II CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS 1919 The Jallianwala Bagh tragedy
1929: Over 1300 were killed by the army, of them 700 were Sikhs—who had earlier assembled for darshan-is nan (prayer) at the Golden Temple on the occasion of Baisakhi.
The Congress Session in Lahore, presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru, passed the following resolution:
‘‘The Congress assured the Sikhs that no solution in any future Constitution will be acceptable to the Congress that does not give them full satisfaction.”
(A.C. Banerjee: Indian Constitution I
Documents Vol. II, P.317)
1931: Mahatma Gandhi, while addressing a meeting at Gurdwara Sis Ganj, Delhi said: 1946
“I ask you to accept my word…and the resolution of the Congress that it will not betray a single individual, much less a community…our Sikh friends have no reason to fear that it (the Congress) would betray them. For, the moment it does so, the Congress would not only thereby seal its own doom but that of the country too. Moreover, Sikhs are a brave people. They know how to safeguard their rights by the exercise of arms if it should ever come to that.” (The Young India: March 19, 1931)
1946: Jawaharlal Nehru, at the All India Congress Committee, Calcutta, said: “‘The brave Sikhs of Punjab are entitled to special consideration. I see nothing wrong in an area and a set-up in the North wherein the Sikhs can experience the glow of freedom.”
(The Statesman, Calcutta, July 7, 1946) Jawaharlal Nehru’s further assurance to Sikhs: “Redistribution of provincial boundaries was essential and inevitable. I stand for semi-autonomous units…if the Sikhs desire to function as such a unit I would like them to have a semi-autonomous unit within the province so that they may have a sense of freedom.”’
(National Book Club: Congress Records, reproduced in the Publication: “Punjabi Suba’’)
From the Resolution moved by Jawaharlal Nehru on Dec 9, 1946 in the Constituent Assembly “Adequate safeguards would be provided for minorities in India. It was a declaration, pledge and an undertaking before the world, a contract with millions of Indians and, therefore, in the nature of an oath we must keep.”’
(B. Shiva Rao: Framing of the Indian Constitution—A Study : P.181)
III SIKHISM —SYNONYMOUS WITH HUMANISM
It is an historical truth that Sikhism, while affirming universal brotherhood as a basic tenet, is a modern monotheistic religion, with a distinctive ethos, language, culture and practice. Sikhism repudiates the schismatic caste system, the Hindu pantheistic idol-worship and its class discrimination which has, over the ages, perpetuated inequality between man and man based on the accident of birth.
IV QUEST FOR LIBERTY
1947 With solemn assurances of the top leadership for a place in India where Sikhs could experience the glow of freedom in a semi-autonomous state, a massive migration of the Sikh population took place from what now constitutes Pakistan, entailing a horrendous loss of life and property and, above all, of the countless historic shrines and centres of Sikh culture left behind.
1950: Far form honoring the solemn pledges, the government, under relentless pressure from fanatical elements, included in the Constitution an omnibus clause clubbing Sikhs with Hindus, subtly aimed at the dilution of their history tradition and culture.
1961: A decade long propaganda culminated in the Hindus’ open disavowal of Punjabi as their mother tongue, resulting in their massive defection from the census of the Punjabi speaking population and yielding a set of highly misleading and mendacious official records of the proportion of Hindi speaking people in Punjab.
1966: The State of Punjab, already truncated at the time of Partition of the Sub-continent, was further dismembered, taking away all hills and forest and river watersheds, on the specious grounds of linguistic statistics—in themselves unreliable. The State of ‘‘Five Waters’? was reduced to a mere trickle of two rivers, and the Centre, under a viciously communal Home Minister, used spurious language statistics to carve out vast areas for the nascent Hindu States of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
V SANS A CAPITAL
The newly completed capital of the Punjab, Chandigarh, an acknowledged masterpiece of architecture and town planning was quietly appropriated by the Central government as a “Union Territory” in utter disregard of all principles of justice and earlier precedents of territorial re-adjustment under the States Reorganization Act.
Sans Water & Power
The giant hydroelectric Bhakra Project and head works of irrigation canals were put under Central Control apparently because of mistrust of Sikhs who are the principal landowning farmers.
VI A POLITICAL AWARD
- Mrs. Indira Gandhi announced a politically motivated and conditional award restoring Chandigarh to Punjab provided the state would cede to Haryana its tehsils of Abohar and Fazilka, which do not have a geographical contiguity with that state, thus linking a straight forward issue of the state capital with a wholly unwarranted and illogical mutilation of Punjab’s geographical and economic integrity. The award was consequently rejected by the Sikhs.
VII MAGNA CARTA OF THE SIKHS
1973: At an historic meet at Anandpur Sahib on October 17, 1973 the Sikhs took note of the cumulative effect of the Central government’s policies on the Punjab in general and Sikhs in particular and framed a charter of demands, since characterized as the Anandpur Sahib Resolution and constituting their Magna Carta.
The more crucial of these demands may be enumerated here for a better understanding of the Sikh case.
1: Autonomous status for the States.
2 : Restoration of Chandigarh and the left out Punjabi speaking areas to Punjab.
3: Equitable distribution of river waters based on internationally recognized riparian principles by the highest judiciary and vesting of control of the canal head works and hydel project at Bhakra-Nangal in the hands of Punjab.
4: Granting second language status to Punjabi in neighbouring states, as provided for in the Nehru formula.
5: To stop eviction of Sikh farmers from colonized land in Uttar Pradesh Terai, Haryana and Rajasthan and to ensure the safeguarding of the Sikh rights under Art. 19 of the Constitution. 6:Fair allocation of funds from the Central Pool.
7: Recruitment to Armed Forces of Sikhs on merit, and not in proportion to population, which is violative of Art. 16 of the Constitution.
8: Enactment of an All India Gurdwara Act, on the lines of Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925 for systematic maintenance of holy Sikh Shrines and for an end to governmental interference in the religious affairs of the Sikhs
9: Granting of Holy City status to Sri Amritsar Sahib on the lines of Kurukshetra, Varanasi, Hardwar, etc.
10: Broadcast of Gurbani Kirtan from Darbar Sahib for spiritual sustenance of Sikhs in India and abroad.
11:Removal of restrictions on the wearing of Kirpan by Sikhs, since such restrictions are violative of the provisions of Art. 25 of the Constitution (Expl. IT)
12:An end to ruthless repression of Sikhs by Police and para military forces and unconditional release of those subjected to detention and torture in Indian jails.
Notwithstanding the patently just nature of the foregoing demands, the Central Government turned a deaf ear to all protests, branded Sikhs as secessionists and terrorists and let loose a Barrage of adverse publicity.
