Promi­nent po­lit­i­cal af­fairs jour­nal Eura­sia Re­view pro­vides in-depth per­spec­tives on sub­jects oth­er­wise ig­nored or pre­sented with a stereo­typed slant. Re­cently, the Eura­sia Re­view has pub­lished hu­man rights ac­tivist and teacher Dr Paul New­man’s views on the cat­a­strophic events of June 1984 in Pun­jab. This geno­ci­dal move met stiff re­sis­tance from Sant Bhin­dran­wale and Sikh fight­ers as it was a move to sub­ju­gate the com­mu­nity and sup­press their re­li­gious and po­lit­i­cal rights. The World Sikh News re­pro­duces this scathing analy­sis for its read­ers. WSN joins the call of Eura­sia Re­view that a “greater un­der­stand­ing of cul­tural dif­fer­ences is the path to­wards a safer, more se­cure and just world.”

INDIA AND THE WORLD NEED TO RE­CALL WHAT HAP­PENED WITHIN THE FOUR WALLS OF THE HOUSE OF GOD. It is per­ti­nent to know why a young Sikh leader Sant Jar­nail Singh Bhin­dran­wale and hun­dreds of oth­ers de­fended their holi­est of holies un­der the at­tack of the In­dian army and achieved mar­tyr­dom. This will lead us to un­der­stand why Sikhs com­mem­o­rate this year af­ter year in the first week of June. Hu­man rights de­fend­ers, pol­i­cy­mak­ers and politi­cians must un­der­stand the un­der­ly­ing spirit of the Sikhs and the vi­cious­ness of the In­dian state in per­pe­trat­ing geno­cide in the Pun­jab.

IN 1919, THE BRITISH MAS­SA­CRED 389 in­no­cent civil­ians and in­jured more than 1,000 in what is re­mem­bered by In­di­ans as the fa­mous Jal­lian­wala Bagh mas­sacre. Even af­ter 100 years, the In­di­ans want the British to apol­o­gize and rec­og­nize this gory in­ci­dent as geno­cide.

About 800 me­ters from Jal­lian­wala Bagh lies the Golden Tem­ple or Har­mandir Sahib which means Abode of God. It is the holi­est shrine for the Sikhs. The Har­mandir Sahib is an open house of wor­ship for all men and women, from all walks of life and faith, a per­fect ex­am­ple of re­li­gious har­mony in a coun­try where peo­ple kill each other in the name of re­li­gion. Over 100,000 peo­ple visit the holy shrine daily for wor­ship[1].

Nine­teen Eighty-Four –The Storm­ing of the Golden Tem­ple
by twin sis­ters Am­rit and Ra­bindra Singh

The Sikh re­li­gion is one of the youngest re­li­gions of South Asia. In the late 18th and early 19th cen­tury, the Sikhs had their own in­de­pen­dent state which com­prised parts of Afghanistan, Pak­istan, the In­dian states of Jammu and Kash­mir, Hi­machal Pradesh, Haryana, Pun­jab and Ra­jasthan.

Brahma Chel­laney of As­so­ci­ated Press be­came the only for­eign cor­re­spon­dent to cover this geno­cide for the As­so­ci­ated Press and his story was pub­lished in The Times of Lon­don. He wrote ‘sev­eral young Sikhs had been shot, with their hands tied be­hind their backs.’ This re­port had quoted med­ical sources who con­ducted the post mortem.

With the ex­pan­sion of the British colo­nial ter­ri­to­ries, the Sikhs lost their in­de­pen­dent state af­ter the two An­glo-Sikh wars. In the wake of the down­fall of the British Em­pire in the In­dian sub­con­ti­nent, in the eight­ies of the last cen­tury, the Sikh di­as­pora started a move­ment for Khal­is­tan which means the land of the Khalsa -re­fer­ring to both a com­mu­nity that con­sid­ers Sikhism as its faith as well as a spe­cial group of ini­ti­ated Sikhs[2].

With the cre­ation of In­dia and Pak­istan on re­li­gious lines, Sikhs were forced to join In­dia and a ma­jor­ity of them lived in the state of Pun­jab. The iden­tity of the Sikh re­li­gion as an in­de­pen­dent faith was put to ques­tion as Ar­ti­cle 25 of the In­dian Con­sti­tu­tion rec­og­nizes Sikhs as a part of the Hindu com­mu­nity[3].

That apart, there were other po­lit­i­cal, so­cial and eco­nomic dis­con­tents among the Sikhs which the In­dian state failed to ad­dress. This led to the strength­en­ing of the re­solve of the Sikh lead­ers to as­sert their right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion through the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal -a de­mo­c­ra­tic po­lit­i­cal party which fur­thered the le­git­i­mate de­mands of the Sikhs. The sit­u­a­tion was com­pli­cated when Prime Min­is­ter In­dira Gandhi-led In­dian Na­tional Con­gress tried to fan dis­si­dence amongst the Sikh fac­tions in or­der to weaken the Sikh na­tion­al­ist move­ment.

