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How much
Punjab do we need?
Sach Kanwal
Singh
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At the World Sikh News, we often
receive two kinds of response from our readers. First, there is
a large section of readership that engages with the many aspects
of politics, economy and social milieu in
Punjab, and
often either agree or at times even strongly disagree with our
editorial stance. But there is a small but significant section
of the readership, a majority of them from the younger
generation, who often write to say that there is too much of
Punjab in the World Sikh News. This is an attempt at broadening
the contours of that debate. |
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 At
the World Sikh News, we often receive two kinds of response from our
readers. First, there is a large section of readership that engages
with the many aspects of politics, economy and social milieu in
Punjab,
and often either agree or at times even strongly disagree with our
editorial stance. But there is a small but significant section of
the readership, a majority of them from the younger generation, who
often write to say that there is too much of
Punjab
in the World Sikh News.
"You should
write about the college admissions here, and you should include the
view point of the younger generation of Sikhs," we often get to read
in the mails from the younger readers in the
United States.
The World Sikh
News editorial team takes criticism and proactive engagement very
seriously, and your suggestions have been consistently a topic of
debate, discussion and often a trigger for new features, changes,
styles in the newspaper over the years.
We take this
opportunity to open the debate a little bit and invite more
suggestions, even from the readers who are often not given to start
banging on a keyboard and fire a mail to the editors. The newsroom
has, however, an equal amount of respect for the silent majority
just as it is alive to the intensely expressed sentiments of those
who take the pains to write in and be counted.
Let us take you
back to the real nature and objective of the newspaper. The World
Sikh News was started as a community newspaper, a prism to help us
see the world through the perspective of Sikh values and interests,
and to reflect upon issues in a paradigm that is in consonance with
the viewpoint of the community. Over a period of time, it has
broadened its agenda to act as a force multiplier for many right
thinking people and groups, has emerged as a major voice in the
human rights debate, and has pushed the boundaries of excellence in
community journalism in English.
 But
all through it, we did not lose sight of the main and initial
objective of the newspaper as a community journal.
And as a
community journal, it becomes imperative for us to engage with where
the historic capital formation of the community took place. By the
blessings of the Akal Purakh, the Sikh community Diaspora has been
making major progress all around the globe but the fact remains that
the historic capital of Sikhism lies largely in Punjab.
Our great
shrines, language, customs, songs, metaphors, similes, all have
roots in Punjab. Even as Sikhs take huge leaps in business, politics
and economics in other parts of the world, somehow an intrinsic
connection remains with
Punjab.
A large number of Sikhs, and our readers are no exception, want to
know how the brethrens in
Punjab are being
dealt by the state establishment, how their children are studying,
and how have they been charting the course of destiny.
As a community,
the section that is better off or away from the shameless figures on
health and education core sectors cannot ignore to know that a large
majority of Punjab's children are malnourished, that its schools are
virtually rendered useless with years of neglect, that the
government-run health care system is completely broken down and the
poor have none or little access to even basic medicine.
At a time when
the world is in the throes of panic from Swine Flu, children in
Punjab are dying of something as simple as gastroenteritis. The poor
in Punjab
cannot even afford atta and dal at market rates but the government
is busy making claims of unprecedented development.
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Our great
shrines, language, customs, songs, metaphors, similes, all have
roots in Punjab. Even as Sikhs take huge leaps in business,
politics and economics in other parts of the world, somehow an
intrinsic connection remains with Punjab. A large number of
Sikhs, and our readers are no exception, want to know how the
brethrens in Punjab are being dealt by the state establishment,
how their children are studying, and how have they been charting
the course of destiny. |
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By its own
admission, the Punjab government is giving atta and dal at very low
rates to some 15 lakh families. Assuming five people to a family,
Punjab has about 45 lakh families. So, one third of its population
cannot even afford atta and dal, the metaphoric poor man's staple
diet.
Shockingly, the
number of poor in Punjab is on the rise, and the Sikh community in
Punjab or part of the Diaspora, cannot have the luxury of not
understanding the phenomena that is bringing this about. By the
latest count, the number of poor, that is, officially poor, has
swelled to a whopping 38 per cent in
Punjab.
And it is rising by the day as food prices are soaring. Even as
official propaganda feeds you the images of luxury cars, cell phone
density and LCD TV sales, what it does not tell you is that Punjab
has overtaken Haryana in poverty figures.
Apart from the
14.51 lakh families covered under the cheap atta-dal scheme, some
4.61 lakh families are under the Union Government's Below Poverty
Line scheme and Antodaya Anna Yojana, taking the total to 19 lakh!
You can imagine the figures for the unemployed, underemployed and
the state of the farm labourers and the landless at a time when even
the landowners are facing a crisis of their life.
