SANT JARNAIL SINGH BHINDRANWALE - LIFE, MISSION, AND MARTYRDOM

1.) INTRODUCTION

In June 1984, the Indian Government sent nearly a quarter million troops to Punjab,  ealed the state from the rest of the world, and launched an attack, code-named 'Operation Bluestar', on the Darbar Sahib complex in Amritsar and over forty other gurdwaras1 in Punjab. Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, head of the Damdami Taksaal2, and many students and teachers belonging to the Taksaal, perished in the conflict. Several thousand men, women and children, mostly innocent pilgrims, also lost their lives in that attack. This invasion was followed by 'Operation Woodrose' in which the army, supported by paramilitary and police forces, swept through Punjab villages to eliminate 'anti-social elements'. These 'anti-social' elements were identified as Amritdharis3. Instructions given to the troops at that time stated4: 'Some of our innocent countrymen were administered oath in the name of religion to support extremists and actively participate in the act of terrorism. These people wear a miniature kirpan5 round their neck and are called Amritdhari ... Any knowledge of the 'Amritdharis' who are dangerous people and pledged to commit murders, arson and acts of terrorism should immediately be brought to the notice of the authorities. These people may appear harmless from outside but they are  basically committed to terrorism. In the interest of all of us their identity and whereabouts must  always be disclosed.' These instructions constituted unmistakably clear orders for genocide of all Sikhs formally initiated into their faith. Another ten to twenty thousand are said to have been murdered, often with torture, during this phase. Typical of this period is a report by Mary Ann Weaver6: 'The pattern in each village appears to be the same. The Army moves in during the early evening, cordons a village, and announces over loudspeakers that everyone must come out.All males between the ages of 15 and 35 are trussed and blindfolded, then taken away.  Thousands have disappeared in the Punjab since the Army operation began. The Government has provided no lists of names; families don't know if sons and husbands are arrested, underground, or dead.' Assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, allegedly by two of her security personnel who were Sikh, triggered another orgy of violence against the Sikhs. The Government estimated the number of persons killed in Delhi during the first three days of November 1984 at nearly 2,700. A list of 3,870 names was published by a newspaper7. The total for the country is estimated8 to be around twenty thousand, ten thousand in Delhi itself. A report9 recognized the number of Sikh women widowed in Delhi alone in three days as 1,300. It has been alleged10 that ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­1 Throughout, italics are used for Punjabi words. Gurdwara, literally, the 'door 'of the Guru, is the facility where Siri Guru Granth Sahib, the Scripture regarded as the eternal Guru is installed and where the Sikhs gather for worship. 2 Taksaal is a school for Sikh religious instruction. 3 Amritdhari is a person who has been formally initiated into the Sikh faith through having taken Khande da Pahul. The ceremony is often referred to as taking Amrit. 4 Baat Cheet, A publication of the Department of Defense. Government of India, Serial Number 153, July 1984; reproduced in Surya Monthly, October 1984, page 6. 5 A sword, one of the five distinguishing marks of a Sikh. The others are uncut hair, a comb in the hair, a steel bangle, and a distinctive style pair of shorts. 6 Mary Ann Weaver, India's Sikhs are bitter as Army tries to weed out 'militants'., Christian Science Monitor, October 15, 1984.  7 Indiuan Express, November 1, 1989. 8 Inderjit S. Jaijee, Politics of Genocide, Baba Publishers, Chandigarh, India, 1996, page 33. 9 Amiya Rao, Aurobindo Ghose, and N.D. Pancholi, Truth About Delhi Violence, Citizens for Democracy, New Delhi, January 1985. 10 Delhi: 31 October to 4 November 1984, Report of the Citizens' Commission, 1984. leaders of the ruling Congress Party and officials of the Government organized and encouraged these massacres.The oppression against the Sikh faith continued relentlessly for several years. Official sources place the total number killed between 1984 and 1992 at about 25,000 and ascribed all violence to so-called Sikh terrorists. On the other hand, Sikh leaders have claimed that nearly 200,000 Sikhs have been deliberately murdered, generally after arrest, by government agencies. Human rights organizations (for example, 11,12,13,14) and other groups (for example 15,16,17) have documented a large number of cases of torture, rape, disappearances and murder by the lawenforcement agencies in Punjab. It is important to understand why a so-called democratic government would unleash such terror against a religious minority. What did Sant Bhindranwale preach and do to evoke so strong a reaction from the Indian Government, the news media and the public at large? What were Sikh expectations and grievances; how, and to what extent, was the Sant involved in them; what was the role of the traditional Sikh leadership through this sad saga; what lessons might this chapter in history provide for the future of India's pluralistic national fabric and for prevention of recurrence of such holocausts. Some readers might be unfamiliar with Sikhs and their problems. For this reason, we start this three-part essay by providing a brief decription of Sikh beliefs, organization, and history. The first part also describes India's pluralist society and surveys the attitude of the majority community and the Indian Government towards minorities in general and the Sikhs in particular. It includes the historical developments leading up to Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale's emergence as the leader of a Sikh revival. The second part of the essay describes his life and mission as well as the growth of opposition to him. We specially note the campaign of misrepresentation and vilification carried on by the Government as well as the news media in propagating certain myths. The third part examines specific allegations leveled against the Sant in the light of his public pronouncements and of contemporary reports. It also discusses his relationship with the premier Sikh organization, the Shromani Akali Dal. Finally, we look at the past and attempt to see what the future might

11 Punjab Human Rights Organization Reports: Rape of Punjab, Indian State's indignities on Sikh Women and Children; The Fascist Offensive in Punjab, Reports of Human Rights Violations; An Indian Torture Chamber, The Full Story of Ladha Kothy; Sikh Villages Ransacked, among others. 12 Asia Watch, Punjab in Crisis: Human Rights in India, 1991. 13 For example. Amnesty International, India: Some Reports Concerning Deaths in Custody allegedly as a result of torture or shooting during  985, ASA 20/03/86 dated 29 January 1986; India: A Review of Human Rights Violations, ASA 20/02/88 dated August 1989; and numerous Urgent Action Letters. 14 Oppression in Punjab, Citizens for Democracy, New Delhi, 1985. 15 Ram Narayan Kumar and Georg Sieberer: The Sikh Struggle, Chanakya  ublications, New Delhi,  991. 16 Joyce M. Pettigrew, The Sikhs of Punjab: Unheard Voices of State and Guerilla Violence, Zed Publishers, London, 1995. 17 Harjinder S. Dilgeer and Awatar Singh Sekhon, India Kills Sikhs, The Sikh Educational Trust, Edmonton, Canada,  econd Edition, 1994.

