The lot of the minorities
In Secular India, the Sikh community is facing a constantly worsening situation regarding violation of their basic rights at the hands of the Hindu extremists
Be it a linguistic-minority, ethnic minority or religious minority, life is never smooth sailing for the minorities in any society, not even in the ultra-advanced and ultra-civilised societies like those of England and US. But the situation becomes more painful for the minorities if the societies they belong to lack moral education. How do we push a community into the hell of being a minority; on the basis of quantity or on the basis of quality; it is another important question. However maltreatment with minorities could be ‘unwillingly-bearable’ to some extent if it is at individual level but what to do if this maltreatment becomes the state-policy of a country; unfortunately India is one of those unlucky countries where maltreatment with minorities has become the state-policy.
A very astonishing fact is that the Indian constitution provides all possible shelter, safety, support and rights to the minorities but no one there pays any heed to what the constitution says. In a recent statement Thomas J. Reese, the head of USCIRF said commenting on the rights of minorities in Indian constitution, ‘India is a religiously diverse and democratic society with a constitution that provides legal equality for its citizens irrespective of their religion and prohibits religion-based discrimination.’ These words are really a salute to the constitutional freedom given to the minorities in India but in the latter part of his statement he says, “However, the reality is far different. In fact, India’s pluralistic tradition faces serious challenges during the past few years; religious tolerance has deteriorated and religious freedom violations have increased in some areas of India.” Thomas J. Reese is very true in his analysis as life for the minorities in India is simply a hell on this earth.
Among India’s 1.2 billion people nearly 80 per cent are Hindus, with an estimated 172.2 million Muslims, 27.8 million Christians, 20.8 million Sikhs, and 4.5 million Jains. In most of the population surveys India is titled as the third country with the largest Muslim population all over the world. Indonesia and Pakistan are the first and second respectively. But practically it seems that the so-called ‘secular India’ is meant only for the Hindus; the rest are always in trouble. The story does not stop here; there are countless ‘Untouchables’ also in the Indian society commonly known as Dalits, formerly known as Harijans. These untouchables live a life worse than animals. Apparently the Dalits are ‘untouchables’ but factually the Upper caste Hindus love to touch their women frequently.Devadasi system is also a by-product of the same ‘cruel division’ on the basis of caste. The Hindus give it the name of a ‘Religious Tradition’. According to this brutally inhuman tradition low-caste parents marry their daughters to a deity or a temple. The marriage usually occurs before the girl reaches puberty and requires the girl to become a prostitute for upper-caste community members. The Muslims, Sikhs and Christians in the Indian society are lucky enough that the Hindus have no option of dragging these minorities into the brutal Devadasi system otherwise the women belonging to these three communities would also have been facing the same fate as that of the Dalit women.
In Secular India, the Sikh community is facing a constantly worsening situation regarding violation of their basic rights at the hands of the Hindu extremists. This insulting attitude with them is nothing new, even in 1947; situation was the same for them. Kapur Singh, a senior Sikh Indian Civil Service officer penned down a pamphlet after his forced dismissal from the service in 1947. He said, “PM Jawahar Lal Nehru, through Governor Chandu Lal Trivedi, issued a directive in 1947 to all Commissioners in Punjab recommending that Sikhs in general must be treated as a ‘criminal tribe’. The governor of Punjab, Mr Trivedi, in deference to the wishes of the PM Jawahar Lal Nehru and Sardar Patel, the Deputy PM issued certain instructions to all Deputy Commissioners of Indian Punjab… These were to the effect that, without reference to the law of the land, the Sikhs in general and Sikh migrants in particular must be treated as a ‘criminal tribe’. Harsh treatment must be meted out to them… to the extent of shooting them dead so that they wake up to the political realities and recognise who are the rulers and who the subjects.” I personally have never been able to understand why the Sikhs joined hands with the Hindus at the time of partition. The Sikhs and the Muslims were never at loggerheads but it seems the Sikhs had fallen into the dirty ditch of Hindu cunningness though they had realised their folly at a later stage. If today the Sikhs are leading a miserable life in India, there are two basic reasons for it; one is that they got late in understanding the Hindu mentality and the second is that they lost their heart in the very beginning and could not keep alive their struggle for a separate homeland. But one thing is very much clear that this movement could once again get life if the Sikh community succeeds in finding a bold, honest and sincere leader for it.