Punjab's farm
sector is in crisis, and farmers have been committing suicide at the
rate of one a day. For years, the government refused to even
acknowledge that any farmer was dying because of farm crisis, and
when it finally did, the estimates of deaths swung between 30 and
4,000. In what kind of a welfare state is human life, the life of
citizens treated so casually?
 Shamed,
the state government announced Rs 2 lakh relief to families of the
dead farmers but not a single family has received the money even
months after the announcement.
Eight teachers
retire in Punjab every day, 240 in a month, about 3,000 in a year.
For nearly eight years, not a single teacher is recruited. Then, the
government-run school system is accused of failing. Finally, the
government tries to paint itself with some glory by further killing
the system by recruiting "teachers on theka" at ridiculously low
salaries.
All this while,
lo and behold, the number of colleges churning out teachers grows
manifold. So, Punjab's newspapers are daily full of the staple news
of lathicharge on teachers, on unemployed teachers, on dismissed
teachers, on suspended teachers, on contract teachers, on regular
teachers.
The state of the
hospitals is no different, and the village dispensary system has
died long back. The poor have been condemned to rot and die, while
the state boasts of mega projects, malls, international airport,
five star hotels and what not.
Clearly, in such
a scenario, the cultural capital is also fizzling out.
Notwithstanding the brouhaha raised by some well-meaning souls on
the question of Punjabi language, the fact remains that the language
is suffering because of skewed politics and policies of the state.
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Punjab is on
the verge of a social and environmental catastrophe. Its
politics has become completely feudal. The Akali politics has
become limited to cater to the interests of just one family.
This, when the number of poor in Punjab is on the rise, and the
Sikh community in Punjab or part of the Diaspora, cannot have
the luxury of not understanding the phenomena that is bringing
this about. By the latest count, the number of poor, that is,
officially poor, has swelled to a whopping 38 per cent in
Punjab. |
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Across Punjab's
universities, the student intake in Punjab language courses has been
on the decline. University managements are eager to shut language
courses and instead start fashion technology ones since they bring
in money. The Punjabi University’s religious studies department this
year did not see admission of even five students against 40 seats,
and the philosophy department is on the verge of being shut down.
Turn to
environment and Punjab's soil has turned poisonous, the water level
has plunged so low that the idea of 3 to 5 horse power motors does
not exist anymore. Farmers are condemned to use 10-15 HP motors, and
they burn immense amounts of diesel because the power situation is
so bad. Urban areas also suffer cuts of 10 hours almost on a routine
basis and not a single megawatt of electricity has been added in
years now.
The future looks
utterly bleak. Punjab's river waters have become extremely polluted,
a fact effectively highlighted by Baba Seechewal and other
activists. The air quality is already bad, and all power projects
now in the pipeline are thermal ones, and will burn more fossil
fuel. Thousands are being pushed out of farming but there is no
accounting how they are finding a livelihood.
We are on the
verge of a social and environmental catastrophe.
Amid all of
this, our politics has become completely feudal and the Akali
politics has become limited to cater to the interests of just one
family. After Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal, his son and Akali
Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal, the latter's wife Harsimrat Kaur
Badal, the CM's son-in-law Adesh Pratap Kairon and Sukhbir's
brother-in-law Bikramjit Singh Majithia, who is the most powerful
Akali leader? Well, none.
As
for Sikh polity outside the Akali Dal, the rival groups have been
either sidelined one by one through dirty tactics or they have been
the targets of state repression. The Simranjeet Singh Mann-led Akali
Dal (Amritsar)
is dormant to play any meaningful in politics. The Bhai Daljit Singh
Bittu-led Akali Dal (Panch Pardhani) is currently being victimised
by the police forces working directly under Sukhbir Singh Badal.
Factions like the one led by Ravi Inder Singh have little to
recommend themselves. Dal Khalsa’s effectiveness is limited by the
range of its resources and ways of functioning.
Also, an aspect
that is of much concern to Sikhs worldwide is how our historical
shrines are managed, how are Jathedars of Sikh Takhts chosen, how is
the top religious leadership selected and how is it made accountable
to the sangat. In order to dwell on any of these issues, it becomes
automatically important and vital to engage with the nitty-gritty of
politics in Punjab since the entire panthic and religious domain's
management involves the functioning of the Shiromani Gurdwara
Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), and any discussion about SGPC's
functioning has to entail a look into the working of the Akali Dal
led by Badal and the marginalisation of other Akali factions.
So much so that
many debates and issues emerging in gurdwaras in the US, Canada and
the UK are directly linked to either a decision taken by the SGPC,
an edict issued by the Akal Takht or a debate raging in Punjab.
Across the
United States, you often come across politicians, academics,
religious leaders visiting from Punjab. In order to have a
meaningful interactive dialogue with them, we need to be cued into
Punjab's political, social, economic, literary and academic life.
