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With hate in hearts and abuse on
lips
Charanjit Singh
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The Sikh nation will observe 25 years
of Saka Akal Takht in the first week of June this year. World
Sikh News will have a special edition dedicated to the
commemoration of all those who contributed in the struggle for
dignity, respect and honour of the Sikh people.
As a run-up to the event, we publish an article by a young Sikh
who was not even born at that time but is deeply pained at what
he has read and imbibed of the events of those times. The young
author denounces the irreconcilable attitude of the Indian
establishment and says that the state, the media and thinkers
have deliberately failed to understand the damage to the Sikh
psyche by the events of 1984. |
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 The
Akal Takht- the Throne of the Timeless God is the highest seat of
temporal authority standing as a symbolic guard to the seat of
spiritual authority. The architectural layout of Akal Takht building
does not run precisely parallel to Darbar Sahib.
The Guru clearly
envisioned that sitting in the Akal Takht, one may get a glimpse of
Harmandar Sahib and not vice-versa -the rationale being that
political decisions, always, were to be guided by religious belief,
while the religious life was not to be led by political agenda.
The idea of
oneness of temporal and spiritual belief also finds its expression
in the two swords of the Guru, Miri and Piri respectively adorned by
the Guru as symbols of sovereignty in the physical and the spiritual
world.
Throughout Sikh
history, Akal Takht continued to be a prominent place since most of
Sikh political struggles found their starting point from Harmandar
Sahib or the Akal Takht.
The Sikh
worldview enshrined in Guru Granth Sahib provides the sanctity to
Akal Takht as an institution of the Sikh people:
eihu jag
sachai kee hai kot(h)arree sachae kaa vich vaas ||
This world is
the room of the True Lord; within it is the dwelling of the True
Lord.
Guru Angad Dev
Ji in Raag Aasaa on Ang 463
aap satt
keeaa sabh satt ||
tis prabh te sagalee outhapatt ||
He Himself is
True, and all that He has made is True.The entire creation came from
God.
Guru Arjan Dev
Ji in Raag Gauree on Page 294
Sikhism unlike
other Aryan faiths is life affirmative. A Sikh’s ultimate goal is
union with Akal Purakh -the timeless god, but at no point Sikhism
advocates religious life detached from socio-political duties. The
physical world is regarded as real and within this physical world,
performing his worldly duties a Sikh is to attain the divine
consciousness. As such worldly life and worldly duties are not to be
ignored in pursuit of religious goals.
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The
so-called Operation Bluestar resulting in extensive damage,
desecration and vandalism of Akal Takht Sahib left an indelible
mark on the Sikh psyche. Operation Woodroose that followed it
was nothing but a string of human rights violations with the
violators having full impunity and the Sikhs as victims without
recourse to even rule of law. |
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vich dhuneeaa
saev kamaaeeai ||
taa dharageh baisan paaeeai ||
In the midst of
this world, do seva,and you shall be given a place of honor in the
Court of the Lord.
Guru Nanak in
Siree Raag on Page 25
Such are the
principles which find their personification in Akal Takht and make
it a center of Sikh faith along with Darbar Sahib and Guru Granth
Sahib. It is with this background that the status of Akal Takht can
be appreciated.
The so-called
Operation Bluestar resulting in extensive damage, desecration and
vandalism of Akal Takht Sahib left an indelible mark on the Sikh
psyche. Operation Woodroose that followed it was nothing but a
string of human rights violations with the violators having full
impunity and the Sikhs as victims without recourse to even rule of
law.
No serious
attempt till date has been made to heal the Sikh wound. Even today
the arrogance of sidelining Sikhs remains intact.
The June 1984
devastation caused to Akal Takht has been skillfully rationalized by
reference to minimal damage caused to Darbar Sahib, by Mark Tully
and Satish Jacob in Amritsar: Mrs. Gandhi’s Last battle and many
other writers and political commentators.
On page 180, the
celebrated authors say, “The most important fact is that the
structure of the Golden temple remained intact, and the damage it
did suffer was minimal compared to Akal Takht, the library, the
Darshani Deorhi and many other buildings of the complex. To that
extent of the operation was a success and credit must go to the
discipline of the army. The 40 foot square temple stood in the
middle of the battlefield. The army was fired at from all sides. If
the soldiers had disregarded Major General Brar’s orders, the
Harminder Sahib would certainly have been much more seriously
damaged.”
Describing his
role, Lt Gen Sunderji, the chief of the military operations, in his
address to the media, is reported to have said that, “I was told to
flush out the extremists from the Golden temple with no damage
if possible to the Harminder Sahib (Golden temple) and
as little as possible damage to the Akal Takht (P 157).
 Take
a close look at the two phrases- no damage and as little as possible
damage. Obviously, the Akal Takht was never looked as seriously by
the army or the Government as Harminder Sahib. Although the ‘no
damage’ to Harminder Sahib was nothing less than 300 bullet holes,
while the ‘as little as possible damage to Akal Takht” led the
building reduced to rubble. The community is still struggling to get
possession of its precious manuscripts, books, historic artifacts
looted from the Toshakhana –the Sikh treasury within the Darbar
Sahib complex and from the Sikh Reference Library.
Ignorance of
Sikh values –of the predominance of the temporal and the spiritual
in the Sikh way of life and political arrogance against the Sikhs
continues. Can the power centers in Delhi be dispassionate enough to
recognize Sikhs as a separate religion and culture and not an
exteriorization of Hinduism?
Can the Indian
media, which is so passionately engaged in portraying the Sikh faith
as ‘one for the Grand–Dad’s generation’, accept that Sikhism is a
modern religion and that its concept and beliefs are forward looking
and egalitarian?
So, did they
have prayers on their lips, restraint in their movement or was it a
clear case of state vengeance against a people who love and respect
their honour, dignity, separate and iconic status?
Charanjit
Singh is a young writer based in Mumbai. He will write regularly for
World Sikh News.
27
May 2009
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