By American Sikh Council | OPINION |

In spite of 73 years of independence of modern India the civil liberties of especially minorities starting with the Dalits, Sikhs, Muslims, Buddhists, Tribal, and all the various people of the Northeast are in serious jeopardy.

Brahmin chankaya-niti has always been to divide and rule all people, except their kind. The devious Brahmins have used their own deeply rooted caste policy of ‘divide and rule’ and hung it around the neck of the British colonialists, very conveniently, so that no one can blame them for their own deviousness. It is mind boggling, to say the least, i.e., if so-called Hinduism is one unified religion then why were there more than 550 separate kingdoms and nations upon the arrival of the British on the Indian subcontinent?

Mohandas K. Gandhi a Vashya Gujarati Bania, one of the most wily men ever produced out of India was a tool and mouthpiece of the conservative Hindu right. Mohandas’s weird lifestyle was financed by the rich Hindu capitalists for thirty years, which included Birla, Bajaj and others, who remain some of India’s super-rich industrialists even today. Mohandas being a hardcore Hindu made sure he sweet talked the Sikhs and Dalits and deluded them to a very large extent, while the goal of his kind was to eventually get Ram Rajya – by hook or by crook!

Mohandas hated everything about the Sikhs including deriding the Sikh Gurus. When he got to know Dr. Ambedkar’s plans about the mass conversion of untouchables/Dalits to the Sikh Religion in the 1930s, he angrily proclaimed, “It would be far better than crores of untouchables of India could be converted to Islam than that they should become Sikhs.”

The first death-knell by Mohandas was struck against the noble Dalits on September 24, 1932 through the incredibly disingenuous Poona Pact. With one stroke millions of oppressed Dalits lost control of their own separate destiny, who were never Hindus, (il)legally brought under the purview of the Sanatani Dharmis (Hinduism) permanently, to inflate the upper-caste vote bank, so that the upper-caste could rule in perpetuity, while patronizingly giving Dalits reservations.

The Sanatanis (upper-caste Hindus) were a minority by themselves (barely 15% of today’s Hindu population) who would never ever have power unless they coopted all the Shudras and especially the Dalits into their cavernous fold.

Need we remind everyone that the diabolical caste system is one of the two key pillars of the Sanatan Dharm. The caste system is the most vile and devious socio-economic apparatus with a complete political agenda, simply cloaked and held up with the fabric of religion. The religious part is based on complete mythology exactly like the Greek mythology. Fortunately, the Greeks dumped their mythology and became Christian, but in the case of the Sanatanis, they refuse to discard all the baggage which has no evidence or historical relevance whatsoever.

This is what the so-called father of India, Mohandas stated to the Sikhs, “I ask you to accept my word and the Resolution of the Congress that it will not betray a single individual much less a community. Let God be the witness of the bond that binds me and the Congress with you (the Sikhs).” When pressed further, Gandhi said that, “Sikhs would be justified in drawing their swords out of their scabbards as Guru Gobind Singh had asked them to, if Congress would renege on its commitment.” (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Young India, March 19, 1931).

It ended up being a complete farce and a lie, as any slick lawyer would, to convince a trusting audience.

Jawarhar Lal Nehru the first PM of India and also known as the so-called Uncle of the India promised the Sikhs, “The brave Sikhs of Punjab are entitled to special considerations. I see nothing wrong in an area set up in the North of India wherein, the Sikhs can also experience the glow of freedom.” (Jawahar Lal Nehru, Lahore Bulletin, Jan 9, 1930).

Immediately after independence of modern India all the states were to be divided based on the local languages. Every state got its due except for Punjab and a movement was started by the right-wing Hindus to deny their own (Punjabi) language so as to keep the status quo, with the innate fear that if Sikhs ruled Punjab, somehow Hindus will be in an inferior position, thanks to their caste mentality.

Nehru an extremely glib lawyer and a Brahmin conveniently changed his mind, forgot all his previous public solemn promises and said, “Kya main taqat dushman (the enemy – the Sikhs) ke haath main de dun (How can I entrust power into the hands of the enemies).” Jawarhar Lal Nehru, 1961.

Sikhs peacefully agitated with over 50,000 courting arrest, while the Indian government attacked the Darbar Sahib on July 4, 1955 killing over 200 Sikhs. After years a truncated mini Punjab was handed over to the Sikhs in Nov 1966, even though all other states were divided based on languages by 1956.