PART I

A. THE SIKHS AND THEIR RELIGION

21 Sikh Way of Life: a documentation of personal and communal practices of prayer and ceremonies required to be followed by all who are initiated into the Sikh faith, issued by the Shromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Amritsar. 22 Temporal authority. 23 Spiritual authority. 24 An historic example is that of Siri Guru Tegh Bahadar Sahib, the Ninth Guru, being beheaded by the authorities while advocating  he rights of the Hindus to free worship. practice their religion as taught by their Gurus without being subjected to constraints and controls imposed by non-Sikh governments.

B. SIKHS AND INDIA 1. India as a Pluralistic State. India is a land of many different languages, cultures, religions, and nationalities. There are two distinct approaches to dealing with such diversity while, at the same time, forging or maintaining national unity. One is the pluralistic approach that accepts the diversity of the population and attempts to ensure that the minorities can retain their distinct identities without fear of deprivation or discrimination so long as they are loyal to the nation-state. The other is the integrationist or assimilation approach in which the minority is coerced to forego its distinct identity presuming that it conflicts with or hinders the development of the nation-state. India has formally adopted the pluralistic approach. It is enshrined in the Indian constitution which provides appropriate safeguards for minorities and is reflected in the linguistic reorganization of states preserving the identity of the larger linguistic groups. However, in actual practice, religious identity has been subordinated to the development of a national identity. As Madan25 points out, the assumption has been that the state can and should forge an identity as powerful as that offered to a people via their religious community; and that 'the means to this end have been identified as the promotion of civic ties and class interests to take the place of the primordial bonds of race, language, and religion.' In line with this statement of principle, in Punjab, where the Sikhs are in a majority, pluralism has been abandoned in favor of national integration. Jawaharlal Nehru, India's Prime Minister for 18 years including 17 after freedom from British rule, believed in secular democracy, was impatient with religion and had difficulty recognizing the distinct cultural identities of minorities. His view of religion was26: 'Organized religion, allying itself to theology and often more concerned with its vested interests than with things of the spirit, encourages a temper which is the very opposite to that of science. It produces narrowness and intolerance, credulity and superstition, emotionalism and irrationalism.' He professed support for autonomy for states when he wrote27: 'It is not difficult, if passions and unreasoning emotions are set aside, to devise such freedom with the largest autonomy for provinces and states and yet a strong central bond. There could be autonomous units within the larger provinces or states, as in Soviet Russia. In addition to this, every conceivable protection and safeguard for minority rights could be inserted into the constitution.' However, he  lso wrote28: 'I do not fancy beards or mustaches or topknots, but I have no desire to impose my canons of taste on others, though I must confess, in regard to beards, that I inwardly rejoiced when Amanullah began to deal with them in summary fashion in Kabul.' He could not identify such a thing as 'Muslim culture' in India and, using socialist parlance, termed religious organizations to be 'reactionary'. He adamantly refused to agree to the creation of a Punjabispeaking state. Apparently,  e feared that creation of a Punjabi-speaking state would solidify

25 T.N. Madan. Fundamentalism and the Sikh Religious Tradition, in Fundamentalism Observed, edited by Marty and Appleby, University of Chicago Press, 1991, page 595. 26 Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India, Meridian Books Ltd., London, Fourth Edition, 1960, page 526. 27 Ibid, page 544. 28 Jawaharlal Nehru, An Autobiography, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1980, page 471. Sikh identity with a 'homeland' and a language with the resulting potential for secession. The States Reorganization Commission stated29: 'It has to be realized that the political unity of India is a recent achievement.' It also noted30: 'There are certain aspects of the claim for linguistic units, the implications of which should be carefully analyzed and understood. The most important of these is the doctrine of an area claiming to be the 'homeland' of all the people speaking a particular language. ... This would cut at the very root of the national idea.' Earlier, the JVP Committee had reported31: 'The primary consideration must be the security, unity and economic prosperity of India and every separatist and disruptive tendency should be rigorously discouraged.' The safeguards for minorities provided in the Indian Constitution are effectively eliminated through being overridden by these statements of policy. Preservation of minority identities and their being overwhelmed by the majority  ulture needs continuous conscious effort. However, it is easy for the majority to identify its wn interests as national interests and to misinterpret such efforts as separatism, threat to national unity, and disloyalty to the nation-state. India claims to be a secular democracy, but, in actual practice, this secularism manifests itself as tyranny of the majority. Speaking before the United Nations Human Rights Committee, Mr. Ramaswamy, India's Attorney-General, admitted32 that while it was his personal dream to bring about a uniform civil code in India, the majority of members of Parliament belonged to the majority religion, making it difficult to enact laws affecting religious minorities. Extremist groups, hostile to the minorities, have been successful in effectively subverting preservation of minority identities. This subversion, in the name of national homogeneity, has taken many forms. Some sections of the press have constantly criticized the religious minorities and made highly provocative and derogatory pronouncements about them (for example, Jai Prakash33). There has been no attempt by the Government to check them. In fact, whenever the minorities have tried to protest these actions, they have been beaten up, fired upon, imprisoned, tortured, raped, and massacred. The case of Babri Masjid is typical of Indian Government's attitude. This centuries old mosque was destroyed by Hindu hoodlums with the support of the state government in Uttar Pradesh. When  uslims around the country protested, over three thousand were killed. None of the culprits responsible for the destruction of the mosque, or for the subsequent killings, was punished. After Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984, thousands of Sikhs were burnt alive or hacked to death all over India. The culprits are still to be punished. Educational texts used in schools emphasize Hindu traditions and ignore the minority

