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Punjab & Bengal were partitioned,
not India
Satnam Singh Khalsa
 FREMONT:
Gurdwara Sahib Fremont observed the death anniversary of the 13th
chief of the Damdami Taksal, Sant Kartar Singh with an offering of
Kirtan, Katha and lectures about identity issues confronting the
Sikh people.
Kirtani Jathas
Bhai Amrik Singh Gurdaspuri, Bhai Dilbagh Singh, Bhai Satbagh Singh,
Bhai Gurpreet Singh –former Hazuri Ragi Jatha, Darbar Sahib, Bhai
Dilbagh Singh of Damdami Taksal, Kavishri jatha of Bhai Jarnail
Singh and Kathawachak Bhai Hardeep Singh Toronto participated in the
function.
One of key
speakers at the function was the director of the Sikh Research
Institute,
Texas
-Harinder Singh who spoke at length about the current situation of
the Sikh people. He opened his talk by saying that if one has to
understand the history of Sikhs in proper perspective than once has
to research the period from 1849 and not from 1947.
In an
interesting observation he said that India was able to propagate the
theory of partition of
India
whereas actually it was the partition of Punjab and Bengal. 15
million Punjabi families were dislocated in one of the largest human
exodus in world history during which thousands of our families were
killed. Soon after the partition, Sikhs were not able to settle down
but had to wage another battle for a linguistic state while others
were formed without a murmur. The 1929 Congress session which saw
this participation of merely 200 people was promoted as a historic
meeting whereas the five hundred thousand-strong gathering by Baba
Kharak Singh just a few days prior to the Congress meet was
relegated as a footnote in history, almost consigned to the dustbin
by Indian historians.
Monhandas
Karamchand Gandhi and others had promised that no constitution of
India
would be framed without approval of the Sikhs, but soon after, in
1948, the Indian home minister Vallabh Bhai Patel, issued a circular
declaring the Sikhs to be a criminal tribe.
Harinder Singh
further told the Sangat that whenever the Sikhs demand anything they
are dubbed as terrorists where as the Hindus of Punjab returned
Hindi as their mother tongue instead of Punjabi en masse but the
state chose to turn a blind eye.
The Azad Hind
Fauj was formed by Gen. Mohan Singh but in a very systematic manner,
Indian history books have removed his name as the founder and
replaced it with Subhash Chandra Bose.
A 100 years ago,
our forefathers the Gadhri babas of Komagata Maru fame rebelled and
fought for justice. Just as we cannot forget the contribution and
martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, Udam Singh and Kartar Singh Sarabha,
similarly we cannot ignore the martyrdom of Bhai Satwant Singh,
Beant Singh and Kehar Singh
Thereafter the Punjabi teacher at Berkeley University, Prof Prabsharandeep Singh said that systematic efforts were on at
cultural lifestyle, school and university syllabi, proliferation of
a sub culture on television in the name of Punjabi culture and so
on. Even the Gurdwaras are not free from dispute challenging the
basic rationale of a Gurudwara. He said that all this is happening
because the Sikhs do not have self-rule.
20 August, 2008
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