Why Indira Ghandi sent the army into the Golden Temple resolution speaks of the Sikh quom (1) as a nation, and it calls for a federal structure for India, with extensive powers to the provincial governments. Only four items including defence and currency are to be left with the central government, according to the resolution. This demand
The shock waves sent through India and around the world by the storming of the Sikh Golden Temple in early June are still reverberating. At the very least, this dramatic incident highlighted explosive contradictions building up in the world's second most populous country.
On June 2, some 72,000 crack Indian troops went into action in the province of Punjab, where the majority of the Sikh religious group live.
The adjoining province of Haryana was carved out of old Punjab for non-
Sikhs who speak or claim to speak other languages than Punjabi.
warfare between Muslims and Hindus.
The traditional expression of Sikh communalism has been through the
Akali Dal party, which supports the demands for more political and religious rights for Sikhs summed up in the Anandpur Sahib resolution. There has been increasing agitation over the last few years by Sikhs in pursuance of these demands that has taken increasingly violent forms.
The following article was written in West Bengal shortly after the events, and indicates the complexity of the issues involved.
Inder SINGH
CALCUTTA - Several units of the Indian army, including tank battalions, as well as a large number of para-military units, moved in on the province of Punjab from June 2 this year. Their first target was the Golden Temple complex in
Amritsar. The Golden Temple, the chief holy place of the Sikhs, was being used a a shelter by 'extremist' Sikh leader Sant
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers.
Attacked on June 5, they held out for two days. Ultimately, around
350 Sikhs were killed before the governmental forces could gain control of the complex. This official figure is contested by Akali leaders.
Bacchan Singh Saral, a top leader of the West Bengal Akali Dal, for example, went on record stating that the actual number of casualties is close to double the government figure. This massive terror and murder campaign came in the wake of presidential orders throwing all foreigners out of Punjab, banning the publication of, or commentary on, any news regarding army activities in Punjab from inside the province, etc. Prolonged curfew was declared in Amritsar and other cities.
Only the central government-controlled TV, All India Radio and the national news agencies were permitted to put out news.
Thus, having apparently secured all its flanks, the government moved in to unleash a wave of terror unsurpassed in recent history.
At this stage, a brief account of events from June 1 would be useful. On the first of June, a gun battle at the Golden
Temple complex left 11 dead and 25 in-
The government responded by jured.
imposing a 32-hour curfew in Amritsar.
The next day, Prime Minister Gandhi
6 delivered a nationally publicised television speech roundly attacking the Punjab movement as 'extremist' and swearing to deal with it firmly before reopening negotiations. The decision to deploy the army was announced on the same
Shoot-at-sight orders were issued in Ludhiana and curfew was imposed on four more cities.
This was followed by an all-out attack on the Golden Temple complex else-
All kinds of one-sided news started coming out. The 'extremists' were aceused of using LMGs, MMGs, mortars, rockets, etc. This was used as a justification for the army-organised massacre, including the murder of priests and others who could not be called terrorists or combatants in any way. June 8, fighting was over inside the complex. Bhindranwale was 'found shot dead' - with the army disclaiming responsibility for his death. Roots of the Akali movement
Sikhs all over the country were stunned by these events. The only comparison they could make was with the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, when British imperialists slaughtered over a hundred
Even Khuswant Singh, a well-known pro-Indira Gandhi Sikh journalist, Bhusan award in protest.
this stage we must turn to the history of the Punjab movement and its evolution over the last two years.
The roots of the Akali movement go back quite far. Indeed, in certain respects it is as old as independent India. Broadly speaking, the present movement had stems largely from the growing economic might of the Jat-Sikh kulaks, combined with their fear that without these changes, they would remain a minority community deprived of their "just dues, and dependent on the central government and the Hindus.
The demands which mattered most, when the Akali 'moderates' were firmly in control of the movement, related to specific problems faced by Punjab. During the setting up of independent states on the sub-continent, it was decided to split Punjab. Lahore, the provincial cap Chandigarh, is not a part of the province. It houses the administrative centres of two provinces — Punjab and Haryana, and is itself administered separately. creation of Haryana as a separate province was itself an act fraugnt with grave consequences. As we shall see la was formed as much on religious grounds as on linguistic ones. Nor was this done very smoothly. Even now, Haryana insists that final territorial settlement has not been made, and that the Fazilka and Abohar enclaves belong to Haryana rather than to Punjab.
