Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale - Sikh Missionary Society (UK)

state. Summing up the tragic events of June 1984, he believed that the Akalis had assumed thatthe Government would be deterred from taking action against the Sikhs because of the numberof Sikhs in the army but that, sadly for the Akalis, Mrs. Gandhi also knew this and plannedaccordingly. He warned the Sikhs that the achievement of Khalistan was not going to be acostless process. Apparently, even very learned Hindus, assuming an extremist posture, accusedthe Sikhs of demanding a separate state when they were not. They equated the Sikh religion withanti-nationalism, and along with the Indian Government in which they were dominant, acted tocontrol and crush a minority faith they had taught themselves to dread.3. Persecution of Sikhs: 1947-1966Persecution of Sikhs in Hindu-dominated India began immediately after India's freedomfrom British rule. A policy letter 68 dated October 10, 1947 from the Punjab Governmentinformed the Deputy Commissioners 69 that 'the Sikhs, as a community, were a lawless peopleand were thus a menace to the law-abiding Hindus in the province', and called upon the DeputyCommissioners 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 variousdepartments were held by Hindus. Sikh employees were routinely harassed and penalized ontrivial 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 fromkey positions in government and denied opportunities for advancement in practically all fields ofemployment. It was subtly made known that they would improve their chances of advancementif they gave up the external marks of their Sikh religious identity. Those who did not weredubbed as communal-minded. Whenever a Sikh superior tried to discipline a subordinate Hinduofficial, the typical defense was to accuse the superior of communalism. If a Sikh official was aregular visitor to the local gurdwara, he was dubbed as communal-minded. In other states aswell, the policy against Sikhs was the same. Representations by Sikh leadership were largelyignored. Typical of this was the Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh's defense of the Tenancy Actaccording to which 'Rai Sikhs, Jat Sikhs, Virk Sikhs, and Kamboh Sikhs, were classified ascriminal tribes' 70 .4. The Sikh PredicamentUnder unrelenting pressure from the Hindu extremists and in view of the IndianGovernment's policies, the Sikhs in Punjab and elsewhere in India felt threatened. There was amarked increase in apostasy and Sikhs who held strongly to their religious practices felt that theywere at a disadvantage in matters of economic and political advancement in India. KhushwantSingh expressed the Sikh predicament very well. Listing the reasons for increasing apostasyamong Sikhs, he stated 71 : 'There is a close connection between the Punjabi language andSikhism. In families where Punjabi has been replaced by other languages - English among therich and the anglicized, Hindi among those desirous of getting the best in a Hindu-dominatedIndia - the study of the Granth, the observance of Sikh ritual and Khalsa tradition have had a68 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 304-305.13