Britain has a window to make a symbolic redemption of its sins against Panjaab and Panjaabis. In view of the peoples’ revolution initiated by the people of Punjab, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson must turn down the invitation of the government of India to be the chief guest at the so-called Republic Day celebrations on 26 January 2021. Ruing the limited BBC coverage of the Farmers struggle in the UK, activist-author Jagdeesh Singh traces the history of Sikh-British relations writes that “In the face of the public tyranny of the Indian state, this will only be a very small gesture to put India in its place and the tell the Narendra Modi government that the international community has its eyes and ears on the ground in India.”

TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PANJAABI FARMERS HAVE AMASSED in India’s Delhi capital, blocking many roads leading to Delhi. This is an escalation of four-month-long protests from Panjaab against India’s new farming laws, which open up space and opportunity for notorious private sector corporate business to encroach into the domain of small-scale, family-based farming in places like Panjaab. Additionally, the laws remove the long-standing ‘Minimum Support Price’, which guaranteed the farmers a minimum price for their produce, and it also removes all previous restrictions and limitations on where the farming produce can be sold.

The British Prime Minister has no reason to be in India on 26 January 2020. Even if the agitation concludes by that time, Boris Johnson cannot preside over the celebrations of the farce of freedom after the recent brutality by the governmental forces.

The new farm legislations stink of private sector corporatism, which can come steam-rolling in, and start to encroach on the buying and selling of farm produce at their own unregulated prices and further encroach into another farming industry which is indigenous, family-driven, which is a small-scale village-based endeavour.

The British Prime Minister has no reason to be in India on 26 January 2020. Even if the agitation concludes by that time, Boris Johnson cannot preside over the celebrations of the farce of freedom after the recent brutality by the governmental forces.

Taken as a whole, indigenous, small-scale farming remains a major chunk of the economy and employment across India. In East Panjaab, which is a farming-based country from thousands of years, agriculture is a predominant and defining factor of life and society.

The Panjaabis and Panjaabi farmers have conspicuously, led the call for robust action against the new Indian laws, which are feared will be the start of a wave of private corporate intrusion into the farming sector.

The massive farmer protest in Dheli is growing by the hour and is now into its tenth day.

Yet, for the world-famous media BBC, this is a non-issue.  I have asked my constituency Member of Parliament to raise a protest with the BBC senior chiefs about this disparity and discrimination against the Panjaabi people, by a major world media establishment.

Why no coverage of the Punjab farmers agitation on BBC TV news in the UK?  They have covered protests in Hong Kong, Thailand, Belarus, but zero coverage on the long-running and currentPanjaabi farmer protests.

Britain has played a significant role in the downfall of Panjaab and Sikhs.

The British ruling establishment does not want the radical Panjaabi-Sikh thought, revolutionary mindset, daring to challenge and overthrow and resist, to ever return to the mighty power it once had. The British establishment just about, with enormous difficulty, overthrew Panjaab between 1845-1849 after two major wars. Panjaab was the most militarily, economically, politically and socially advanced nation in South Asia. It was the most staunch opponent of the British expansion across South Aisa.  The British establishment cannot afford for Panjaab to rise again!

The British used Bengali and other Indian ‘native’ troops alongside British regiments to attack and subdue Panjaab between 1845-1849, as well as the open collusion and co-operation of the likes of the Patiala family.  A nation stripped off its land, its territory, its economy, military and self-governance: is a nation truly subdued. We Panjaabis were used as soldiers in the global British wars, we the so-called brave ‘martial race’. Today we are ignored and dismissed as nothing. Our motherland was used and raped endlessly. Our national institutions were seized and destroyed. Our language was suppressed. Our national treasures from the Kohinoor to Guru hand-written literature was systematically looted and given to the British royal family and later sold off to private collectors to fund their greed.

Britain has played a significant role in the downfall of Panjaab and Sikhs.

Our humanity was massacred -Jallianwala Bagh in April 1919 (a thank you within 6-months of winning WW1 for them), Nankana Sahib in 1921. Our men sent to Malaysia, China and Singapore to police the British Colonial territories and to Kenya and Uganda to build for them railways to move their goods and manpower.

Our country of Panjaab sliced up and handed over to two new successor imperialist states in 1947 -India and Pakistan. Stateless. Powerless. Unrecognised. In dire poverty. We were forced to rush to the work opportunities in the UK to fund our financially downtrodden families in Panjaab. Over time, dissipated, dislocated; we have become unconscious participants in the British establishments’ grand scheme of economic control, mind control, life control and ‘integration’ into their British power and the glorious life and splendour of the United Kingdom.

Sikh organisations, incompetent and cowardly Gurdwara committees, feeble and pathetic Sikh politicians with no passion and insight about the rise and fall of our nation: have all become a subdued, submissive collaborative pool of figures for the British government. These figures love to ingratiate with the British power. They love to obtain their pathetic British official awards and ‘honours’. The exact same is true of Sikh figures in relation to India.

The BBC barely engages the Panjaabis or Sikhs for its shows, discussions or news stories. We are not only a stateless, disempowered people, with no place in the international forums such as the United Nations; we are, also, an ignored people.

Such cowardice and selfish offers no hope or direction for our nation. We need to start positive, meaningful action in the UK, bringing the enduring Panjaab national question to the doorstep of the British establishment. Many may be unwilling to have this kind of radical dialogue because their jobs, careers, businesses, political positions would be adversely affected.

In the life of the UK, we are only visible and known to the wider British society because of our conspicuous beards and turbans and the name ‘Singh’ and good social interaction. Nothing else about Panjaab, the Sikhs, our history, Anglo-Panjaab wars, Sikh soldiers: is in the public domain. The BBC barely engages the Panjaabis or Sikhs for its shows, discussions or news stories. We are not only a stateless, disempowered people, with no place in the international forums such as the United Nations; we are, also, an ignored people. The phenomenal rise, liberation, statehood of Panjaab and its people;  to its is cruel, demonic and sustained suppression to now: is a story which only a radical historian or journalist would venture to tell to the world.

It is clear, that until we robustly and courageously raise our voices for justice; the establishment all around, will continue to ignore us. Those of us who genuinely love our national history and civilisation will venture to do something. Those who are here just for the passing ride and have other ambitions; will do their own thing.