The economic problems are still more complicated. Punjab is one of the provinces in India where the Green Revolution has had extensive success. development of capitalism in agriculture was not followed by an equivalent industrial growth. Merchants and other non-entrepreneurial capitalists still have a strong grip over the economy of the re-
This has led to demands for concessions to promote industrial investment hidden behind a facade of complaints about 'deprivation' or 'oppression' of the Sikh community or the province.
At the same time, the very development of agrarian capitalism has created new problems. The Green Revolution cultivation areas require high irrigation. But Punjab's share of the waters of the rivers Ravi and Beas is quite low. All sections of the local peasantry are up in arms about this.
This Arabic word (plural Aqwam) enter ethnic group that is not necessarily, or not yet.
nation, something like "nationality." or "natsionalnost," in the Soviet usage. For the Anandpur Sahib resolution see IV, No 35. August 1, 1983. - IV
International Viewpoint 16 July 1984
Akali negotiators on roof of Golden Temple complex (DR)
To understand the religious and cultural issues involved in the agitation, we have to start from the 1940s. The partition of India in 1947 was along communal lines. Pakistan was a separate state for the Muslims. India was formally a secular state. But it had a distinct Hindu bias. As the Sikhs complain, at least one clause of the Indian constitution treats them as Hindus. However, given the electoral base of the Indian National Congress at that time [in which minorities were important], it was not possible to be overtly communal.
Even in those days, the Akali Dal led by Master Tara Singh tried to get recognition as a separate group who should be invited to the negotiations in that capacity. But the small, mainly urban-based Akali Dal did not have adequate muscle power to achieve that goal. Sikh grievances
In post-independence India, the status of Sikhism has often mixed with the political issues. On the political level, we should take note of two changes. The passing of the leadership of the Akalis from Master Tara Singh to Sant Fateh Singh reflected the transformation of the Akali Dal into a vehicle for the aspirations of the Jat-Sikh kulak peasantry. But inspite of their being the biggest group in Punjab, the Jats were kept out of power by electoral combinations against them. It was in response to this situation that they hit upon what seemed an ideal solution. If their movement could be given a religious colour, if the Sikhs could be shown as an oppressed community-cum-nationality, the electoral base could be widened substantially, as Sikhs comprise 52% of Punjab's population. International Viewpoint 16 July 1984
This approach was highly as Sikhs do have very genuine grievances. Moreover, Sikhism's history has been the history of forging a collective identity political and military means.
The Sikhs have, as a community, no doubt done better than many other Indian communities. But some major legitimate grievances still exist. There is a basic feeling of insecurity. In the orig inal province of Punjab in post-independence India, the language of the Punjabi people was formally a minority language.
who often could speak Hindi properly, still declared it to be their mother tongue during
This prevented the formation of majority province. (largely Sikh inspired) struggle, in which religious sentiments were freely evoked for the purposes of mobilisation, Haryana
But this led to increased fueled by the policies of the dominant bourgeois forces and the Central Govern-
Over the years, and especially since 1967, the electoral base of the Congress has been eroding. Centrifugal tendencies have been developing. In the face of this problem, an intensive 'national integration' campaign has been built up Hinduisation and the imposition of the Hindi language have been two of its key
Punjabi Hindus are encouraged to declare Hindi to be their mother tongue. Here we may add parenthetically that similar tactics are used in other narts of India as well. Thus, Bhojpuri, Chhattisgarhi, Maithili guages have been declared to be mere dialects of Hindi.
this means that the 48% non-Sikh population also claim, mostly, to be non-Punjabis. One one hand, this has increased Sikh apprehensions about the future. On the other hand, it has strengthened the false claim that the Sikhs are a nation, defined as such by their common religion. Hindu communalism
The last two years have seen a sharp rise in Hindu communalism. It is not the activities of openly communal organisations like Viswa Hindu Parishad, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or the Hindu Suraksha Samity that is most worrying, but the turn in Congress (1) policy and the policy of the government. The Congress (1) is even today the only 'national' party of the ruling class. As its old constituency, the so-called 'core minorities' turn away from it, it is making an all-out effort to rally the Hindu upper and intermediate castes behind it. This is noticeable at all levels - from Prime Minister Gandhi's display of religiosity to the open support given to intermediate caste-based private landlord armies which oppress the low-caste rural poor to equally open support to anti-Muslim, anti-Sikh or anti-tribal communal forces in every province.
