AMRITSAR, India Four years after the Sikh struggle for justice and equality in Punjab, the state’s Hindu minority has started fighting back,
On Feb 19, a strike called by the militant Hindu Shiv Sena group in the Punjab town of Batala sparked the state’s first ever large-scale mob violence between Sikhs and Hindus, leaving two people dead and more than 30 injured.
Since then, religious rioting has erupted across the state, forcing authorities 10 impose indefinite curfews on several municipalities and deploy some 5,000 additional paramilitary troops in a state already swarming with security forces,
“Even educated Punjabis, both Hindu and Sikh, have begun to view the whole scenario through their respective angles,” said one political analyst. Analysts describe the development as one of the Most disturbing in the troubled northern state since June, 1984, ‘when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered the army to storm the Golden Temple of Amritsar, the holiest shrine of the Sikh religion, to break the peaceful Dharam Yadh Morcha.
Mrs., Gandhi’s decision led to her assassination almost five months later by two of her security men.
The murder aroused Hindus into an orgy of anti-Sikh violence that left almost 6,000 people dead but scarcely affected Hindus in Punjab.
Hoping for peace in the state, many Hindus voted for the moderate Sikh party, the Akali Dal, in the September 1985 state elections, shifting their traditional support, from the Congress (I) Party of Mrs., Gandhi’s son, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi reportedly on the express instructions of Rajiv Ganahi himself,
But the new chief minister, Surjit Singh Bamnala, so far has failed to fulfill his mandate and curb the retaliatory attacks on Hindus by Sikh gunmen fighting for Punjab’s independence from predominantly Hindu India,
Punjab businessmen say potential customers once more are unwilling to risk traveling to the state, and hotel owners who enjoyed a brief boom after the elections report plummeting occupancy. By 9:30 p.m the streets of Amritsar are deserted.
Fears of violence have many Hindus, most of them shopkeepers and businessmen, turning for support to militant groups like the Shiv Sena and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the two national organizations which have been at the forefront of recent Hindu mob violence in Punjab,
“The Hindus can no longer tolerate Sikh revivalism,” said Sutinder Dogra, vice president of the Punjab unit of the Shiv Sena.
“After all this time they have come to the Shiv Sena for protection,” he said. Dogra claimed the group has a statewide membership ‘0f 100,000 Hindus 20,000 of them in Amritsar.
“The Barnala government has failed to save us,” Dogra said. “We ‘want Punjab to be handed over to the military.”
The Shiv Sena and the RSS recently petitioned Barnala for firearms permits and training, “All you need is a bullet to kill a man,” said Dogra. “They have ample stocks of these things, we have nothing.”
Dogra said Hindus also should be allowed to carry tridents, the three-pronged spear used by Shiva, just as Sikhs are permitted to wear the sword,
Many Shiv Sena members are learning martial arts, he said.
Police say they are concerned by the growing popularity of the Shiv Sena and RSS in Punjab.
“They are better equipped than before,” said J.P. Birdi, senior ‘superintendent of police in Gurdaspur district where two towns are under curfew following clashes between the two groups and Sikh youth.
“In Batala they (the Hindus) used crude bombs and fired shots. This shows they are getting firearms and (explosive) materials to engineer further violence.
‘One-day strikes called by the Shiv Sena and RSS over the killings in Punjab have successfully paralyzed commercial and industrial activity in several towns and cities. Police said the closures often were enforced by mobs of extremists.
Sikhs, however, warn attempts by Hindus to strike back to their ‘community will lead to further violence.
“We have our traditional weapons,” they say.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 11, 1986