viewpoint. Tavleen Singh reports34: 'Amreek Singh said that Sikh children were losing ties with their roots because they went to schools where from day one they were taught about Hinduism and Hindu culture.' Texts used in schools often misrepresent the Sikhs faith; for example, pictures and songs depicting Sikh children engaged in idol-worship by placing garlands over so called likenesses of the Gurus. The Sikhs have had to struggle to correct the frequent incorrect 29 Report of the States Reorganization Commission,  955, page 148.00 30 Ibid, page 155. 31 Report of the Linguistic Provinces ommittee, Congress, pages 4,5, 15. 32 Aparajita Suri, U.N. Rights Group Chides India, India Abroad, April 5, 1991. 33 Jai Parkash, Editorial titled 'Raj Karega Khalsa', The Daily Milap (in Urdu), New Delhi, 7 December 1985. 34 Tavleen Singh, Terrorists in the Temple, in The Punjab Story, edited by Amajit Kaur et al., Roli Books International, 1984, page 39-40. portrayal of their faith in school textbooks. For example, they had to get the High Court of Punjab and Haryana to direct35 the deletion of some material, derogatory towards Siri Guru Gobind Singh Sahib, from a book published by National Council of Educational Research and Training and used in Indian schools. The Court's jurisdiction covers only two of the Indian states. Correction of the texts used in other states would necessarily involve further litigation placing an enormous stress on the community. Because the Gurus stood up for the right of the Hindus to freely practice their faith, they are often described36 as Hindu reformers, and as nationalist Kshatris fighting Muslim rule in India. This is contrary to the Sikh belief that they were bearers of God's Word and the founders of a new faith; that their message was universal and not only for Hindus and India; that their message was of love and at no time did they have hatred or enmity towards anyone. The attitude of the Indian Government towards the Sikhs has been that any proposal or demand that could be associated with them as a religious community had to be denied and any protest by them sternly suppressed. Punjab's agricultural interests were viewed and treated not as economic problems of a region but as communal and parochial because most farmers in Punjab happened to be Sikh. The purpose, apparently, was to humiliate the Sikhs, to impress upon them the helplessness of their situation in the national context, and to encourage them to elieve that, if they wished to be heard, they would have to join the 'mainstream', i.e., de-emphasize their religious identity.

2. Hindu Attitude Towards Sikhs and Sikh Identity

a. The Arya Samaj and Sikhs

35 Des Pardes Weekly, London, U.K., May 3, 1996.

36 For example, Daulat Rai, Sahib-i-Kamaal Guru Gobind Singh; and Manju Subhash, Rights of Religious Minorities in India,

National Book Organization, New Delhi, 1988

37 Ganda Singh, Hindu-Sikh Tension in the Punjab, The Sikh Review, March 1983.

38 Dipankar Gupta, The Communalising of Punjab 1980-1985; in Economic and Political Weekly, July 13, 1984 reproduced in Punjab-The Fatal Miscalculation by Patwant Singh and Harji Malik, page 220.

39 Manju Subhash, Rights of Religious Minorities in India, National Book Organization, New Delhi, 1988, page 39. 40 Ibid, page 211. 41 Kuldip Nayar and Khushwant Singh, Tragedy of Punjab, Vision Books, New Delhi, 1984, page 69.

c. Denial of Punjabi

Language, according to Crystal42, 'is more than a shared code of symbols for communication. People do not fight and die, as they have done in India, to preserve a set of symbols. They do so because they feel that their identity is at stake - that language preservation is a question of human rights, community status and nationhood." At the time of the 1951 census43 the Sikh population of Punjab was 6,769,129. Only 8,230,000 persons declared their language to be Punjabi, i.e., a large majority of the 12,930,045 Punjabi Hindus disowned the language they spoke and declared Hindi to be their mother-tongue. This was endorsed by the Punjab Boundary Commission when a Punjabi-speaking state was finally agreed to. The Commission determined44 that Jatki or Lahanda was the predominant language of West Punjab before creation of Pakistan and that it was reasonable to assume that some of the Lahanda speaking migrants must have declared their language to be Hindi. It is to be noted that whereas Punjabi was recognized as one of the fourteen national languages, Lahanda was merely a dialect like scores of others in India. Puri45, discussing the Sikh identity crisis after partition of India in 1947, writes: 'Punjabi Muslims could afford to forget Punjab and live like Pakistanis. After all, they got a sovereign state to rule, offered to them on a platter. The Punjabi Hindus could afford to forget Punjab and live like Indians. What could the Sikhs do? They could not shrug off their language. Their very scriptures are written in it. So the mantle of Punjab fell on the Sikhs. The Sikhs were willing to live like Punjabis, committed to Punjabi language and culture. The Punjabi Hindus were not, and they refused to acknowledge Punjabi as their mother tongue. Thus the seeds of the problem began to bear their bitter fruit. The alienation between Hindu and Sikh began. With the erosion of Punjab, the Sikhs began to be viewed as a community rather than a people belonging to a particular province. The Sikhs began to view themselves as a nation rather than a minority.' According to Malik46: 'The Sikhs ... found that in spite of being a minority in the newstate, they were considered a real threat by the  unjabi Hindus....Their insistence on Punjabi and the gurmukhi script was, for them intrinsically linked with the preservation of their separate identity. But the linkage gave hostile elements a convenient handle to dub the demand as communal and anti-secular. Hindu militants countered with a campaign of 'Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan' and the Punjabi Hindu press began to reproduce pre-partition Sikh writings written in a period when Sikhs feared they would find themselves in Muslim Pakistan as a helpless minority, as proof that the Sikhs, represented by the Akali Dal, wanted a sovereign Sikh state. The disinformation campaign, which was to continue through the Punjabi Suba agitation when Congress Sikh leaders accused the Akalis of conspiring with Ayub Khan against India and of wanting to set up a Sikh state with Pakistan assistance, up to the 1980s branding of Sikhs as traitors, had begun.'

