After exactly ten and a half months, Indian Government forces have again raided the Golden Temple. With the arrogance of a conquering army, the booted soldiers have once again violated the sanctity of the holiest Sikh shrine.
Miles away somebody was shot at and the government considered it a ground enough to raid the Temple premises. Sending military or police forces into the temple on the slightest pretext points to a sinister design. Through continued acts of sacrilege, government intends to destroy its holy aspect and divine aura as well as the emotional and psychological bond that every Sikh instinctively feels with the Golden Temple. The intention, evidently, is to render the overflowing fountain of Sikh religion dry and ineffective by equating the Temple with any ordinary brick and mortar structure.
Golden Temple has virtually been placed in the notorious category No. 10 of criminals whose photos are conspicuously displayed and who are invariably subjected to torture whenever there occurs a breach of law in that vicinity. It is being purposely done to prick Sikh pride and to undermine their historically preeminent status in the social and political fabric of India. Once the sense of pride and preeminence of a nation suffer compromise, its identity and integrity earn easily be diluted or dissolved. Objective of the government is crystal clear and no labored or fraudulent explanation can any more deceive the Sikhs. The Sikh struggle for securing constitutional rights has lost its relevance. The question of their very survival has become central and urgent in the context of the hostile, crooked and scheming government.
Sikhs were content to align their destiny with India and were not particularly enamored of having a small independent State of their own. Such a State clashes with their essentially international outlook that envisions the whole of mankind knit in one fraternal embrace. But the reality of their slave status is increasingly driving them towards the necessity of having an area and a set up where they can secure their identity and integrity and also breathe the refreshing air of liberty.
Yesterday’s incipient idea of Khalistan is fast gathering momentum and developing into a resounding slogan representing the collective aspirations of the entire Sikh nation. No other arrangement or alternative appears sound enough to insulate Sikh identity from the desecrating menace of Brahmin supremacy. India is unfortunately caught in the intolerant and fundamentalist grip of Brahminism that is frightfully allergic to other religions.
Sikhs are worst off there for being gifted with proud bearing and for being extremely jealous of their freedom. Complete freedom, therefore, is the logical and compulsive answer.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 26, 1985
