It was appropriate that Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years on the birthday of Abraham Lincoln also known as the Great Emancipator. His release is a symbol of hope for South Africa’s 45 million Black majorities at the moment suppressed by a mere 5 million whites.
There is a lesson here for Sikhs faced with a similar situation in India. Mandela was imprisoned in 1962 for life for his role in starting the guerrilla ANC movement against apartheid. On his release, among his first public statements was to the effect he would again take recourse to violence if necessary. This after 27 of the best years of his life behind bars. His stand is firm and resolute, to do away with the despicable apartheid which enslaves the majority.
The 71 year old Mandela now plans to harness himself to translating de Klerk’s promise of opening the way for reform into reality.
- Africa for long aroused the fear that it was inexorably heading towards a cataclysmic racial conflagration. It was such a fear that prompted de Klerk to bid for racial reconciliation. The isolation of S. Africa no doubt played a part but Klerk’s moral courage has to be appreciated. While the world is hailing him as an emancipator, the majority of the whites who constitute his power base plan to break him politically. He has shown that he is cast in the Gorbachev mold and moved by a vision.
Once the euphoria is over, Mandela and other leaders of the freedom movement will have to show foresight and political skill of a high order to match the historic initiative.
Since last year, developments all over the world have been at a bewildering pace. The iron curtain is no more, the Germanies may soon unite, dictators have fallen left and right and now Apartheid is on its last legs. In India to the Nehru Gandhi dynasty is no more. But have the new Indian leaders kept pace with the world around them? Do they recognize the genuine aspirations of the Sikh and Kashmiri people? Or are they ready for a long drawn out battle which they will lose as surely as communism and apartheid are losing today.
These words of Mandela echo the Sikh sentiment today.
“A time comes in the life of any nation where there remain only two choices submit or fight … we have no choice but to hit back, by all the means in our power in defense of our people, our future, and our freedom.
The caste system in India is far more insidious than apartheid. It has never let the foundation of democratic institutions be laid. The face India shows to the world is an evil mask. It is indeed ironic that VP Singh should say Mandela is the symbol of the aspirations of all the downtrodden, exploited and oppressed people of the world. The Sikhs and Kashmiri’s demand only to be free. They have suffered the mill-stone of Hindu domination for 43 years too long. If the Indian government is not two faced it must match its words with deeds,
Article extracted from this publication >> February 16, 1990