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42 Crystal, David, 'Languages', Civilization, February-March

1997, page 44. 43 Memorandum presented to the Parliamentary Committee  n Punjabi Suba by Sanyukt Punjab Sanrakshan Samiti of Sarvadeshik Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, New Delhi, page 18. 44 Punjab Boundary Commission Report, Government of India Press, New Delhi, 1966, page 24. 45 Rajinder Puri, 'What it's all about' in 'Punjab in Indian Poltics', edited by Amrik Singh, 1985, page 55. 46 Harji Malik, The Historical Legacy, in 'Punjab in Indian Politics', Edited by Amrik Singh, Ajanta  ublications, 1985, page 36.d. Opposition to Sikhs and Sikh InstitutionsLala Jagat Narain, who headed a group of newspapers in Punjab, wrote columnsslandering Sikh religious leaders. He was an Arya Samajist and 'a strong supporter of the Nirankaris'47. He demanded action against the President of the Shromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and the Jathedar, Siri Akal Takhat Sahib on the grounds that, during their visit to the United States of America, they had met with Ganga Singh Dhillon who was a proponent of an independent Sikh state. Extremist Hindus were bent upon misrepresenting the Sikh religion and tradition as inherently anti-national. They objected to the contents of the daily Sikh prayer, in use for nearly three centuries, as statements of separatism and sedition48. An editorial49  escribed

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55 Stephen P. Cohen, The Indian Army, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1990, page 69. 56 Sunil Sethi, Journey in Punjab, India Today, September 30, 1983, pages 64-65 57 Mark Tully and Satish Jacob, Amritsar, Mrs. Gandhi's Last Battle, Rupa, New Delhi, 1985, page 147. 58 Ibid, page 152. 59 Kuldip Nayar and Khushwant Singh, Tragedy of Punjab, Vision Books, New Delhi, 1984, page 70. 60 In Sikh religion, the term Sahajdhari is used for a person who believes in the Sikh gurus but has not yet received initiation. Here, Nayar is erroneously using it to describe Sikhs who by cutting their hair have violated the Sikh code. Such persons are patit (fallen ones), not Sahajdhari. 61 Mark Tully and Satish Jacob, Amritsar, Mrs. Gandhi's Last Battle, Rupa, New Delhi, 1985, page 20. leads to a conflict of loyalties in a modern secular state like India.' They summarize the glorious history of Sikh resistance to oppression by stating that62: 'The Sikhs, with their martial tradition, are a violent community at the best of times.' There are those who have the Sikhs appearance but do not accept the faith and its history and culture. Darbara Singh, while Chief Minister of Punjab, is quoted as having63 'candidly stated his opinion that there was no longer such a thing as Sikh culture. There was a Sikh culture before. That Sikh culture has now reached the limit. Sikh culture is now dead ... Now the Sikh culture has been converted into a composite culture.' He was a 'secular' Sikh acceptable to the Hindu establishment. K.P.S. Gill, the former Punjab Police Chief who oversaw the elimination of thousands of devout Sikhs as 'terrorists' killed in 'faked encounters' is another 'moderate' Sikh because, in his opinion64, the scriptures 'represent somebody's ideas hundreds of years ago and are hardly relevant in today's life.' Khushwant Singh is yet another favorite of the establishment because he confesses65: 'My emotional attachment is more to the Sikh community to which by accident of birth I happen to belong to rather than to Sikhism'.  f. Equating Linguistic Identity with Political Separatism Ever since India's freedom from British rule, the Sikhs had been demanding creation of Punjab as a linguistic state. The militants among the Punjab Hindus represented by the Sanyukt Punjab Sanrakshan Samiti represented to the Parliamentary Committee on Punjabi Suba that66 'the real motive underlying this demand is to have an area in which only the Sikhs are in a majority and which can ultimately be carved out as an independent state, and a sort of buffer state between India and Pakistan.' Nayyar67 reminded the audience at a conference held at Princeton University in 1985 that at the time of partition of Punjab in 1947, India welcomed half of the total Sikh population as refugees from Pakistan; that their religion, being a combination of Hinduism and Islam - which is Semitic - is, like all Semitic religions, inherently separatist. He stated that Muslims and Sikhs have come out of Hindus; that Sikh nationalism does not emerge from oppression but that it seeks power; that Sikh nationalism is in conflict with Indian nationalism and the secular Indian state has priority; that, by the very nature of their religion, the Sikh community is highly organized, combines religion and politics, institutionalizes conflict, sanctifies violence, uses a coercive approach, including effecting demographic changes through murders, in order to correct the status inconsistency of its enormous economic power and low political power. In his opinion, there was no possibility of reaching any agreement with the Akalis because their ambition was unbounded. He claimed that the line 'the Khalsa shall rule' in the Sikh daily prayer does not mean rule only over Punjab but implies a building of momentum to achieve a separate state; to get concessions, consolidate them and then proceed to another

62 Ibid, page 104.

63 Ibid, page 69.

64 Interview with Ramesh Vinayak: India Today, November 30, 1996, page 184. 65 Kuldip Nayar and Khushwant Singh, Tragedy of Punjab, Vision Books, New Delhi,  984, page 9. 66 Memorandum presented to the Parliamentary Committee on Punjabi Suba by Sanyukt Punjab Sanrakshan Samiti of Sarvadeshik Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, New Delhi, page 18. 67 B.R. Nayyar, Speech at the conference. The Proceedings titled 'India's Democracy', edited by Atul Kohli, published by Princeton University Press, 1988, do not contain the text of this speech. The above reference is from this writer's notes taken at the conference. No Sikh was invited to the conference. The writer was member of a group of Sikhs who sought and were given permission to attend on the last day of the conference. state. Summing up the tragic events of June 1984, he believed that the Akalis had assumed that the Government would be deterred from taking action against the Sikhs because of the number of Sikhs in the army but that, sadly for the Akalis, Mrs. Gandhi also knew this and planned accordingly. He warned the Sikhs that the achievement of Khalistan was not going to be a costless process. Apparently, even very learned Hindus, assuming an extremist posture, accused the Sikhs of demanding a separate state when they were not. They equated the Sikh religion with anti-nationalism, and along with the Indian Government in which they were dominant, acted to control and crush a minority faith they had taught themselves to dread.

