The Sikh Diaspora: The Search for Statehood - Vidhia.com

esult of conflict between dominant nation-states and their minorities,
wars and insurgencies have created ever more refugees across the
globe. 5 Emergence of international relief agencies, including the United
Nations (UN), the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
(UNPO) and the NGOS, testify to human upheavals resulting from the
new global map (Brett 1995). Arendt (1973:290) has noted this tragic
fallout:
Since the Peace treaties of 1919 and 1920, the refugees and the
stateless persons have attached themselves like a curse to all the
newly established states on earth which were created in the image
of the nation-state. For these new states, this curse bears the
germs of a deadly sickness.
Violation of human rights has increased, primarily due to indigenous
nationalists’ intolerance of minorities (Stohl & Lopez 1986; McGarry &
Leary 1993; Gurr 1993, 1994). Paradoxically, many imperial regimes
were far more tolerant of people with distinct languages, religions or
customs. Sharing none of their predecessors’ benign tolerance,
postcolonial nationalists in the Far East, South Asia and Africa have
resorted to various measures from assimilation to genocide. As
Kedourie (1970) noted:
To an imperial government the groups in a mixed area are all
equally entitled to some consideration, to a national government
they are a foreign body to be either assimilated or rejected. The
national state claims to treat all citizens as equal members of the
nation, but this fair-sounding principle only serves to disguise the
tyranny of one group over another. The nation must be, all its
citizens must be, animated by the same spirit. Differences are
divisive and therefore treasonable.
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Many ethnic communities engaged in the “homeland” struggle have
often received crucial help from their co-ethnics settled abroad. 6 The
Sikhs provide a particularly illuminating case study of attracting
sympathy and support from their co-ethnics settled abroad, support for
their struggle towards statehood. The Sikh nationalist movement has
embroiled overseas Sikh communities in this debate and mobilization,
making them part of a large phenomenon of such ethnic groups in the
international arena involved in the “homeland” issue.