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Editorial
We shall be the voice
 One of the most
prescient scholars of Sikhism in contemporary times, Sardar Ajmer
Singh, is fond of quoting a Nigerian proverb often. “Until lions
have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the
hunters”.
25 years after
the catastrophic events of 1984, the larger meta-narrative of
history is still being written by the hunters.
Worse, many of
the representatives of the hunted have been collaborating with the
enemy for a pride of place, supping on the crumbs side table.
Ajmer Singh’s
latest book’s title says more than what many of our community
leaders tie themselves up in knots in order to avoid saying: 1984.
Unchitviya Kehar. Unbelievable, Unforgettable, Unforgivable.
After a quarter
century since we, our women, our children, our homes, were
assaulted, mauled and burnt on the roads of Delhi and elsewhere, the
Sikh Nation has seen the machinations of the Indian Nation State
that has presided over clean chits to those guilty of genocide even
as the witnesses die one by one, many unable to even depose in
India’s courts of law.
Notwithstanding
the popular notion, it is not just Congress that is guilty. Indian
establishment’s attitude towards the Sikh Nation is well thought out
and involves not passive nod but an active acquiescence of
brahamanical forces that rule the country. Only the naive make a
distinction among the Congress, the BJP and the many other shades of
political establishment.
The Sikh Nation
has done well by taking its case to the community of nations. The
Justice March on the Capitol Hill on November 1 will help reiterate
the Sikhs’ stance that India betrayed the very people that fought
for its
Independence,
were its saviours in wars and helped put food on its plate.
But we need to
go further.
We need to
understand and engage with the historical movement in which we, our
demands, our aspirations, our doubts and apprehensions as also our
religious and political aims were either outrightly denigrated or
distorted. It was this skewed picture that was used to justify the
Genocide.
As rage seethes
in our minds and our blood boils when we read the accounts from the
streets of Sultanpuri, or find that Indian Government has no
compunction in naming rehabs for widows as ‘Widows Colony’, we must
not lose sight of the fact that we need to understand the present in
the light of the past, and the past in the light of the present.
There is no
better and more poignant way to remember the ones who are no more
and learn from history’s harsh lessons than by giving the dead a
voice.
The
commemoration by the Sikh Nation of the 25 years of Genocide is a
way of giving voice to the dead.
Eminent Sikhism
scholar Dr. Cynthia Keppley Mahmood is fond of telling the tale of a
beautiful book and movie ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’, a
biopic of a man paralyzed in an accident who can only move his one
eyelid. He desires nothing but death but then with the help of a
nurse, develops a sort of code with the eyelid’s movement and
succeeds after years in dictating an entire book, his own life
story. It underlines how a voice, even if it rings only through the
batting of an eyelid, is liberating and indicative of dignity.
At this juncture
in history, our voice has either been stifled or bought by those who
have spare crumbs on the table. Our tribute to those who ran to
escape from the marauding hordes, but hobbled, stumbled and finally
fell, their turbans coming off and their dupattas pulled away as
they were burnt alive on the streets of Delhi, will be to become
their voice. The Trilokpuris, the Sultanpuris, the Widows Colonies
need that voice.
The World Sikh
News vows to be that voice.
28
October 2009
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