In this strug­gle for se­cur­ing the rights of the Sikhs, an iconic young Sikh sa­vant -Sant (Saint) Jar­nail Singh Bhin­dran­wale emerged as the leader. He ral­lied to get the sup­port of the young and old Sikhs who felt dis­gusted with the In­dian po­lit­i­cal mas­ters. All that the Sikhs wanted was the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the Anand­pur Sahib res­o­lu­tion of 1973, which de­manded more au­ton­omy for Pun­jab, where the Sikhs were in a ma­jor­ity.

The In­dian gov­ern­ment de­lib­er­ately viewed the Anand­pur Res­o­lu­tion as a se­ces­sion­ist doc­u­ment and prop­a­gated it as such. Sant Bhin­dran­wale moved around the whole of Pun­jab con­vinc­ing the masses of the le­git­i­mate de­mands ar­tic­u­lated by the Anand­pur Sahib res­o­lu­tion.

Sant Jar­nail Singh Bhin­dran­wale be­longed to the his­tor­i­cal sem­i­nary Damdami Tak­sal -whose re­li­gious lead­ers and fol­low­ers were en­gaged in a two-decade-long bit­ter strug­gle to erad­i­cate drug abuse from the Pun­jab by hold­ing Di­wans -re­li­gious con­gre­ga­tions far and wide in the coun­try­side. These con­gre­ga­tions were a body-blow to the So­viet at­tempt to an­ni­hi­late love for re­li­gios­ity amongst Sikhs. The tide of athe­ism by the left­ist forces was brought to a grind­ing halt. By do­ing this he be­came the most hated man of In­dia and the most loved and revered Saint of the Sikhs. It is this suc­cess which sent shiv­ers down the spine of the In­dian po­lit­i­cal class and lead­er­ship.

All that the Sikhs wanted was the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the Anand­pur Sahib res­o­lu­tion of 1973, which de­manded more au­ton­omy for Pun­jab, where the Sikhs were in a ma­jor­ity.

His­tor­i­cally, the Sikh com­mu­nity was nur­tured by the Ten Mas­ters, who also in­cul­cated the prac­tice of keep­ing arms -the Kir­pan be­ing one of the manda­tory 5 Ks for a prac­tis­ing Khalsa. Sikh re­li­gious texts have it that a man of re­li­gion must be well-equipped to de­fend his faith, ho­n­our and dig­nity and if need be to die for it. Sikh his­tory is re­plete with such acts of brav­ery where they died for their faith, fac­ing tyranny and re­li­gious per­se­cu­tion of the rulers of the day. Even the Gu­rus went to prison and laid down their lives to up­hold the right to equal­ity and the right to re­li­gion of one’s choice. Very few peo­ple have been able to fathom that it is this tra­di­tion which led the Sikhs to keep tra­di­tional arms, horses and fight­ing gear within the precincts of the Golden Tem­ple at the Akal Takht Sahib -the high­est tem­po­ral au­thor­ity of the Sikh peo­ple.

In the wake of the high­hand­ed­ness of the In­dian au­thor­i­ties, Sant Bhin­dran­wale was only car­ry­ing on the legacy of the Sikhs. He and his fol­low­ers were prepar­ing to de­fend the ho­n­our of the Sikhs, the sanc­tity of the Golden Tem­ple and stand up for the rights of the Sikh peo­ple.

Since 1983, Sant Bhin­dran­wale op­er­ated from the Golden Tem­ple. Os­ten­si­bly to flush him out, but ac­tu­ally, to break the back­bone of the Sikhs, the gov­ern­ment of In­dia planned the in­fa­mous at­tack on the holy shrine code-named Op­er­a­tion Blues­tar which com­menced on the 1st of June 1984 and ended on 8th June 1984. The cul­mi­na­tion was on the 6th of June 1984, the day Sant Bhin­dran­wale was as­sas­si­nated. The In­dian gov­ern­ment made elab­o­rate plan­ning by bring­ing down 70,000 of its finest troops con­sist­ing of com­man­dos along with bat­tle tanks, How­itzer bat­tle guns and he­li­copters for as­sault and sup­ply pur­poses. All this to fight a few hun­dred com­mit­ted Sikhs!

Till date, the gov­ern­ment of In­dia has not ini­ti­ated any in­quiry into this geno­cide. Jus­tice beck­ons the in­no­cent vic­tims. An In­ter­na­tional In­ves­ti­ga­tion and Truth-seek­ing Com­mis­sion should be set up and ad­e­quate com­pen­sa­tion paid to the vic­tims who as­pired for a le­git­i­mate right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion.

Be­fore the op­er­a­tion com­menced, cur­few was im­posed in the en­tire state of Pun­jab, the en­tire Press was flushed out of the state, and many re­porters were forcibly brought back to Delhi. Only three re­porters man­aged to stay back and cover the un­fold­ing of the geno­cide. Brahma Chel­laney be­came the only for­eign cor­re­spon­dent to cover this geno­cide for the As­so­ci­ated Press and his story was pub­lished in The Times of Lon­don. He wrote ‘sev­eral young Sikhs had been shot, with their hands tied be­hind their backs’[4]. This re­port had quoted med­ical sources who con­ducted the post mortem.

