Till 1984, the Hindus and Sikhs lived in complete amity and clashes between the two communities are unheard of.
Sikhism was founded by Guru Nanak 500 years ago. It amalgamates
the concepts from Hinduism as well as Islam. He rejected the caste system and
called God as Nirankar or formless and condemned idol worship. He instituted
“Guru ka Langar” where people from all castes ate to break the barrier of
caste.
Hindus always considered Sikhs as a part and parcel of
Hinduism. The Hari Mandir was built in the middle of the sarovar by the 5th
guru, Guru Arjun. He got Guru Nanaks teachings compiled into the “Adi Granth”
which is today known as “Guru Granth Sahib.”
Mughal Emperor Jehangir suspected Guru Arjun in league with
his rebellious son Shah Jahan and got him imprisoned and tortured to death at
Lahore. Very unwisely the Indian Army in Operation Blue Star stormed the Golden
temple during the death anniversary of Guru Arjun when a high number of pilgrims would be present in the temple.
Guru Ajun’s son and successor Guru Hargobind constructed the
Akhal Takht, a symbol of the temporal power of Sikhism. The 10th
Guru Gobind Singh brought in the 5 K’s and forbade them to cut their heir.
One of the central tenets of Sikhism is that religion and
politics are indivisible.
When Ahmed Shah Abdali came to India he blew up the Golden
Temple and filled the pool with carcasses of slaughtered cattle. The Akhal
Takht was raged to the ground. The Sikhs rebuilt their shrines and maintained
them. Thereafter till 1984 no army has set foot in the Golden temple.
Later the Sikhs became powerful under Ranjit Singh who was
treated with great respect by the English. Ranjit Singh became the Maharaja of
Punjab when he was just 21. He was illiterate and was blind in one eye. He did
not follow the Sikh tenet that one should not drink. He was fond of Scotch
Whiskey and consumed it. He had 22 wives and many of them were Muslim and
Hindu. It was he who turned the temple into a Golden Temple.
Within 10 years of the death of Ranjit Singh the British have
defeated the Sikhs annexed the Punjab.
The biggest foe of Sikhism was Swami Dayananda Saraswathi who
founded the Arya Samaj in 1875. He said that both Punjabi Muslims and Sikhs
have been converted from Hinduism and therefore it is perfectly legitimate to
convert them back to Hinduism. The Arya Samaj had become a big converting force
in Punjab.
Before the birth of Arya Samaj in 1873 a group of rich landed
and orthodox Sikhs founded the movement of “Singh Sabhas”. The aim of these
Sabhas is to educate the Sikhs about their religion and to free them from Hindu
practices. They declared war on the Arya Samaj when it was launched and tried to
convert Hindus.
The Singh Sabha movement grew fast and set up Khalsa Schools
where the study of “Guru Granth Sahib” and the Gurmukhi script devised by Guru
Angad became compulsory.
After the Jalianwalabag massacre General Dyer was hailed as a
hero by the priests of Akhal Takht and the Golden Temple which shocked the
people of Punjab. That of course happened because British puppets were made as
priests. This support of Dyer led to the agitation of reform of Sikh places of
worship which were till then mostly controlled by Hindu Mahants. The agitation
continued for 5 years up till 1925 and produced the 2 institutions that
dominate Punjab politics today; The SGPC and the Akali Dal. The SGPC controls
all the Gurdwaras in Punjab.
Although they were solidly with the Congress and Gandhi in
Freedom struggle, they were thrown into a dilemma by the 2nd world
war. Many of the Sikhs were in the armed forces working for the British, so how
can they cooperate with the non cooperation movement? So many Sikhs did not
support it.
One of those non supporters was Master Tara Singh. He
dominated Sikh politics since the 1920’s. He was born a Hindu but got converted
to Sikhism at school. After doing his BA he became a schoolmaster. He became
active in Akali Dal and left his job, but the tile Master stayed with him. He
broke with the Congress and sided with the British in the war.
Sikh soldiers played a major role in the Indian national
Army. As per Captain Mohan Sigh, a third of the army or about 20,000 are Sikhs.
With partition Punjab was split into 2 with 40% of Sikhs in
Pakistan and 60% of the Sikhs in India. Later with rioting all the Sikhs have
migrated to India. So finally the Sikhs had a state where they are a majority.
The Sikhs are very hard working and with their work and also
aided by the Green Revolution concept as per which high yielding seeds,
improved fertilizers and irrigation techniques were concentrated in areas where
they are likely to yield good results. Those areas are Punjab, Haryana and
Western UP. With that Punjab became prosperous and a leading state in India.
For the Akali Dal the modernity that came in with prosperity
is seen as a threat to their faith. The modernity made the orthodox fearful.
Right since independence Master Tara Singh decided that the
only way to prevent modernism and Hinduism from drowning Sikhism is to demand
official recognition as a separate community. Even Nehru the staunchest
secularist was called as a communal Hindu by some of the Akalis.
Hindu and Sikh refugees from West Punjab had to fight to re
establish themselves and that led to communal tensions. Militant Hinduism took
political shape when the Bharatiya Jana Sangh was formed in 1951. It flourished
in the Punjab due to Arya Samaj’s influence.
In 1953 the states reorganization commission was set up b
Nehru to create states on linguistic basis (after the agitation in AP). The
commission rejected the demand for separate Punjabi speaking state saying that
Punjabi is not different from Hindi.
Master Tara Singh called this as a decree of annihilation of
the Sikhs and launched an agitation for a Punjabi Subha. The police took action
on Akali and SGPC members in 1955. Nehru maintained that the demand was
communal and did not budge an inch.
In 1960 Master Tara Singh launched another agitation and went
on a fast unto death on August 15. However, after fasting 43 days he just quit.
He was totally discredited and was sidelined after that and his political
career was over.
After that the Sikh leadership passed to Sant Fateh Singh who
was a Jat and stayed with the Jats. Nehru remained opposed to a Punjabi state
till his death, but Indira Gandhi conceded it in 1966.
Punjab was then split into Hindi speaking Haryana and Punjabi
speaking Punjab, while the Himalayan foothills became Himachal Pradesh. The
split Punjab had a Sikh population of 56% which is a bare majority hence it
became difficult for the Akalis to come to power. They tried an alliance with
Jana Sangh on a couple of occasions but it did not work. So the Sikhs went back
to agitational politics to retain their base.
Nehru felt Amritsar is too near to the Pak border to be a
capital of Punjab so with the help of the French architect Le Corbusier he got
Chandigarh built. When Punjab was split Chandigarh was treated as a separate
union territory and remained the capital of both Punjab and Hrayana.
In 1970 Indira Gandhi transferred
Chandigarh to Punjab with a proviso that the two prosperous tehsils of Punjab;
Abohar and Fazilka would go to Haryana. But the latter part of the accord
accord was not practical and stands unimplemented to this day.