The natural reaction of the religious minorities has been to come to distrust the government even more than they had done previously. Those who have a militant community religion tend to turn even more inward and reply to Hindu communalism by a growing minority communalism of their own.
Given this situation, and the necessity to combine religion with politics in order to build up a mass appeal, it was hardly that the 'extremists' in the movement could seize and retain the
Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale represented the organised 'extremist' faction. As religious overtones be-
came ever stronger, moderates such as former chief minister Badal, former union minister Barnala or even Sant Longowal, did not dare to oppose him too sharply. realised that they had caught a tiger by
They wanted to use the mass movement as a powerful weapon of pressure to achieve their specific economic would have preferred to forge a long-term Akali-Congress (I) alliance. tions within the Congress (I) also wanted
To return to Bhindranwale, as his inthe movement became more and more 'uncontrollable'. The demand for Khalistan [a Sikh state] or even for the proposal for restructuring centrestate relations made in the Anandpur Sahib resolutions, was not actually on the negotiation table. Nor were the religious demands like an all-India Gurdwara Act (2), radio broadcasts from the Golden Temple, etc., the key demands. These gradually displaced the demands concerning Chandigarh, Fazilka and Abohar, Ravi-Beas waters, and the like. The role of the left
This rise of extremism was a direct result of the government's tactics. For the last two years, dilatory tactics were adopted deliberately. Every time there was the possibility of a negotiated settlement, some attacks would be made on Sikhs, and the talks would receive a setback
Equally important was the support given to Hindu communalists and their organisations — like the Hindu Suraksha Samity. In Haryana, chief minister Bhajan Lal, Indira Gandhi's creature, openly aided attacks on Sikhs. No effort was made to win over the 'moderates' and isolate the 'extremists'. On the contrary, one might say that it was undeclared government policy to let the 'moderates' be discredited.
The response of the left was weak and inadequate at best. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) was in a total mess right from the start. The CPI(M)'s base in Punjab is practically the same as the Akali Dal's. As a result, the party took an opportunist stance.
Surjeet, the Punjab CPI(M) leader, tried to act as a go-between. was ultimately treated as an emissary of Mrs Gandhi, rather than as an 'honest
At the all-India level, the CPI(M)'s call for restructuring centre-state relations could have been another theme to bring the party closer to the Akalis. CPI(M) is also extremely concerned about 'national integration', by which it means you have to any movement imbalance, etc., the moment it steps out of the purely constitutionalist framework.
Rioting Hindus in Punjab (DR) In recent times, more than one CPI(M leader has voiced the idea that after the next parliamentary polls, they might be in a position to prop up a minority government at the centre, no doubt in return for concessions. With all these calculations, the CPI(M) eventually lined up against the Punjab movement when the crackdown began. The political bureau registered its formal unhappiness, but two political bureau members, M. Vasabpunnaiah and West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu, also expressed the view that the central government had been left with no options other than sending in the army.
The Communist Party of India, which has its base among a wider cross-section of the Punjabi population, took a more formally correct position. It called for tripartite negotiations between the Akalis, the central government and the 'national' opposition for a political settlement. It supported a few Akali demands, while opposing terrorism and violence on either side, and so on. But when it came to the final reckoning, the CPI issued a statement saying that the 'entire responsibility' for the events leading to the army takeover and the mass killings lay with and his followers. CPI's English language weekly New Age
Most far-left groups supported a number of the specific Sikh demands, opposing Sikh Hindu communal violence, but they also pointed out that the former sprang from the tacties of the centre.