In this blood bath, us­ing heavy bat­tle tanks and guns, the In­dian troops de­stroyed large por­tions of the Golden Tem­ple com­plex, looted, ran­sacked and van­dal­ized the Sikh Ref­er­ence Li­brary. The Sikhs who were holed up in­side would not meekly sur­ren­der as ex­pected by the In­dian gov­ern­ment. They fought till their last breath and the In­dian army had seen its high­est ca­su­alty in an in­ter­nal con­flict. In­dia used tanks to de­mol­ish the Akal Takht Sahib where Sant Jar­nail Singh Bhin­dran­wale and his close as­so­ci­ates bravely fought the In­dian army.

What was un­par­don­able was the grue­some killing of hun­dreds of in­no­cent Sikh chil­dren and women, who were pil­grims vis­it­ing their most sa­cred re­li­gious site to com­mem­o­rate the mar­tyr­dom day of the Fifth Mas­ter of the Sikhs -Guru Ar­jan Dev. The en­tire com­plex saw bod­ies in the walk­ing path and blood of in­no­cent Sikhs flow­ing in the holy Sarovar -the lake sur­round­ing the sanc­tum sanc­to­rum. For­tu­nately, the sanc­tum sanc­to­rum of the Golden Tem­ple, even though it was hit by bul­lets and bombs, sur­vived the bomb­ing of the In­dian army. A his­toric hand­writ­ten copy of Guru Granth Sahib -the holy scrip­ture of the Sikhs had bul­let holes.

Though In­dia con­tin­ues to seek an apol­ogy from the British for the Jal­lian­wala Bagh mas­sacre, will In­dia show the same logic and apol­o­gize to the Sikh na­tion in let­ter and spirit?

In its ego to ap­pre­hend an in­di­vid­ual, the In­dian army ended up com­mit­ting a geno­cide which had a boomerang ef­fect. Many Sikh sol­diers in the In­dian army de­serted it. Many Sikh civil ser­vants re­signed from their jobs.

Thou­sands of de­vout and com­mit­ted Sikh youth took up arms to fight against this in­jus­tice meted out to the in­no­cent vic­tims of their com­mu­nity. For the next decade, Pun­jab was de­stroyed by the bru­tal­ity of the armed forces and the po­lice, where every Sikh youth was branded as a mil­i­tant and the en­tire coun­try os­tra­cized the Sikhs con­ve­niently for­get­ting that In­dia in­au­gu­rated this geno­cide in June 1984 and it con­tin­ued well till the end of the 1990s till the guns were si­lenced along with the lives of the in­no­cent Sikh youth.

Till date, the gov­ern­ment of In­dia has not ini­ti­ated any in­quiry into this geno­cide. Jus­tice beck­ons the in­no­cent vic­tims. An In­ter­na­tional In­ves­ti­ga­tion and Truth-seek­ing Com­mis­sion should be set up and ad­e­quate com­pen­sa­tion paid to the vic­tims who as­pired for a le­git­i­mate right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion.

Though In­dia con­tin­ues to seek an apol­ogy from the British for the Jal­lian­wala Bagh mas­sacre, will In­dia show the same logic and apol­o­gize to the Sikh na­tion in let­ter and spirit?

The first week of June is and will al­ways be re­mem­bered by every Sikh and hu­man rights ac­tivist world­wide, as the be­gin­ning of the for­got­ten geno­cide against the Sikhs.

Foot­notes:

[1] https://​time­sofindia.in­di­a­times.com/​in­dia/​Soon-Golden-Tem­ple-to-use-phone-jam­mers/​ar­ti­cleshow/​15036721.cms?re­fer­ral=PM
[2] Singh, Pashaura; Fenech, Louis E. (2014). The Ox­ford Hand­book of Sikh Stud­ies. Ox­ford Uni­ver­sity Press. p. 237. ISBN 978-0-19-969930-8.
[3] https://​www.busi­ness-stan­dard.com/​ar­ti­cle/​news-ani/​sikh-com­mu­nity-urges-pm-to-ad­dress-long­stand­ing-de­mand-to-recog­nise-sikhism-as-a-sep­a­rate-re­li­gion-119092200361_1.html#:~:text=Le­gal%20law­suits%20in%20­such%20­mat­ters,im­me­di­ately%20i­den­ti­fied%20as%20an%20In­dian.
[4] https://​www.the­hindu.com/​news/​na­tional/​De­fy­ing-cen­sor­ship-the-re­porter-who-ex­posed-the-killings/​ar­ti­cle12067789.ece

Dr Paul New­man is a Pro­fes­sor from Ban­ga­lore spe­cial­is­ing in con­flicts, right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion, refugee stud­ies and hu­man rights is­sues. He was one of the four pub­lic speak­ers at the Per­ma­nent Peo­ple’s Tri­bunal on Sri Lanka at Dublin. He at­tends the UN Hu­man Rights Coun­cil at Geneva cham­pi­oning the cause of Na­tions fight­ing for Self De­ter­mi­na­tion. In Au­gust 2018 he ad­dressed the 1st Yazidi Geno­cide Con­fer­ence.