Fundamentalism and the Sikh Religious Tradition by T.N. Madan

for their interests. It is well known that the day Jawaharlal gave a new interpretation of
the Formula of the Mission, Jinnah rejected the Plan and stuck to his Pakistan proposal,
since he became convinced that once in power, the Congress would not abide by its
committments.
The last one was the betrayal of the interests of the Frontier Provine, Nationalist
Muslims and other minorities, including Sikhs. They were all opposed to the division of
India. Mahatma Gandhi had clearly stated that Partition would take place over his dead
body. The Khudai Khidmatgars and Abdul Ghafar Khan were completely disillusioned,
when they found Gandhi supporting the resolution for partition of the country. Frontier
Gandhi stated that his enemies would laugh at him, and even his friends would say that so
long as the Congress needed the Frontiner, they supported the Khudai Khidmatgars; and
later they came to terms with the League without even consulting the Frontier and its
leader. Abdul Ghafar Khan repeatdely stated that the Frontier would regard it as an act of
treachery, if the Congress threw the Khudai Khidmatgars to the wolves, namely, to the
rule of the League. Later, when Ghafar Khan was asked his reaction to the Congress
Resolution by A.C. Ball' of the Tribune, he replied, "Betrayed".
We have stated above the rationale behind the Sikh struggle since 1947, and the
economic, social and political issues of discrimination involved. For decades on end
before Independence, the Congress had been consistently proclaiming that the Indian
language was Hindustani. Unfortunately, soon after 1947, the fundamental change in its
secular stand was made by the Congress, when instead of Hindustani it declared Hindi as
the Lingua Franca of the country. Whereas Hindustani symbolised a process of
integration, Hindi clearly signified that hence forward the cultural and linguistic roots
would be Hindu in character. All the minorities, especially the Muslims and the Sikhs,
which, having distinct religious identities, got the message of volte face by the Congress.
This naturally alarmed them. This fear, as we shall indicate, has continued to be
accentuated, and the first shock to the Sikhs was the Home Minister Patel's statement in
reply to Master Tara Singh's discussion mentioned earlier. Neither Andharites, nor
Maharashtrians, nor Keralites were ever given such a reply that if they wanted linguistic
states, they would have to quit other parts of India. Then there is the report of the States
"Re-organisation Commission and the subsequent decisions of the
Government that there would be no Punjabi Suba. Not only that. In 1956 it was seen that
the only area where the Sikhs were in a majority, was merged in East Punjab to turn them
into a minority and
eliminate the chances of their being in a majority in any state, howsoever small, where
they could have a status equal to that of other states or regions. The greatest blow was
dealt in 1966. It has been indicated how Indira Gandhi and the Home Minister Guizari
Lal Nanda were unhappy, and made sure that the proposal for Punjabi Suba that was
being recommended, became forever scuttled, and instead, a sub-state was created,
without any semblance of autonomy in regard to even the most basic subjects of water
and hydel power. That by the allotment of over 75% of river waters to non-riparian states,
not only the agricultural, economic and industrial future of Punjab has been jeopardised,
but its people also face the dismal future of almost half of its cultivable area becoming
unirrigated, unculturable and unproductive. Instead of referring the issue to the Supreme
Court for judicial adjudication, the evidently unconstitutional allotments have been made
a fait accompli through a tribunal. Everyone is aware of the serious tussel between the