By Gurdarshan Singh Dhillon
Review by S.Saran Singh, Editor: Sikh Review
The of repeated cliche:” Truth is stranger than fiction,” fits in with this disturbing book. The basic causes and essential character of the Sikh struggle have, for too long, been relegated behind a barrage of propaganda and disinformation that would have made Dr.Goebbels blush. Even educated Sikhs have been taken in, smitten with guilt complex.
The world has been familiar, for nearly a decade, with the phenomenon of “fake encounters” perfected by the paramilitary in Punjab to liquidate Sikhs without any awkward questions being asked. Media have tarnished the image of a valiant and patriotic minority. Such is the paradox of modern times that the more widespread the means of communication, the more blinded have people become to the reality in Punjab, The more audacious the lie, the easier it is swallowed by a willing populace. Many examples are cited by the author, a historian and researcher of impeccable credentials. Within days of the army assault on the Golden Temple. The Times of India, New Delhi dated June 16,1984 published a PTI report brazenly al Jeging, “Terrorists made desperate attempt to blow up the Akal Takht, killed a number of men, women and children and unsuccessfully tried to escape with huge amount of cash and jewelry. The Akal Takht was not damaged in the army action.”
The story of a terrorist bomb aboard the Air India Jumbojet, Kanishka on its Toronto London flight in 1985 remains shrouded in mystery, being more probably a fabrication, as contended by the book “Soft Target” published in Canada and banned in India, says the author. It is now more or less admitted that Operation Black Thunder in late 80’s was an elaborate stage-managed charade to malign the militants and confuse the Sikhs in general. This book succeeds in good measure to establish that, however popular the myth, it cannot assume the mantle of truth.
‘The author, a Reader in History at the Punjab University, starts his study with the pro-independence pledges of Indian National Congress given to Sikhs, who had been adjudged by the British Government as the “Third Party” to the negotiations for transfer of power. After 1947 these pledges were conveniently forgotten, and free India enacted a Constitution with all powers concentrated in the Center, giving federalism a wide berth. Tracing the course of States reorganization in 1956, the author notes how the ruling Congress Party discriminated against Sikhs, belatedly conceding to them in 1966, a“territonally truncated and economically crippled substrate,” with the Center retaining control over river waters, power and industrial development. Thus was Punjab reduced to vassalage as a colony of Delhi, The Anandpur Sahib Resolution, demanding autonomous states, and the Dharam yuddha were the logical expressions of the Sikhs’ aspirational deprivation.
Though the author glosses over the naiveté and ineptitude of the Sikh leaders in the preened post-Independence era, he notes the lofty disdain of Jawaharlal Nehru towards Sikhs, the bigotry and hostility of Patel as India’s home minister, symptomatized in a secret circular that Sikhs must be curbed =a viciously communal directive
That prompted the late Sirdar Kapur Singh, ICS, to lodge a protest with the Punjab Governor, © Sir Chandulal Trivedi.
Understandably, the longest and most lucid chapter in the book dwells on the cataclysmic “Operation Bluestar”, aptly titled “Attack on the Heart of Sikhism.” Its fallout may have been beyond the comprehension of the army top brass, but a discerning expert like lieu General S.K.Sinha has, in his recent book, “A Soldier Recalls” (Lancer International) called to question the wisdom of Mrs,Gandhi’s decision. Ironically, however, it is a British analyst. R.H.Greenfield, who made perhaps the most prophetic comment on the army assault, published in the Sunday Telegraph, London, on June 10, 1984.
“Mughal Emperors and British governors alike tried military solutions to the Sikh problem, and succeeded only in adding to the roll of martyrs cherished by the proud and prickly people. Sikhs also have long memories. They have never forgotten to forgiven the day in 1919 when General Dyer ordered his troops to open fire in the sacred city of Amritsar. And Indira Gandhi may well have cause to rule the day she did the same.”
The impetuosity of army action, as the author shows, had nevertheless a meticulous and sinister design, and aimed at dealing a crushing blow to the Sikh ethos. So, when the inevitable Nemesis came, and Mrs.Gandhi was assassinated, albeit by her young security guards, the organized massacre of Sikhs in the program that followed conformed to that design. Judiciary and Parliament’s silence not only symbolized the moral insensitivity of Indian society, it also confirmed the tribalization of politics and triggered the passage of savage laws like TADA Act. India’s religious heads, the “Jagatgurus” too maintained a deafening silence, even as Pope John Paul II in the Vatican agonized over the tragic happenings following the desecration of Golden Temple and destruction of the Akal Takht, The monstrous inequity of detaining 390 innocent Sikhs in Jodhpur Central Jail for five years will remain a permanent blot on Indian polity. It has never been explained how, even on the most favorable assumptions, gallantry awards for Operation Bluestar could be justified, except as a deliberate attempt to humiliate Sikhs a process begun at the time of Ninth Asian Games at New Delhi in 1982.
Vignettes of Mrs.Gandhi mark her as devious person with moral pretensions in line with Henry Kissinger’s description of her as “a coldblooded practitioner of power politics.” An account of journalist Anand Sahay, who attended a rally at the Prime Minister’s house on June 2, 1984, is significant:
“Her shoulders were hunched, her face drawn; she looked disheveled and choked as she spoke. I was so surprised that I thought someone in her family must have died.”
Many would, in this context, recall her nationwide TV broadcast the same evening, concluding with the rousing appeal: “Let us not shed blood: let us shed hatred.” Unbeknownst to the nation. She had already foreordained bloodshed on an unprecedented scale in the holy shrine. The day following i.e. June 3.1984 happened to be the Martyrdom anniversary of Gun Arjan Dev, when thousands of pilgrims, men, women and children thronged the Golden Temple. The ensuing massacre took a horrendous toll. So much for her a b Mace up his remarkable recital of facts and analysis, the author concludes that the Central Government has lost all credibility with the Sikhs and that no pious propaganda can change the harsh reality of alienation of the Sikhs at the grassroots. In sum, the book tells the tragic tale of betrayal of the Sikhs at the dawn of Indian Independence, their disillusionment in 1960’s and 1970″s and their humiliation in 1980’s = as victims of genocidal designs.
But five centuries of history have shown that the spirit of Sikhism, rooted in truth and honor and justice, has an infinite capacity to confront and survive repression. Despair has no place in the Sikh ethos. It must be realized that neither India nor Sikhs can live in endless conflict.
If for no other reason, then, in the interest of reconciliation and peace, the book under review deserves to be read and evaluated, especially by those hold contrary perceptions about the crisis in the Punjab, for the currently trumpeted military victory in that state indeed spells moral defeat of the Indian state.
Published by: Singh & Singh Publishers
2059, Sector 15C Chandigarh, Rs, 300.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 26, 1993
