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Cataclysmic Showdown
The author, who is founder-editor of Journal of Punjab Studies,
delineates the new book, Punjab –Cataclysmic Showdown –Aftermath and
Challenges by Bhupinder Singh Mahal.
Shinder S. Thandi
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This year will, hopefully mark the publication of many a book
and film to commemorate the 25 years of the attack on Darbar
Sahib in June 1984 and the mass killings of Sikhs on the streets
of Delhi in November 1984. World Sikh News presents Bhupinder
Singh Mahal’s new book on the universally misunderstood Punjab
tragedy, which is perhaps the first to come out this year and
should regenerate interest amongst Sikhs, non-Sikhs, academics
and the lay Sikh alike.
The book is dedicated to the victims and saviours of November
1984 and the author avows that the proceeds of the book will be
used for the welfare of the victims of the ghastly tragedy of
that time.
Bhupinder Singh Mahal surveys the coalescing of the Sikhs into a
Quam, albeit for a brief period, post-1984 and “how that shining
instant wasted away with the changing contours of political
landscape, Sikh identity, didactic approach and doctrinal
ambiguities.”
Widely traveled Bhupinder Singh Mahal’s work as member of the
Canadian Multiculturalism Advisory Committee brought out his
best talent in the spirit of Sarbat da Bhala –welfare of all
transcending social, religious and cultural barriers for all
Canadians. His work in the arena of health earned him the
Queen’s Gold Medal in 2003. Known to call a spade a spade,
Bhupinder Singh has made a clear analysis of the misuse of
Internet by pseudo-scholars and super-enthusiastic young
activists. |
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 The
last quarter of a century has been a pretty tumultuous period for
the Sikhs in India and in the Diaspora. A series of events-growth
in militancy in the late 1970s which culminated in Operation
Bluestar in June 1984, assassination of Prime Minister Mrs. Indira
Gandhi why are Sikh bodyguards and the frenzied anti-Sikh violence
which followed, Air India tragedy, rise and crushing of the
Khalistan movement, murder of editors of the two leading Punjabi
vernacular newspapers in the Diaspora and finally acquittal of all
alleged Sikh “terrorists” responsible for the Air India bombing
after one of the most longest and costliest trials in Canadian
history-revived fundamental questions about the changing nature of
Sikh identity both in India and in Diaspora, the changing nature of
Sikh and non-Sikh relations, place of Sikhs in the new
post-independent Indian state and the latter’s project of nation
building.
One would have
thought that many of the preceding issues had been well and truly
settled with publication of Bhai Kahan Singh Nabha’s Hum Hindu Nahin
during the Sikh Sabha movement, the success of Gurdwara Reform
Movement and due to assurances given to Sikhs at the time of
partition. But this perception could not be further from the truth
in the mind of many Sikhs. As a minority community in a
Hindu-dominated country, Sikhs continue to be ever fearful of being
absorbed by the boa-constrictor of Hinduism.
They also feel
betrayed as a result of broken promises made by Congress leaders at
the time of independence and due to non-addressal of long-standing
grievances relating of language, water-sharing, territory, non-industrialisation
and absence of a separate capital city for the state. The fearful
events of 1984-first, the unwarranted attack on Darbar Sahib, the
very core of Sikh faith and then state connivance in the ‘genocidal’
slaughter of innocent Sikhs in the Delhi- were critical factors that
unsettled many of the earlier assumptions.
 Bhupinder Singh
Mahal, a keen observer of the period and a community insider, has
reflected on some of these issues in this collection of essays.
Although the chapters in this book may seem an eclectic collection,
there is a strong under current: Mahal’s highly insightful
engagement with the changing contours, representations and
misrepresentations of Sikh identity by both Sikhs and non Sikhs
alike binds them together. Collectively they are useful in
demonstrating Mahal’s astute observations on major dilemmas and
issues confronting the Sikh transnational community-whether in
India, Canada, Britain or elsewhere in the Diaspora. Mahal has also
rightly identified new powerful forums for discussing Sikh identity
in a de-territorialised space –the internet-and how these supposedly
liberating cyber forums allow individuals, often speaking as
representatives of the community in their locality, to mould,
reconstruct or misrepresent Sikh history and tradition.
Interestingly, as Mahal observes, the cushion of anonymity also
allows mischievous masqueraders and outside infiltrators to dictate
the terms and content of debate.
