This is the Banta and Santa you do not know. Un­like those of the same nomen­cla­ture who de­mean the Sikhs, this is the Santa and Banta In­dia wants the Sikhs to for­get. This is the Santa and Banta you will not see on your mo­bile screens. The young writer from Mum­bai, trav­els in time, catches up with those Sikhs who are strug­gling to stay in the mem­ory of the com­mu­nity.

S ant Singh’s age at that time, would have been what Bal­wan­t’s was- 34 years ago. Af­ter es­cap­ing per­se­cu­tion from his own neigh­bors and friends, he was able to reach the banks of the holy Ganga river -Kan­pur, a place which he 

As days be­came years, Santa was blessed with a warm fam­ily and was some­how able to ig­nore the ghosts which had tor­mented him, over the years, day and night. Sud­denly he heard in mid of that year that the shrine which al­ways held a spe­cial place in his heart was at­tacked by the army. He was a fam­ily man with a daugh­ter mar­ried far from him, he thought of keep­ing his sad­ness as well as his anger onto him­self. Some­thing in­side him had bro­ken!

Some­time in the end of Oc­to­ber of the same year he went for Dar­shan of the shrine. You visit your near ones in their times of ad­ver­sity. On his way back he was told of the world turn­ing up­side down across the coun­try. His peo­ple were hounded. Every­where. Two amongst them had avenged- as he liked to think, the sac­ri­lege of the very shrine.

“Banta: Even af­ter killing 5000 Sikhs (Of­fi­cial count 2733) no one was ar­rested in Delhi.
Santa: Of course there were, as many as 25 of them. But all of them were Sikhs! ”

Santa, as he was af­fec­tion­ately called, never thought that the same would be the sit­u­a­tion in his home­town as well. He reached home….His taxi lied there.. burnt… Neigh­bours told him that they were de­fense­less be­fore a mob of 2000 peo­ple, who had at­tacked on a chilly evening. Sud­denly he felt that the clock had moved back 37 years.

Santa found him­self strug­gling …to get back his com­po­sure. He wanted to find his daugh­ter; her fam­ily which he thought would be safer as she was within the con­fines of the cap­i­tal of In­dia. Things were bad or maybe they were worse, he still does­n’t re­mem­ber, when he reached his daugh­ter’s place in Trilokpuri.

 

Her hus­band who used to re­pair flat tyres had met the same fate as his son in Kan­pur. Ashes, aban­doned houses and the screams. He was to be in­formed, later, that in the last bar­gain for their lives her daugh­ter’s male fam­ily mem­bers had given up their iden­tity. But the skin un­der their tur­bans had still dis­tin­guished them.

“Banta: Who was the first vic­tim of No­vem­ber 84?
Santa: Don’t you know the first vic­tim was none other than The Pres­i­dent of Union of In­dia-Gi­ani Zail Singh, be­cause he too was a Sikh! ”

Santa was of dif­fer­ent metal, he still was in search of life where there was none around. With hopes he went to the many re­lief camps. Af­ter vagabond­ing like mad, he found his beloved grand­son Bal­want. Re­la­tion­ship did not mat­ter. In the hour of grief, he did not think that bi­o­log­i­cally he was the grand­fa­ther. With the help of a Sikh ad­vo­cate-who had ded­i­cated his life for the cause of peo­ple like Sant Singh, he man­aged to ob­tain the cus­tody of his grand­child.

In Bal­wan­t’s smile, Santa found the pur­pose of his life. To­day Sant Singh ad­dresses Bal­want as Banta. He feels some­times that both of them are com­mu­nal or­phans; they are part of those jokes which make an al­most reg­u­lar round of our mo­bile and com­puter screens.

They both are set­tled to­day in some cor­ner of this coun­try. Like peo­ple who learn to laugh at their mis­for­tunes, they both have ac­quired a quite sense of hu­mour. Here is their tale. 

The Tale of Banta and Santa:

Santa: Do you know when a mighty tree falls the earth around it shakes a lit­tle?
Banta: I al­ways thought that when the earth has shaken to its very core, then even a mighty tree falls.

Banta: Even af­ter killing 5000 Sikhs (Of­fi­cial count 2733) no one was ar­rested in Delhi.
Santa: Of course there were, as many as 25 of them. But all of them were Sikhs!

Santa: Tell me 3 uses of old worn out tires.
Banta: Some­times they be­come toys for chil­dren on streets, their rub­ber can be used for re­mold­ing.
Santa: And?.
Banta: (af­ter a pause) burn­ing our broth­ers alive on streets of Delhi…
Santa: Bilkul, Sahi jawab…

Santa: What is in­fla­tion, Il­lus­trate with an ex­am­ple!
Banta: A sar­dar’s head in 18th cen­tury fetches 60 -90 ru­pees, while in 1984 the price was Rs.500/-
Santa: Even I could­n’t have given a bet­ter ex­am­ple.

Santa: What is the price of teach­ing Sikhs a Les­son?
Banta: Price??  I am not sure about that..… but the prize for In­di­ans at large and the Con­gress party was re­mark­able…un­prece­dented vic­tory at the hus­tings in the Lok Sabha elec­tions in 1985 and also in var­i­ous states in March 1985.
Santa: Why are the elec­tions in In­dia al­ways pre­poned af­ter com­mu­nal vi­o­lence against mi­nori­ties?
Banta: Don’t you know that democ­racy is not only the rule of ma­jor­ity but also an ap­pease­ment of it?

Banta: Who was the first vic­tim of No­vem­ber 84?
Santa: Don’t you the first vic­tim was none other than The Pres­i­dent of Union of In­dia-Gi­ani Zail Singh, be­cause he too was a Sikh!
Banta: I un­der­stand. When the first vic­tim is the pres­i­dent than what can be the fate of the com­mon Sikh walk­ing the streets of Bharat.

Santa: Look at the pop­u­la­tion of In­dia, 1 child takes birth here every sec­ond.
Banta: There are many un­of­fi­cial fam­ily plan­ning mea­sures. Nearly one Sikh wiped out at the rate of one a minute in Delhi from in No­vem­ber 1984 and nearly at the same rate in Gu­jarat and Mum­bai in 2002.
Santa: Some mea­sures of the gov­ern­ment seem to be quiet suc­cess­ful!?