Early next month on 10 June 2018, Bay area, San Francisco Sikhs will observe Martyrdom Day of Fifth sovereign Guru Arjan Sahib and the 34th Anniversary of Saka Darbar Sahib. At the same time, they will publicly rededicate themselves to the cause of Sikh self-rule.

Come June and Sikhs in homeland Punjab and in the Diaspora create opportunities and forums to highlight the cause of Sikh human rights, the cause of Sikh freedom and to extol the lives of Sikh insurgents who laid down their lives to protect the honour and dignity of the Darbar Sahib complex. Every year in June, it is time to commemorate the marytrdom of the Fifth Sovereign, who was brutally tortured because He stood up for the “right to freedom of religion.” It is time to recall the bravery and martyrdom of those who died within the Golden Temple complex. Today, it is time to rededicate to the cause of Sikh sovereignty.

Sikhs are always ready to rebel. Sikhs do not fear death.  Sikhs uphold human rights. Sikhs are seeped into the concept of freedom of religion and detest hate and intolerance. Sikhs believe in Sarbat da Bhala -Welfare of all humankind and this supplication is made to God and Guru everyday at the end of all prayers.

“Sikhs are always ready to rebel. Sikhs do not fear death. Sikhs uphold human rights. Sikhs are seeped into the concept of freedom of religion and detest hate and intolerance.”

Sikh residents from San Francisco are likely to join in thousands to parade the streets on June 10 to recall and record the 34th anniversary of the vandalism, death and mayhem perpetrated by the Indian army attack on the holiest of holy Sikh religious centre -The Harmandar Sahib, also known as The Golden Temple.  The attack on the Golden Temple, codenamed Operation Bluestar was the first pre-meditated, organised attack by the Indian army on any of its citizens. Irish anthropologist Joyce J. M. Pettigrew describing the attack has said, “The army went into Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) not to eliminate a political figure or a political movement but to suppress the culture of a people, to attack their heart, to strike a blow at their spirit and self-confidence.”

During the Indian army attack, 6 army infantry battalions and tanks, armored vehicles and helicopter gunships were used to maim, injure and kill Sikhs and innocent pilgrims within the Golden Temple complex from 3-6 June, 1984. In addition 37 other Gurdwaras were also attacked over Punjab and Haryana.

“Sikhs believe in Sarbat da Bhala -Welfare of all humankind and this supplication is made to God and Guru everyday at the end of all prayers.”

The Bay Area Sikh community shall be commemorating the martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev who sacrificed his life for the ‘Freedom of Religion.’ On 16 June 1606, Mughal Emperor Jahangir, the then ruler of India ordered Guru Arjan Sahib, to be tortured to death making him sit on a red-hot burning iron sheet while boiling hot sand was poured over his body.  The Fifth Master compiled the works of his predecessor Gurus, Hindu and Muslim savants into the Guru Granth Sahib, now revered by the Sikhs as the living embodiment of the Ten Masters and the only guiding light for all times to come. Guru Sahib initiated the construction of the Golden Temple and the formal installation there of Guru Granth Sahib in 1604.

Participants in the parade will highlight the cause of human rights and minorities in India. Speeches by Sikh leaders, human rights activists and floats will portray the state of affairs of rights of minorities and nationalities, the injustice to thousands of victims of State terrorism in the eighties and nineties of the last century, the continuing detention of Sikh activists under imagined allegations and the cause of those who continue in detention for years and decades.

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Though we live and strive in a peaceful world, there is no escaping the fact that martyrs win sovereignty for all peoples and nations.