3. Persecution of Sikhs: 1947-1966

Persecution of Sikhs in Hindu-dominated India began immediately after India's freedom from British rule. A policy letter68 dated October 10, 1947 from the Punjab Government informed the Deputy Commissioners69 that 'the Sikhs, as a community, were a lawless people and were thus a menace to the law-abiding Hindus in the province', and called upon the Deputy Commissioners to take special measures against them. The Sikhs were still a minority in Punjab. Government was the biggest employer and most of the senior positions in the various departments were held by Hindus. Sikh employees were routinely harassed and penalized on trivial grounds. The case of Kapur Singh's dismissal from Indian Civil Service is well-known. There were numerous other cases of Sikh officials being victimized. Sikhs were removed from key positions in government and denied opportunities for advancement in practically all fields of employment. It was subtly made known that they would improve their chances of advancement if they gave up the external marks of their Sikh religious identity. Those who did not were dubbed as communal-minded. Whenever a Sikh superior tried to discipline a subordinate Hindu official, the typical defense was to accuse the superior of communalism. If a Sikh official was a regular visitor to the local gurdwara, he was dubbed as communal-minded. In other states as well, the policy against Sikhs was the same. Representations by Sikh leadership were largely ignored. Typical of this was the Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh's defense of the Tenancy Act according to which 'Rai Sikhs, Jat Sikhs, Virk Sikhs, and Kamboh Sikhs, were classified as criminal tribes'70.

4. The Sikh Predicament

Under unrelenting pressure from the Hindu extremists and in view of the Indian Government's policies, the Sikhs in Punjab and elsewhere in India felt threatened. There was a marked increase in apostasy and Sikhs who held strongly to their religious practices felt that they were at a disadvantage in matters of economic and political advancement in India. Khushwant Singh expressed the Sikh predicament very well. Listing the reasons for increasing apostasy among Sikhs, he stated71: 'There is a close connection between the Punjabi language and Sikhism. In families where Punjabi has been replaced by other languages - English among the rich and the anglicized, Hindi among those desirous of getting the best in a Hindu-dominated India - the study of the Granth, the observance of Sikh ritual and Khalsa tradition have had a  68 Kapur Singh, Saachi Saakhi, Navyug Publishers, Chandni Chowk, Delhi, 1979, page 209-210. 69 Executive heads of administrative districts of the state. 70 Joyce Pettigrew, Robber Noblemen, Rutledge & Kegan Paul, London and Boston, 1975, page 219. 71 Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, Volume 2, Oxford University Press, Indian Edition 1977, pages 304-305. short lease of life.' He went on to note that 'with the resurgence of Hinduism, the official commitment to secularism is being reduced to a meaningless clause in the constitution. The emphasis on Sanskrit and Hindi, study of the Aryan classics, insertion of cow-protection as a directive clause of the constitution, the increase in the number of cow-protection societies, the growth of Hindu political groups such as the Bhartiya Jan Sangh and the militant R.S.S.S.72, and the suspicion with which other minorities have come to be regarded are but some indications of the way the wind is blowing. Hindus, who form 80 percent of the population, will in due course make Hinduism the state religion of India.' He concluded: 'The only chance of survival of the Sikhs as a separate community is to create a state in which they form a compact group, where the teaching of Gurmukhi and the Sikh religion is compulsory, and where there is an atmosphere of respect for the traditions of their Khalsa forefathers.' This was perhaps the first call for creation of Khalistan, a sovereign Sikh state. From the militant Hindus' point of view, in order to prevent the creation of an autonomous state envisaged in Khushwant Singh's comments, it was necessary to vigorously pursue the policy of undermining the identity of Sikhs as a separate religious community.

5. Akali Agitation for a Punjabi-speaking State

Faced with this situation, the Shromani Akali Dal started an agitation for the creation of a Punjabi-speaking state. The agitation was sternly suppressed. A solution was arrived at in the form of the Regional Formula but its implementation was delayed because of Hindu opposition. The All India Bhartiya Jan Sangh, the Haryana Lok Samiti, and the Punjab Hindi Raksha Samiti maintained that 'although Punjabi is understood by the vast majority of people in the Punjab, it is nothing more than a spoken language, or a mere dialect' and that 'Gurmukhi is a religious script of the Sikhs and cannot be foisted on non-Sikhs'73. In 1966, Indira Gandhi finally agreed  o the creation of a Punjabi-speaking state. Unfortunately, several Punjabi-speaking areas contiguous to Punjab were left out and merged with neighboring states because the population there happened to be Hindu. The Punjab Boundary Commission excluded Kharar Tehsil from Punjab. The Commission argued74: 'Having regard to the special position of Chandigarh which occupies together with its controlled area a large part of the tehsil, superiority of Punjabi speaking rural population in the tehsil cannot be given undue importance' and recommended 'that Kharar Tehsil, including the Chandigarh Capital Project be merged with the Hindi-speaking State.' We must note here the dissenting note by Mr. S. Dutt of the Commission. Finally, Chandigarh was kept out of both Hindi and Punjabi speaking areas and given the status of Unilon Territory. In 1987, Gujral stated75 that he had advised Indira Gandhi to exclude these Punjabi-speaking Hindu majority areas from Punjab despite protests by the Sikh leaders. He recalled that he had reminded the Akali leaders that if these areas were included in Punjab, Sikhs would be in a minority. Apparently, the Sikhs, motivated more by the desire to preserve their  istinct culture and faith rather than ambition for political dominance, were willing to live as a minority in a