But practically all shades of the left failed in two crucial ways. these related to the problems of the hundreds of (migrant) agricultural labourers. In peak Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other provinces. Given the extreme poverty in their own areas, they are willing to work for lower
VNDEKTAKING wages than their Punjabi counterparts. This forces down the wage rate. This in turn becomes a communal weapon used by Hindu and Sikh communalistss alike.
The Anadpur Sahib resolutions are, quite naturally, practically silent about the rural poor. A guaranteed minimum wage, based on the Consumer Price Index, is the minimum immediate requirement for the agricultural labourers. Quite understandably, the kulak-based Akali Dal could not offer this and mobilise the agricultural labourers around this slogan. But for the left not to raise this as a major agitational slogan was an error of serious proportions. This was the class issue in Punjab. Even if one had the sole idea of combatting communalism, slogan could have played a good The Sikh agriculturaral labourers' prejudice against their Hindu migrant counterparts could have been broken and the communalists on both sides given a re-
The second failure of the left, including most of the far left, was their inability to understand the role of communalism and how to combat it. Communalism does not mean - contrary to a belief that it is a force that is declining, if slowly - the activities of the fringe
For a few organisations like Communalism is present in the very fabric of Indian social and political life, including in the constitution and other laws. Even the much vaunted Nehru brand of secularism is a fake and a fraud. The Nehruite definition of secularism, accepted by most of the left, is equal toleration of, and equal patronage for, all religions. What criticisms are made are limited to the questions of how well this equality is applied in practice. This means that the left does not fight seriously for total separation of religion and education, for an end to state aid to 2. Temples. - IV
International Viewpoint 16 July 1984
propagation of religion, etc. The left has failed to realise that the creation of multiple spheres of intolerance, kept from uncontrolled clashes by the army and the police, is not secularism. Given today's situation, there is perhaps no alternative to supporting, as a temporary measure, the demand for equal right to propagate all religions through the radio, especially as Hinduism is propagated in that way. But it is up to the left to challenge this pseudo-secular approach, which actually aids communalism, and to put forward boldly the view that religion is an individual's private matter, and that secularism means total absence of state involvement in the propagation of religion.
The failure to challenge the official version of secularism has often been compounded by a false attitude of sympathy to minority communalism, often for crude electoral advantage. A glaring example is the repeated alliance between the CPI and CPI(M) on one hand and the Muslim League on the other. Similarly, though not for electoral alliances specifically, many far-left groups failed to oppose Sikh terrorism. Instead of clearly pointing out the futility of terrorism as a weapon of struggle, and arguing that a communal response to Hindu communalism will not in the long run benefit the Sikhs, and especially the toiling masses among them, they often kept silent. ister Against government repression have followed by
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Bengal, etc., rebelled, and in a number of cases shot down officers who tried to stop them. Eventually, over forty soldiers were killed in different parts of the country before these revolts could be quelled. In most barracks, Sikh soliders have been disarmed. Considering the quite high proportion of Sikhs in the Indian army, this poses a serious problem for the ruling class. desh, Nepal, in recent times. threat. and Pakistan were
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well done.
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INDIA
Indian women building a dam (DR)
to start the riots?
A. The riots started in Bhiwandi. Bhiwandi has a history of the worst communalist riots. In 1969 it had very massive and sustained riots. At that time the main brunt - as in all communal riots — was borne by the minority, mainly the Muslims.
This year during the Shiva (a well-known Hindu Lord) celebration, the leader of Shiv Sena (1) made a very communalist speech. Shiv Sena is a fascist organisation with a middle class and lumpen base, which is well trained in hooliganism. The Shiv Sena leader made vicious remarks about Hazreti Mohmen Paygamber, a Muslim saint [the prophet Muhammad], and he also said that unpatriotic elements and traitors would not have any place in India. This was published in an Urdu journal and it hurt the feelings of many Muslims.
Now, Bhiwandi is a center for the power-loom industry. Bombay has a history of textile industry, textiles wen the first industry in Bombay. In th course of rationalisation and mecha tion, when the old power looms redundant, sometimes the mill the factory owners, would give two power looms to their loyal as a gift (sometimes they would sel at a favourable price), because don't have any use for them. workers are mainly Muslims, beca