OTHER MINORITIES
Kuldip Nayar on the Sikh Situation Today
The Sikhs are affluent. The countries where they have settled find them useful. And they occupy leading positions in medicine, engineering and business. Yet they, the Sikhs abroad, are generally unhappy. They nourish the feeling that the land of their origin, India, does not give them due recognition.
Partly, it is psychological, partly real. Selective, scant information they get tells them their community in India is meted out an "indifferent treatment". This clouds their judgement and they tend to live in a world of their own. Sensitive as they are, they are willing to believe the wort about India. And then they try to avenge their anger in the manner they deem fit. It is in terms of the money to Khalistan supporters or the pressure on the elected representatives, who have their 'cause' taken up in their legislatures, be it America, UK or Canada.
The real part of their grievance is the series of instances of 'discrimination'. Some of them and their friends have been 'manhandled' by airport functionaries in Delhi and Bombay. Difficulty in getting a visa to India has added to their estrangement the most.
It is, however, naive to imagine that the mere easing of travel restrictions will retrieve the Sikhs abroad. They will have to be convinced that the mistakes committed in the past were accidental or circumstantial. Many among them have realised that the violence in Punjab has given the community a bad name. And some condemn it.
But the nub of the problem is their realisation that the situation on the ground has changed. That Punjab has regained peace needs to be conveyed properly. Normalcy in the state has not yet seeped deep into their psyche in the manner it should have been.
They still have to give up their demand for autonomy, if not separation. Some interaction with the Sikh leaders from India will help. And so will a frank discussion between non-officials and the ultras. But, ultimately, developments like Akalis winning eight out of 13 seats in the Lok Sabha and the party's overwhelming Victory in the elections for the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) make them realise that the Akalis themselves have realised the futility of the extreme line.
The SGPC can do a tremendous job by sending its representatives for giving a true picture of the situation that obtains in Punjab and the rest of the country.
The record of pursuing the guilty of the 1984 killings is full of blemishes. But even the belated punishments have gone unnoticed. So has been the order by Prime Minister Deve Gowda to pay full compensation to the riot victims. If this could be propagated by some Sikh organisations or leaders, it would go down well. The problem is how to put across the message that the mistakes of the government are not the lapses of the country. The two are separate. A government is a temporary phenomenon and can be replaced in elections. The country is permanent.
Many argue in favour of changing constitutional definition of Hindu that includes the Sikhs (Article 25). If the Sikhs want the change, there should be no opposition. After all, they are the ones to decide, not the Hindus, however emotionally upset they may feel.
Nonetheless ... they might lose the concessions they enjoy at present. Under the Hindu Law HUF (Hindu Undivided Family) has certain income tax concessions, which cost the exchequer Rs.500 crore a year in terms of tax. The Sikhs have a point when they say that the Rajiv Gandhi-Harchand Singh Longowal accord has stayed on paper alone. Not a clause has been implemented in the last 12 years.
Perhaps, what is at stake is political power. The argument about Sikh identity boils down to the same thing. Indeed, when the Punjabi Suba was conceded and carved out of the state of Punjab, where the Sikh population is above 60 per cent, the government accepted in spirit, if not in letter, a Sikh dominated government in Punjab. And there is no doubt that the Akalis represent the overwhelming majority of Sikhs. But in the joint electorate and free ballot box, essential parts of a democratic system of government, a particular community cannot be assured of permanent power.
The Sikhs abroad, living in the societies which keeps religions separate from politics should know it better. No religious community in India is superior to another. It is important that the identity of all communities should be preserved. There is no go from secular politics.
The Sikhs abroad should realise that the political party in Punjab will have to convert itself into a regional party, admitting the Hindus into its fold. Naturally, the Sikhs will be a dominant partner in that party but its ethos will be Punjabi, appealing to the entire Punjab population, without any difference of caste, creed or religion. Otherwise, communal politics, which the Akalis at times reflect, will deepen. This will ultimately be counterproductive and strengthen anti-secular forces in the state.
The Sikhs community as a whole, particularly Sikhs living outside Punjab, did not assert themselves and stand unequivocally against violence and secession. Now they should, because Punjab needs to gain from the new wave of economic development. The Sikhs abroad should realise this and face the facts.
