Special to WSN CHICAGO Aug 30: The Parliament of World’s Religion today experienced an unprecedented commotion when the Sikh Speaker Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh and the Kashmiri representative, Mr. Gulam Nabi Fai were shouted down. The audience members who tried to disrupt these “Voices of the Dispossessed” were later identified as members of other religious and political groups in India.
The session was designed to bring out the expression of loss that the followers of the various cultures and traditions represented in the session felt. It was meant to be a celebration of respect for religious differences and a hopeful forum for future understanding and cooperation and unity under the one God who is called by many names and worshipped in many ways.
The first shout of protest came when Gulam Nabi Fai, the Kashmiri representative described how his family was broken up and his culture nearly destroyed when India occupied his homeland of Kashmir, in 1947. Mr., Fai, speaking at conference, called the occupation and loss of his cultural Sacred sites “psychological rape.”
The same treatment was given to the Sikh speaker, Dr.G.S. Aulakh. As he began his address to the members of the Indian Chicago Mission and saffron clad crowd, he told the audience of the massacre of thousands of Sikhs in India and the stealing away of the natural resources on Punjab in order to deprive and impoverish the Punjab Population.
He told the emotional story of the destruction of the Golden Temple and other shrines by the Indian Army in 1984, and of the deliberate burning of priceless Sikh scriptures, He touched on the barbaric killing of over 30,000 Sikhs in Delhi and other Indian Cities in the wake of the Indira Ghandi assignation, Only during his speech the adherents of the Indian govt. returned with louder shouts. And at this point members of the Indian consulate staff of Chicago were seen getting up and Saying, “he is wrong, we protest.” In moments, there were similar calls from four or five other groups of people. The Indian govt. people, many of whom were Hindus and Jain supporters had taken over the front row seats. They curbed Dr. Aulakh’s speech when he started giving an account of the injustices that the Sikhs are facing in India, They claimed that it was a case of “Political Propaganda.” The Sikhs in the audience protested that the speech should continue in this session of the “Voices of the Dispossessed.” They questioned the government’s hecklers, asking “if we cannot speak here, where can we speak?”
The disturbance continued with govt. people trying to shout down the Sikhs, while the Sikhs pro tested that in the democracy of America they had the right of free speech. The speech was cut short for security reasons. But management decided to allow the speech later in the course of the parliament.
The incident also resulted in the cancellation of two other events which were to be presented by the Sikh religious Society of Chicago.
Dr. Balwant Singh Hansra, chairman of the Sikh host committee, a moving force behind the Sikh presentations at the parliament was very disappointed at this outcome. He was heard telling a few Indian delegates that “you shouldn’t have done that. He should have been allowed to tell his story.” “Everyone has the right to speak in this Parliament of World’s Religions.”
Angry shouts could still be heard as a group of women in the front of the Palmer House Hilton ballroom, which was packed with more than 1000 people began singing “We shall overcome.” The singing spread throughout, as one by one, people from every continent stood up and joined hand to sing the 1960’s civil rights anthem.
The session concluded with a chronicle of the Native American’s struggles for the right to practice their religion, given by Jennie Joe, a Navaho nurse and researcher at the University of Arizona, followed with a Native American Circle dance,
After the session a number of people in the audience were seen sympathizing with the Sikhs. “Do not worry, we share your grief and pray for you,” many were heard to say at the end of the Circle Dance.
The unforeseen result of the disruption was the way that many in the audience eagerly approached the Sikh members to learn more about the Sikhs and why the Indian government seemed so determined to oppress them.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 3, 1993