72 Rashtriya Svayam Sevak Sangh, a militant Hindu organization. 73 Report of the Punjab Commission, (The Das Commission Report) Government of India, 1962, page 15. 74 Punjab Boundary Commission Report, Government of India, New Delhi, 1966, page 46. 75 I.K. Gujral, Speech at an international conference held at University of California, Los Angeles, October 24-25, 1987 on 'Punjab Crisis: Possible Paths to  resolution'. Proceedings of the conference were not published. The report here is based upon the author's notes taken at the conference.  Punjab that was Punjabi-speaking and protested76 these exclusions. While they felt betrayed that they had got a truncated Punjab, the view of the national leadership was that a state based on

religion had been created which needed to be economically and politically controlled to avoid the possibility of secession. The Shromani Akali Dal successfully launched a 'save democracy' agitation against the declaration of a state of national emergency in 1975. It is possible that the leadership of the ruling Congress Party concluded at that time that the Sikhs had to be weakened and rendered incapable of launching successful agitations in the future.

6. Government Policies After Creation of the Punjabi-Speaking State

a. Sikh Views Ignored and the Hindu Minority in the State Given De Facto Veto

The Hindu-majority Indian Government has allowed the Hindu minority in Punjab a de facto veto in Punjab affairs. Even trivial requests such as the installation of a transmitter atDarbar Sahib, naming of a railroad train, equitable distribution of river waters and enforcement of riparian rights, imposing restrictions on smoking, securing adequate prices for agricultural produce, etc., by the Sikhs, were vehemently and successfully opposed by extremist Hindu elements with consistent support from the Indian Government. India is credited with being the country where methods of peaceful protest and non-violent non-cooperation were first introduced. However, in 'free' India, the Sikhs were not allowed this privilege. Whenever they launched any protest, the Government response was to arrest all the Sikh leaders and thousands of other Sikhs. This invariably led to replacement of the original demands by a demand for release of the detainees. After prolonged struggle, numerous arrests, tortures, and other suffering, the Government would agree to release the prisoners but the original demands would remain unsatisfied.

b. Economic Demands Seized Upon as Opportunity for Religious Oppression

Punjab has had reasons to be dissatisfied with the Indian Government's hesitation in

developing the state's industry. Gujral77, among others, has catalogued the economic difficulties experienced by the state of Punjab. The Sikhs viewed the Government's reluctance to develop Punjab industrially as a weapon being used against them, forcing them to tow the line or suffer. The central government in India saw the economic problems of Punjab in communal light. Shiva78, describing the economic difficulties of the Punjab farmers, states: 'On Jan 31, 1984, a call for 'rasta roko' (road blockade) was given and farmers got Rs. 12.5 crore79 in relief for the pest damage to their cotton crop. On March 12, 1984, the Bhartiya Kisan Union started a gherao (blockade) of the Punjab Raj Bhawan (Governor's residence) at Chandigarh demanding a withdrawal of enhanced electricity rates, higher procurement price for wheat and the scrapping of APC and its replacement

76 Resolution passecd on July 20, 1966 by Shromani Akali Dal, reproduced in Saachi Sakhi by Kapur Singh, Navyug Publishers, Chandni Chowk, Delhi, 1979, page 248. 77 I.K. Gujral, The Economic Dimension, in Punjab in Indian Politics, Edited by Amrik Singh, Ajanta Publications, New Delhi, 1985, pages 42-53. 78 Vandana Shiva, The Violence of The Green Revolution, Research Foundation for Science and Ecology, Dehra Dun, 1989, page 127-128. 79 One 'crore' is ten million. 'Rs. 'is abbreviation for 'Rupees'. by an agricultural 'cost' commission. Finally on March 18, 1984 an agreement was reached and the gherao lifted.' She goes on to state that 'In May 1984, the farmers' agitation was at its height in Punjab. For a week, from May 10 to 18, farmers gheraoed the Punjab Bhawan (Governor's house) since the state was under President's rule. By conservative estimates, at any time, more than 15-20 thousand farmers were present in Chandigarh during the gherao. Earlier, from May 1 to 7, the farmers had decided to boycott the grain markets to register their protest against the central government procurement policy. On 23rd May, 1984, Harchand Singh Longowal, the Akali Dal President, announced that the next phase of the agitation would include attempts to stop the sale of foodgrains to the Food Corporation of India...On 3rd of June, Mrs. Gandhi called out the army in Punjab and on the 5th of June the Golden Temple was attacked, which was for the Sikhs, an attack on the Sikh faith and Sikh dignity and honor. After Operation Bluestar, as the military operation was called, the Sikhs as a farming community had been forgotten; only Sikhs as a religious community remain in national consciousness.' It has been argued that violence in Punjab was promoted by the Green Revolution hat led to a dramatic increase in the number of poor unemployed educated Sikh youth, willing to be drawn into violent protest. Kumar and Lorenz80 attribute the unemployment of the rural youth in Punjab to import of cheap labor from neighboring states and to reluctance of the Hindus, who control industry and trade in the state, to employ rural Sikhs. The economic component to the Punjab problem was a secondary factor and, as explained in the previous paragraph, arose out of discrimination against rural Punjabis most of whom happened to be Sikh. However, the Government used the economic demands by the Punjab farmers as voiced by the Shromani Akali Dal as a pretext for religious persecution. Placing things in perspective, Sant Bhindranwale noted81: 'This Government does not like the sight of the turban, the beard, the shorts and the kirpaan'. He criticized82 the Akali leadership: 'They do not talk about the history of gurmat83 and, going out, they beat their drums over degrees; over public offices, over prices; over water;0 over soap and linseed oil. They only emphasize these things. No one pays any attention to the Sikh appearance, the beard and the hair, and kirpaans and weapons.' He went on to ask the Sikhs: 'If they approve a price of 25084 instead of 200 but send you all home shaved clean, would those fifty rupees be worthwhile? If you get a couple of rupees less or more in prices but you are in you home (Faith) with complete Sikh appearance and in favor with the Guru, would that be beneficial or would it be better if you get the fifty rupees but are shaved off and become sons of Hindus?' Sant Bhindranwale's concern was for the survival of the Sikh religion as an independent faith. He had little interest in political issues. Harry Reasoner85 of CBS News asked Sant Bhindranwale: 'If I was to tell Americans very briefly what you want, what should I say? What do you want?' The Sant replied: 'We want to bring an end to the slavery which has been put around the necks of the Sikhs'. Reasoner further asked: 'Some people, even some Sikhs, say 80 Ram Narayan Kumar and Lorenz Skerjanz, Disappearances in Punjab, A videotape documentary, 1995.

