Jan-March 2006 - Institute of Sikh Studies

ISC : THE VOICE OF THE PANTH7to the inevitable decline that explains the collapse of the mighty Sikhempire after the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, a tragedy from whichwe have not recovered and may take long to recover. Like the rest ofIndia, Punjab was occupied by the British, and it took full one centuryto force the British to quit. In the struggle for independence, Sikhsmade tremendous sacrifices, far out of proportion to their numbers.But the result was disastrous for the Sikhs, who were one of the threerecognized contenders for power to succeed the British, besidesMuslims and Hindus. While the other two divided the Indiansubcontinent into two sovereign states, Sikhs were thrown out of theareas now constituting Pakistan, as unwelcome refugees to the Indianside, losing their hearths and homes, their sacred shrines and hundredsof thousands of lives. India became a republic with a new constitution,which the Sikhs refused to sign, as it was discordant with Sikh interestsand aspirations, and ignored the assurances and safeguards promisedto the Sikhs earlier by the Indian leaders. But nobody cared. It waspromulgated all the same, engulfing the Sikhs in a new prolongedstruggle for honourable existence in the new circumstances. In 1956,India reorganised its states on linguistic basis, but the claim of Punjabispeakingstate was rejected, for Sikhs could be the majority communityin this state. It took another decade-long agitation involving thousandsgoing to jail and hundreds losing their lives to get the demand forPunjabi-speaking state conceded. But the so-called victory was in factworse than defeat, for what we got was only a helpless sub-state,deprived of its capital, river waters and large parts of Punjabi-speakingareas. The struggle for redressal of the wrong still continues. Duringthe last quarter century, there were times when the Sikhs facedpersecution of the worst kind amounting almost to genocide. Theyhave been subjected to malicious propaganda as fundamentalists,secessionists and terrorists, world-wide. Hundreds of thousands diedas victims of state repression in fake encounters. Thousands are stillrotting in jails without trial for decades. While recounting theadversities, it must also be added that occasionally opportunities cameour way, when some of our problems could be solved. But weconsistently failed to avail of them. And the agony of the Panthcontinues.I recall this tragic tale of misery and helplessness simply to point