of Punjab, even that is difficult to do, In the villages, many people felt that after all that had happened, it was very difficult to stay within India. City welling Sikhs, outnumbered 8 or 9 to 1 by Hindus, felt that some- how, they had to get along with others, no matter how. However, it is clear that the rift between Sikhs and Hindus has widened to such an extent that it may never be healed. One person told me a revealing incident which illustrates the differences in perception between the two communities. A Hindu neighbor of my acquaintance’s relatives was visiting them in Chandigarh; He strongly condemned the recent killing of eleven Hindus as an “atrocity”. (The local newspapers there had blared “MA- SSACRE”), When reminded by the Sikh family of the thousands of innocent Sikhs who were systematically slaughtered in state sponsored terrorism in the days following the assassination of Indira Gandhi (Operation Bluefish), he shrugged and said, “Well, of course that was a long time ago. We should forget about those people now!”
November 1984-a long time ago to one who does not care but as fresh as yesterday to those whose Kristallnacht* it was, Eleven Hindus were killed and it is a “massacre” but 7,000 Sikhs are butchered and burned, and their killers are not even arrested.
In new developments in Punjab, the Oakland Tribune (April 19) Deported that Police raided a Hindu temple for the first time. This was most likely because even the Shiv Sena members within it had Gone too far; not only were they training with weapons, but had been throwing bottled acid, some of which had been thrown at police. The weapons that they were training with had no doubt been purchased with funds from the Central government, which it is widely believed, has been arming right-wing Hindu defense groups, telling them .You don’t have to leave Punjab; stay there and kill some Sikhs. It is an ominous development that a Hindu temple has now been invaded. It is to give the people feeling that if it is okay to raid a Hindu temple, it is certainly okay to raid the Golden Temple which, they say, is being “misused? by the Sikh youth. Many militant Hindus have begun to carry a trishaw (trident) as a’ religion symbol, citing the Sikhs’ kirpan as 4 sort of justification. There have been instances in some Punjab towns of Sikhs having their turbans knocked off by trishaw -wielding bands of militant Hindus. In general, one of the resumes I spoke with felt, the Hindus are more conscious than the Sikhs about the conflict. The Sikhs seem to be in some disarray no competent leaders, few people able to agree on one plan of action and then sticking to it, So far, only the AISSF and the Dami Dami Tak- sal groups are the only cohesive and focused Sikh groups in the forefront. Of course, it does seem like whenever a credible leader emerges, he is wiped out. (Jagiit ‘Singh Rode being the most recent example of this), Reaction to the death of Jagjit Singh showed up the differences in perception by the two communities. In Mukhtsar, the shops were closed out of respect for his death, actually in protest over the suspicious circumstances of that death. The Hindu shopkeepers refused to close down their shops, creating a lot of bad feeling.
With no free press to report incidents as they really occur, people are dependent on word of mouth. That is also the way things get exaggerated and magnified be- yond their original value, But whenever any newspaper in the past has tried to report facts around an issue involving Sikhs, it was al- Ways accused of inciting violence. For example, when the commission to study implementation of the Gandhi-Longowal accord was investigating Hindi-speaking areas is. Punjabi-speaking areas some Villagers found the shredded forms ‘of those people who had responded that they spoke Punjabi. The evidence of this dishonesty on the Part of the commission was brought to the press. No newspaper ever printed this important revelation of fraud; it might be inciting “violence”.
As for the real possibility of increasing violence in Punjab, I asked those I spoke to what they expected. No one expressed optimism for lasting peace. They felt that most people living in Punjab really wanted to live in peace but there were too many factors which preclude the possibility of a genuine peace. It was mentioned by several that next door in Haryana, Chief Minister, Bhajan Lal, was openly recruiting people dresses as Sikhs. Even if the Sikhs do not create any incidents, such infiltrators will see to it that Punjab is always stirred up, that neighbor is set against neighbor. And so, the rift may deepen, between two religious groups who have lived so long together. It doesn’t have to be that way; but it may be too late to be any other way. The full tragedy of Punjab, maybe, is yet to come. Sikhs in foreign countries cannot go and take part directly, but they should do everything in their power to spread truth about the actual events in their homeland, so. That whatever the future has in store for Punjab may be clearly seen by the rest of the world.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 9, 1986