81 Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Speech on October 16, 1983.

82 Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Speech on April 1, 1984

83 Gurmat literally means 'Guru's wisdom'; here, the Sikh faith.

84 Price in rupees for procurement of grain from the farmers by the government. Farmers in Punjab have been required to sell

their harvest only to the government at prices fixed by the government.

85 Harry Reasoner, Report on CBS News - 60 minutes, June 1984.

that this is not a religious movement but a political movement: Is that partly true?' Sant Bhindranwale replied: 'No; that is false.' As far as Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was concerned, his only demand was for freedom to preach his faith.

c. Subversion and Control of Religious Organizations. The Indian Government sought to subvert and/or control the Sikhs and their religious organizations by dividing and weakening them. According to Malik86: 'Covert government support to splinter and fringe groups amongst the Sikhs like the Nirankaris, was also part of the game. Directly linked to this strategy and a result of it was the bloody clash in Amritsar in 978, between the breakaway sect of the Nirankaris and Bhindranwale's supporters, which triggered off the entire sequence of events leading to Operation Bluestar.' 86 Harji Malik, The Politics of Alienation, in Punjab-The Fatal Miscalculation, Edited by Patwant Singh and Harji Malik, Patwant Singh, New Delhi, 1985, page 36.

SANT JARNAIL SINGH BHINDRANWALE - LIFE, MISSION, AND MARTYRDOM

PART II

INTRODUCTION

This is the second part of an essay concerned with life, mission and martyrdom of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. In this part, we describe his life and mission as well  as the growth of opposition to him. We specially note the campaign of misrepresentation and vilification carried on by the Government as well as the news media in propagating certain myths. The third and final part will address the specific allegations levelled against the Sant by the Indian Government, and considers his relationship with the Shromani Akali Dal.

A. SANT BHINDRANWALE - LIFE AND MISSION

1. Early Life and Success as a Sikh Preacher

Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was born in village Rode located in Faridkot District of Punjab, in 1947. From his childhood, he had a religious bent of mind. Sant Gurbachan Singh Khalsa, head of the Damdami Taksaal, the premier Sikh religious school, visited the child's village and suggested to Joginder Singh, Jarnail Singh's father, that his son join the Taksaal as a student. Coming to the Taksaal in 1965, Jarnail Singh received instruction in Sikh theology and history under Sant Gurbachan Singh's tutelage and later Sant Kartar Singh Bhindranwale's. He grew up to be an effective preacher of the faith. On August 25, 1977, upon the death of Sant Kartar Singh, he became head of the Taksaal. From July 1977 to July 1982, Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale extensively toured cities and villages of Punjab to preach the Sikh faith. He also visited other states and cities in India. Wherever he went, he carried Siri Guru Gobind Singh Sahib's message to every home exhorting Sikhs to take Amrit, observe the Sikh appearance, and live according to the teachings of Siri Guru Granth Sahib. As Tavleen Singh tells us87: 'His philosophy in six words was Nashey chaddo, Amrit chhako, Gursikh bano (Give up addictions, Take Amrit, Become good Sikhs)'. Explaining his mission, he said88: 'My mission is to administer Amrit, to explain the meanings of Gurbani89 and to teach Gurbani to those around me; ... and (to tell people) that a Hindu should be a firm Hindu, a Muslim should be a firm Muslim, and a Sikh should be a firm Sikh'. His preaching was based on love. He said90: 'If we speak to someone with hatred and try to assert our superiority, it will create hatred in the minds of everyone. So long as we have the spirit of love, so long as we have the support of Satguru Hargobind Sahib, the Master of Miri and Piri, is there any power on earth that can subdue us?' He wanted the Sikhs to 'come back to Anandpur, their home' by taking Amrit, and become his brothers and sons of Siri Guru Gobind Singh Sahib.

87 Tavleen Singh, Terrorists in the Temple, in The Punjab Story, edited by Amarjit Kaur et al., Roli Books , 1984, page 33.

88 Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Interview dated February 22, 1984 with a family visiting from Canada.

89 Gurbani, means Guru's word, i.e., contents of Guru Granth Sahib.

90 Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Speech onJuly 16, 1983.

Sant Bhindranwale had a charismatic personality and spoke in simple village idiom. Those who listened to him, were impressed by his simple living, personal charm, and clear thinking. Joyce Pettigrew, who met him in 1980, writes91: 'There was a very close association between the Sant and the people, as I myself witnessed on a visit to meet Sant Bhindranwale in Guru Nanak Niwas.' According to Shiva,92 Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale 'gained his popularity with the Punjab peasantry by launching an ideological crusade against the cultural corruption of Punjab. The most ardent followers of Bhindranwale in his first phase of rising popularity were children and women, both because they were relatively free of the new culture of degenerative consumption, and they were worst hit by the violence it generated. In the second phase of Bhindranwale's popularity, men also joined his following, replacing vulgar movies with visits to gurdwaras, and reading the 'gurbani' in place of pornographic literature. The Sant's following grew as he successfully regenerated the 'good' life of purity, dedication and hard work by reviving these fundamental values of the Sikh religion's way of life. The popularity of Bhindranwale in the countryside was based on this positive sense of fundamentalism as revitalizing the basic moral values of life that had been the first casualty of commercial capitalism. During the entire early phase of Bhindranwale's preaching, he made no antigovernment or anti-Hindu statement, but focused on the positive values of the Sikh religion. His role was largely that of a social and religious reformer.'

