By Asia Samachar | Malaysia |
“It was a defeat neither for the Sikhs nor the Panth. This is a defeat the Badal family. This was a defeat for those who had been abusing the system to benefit their families, relatives and friends. It’s a defeat for the corrupt.”
This was the opening remarks of historian Prof. Sukhdial Singh in an interview with a media portal on the outcome of the 2022 Punjab state elections which was the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Congress wiped out from the scene, making way for the Aadm Aadmi Party (AAP).
SAD was led by the father-son duo of Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Singh Badal.
Dr Sukhdial, the former head of Punjab Historical Studies Department at Punjabi University in Patiala, became emotional in one part of the interview with Takhat Punjab.
From the early days of the setting up of Sikh institutions like the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and the Shiromani Akali Dal, he said the Sikh leaders had forsaken the interests of the Panth. This led to the disastrous outcome for Sikhs when India gained independence in 1949.
“The Indian Congress got India, and the Muslim League got Pakistan. There were nowhere earlier (in terms of running empires). Punjabis got left out. The Sikhs had established their own rule as far back as 1710 when Baba Banda Singh Bahadur won Sirhind,” he observed.
With the Sirhind victory, Banda Singh was in control of territory from the Sutlej to the Yamuna. He ordered that the ownership of the land should be given to the farmers and to let them live in dignity and self-respect. (Source: Gurbaksh Singh in The Khalsa Generals, 1927).
Dr Sukhdial noted that the Sikh leadership that came up via the British-created Sikh Gurdwaras Act (1925) did not even talk about regaining back the Sikh raj (rule) lost to the British in 1849. “This was the raj that the British snatched from us,” he said. “We did not give up our raj (rule). It was grabbed from us.”
Here are some key points made in the interview anchored by Sukhwinder Singh:
- Sikhs were sovereign people before the British defeated them in 1849 in the Second Anglo-Sikh War.
- Sikh leadership failed to place their demands to regain their raj when India gained independence from the British and Pakistan was carved out as a separate nation.
- The so-called Akali leaders had betrayed the Panth umpteen times.
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