Reaction to Recognition Jains as Religious Minority
Varsha Bhosle On the Jains as a Religious Minority
On January 10, a certain Dr. Tahir Mahmood, who was appointed chairman of the National Commission for Minorities in November, announced that he had counselled the government to declare Jains a minority community. Which, as we know, is the same as extending to it all the benefits enjoyed by the usual privileged classes. As far as Hindus are concerned. Jainism is a Hindu cult, and certainly closer to us in culture, lifestyle and approach than the extremist Hare Krishnas, or the fashionable California-Tibetan or the Brahmin-bashing brands of Buddhism. The religious among us have always looked upon Mahavir as an avatar of Vishnu.
It used to be the same with Sikhism. There was a time when in a Punjabi home, the eldest son had the moral responsibility of following the 5 Ks of Sikhism while the rest of the family remained Hindu. Almost all the poems of the Guru Granth Sahib are based on Ram and Hari, and freely dip into the qalaam of Kavi Tulsidass and Sant Namdev.
Of course, all that harmony was forever put to an end by the machinations of Zail Singh and Indira Gandhi.
Jains are the quintessential Vaishyas; closely knit, soft and smooth in dealing, ready to compromise if it pays, and prosperous because of their head for business. More to the point, they prop up the backbone of Bombay (and by extension, that of India) with their grasp on industries, stock markets and the wholly Jain-monopolised diamond trade. Plus, they are not a fiery people prone to aggressiveness.
The demand for a minority status must have come from a section of the Jain citizenry itself, that no community can ever be 100% prosperous, and that some Jains may need state assistance. At the same time, one must also be aware that every community has its poor and its dissident lunatics, and that the government cannot and should not give it in any and every demand – especially when the possibilities include the disintegration of society.
Since the chairman of the NCM is himself a member of a perpetually persecuted minority - the leaders of which minority have been trying to ally with Dalits as a political force against Hindus - my suspicions are aroused: Never mind the seven-member body which deliberated on the issue, but since when does any leading bureaucrat lay his neck on the block over so potentially disastrous an issue within a mere two months of taking a post?
Secondly, why is the recommendation for minority status for Jains being forwarded at this juncture of the UF's political life? What nudged it?
In February 1995 the chief guest at the annual 6-day Mahamastakabhisheka (anointing ceremony of the monolithic statue of the Jain ascetic Bahubali, at Dharmasthala the former chief minister of Karnataka, Mr. H.D. Deve Gowda.
The poor farmer from Karnataka may have decided that the annual jatha of Jain pilgrims that visits the Kaanadi constituency, drawing fairs and stalls put up by banks and industries, and needing 1,008 kalashas of local, honeyed panchamrit to pour over the statue, must be further sweetened.
Perhaps, we will also be seeing Sleeping Beauty's government handled gently by a certain Jain-controlled media. What is the need for, what is the motive behind categorising Jains as a minority community, now? And, what are its implications?
It's obvious that the certainty of the results from the next polls will hinge upon the caste/community issue.
A Letter in Times of India
The National Commission of Minorities (euphemism for Muslims) has recommended that the Jains should be classified as minorities. This is a deliberate and anti-national mischief This so-called National Commission for Minorities, has always been headed by Muslims, rooted in their divisionist, two-nation separatist past that led to the division of this country and formation of two Islamic Republics. Now these people want to splinter Indian society further by declaring the one denomination after another as minorities, so that inter-community strife can increase.
Today, the National Commission for Muslims (or minorities) is wanting sections of Hindu society like Jains to be declared as minority. If this is accepted, then it will be the turn of the Lingayats, Vaishnavites, Shaivites, Swamynarayanites, Ramakrishnaites, and so on. Already there is a race among different castes in Hindus, Muslims and Christians to be declared backward and to be included amongst the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes. It means that finally India will be declared as a Republic of 'backwards' and innumerable 'minorities', finally reducing the Indian nation and the state to a mirage, to a verbal and not a physical, monal and cultural.
Bhandari's Religiosity
In his hour of relief, UP Governor Romesh Bhandari has turned to the gods. Sensing that he has probably escaped by the skin of his teeth, even if the reprieve is temporary, Governor Bhandari is learnt to have rushed to a temple to participate in a thanksgiving ritual. He will, probably, also be seeking the benevolence of the pantheon of gods to ward off evil eyes on his high-profile job in the future.