According to Khushwant Singh93:

'Within a short period of becoming head of the Taksaal, Jarnail Singh came to be

recognized as the most effective instrument of renaissance of Sikh fundamentalism. He toured villages exhorting Sikh youth to return to the spartan ways of the Khalsa started by Guru Gobind Singh: not to clip their beards, to abstain from smoking, drinking and taking drugs. Wherever he went, he baptized94 young men and women by the hundreds. An integral part of his preaching was that all Sikhs should, as had been required by their warrior Guru Gobind Singh, be shastradharis - weapon-bearers.' Tully and Jacob95 state that: 'In spite of the Government's propaganda, to many people Bhindranwale remained a sant, or holy man, not a terrorist.' The religious revival lead by Sant Bhindranwale resulted in a large number of Sikhs, especially the youth, receiving initiation into the Sikh faith. According to Khushwant Singh96: 'Bhindranwale's amrit prachar was a resounding success. Adults in their thousands took oaths in public to abjure liquor, tobacco and drugs and were baptized. Video 91 Joyce Pettigrew, The Sikhs of the Punjab: Unheard Voices of State and Guerrilla Violence, Zed Books Ltd., London, U.K. 1995, page 35. 92 Vandana Shiva, The Violence of The Green Revolution, Research Foundation for  cience and Ecology, Dehra Dun, 1989, pages 129-130. 93 Kuldip Nayar and Khushwant Singh, Tragedy of Punjab, Vision Books, New Delhi, 1984, page 25. 94 Many writers erroneously use this term to describe the ceremony of taking Khande da Pahul or taking Amrit- formal initiation into the Sikh faith. 95 Mark Tully and Satish Jacob, Amritsar, Mrs. Gandhi's Last Battle, Rupa, New Delhi, 1985, pages  05-206. 96 Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, Volume 2: 1839-1988, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, Delhi, India, 1991, page 329. cassettes showing blue films and cinema houses lost out to the village gurdwara. Men not only saved money they had earlier squandered in self-indulgence, but now worked longer hours on their lands and raised better crops. They had much to be grateful for to Jarnail Singh who came to be revered by them as Baba Sant Jarnail Singhji Khalsa Bhindranwale.' When Sant Bhindranwale was staying in the Darbar Sahib complex during 1982 and  983, four to five hundred persons97 were administered Amrit each Wednesday and Sunday. On April 13, 1983 over ten thousand were initiated and during the month ending on April 13, 1984, forty-five thousand Sikhs received Amrit98. This revival was extremely significant and Sant Bhindranwale was emerging as the leading figure in the Sikh faith and a role-model for the youth. I was once told by a relative that his two sons had stopped taking tea. I asked him why, and if they had been to see Sant Bhindranwale. The reply was: 'No, it is just the way things are in Punjab. The young people love and admire him so much that if they come to know what the Sant does or doesn't do, they like to follow his example.' People sought his advice and intercession for personal problems and conflict resolution. Khushwant Singh reports99: 'On a later visit to Amritsar I got an inkling into the reasons of Bhindranwale's popularity. I will narrate two incidents to illustrate this. One day a young girl came to see Bhindranwale. ..... She clutched his feet and sobbed out her story of how she was maltreated by her husband's family for failing to extract more money from her parents and of her husband's unwillingness to take her side. Bhindranwale asked her name and where she lived. "So you are a daughter of the Hindus," he said. "Are you willing to become the daughter of a Sikh?" She nodded. Bhindranwale sent a couple of his armed guards to fetch the girl's family. An hour later a very frightened trio consisting of the girl's husband and his parents were brought to his presence. "Is this girl a daughter of your household?", he demanded. They admitted she was. "She tells me that you want money from her father. I am her father." He placed a tray full of currency notes before them and told them: "take whatever you want". The three fell at his feet and craved forgiveness.' Khushwant Singh100 tells us that he was so respected that, after his election to be head of the Damdami Taksaal in preference to Amrik Singh, son of Sant Kartar Singh, 'instead of resenting the choice, Amrik Singh became a confidante and collaborator of Jarnail Singh.'

2. Conflict with Sant Nirankaris

Sant Bhindranwale first gained prominence in public life when he organized a protest to stop the Sant Nirankari assembly in Amritsar on April 13, 1978 after he was unsuccessful in persuading the administration to stop it. A group of one hundred persons, including 25 from Sant Bhindranwale's group and 75 from the Akhand Kirtani Jatha, participated in this peaceful 97 Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Speech on May 24, 1984. 98 Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Speech on April 13, 1984. 99 Kuldip Nayar and Khushwant Singh, Tragedy of Punjab, Vision Books, New Delhi, 1984, page 23. 100 Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, Volume 2: 1839-1988, Oxford University Press, Delhi, India, 1991, page 328. protest. These unarmed people were fired upon by Nirankari gunmen leaving 13 dead and 78 wounded. The police, instead of stopping the massacre, hurled tear-gas at the protestors101 converting them into sitting ducks. A police officer who was present at the scene told this writer that the Sikh protestors had agreed to stop some distance away from the Nirankari assembly and to wait for the police to negotiate with the Nirankaris to end their public meeting. However, while they were waiting, Nirankari gunmen moved behind a row of busses, parked on one side of the road, to come to the rear of the protestors and opened fire. The leader of the protestors was shot dead by one of the police officials as he tried to persuade the police to intervene and stop the killing. Every attempt was made to avoid punishing the guilty. Instead of apprehending those who had committed the heinous crime, the local authorities escorted them safely out of the state. Sant Bhindranwale felt specially let down by Parkash Singh Badal, then Chief Minister