THE political atmosphere in India is charged with an expectancy heretofore inexperienced. The cessation of the regime of Political i Slavery for Indian peoples, it is hoped, is to N, k commence within a visibly near future. We / are in jolly good company if this conjecture turns out to be ill-founded. This enticing portrait of India’s coming freedom is vitiated by ugly streaks of those lustful people, who under the cover of their numerical superiority, are maneuvering to perpetuate the curse of political bondage under an Indian label.
This is professedly a communal book for it brings to fore the most dire need of an Indian community of six million strong, viz., the Sikhs, the builders of the Punjab. The Hindu Congress, in spite of her sudden and inexplicable change of front and insistence on united India during the present political parleys, are ultimately sure to give recognition to the demand of the Muslim League, throwing the Printed by Mirza Mohammad Sadiq at the Ripon Printing Press, Sikhs to the tender mercies of the Muslims, Bull Road, Lahore and published by Jiwan Singh, M.A. Lahore Book Shop, Nisbet Road, Lahore …. The Muslims are, on their part equally determined and anxious to forge political mendicancy t for the Sikhs. In the pages of this book is examined the Sikh nation’s attempt to find a way out from this ghoulish political spectacle which turns freedom for one community into slavery for another. That attempt has crystallized into a demand for an independent State for the Sikhs.
The author does not subscribe to the fiction of Indian Nation. No such thing ever existed. India was and is a home of many communities. To state otherwise is either to delude oneself or to deceive others. This book accordingly is addressed to those genuine lovers of freedom and democracy who grasp the full significance of these political concepts drawn from Western political thought, in the content of political facts extant in the country. In the country’s / struggle against the alien rule there was a community of interest working in the soldiers recruited form different nations inhabiting the country, united by the tie of common subjection the urge to shake off political imbecility and to rise to political manhood. It is no use blaming this or that nationality that her regiments contributed to the common cause bore no ratio to her numerical strength. With the command of ‘Cease fire’ the ranks return to their respective Camps. Shall we hope that spoils of war, or to put it mildly, the prize of our efforts and sacrifices shall be shared by all the participants of the political Crusade. No nationality shall be deprived of the benefit of national self-determination in the era of freedom that is going to dawn in India. Freedom for India shall mean freedom for all and not for this or that community in particular. No community shall seek, create or forge excuses and arguments to satisfy her frightful lust of one nation ruling over another. To argue as some political leaders do, that let freedom and power to use it first come into particular hands, they will think of sharing it with others later, smacks of fascist mistrust rather than of democratic confidence. That these professed worshippers of freedom should contrive to forge chains for others passes one’s comprehension. It matters little what arguments are advanced to materialize this totalitarian desire. The fact that it does mean denial of freedom to many remains unaltered. Let every nationality be granted ungrudgingly and without any reservation the right to pursue her national life in an .atmosphere free from traces cf political serfdom. That way lies the hope of building amity and concord between different units of this big country which may presage the new era of prosperity for the masses. To think and act otherwise is to turn the country into a permanently seething cauldron of discontent and strife, nullifying the prospect of political freedom being put to any social use.
The author is indebted to numerous authors on whose works he has freely drawn. Special thanks are due to the Publishers for their running the book through print so speedily and with such care.
SADHU SWARUP SINGH
Amritsar.
April 13, 1946.
