It is painful that so many educated Sikhs, even if many of them are Akalis or Akali sympathisers, should have responded the way they have to my article “The Sikhs Are In Danger” three weeks ago. And it is positively shocking that even a single Sikh, Akali or non-Akali, should have believed that the sub-title of the article “only an hour before midnight” was intended to expose the community to ridicule. Serious writers do not indulge in sick jokes on serious occasions.
To be candid, I do not have much sympathy for the Akali agitation which has gone on and on and in the process acquired extremist, violent and openly communal overtones. I sincerely believe that the agitation is misconceived because Sikhs cannot, in my opinion, possibly have any genuine grievances.
No one has ever questioned their right to practise their faiths as they like. In their case, no one in a position of authority has even drawn attention to the fact that they mix religion with politics which is not permitted under the Constitution. For to the best of my knowledge, no one has ever demanded that the Akali Dal be banned on the ground that it is an avowedly communal organisation. The Sikhs are by far the dominant community in Punjab. Though their majority is pretty thin, they hold a vast majority of important jobs in every department of the state administration. Their representation in the armed forces and central services is far in excess of what their numbers can justify. And they have prospered in the country as a whole – from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from the Wagah border to Calcutta.
But in the article in question, it was not my intention or purpose to go into the legitimacy or otherwise of the Akali demands. I was primarily concerned about the possible consequences of the agitation and its offshoot by way of the deliberate assassination of Hindus in Punjab. The happenings in Haryana had alarmed me and convinced me that in the interest of the Sikh community itself, not to speak of the nation, it had become unavoidable to speak out frankly.
No Foreign Agents
As is well known, the authorities have tried to blame foreign agents for the murder of Hindus in the state but without any success whatsoever. It would have helped if half a dozen such agents had materialised. But they have not. Indeed, extremist Akali leaders and organisations have made no worthwhile effort to dissociate themselves from these crimes against innocent fellow citizens. The Akali chief, Sant Longowal, has gone through the motion of denouncing murders. But he has made no serious effort to mobilise the Sikh community on this issue. It cannot be seriously denied that this has alienated Hindus in Punjab from Sikhs.
This was cause enough for concern, especially after the communal riots in Patiala last summer. But up to the time of the ugly developments in Haryana where a large number of innocent Sikhs have been harassed, insulted and beaten up and in some cases murdered just because some of their fellow-religionists have committed similar crimes in adjoining state, it was still possible to hope that the problem of Hindu-Sikh alienation could perhaps be limited to Punjab. This was not much of a consolation. But it was some consolation. The events in Haryana shattered that hope.
So what does one do in such a situation? Haul the Haryana government over the coals? Hold the Haryana chief minister, Mr. Bhajan Lal, guilty of having inspired or even organised the assaults on Sikhs? One can certainly do that and salvage one’s conscience. But what would that achieve? For at the bottom of the dangerous developments is the Akali agitation and unless that is called off, it is just not possible to reverse the process of growing Hindu-Sikh alienation.
It is, of course, possible to adopt another approach. One can blame, as many worthies have done, Mrs. Gandhi for the impasse in the government-Akali talks and urge her to concede the Akali demands. But apart from weakening the moral authority of the only leader who possibly possesses the stature and the stamina to cope with the problems arising out of the agitation, what would that approach achieve?
A visible demonstration of weakness on the part of the Union government, especially the Prime Minister, can result in what perhaps the Akali extremists are trying desperately to promote – a feeling of insecurity among Hindus in Punjab, particularly in the countryside, so that they see no alternative but to leave. And can anyone in his senses doubt that such an exodus would send shock waves throughout the land, especially in the adjoining states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan?
Script Issue Irrelevant
This is not hallucination which some demented individuals have conjured up. It is a spectre which has been haunting those in charge of the country’s affairs for some weeks, if not months. The spectre needs to be laid in the interest of the nation of which Sikhs are an integral part and it cannot be laid unless the Akali agitation is called off.
The Akalis have made much of the fact that at the time of the 1951 census Hindus declared Hindi with Devnagari script as their language. In my last article I made the point that this was not a sudden decision and that it had a great deal to do with the Akali efforts over more than half a century earlier to give Sikhs a separate religious, cultural and political identity. I could have also recalled the Hindi-Urdu controversy in North India in that very period but did not because it would have widened the scope of the discussion.
Let me now quote from Mr. Paul Brass’s authoritative “Language, Religion and Politics in North India”: in the Punjab before independence, English and Urdu were both official languages. Consequently, it is not surprising that ‘Urdu’ or Persian script was by far the most important script for the literate population of the state… Hindus were the most advanced community in the Punjab for, even in ‘Urdu’… Hindus had more literates than the Muslims did in 1901 and nearly as many in 1931 … the leading scripts among Hindus were ‘Urdu’ and Lande in 1901 (with Hindi a strong third) and Urdu and Hindi in 1931, when Lande was not recorded… Hindu literates in Gurmukhi constituted… only six per cent of the total Hindu literates in the Punjab.” (Pp. 303-306).
More pertinently, what is the relevance of the issue today? By virtue of its closed membership (open only to Sikhs), if for no other reason, the Akali Dal could not have spoken for all Punjabis. In any case, having fought for and having secured the Punjabi Suba on behalf of, if not formally in the name of, Sikhs, the Akalis can have no genuine reason to be concerned over the “desertion” by Punjabi Hindus. After all, they could not have got a much bigger state even if Hindus had declared Punjabi to be their mother tongue. And if they had got one, that would have negated the Sikh majority in the new state and with it the central Akali objective of a Sikh-dominated state.
Secular Polity
No rational and objective person will buy an Akali denial in this regard. They cannot possibly deny that they have struggled for a Punjabi Suba and insisted on Gurmukhi being the script of the Punjabi language precisely because they have wanted a state Sikhs can dominate. In terms of the secular polity which the country has accepted and of which the minorities, including Sikhs, have been beneficiaries, this is not a legitimate goal. But it is a reality the country has been willing to live with.
Above all else, one fact has made that possible – the ability of the Congress party to prevent a Hindu-Sikh polarisation and secure enough support among both Hindus and Sikhs to stay far ahead of the principal Akali challenger. This has not prevented a Sikh domination of the state but it has tempered it sufficiently to make it acceptable to Hindus there. And it must be said to the credit of much maligned Punjabi Hindus, particularly in the countryside where they are in a minority, that they have stayed with this nationalist organisation rather than gone over to the Jana Sangh. The Jana Sangh vote has never touched even the 10 per cent mark.
The Akalis have tried the only other possible alternative to prevent a Hindu-Sikh rupture – an alliance with the Jana Sangh. But it did not work and in view of what is happening now it might [not] even be possible to attempt such a solution again for quite some time. So it is rather important that the Congress survives which in turn requires that the Hindu-Sikh divide is not made unbridgeable.
The Akali leadership is on trial as never before. For never before have we witnessed Hindu-Sikh clashes and desecration of Hindu temples and Sikh Gurdwaras by people who once saw themselves as members of one large fraternity. They have to decide whether they care enough for the survival of the possibility of the two communities being able to live together and work together to be willing to postpone their demands till such time as they can be discussed dispassionately. There is still time but not much. If they respond to the larger interests of the nation and their own community, they can retrieve much of the damage. If they do not, a disaster awaits us all.
The Times of India, 27 March 1984