Sikhs who were barely 1% of the British Indian population gave over 75% of the sacrifices to garner freedom from the British, not to mention the over a million who perished in the largest massacres in July-Aug of 1947, overwhelmingly in Punjab. All the while the conman Mohandas went on his crafty ‘hunger fast’ drama, to distract the populace, hogging the limelight while the real sacrifices were made by thousands of unsung Sikhs.

A truly secular democratic country is one where first, the laws are straightforward and clear; second, laws are for the benign benefit of the common people; third, religion must be kept separate from the state especially where there are umpteen religious minorities; fourth, laws are not be made to support an majoritarian authoritarian police state; fifth, if there is no right to dissent and choose one’s own destiny its tyranny; sixth, the rights of the people of every state are more important than the center and much more. Currently, none of the above exists making the Indian secular democracy a total sham.

If there is any doubt, why does India not allow a plebiscite in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Kashmir and elsewhere and see what happens? Because the real fear of all the upper-caste ruling regimes who are primarily from the north-central cow belt states is, that all the above states may breakaway immediately if given a chance. That is exactly why all the above states, including Punjab have been browbeaten into submission for decades through the use of India’s paramilitary forces.

The entire autocratic rule is based on the Brahminical ‘laws of Manu’ (the caste system) cleverly woven into the Indian constitution. No wonder Dr. Ambedkar stated, “Hinduism is a veritable chamber of horrors.”

In 1950, despite vociferous protests by Sikhs, the Indian constitution was adopted, which failed to even recognize the Sikhs as a separate religion instead Sikhs were legally pigeon-holed as a sect of Hindus, and remained defined as such under Article 25 (b) of the Constitution. The British recognized Sikh marriages under the (Sikh) Anand Karaj Act 1909, however this was replaced by the Hindu Marriage Act of 1951. Sikh marriages are no longer recognized since. To get a marriage license in ‘secular India’, Sikhs have to sign a form titled, ’The Hindu Marriage Act of 1951’. The insults do not end here!

Panjab was a state utterly ruined both economically and socially by the partition. Instead of assistance, the Sikhs began facing economic, social and religious discrimination.

• Farmers in Panjab paid higher prices for their agriculture inputs, but were offered lower prices for their produce in comparison with neighboring states. The central government assumed sole control over prices and farmers were not allowed to cross state boundaries to get higher prices for their labors in the next state.
• Electricity generated by the hydroelectric dam Bhakra on the Panjab borders was more expensive and provided in smaller amounts in Panjab than in its neighboring states.
• 75% of the water available to Panjab was illegally diverted to other states putting unbelievable strain on all other resources for the mostly small farmers who happen to be Sikhs.
• 70% of the revenue raised by Panjabis, for development of Panjab was sent to other states.
• The central government investment in Panjab is less than 1%, the lowest amongst all the states, while it is taxed more than any other state.
• Restrictions on the recruitment and promotion of Sikhs in the armed forces were enforced a myriad of ways. This was the reward given to 2% of India’s population for their incredible sacrifices in the freedom struggle against the British and all the wars fought till 2020.
• From 1984 -1998 over a million Sikhs have been killed by the Indian government www.thirdsikhgenocide.org, with absolutely no justice in sight, yet if someone puts a tiny Sikh flag on a police station all hell breaks loose, as though the sky has fallen.
• Over 75% of the youth in Punjab is on drugs which are illegally supplied by the government to eliminate the Sikhs.
• Alcohol is an anathema for Sikhs, yet the government has refused to ban the over 6,000 liquor vends across Punjab, making sure the rural populace drinks itself to death.
• The hundreds of thousands of jobless Sikhs are leaving Punjab in droves, heading to western countries, while Bihari Hindus and others replace them, eventually making Sikhs a minority in their own state.
• The highest ratio of policemen versus population is in Punjab, further burdening the economy.
• Punjab has a 40% debt to GDP ratio and the debt amount is over 48,000 crores as of 2020, making sure that the people can never lift their heads up ever to protest over any injustice.

Independence of any country can only be celebrated when ‘everyone’, but especially those who have sacrificed their lives like the Sikhs in the thousands and contributed multifold to the economy are truly accommodated, fairly. By mainstreaming Sikhs and minorities Hindutva style; diluting the Sikh religion and history by all (il)legal means at their disposal; by discriminating; by patronizing; being derisive through the media and through Bollywood to belittle an entire religious community continuously, is not only hypocritical but utterly shameful.

All citizens of a real democracy can only celebrate its independence when, as Ann Sang Suu Kyi winner of Nobel Peace Prize, political freedom activist leader of Myanmar stated, “The true measure of the justice of a system is the amount of protection it guarantees to the weakest.”

(The article has been adapted from an American Sikh Council e-news)

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