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There is a strong under current in various chapters of the book:
Mahal’s highly insightful engagement with the changing contours,
representations and misrepresentations of Sikh identity by both
Sikhs and non-Sikhs alike. |
Chapter I of the
book examines the deeply entrenched Sikh and Punjabi-Hindu divide of
the past hundred years or so largely sparked by the twin religious
revivalist movements of the late 19th century – Sikh Sabha movement
and its drive to rid Sikh religion of creeping Brahminical practice
and its promotion of Punjabi language and Swami Dayanand Sarswati’s
Arya Smaj movement championing the return to Vedic way of life. The
legacies of these movements still continue to define, albeit in a
largely urban setting, Sikh-Hindu relationships making
Punjabi-Hindus suspicious about any political concessions made to
Sikhs in their governance of Punjab.
Mahal absolves
no one from blame in his explanation of events leading up to
Operation Bluestar and the political and military management of the
militancy movement that followed. If the attack on the Darbar Sahib
was not enough, the state indifference to the suffering of victims
and survivors of the anti-Sikh violence made many Sikhs even more
alienated and untrusting of state intentions towards the Sikhs. The
rather belated apology to the Sikhs by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
in Parliament and the recent but long-awaited payment of
compensation to victims and survivors may have been too late, too
little to act as a ‘healing touch’.
In chapter 2,
Mahal provides very informative and telling insights into the inner
workings of Yahoo Sikh discussion groups. As a past active
participant he explains how he became increasingly frustrated by
censoring of debates, re-directing of discussions and moulding them
towards a particular conclusion. In such discourses, he argues,
difficult and sensitive issues relating to Sikh identity are glossed
over or compromised for fear of loss of support amongst certain
individual and interests.
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Mahal
astutely exposes V. S. Naipaul’s on Sikhism as those of an
outsider, both to India and Sikhism but more importantly as
someone who demonstrated his own political and cultural biases
by warmly embracing the rise of the Hindutva movement.
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Chapter 3 takes
issue with the Nobel laureate VS Naipaul’s biased representation of
Sikh religion and Sikh identity. Naipaul unfortunately is not alone
in denying the originality of the Sikh faith and in portraying the
community as largely the ‘sword-arm of Hinduism’. Mahal is astute in
exposing his perspective as those of an outsider, both to India and
Sikhism but more importantly as someone who demonstrated his own
political and cultural biases by warmly embracing the rise of the
Hindutva movement.
Chapter 4 offers
critical reflections on Hindu-Sikh relations and especially on the
vexed question of whether Sikhs, wittingly or unwittingly, are
adopting Hindu rituals and practices and their long-term implication
for Sikh society. Mahal provides some forceful and convincing
arguments against those Sikhs who perceive sharing of cultural and
religious practice-Karva Chauth, Diwali, Havan, Raksha Bandhan and
reciting of Mantra –as dissolution of their unique identity and of
their growing re-absorption into Brahminical culture.
In chapter 6,
Mahal provides us with his own take on the Behzti affair, an episode
which in many ways mimics the earlier Salmon Rushdie affair for
Muslims after the publication of Satanic Verses. For many Sikhs, the
rather ambitious play Behzti (written by a British-born Sikh Gurpeet
Kaur Bhatti) provides yet another example from successive writers
and novelists who seek to defame or hurt the sensibilities of faith
communities under the veil of freedom of expression enshrined in a
secular society but without caring much for the responsibilities
expected on their part.
It was as if the
inappropriate and colourful language used, the content and
especially the setting were chosen deliberately – under the garb of
black comedy designed to expose human failing, institutionalized
hypocrisy and injustice to cause maximum harm. No wonder then that
it provoked a violent reaction from some British Sikhs. Bhatti,
sadly, is not alone amongst second and third generation
Diaspora-born Sikhs who have become increasingly estranged and
disconnected from their cultural roots.
in chapter 7,
Mahal uses the July 7, 2005 London bombings as the setting to
examine the power of prayer when a multicultural society embracing
different faiths come face to face with a common tragedy. He goes on
to explore the complex and knotty question of a universally held
notion of God. He delves deeply into the differently held image of
God and the uniquely disparate narratives on creation, revelation
and evil as professed by most of the major religions of the world.
He delineates philosophical differences among the leading religions
that he believes are an impediment to the acceptance of a notion of
God that is one and the same for all the peoples. Sadly, these
philosophical differences allow them to condone or condemn acts of
human behaviour invoking the name of their God.
This collection
of essays represents the views, perspectives and prejudices of Mahal
but the themes and issues chosen have a wider relevance and they are
of immense importance in understanding societal behaviour as a
whole. Some readers may feel uncomfortable with them or only
partially agree. All said, it is an interesting and compelling read.
22
April 2009
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