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Editorial
Twenty Five Years: The Journey
 Twenty
five years ago, the Sikhs saw the entire Indian establishment
marching against them, led from the front by the Indian Army that
brought in tanks and heavy armour into the
Golden Temple
complex while hundreds of gurdwaras across the region were attacked
under the much forgotten Operation Woodrose.
The same year,
1984, saw killer mobs led by Hindutva inspired leaders tracking,
hunting, singling out, raping, killing, maiming, looting, burning
Sikhs and Sikhs' property on the roads of the national capital Delhi
and elsewhere in attacks that the world has seen going largely
unpunished.
As the Sikh
community marks the 25th year of such ghastly attacks by the
entrenched Indian brahamanical elite on a community that is an
eternal challenge against the forces of obscurantism, casteism,
discrimination and fanaticism, it is acutely aware of the fact that
the fight for justice is long and hard. If the dream of the Homeland
has been repeatedly stressed by many Sikh intellectuals throughout
these 25 years, then the track record of the Indian government and
elite has only helped in further solidifying that resolve.
On this 25th
anniversary of the dastardly attacks on a prime center of our
religion and a place where the world bows its head in reverence to
the far sightedness and egalitarianism of the Sikh Gurus and the
eternal spiritual heritage of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, we pay homage
to the martyrs of the Sikh quom. To each and every one of those who
went down fighting, were caught in the cross fire or killed simply
because they thought paying obeisance to their Guru was their
democratic right and were therefore inside the Golden Temple, our
head bows with a prayer on our lips that their sacrifice shall not
go in vain.
We pray to the
Akal Purakh to bless our community with a leadership that is in tune
with the aspirations and concerns of the Sikhs, and to bless us with
wisdom and clear sightedness to see our leaders for what they are
worth.
In times like
this, we see some extremely crucial struggles being launched by the
Sikh Diaspora around the world, the fights for preserving the Sikh
identity, the continuous hammering of the core message of Sikhism.
These are heartening signs. Particularly because they come at a time
when the mainstream leadership of the community is failing us like
never before.
In the garb of
secularisation of the Akali Dal, the party that could have playes a
historical role at this juncture of history is now bereft of even a
mandate to call itself the representative of the Sikhs, a fate it
has chosen with due diligence. Many of our crucial forums like the
Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) have worked hard to
lose the battle for protecting the Sikh interests since they have
found better and more benefits in becoming part of the fiefdom of a
few families in
Punjab than be
the voice of the Sikhs.
We today face
myriad challenges. The Sikhs’ fight against the derawad in
Punjab
and elsewhere is only one example. The recent legal fight in the
Punjab
and Haryana High Court to run our institutions in accordance with
the Sikh practices is another. Now, the community has to gear up to
face another challenge in the form of a determined bid to snatch the
status of a minority from the Sikhs.
There are of
course even larger challenges. The Sikh aspirational movement is
groping in the dark for too long now, trying to make sense of the
past and deriving some clarity about the future. Efforts like the
recent work of Sardar Ajmer Singh are a beacon of light. The
initiatives like taking up the cause of Sikligar Sikhs are signs of
hope. Movements like the Sikh Youth of America again underline the
deep rooted wish to engage our upcoming generations with the great
ideals of our religion. On this 25th anniversary of a
painful chapter in our history, let us resolve to multiply forces
with all those fighting for the under privileged, the marginalised,
the left out. For we shall settle for nothing less than Sarbat Da
Bhala.
3
June 2009
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