The recent
seminars on Sikh community issues, particularly those marking the
25th anniversary of Indian Army's attack on Sri Akal Takht Sahib, at
the University of California, Berkeley and the Harvard University
featured experts from so many fields and universities but one thing
that was common was their extensive knowledge of how things operated
in Punjab.
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So much so that many debates and issues emerging in gurdwaras in
the US, Canada and the UK are directly linked to either a
decision taken by the SGPC, an edict issued by the Akal Takht or
a debate raging in Punjab. Across the United States, you often
come across politicians, academics, religious leaders visiting
from Punjab. In order to have a meaningful interactive dialogue
with them, we need to be cued into Punjab's political, social,
economic, literary and academic life. |
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The Sikh
community is today facing one of the most serious challenges in the
form of attempts to assimilate its concerns, identity and existence.
The biggest recognisable face of such attempts is the dera culture
prevailing in Punjab. Hundreds of thousands of gullible Sikhs are
being lured to one or the other baba or dera sadh, and subtly but
surely, they are being led into brahamanical ways. A dangerous
interpretation of Sikhism is being peddled by these deras. The SGPC
is fully aware of the threat, but is not doing much about it. Some
sections, like the Dal Khalsa, the Akali Dal (Panch Pardhani), the
Shiromani Khalsa Panchayat etc are more acutely aware of the
onslaught and have been trying to spearhead a frontal attack but
find their way blocked and their hands tied by those at the helm of
political power in Punjab.
The Sikh
Diaspora is well aware of the dera culture menace, and knows only
too well that many such dera wallahs derive their funds and
influence from pockets outside India. But in order to fight the dera
system, it is pertinent that we keep an eye on happenings in Punjab.
Fighting the deras on foreign soil will not yield much results
unless you take them on here in Punjab.
And even to
begin the fight against the derawaad, it becomes important to
understand why the dera culture took roots? That will immediately
bring you to understand the various layers in the political system
of not just in
Punjab
but in
India.
 Now,
all of this argument was limited to religious and political domains.
We do understand the Sikh Diaspora is making major progress in
coming up with literary landmark works. A recent book published by
the Oxford University Press focusing on Sikh Diaspora Philanthropy
is a case in point, but even as this work engages with the
contribution of the Sikh Diaspora in community building projects, it
only underlines the argument about maintaining a livewire organic
connection with Punjab.
India's huge
cultural muscle, the Bollywood churnings, are focusing on
Punjab
and more often that not, they present a corrupted picture of the
land of the Gurus. Serious attempts at presenting before the world a
region where lies the linguistic cultural capital of Sikhism are
tough to find in
India.
While we hail the efforts being made by aware souls in the community
to counter such output by the Bollywood industry with intelligently
put together Sikh film festivals, we must guard against letting
Bollywood paint a corrupted notion of what Punjabi culture is all
about. But how does one engage and counter such pernicious cultural
onslaught without understanding and stay informed about the
political, social, cultural notions of India as a country?
 One
of the areas that should and does hugely interest the Sikh community
is the entire debate about human rights. The Sikh Diaspora
experience, particularly the post 1980s wave of migrants, is
indicator enough of how poorly developed notions of human rights can
commit inexplicable violence on our young ones. Indian
establishment's ruthless ways of dealing with the Sikh aspirational
struggle in Punjab, the perfecting of the strategy of fake encounter
killings, and the untold miseries to which thousands of our youth
were pushed leave us with little option but to engage with the human
rights debate and try and see where we can multiply forces with
other co-journeymen fighting for human dignity and against state
oppression.
The sorry part
is that this tendency to violate basic human rights in a most overt
form continues to plague the police and security forces in India
even at a time when the Akali Dal led by Prakash Singh Badal is in
power. Worst, the police in the state of Punjab has been victimising
the most well known people from the panthic leadership, the ones who
enjoy huge credibility with the sangat in
Punjab
as well as abroad. Such a state of affairs does not allow is the
luxury to reduce our focus from
Punjab
at all.
The Sikh
Diaspora has done tremendous work in telling the larger word the
Sikh story. If the world today knows about the reality of Operation
Bluestar as the Saka Ari Akal Takht Sahib 1984, if it knows about
the killings of hundreds of Sikhs on the roads of India’s national
capital Delhi, it is because of the immense efforts of Sikh
Diaspora. Where in India do you see university campuses coming alive
with debate and discussion about the events of 1984? But if this is
happening in Berkeley or Harvard, it is because of the Diaspora.
 Efforts
to deliver justice to the victims of the genocide of Sikhs are
becoming increasingly located in the west. Politicians in
Punjab
merely pay lip service to the widows of 1984.
The cultural war
is being fought through Sikh film festivals and gurmat camps by
Sikhs outside India. It is something we are acutely aware of.
Yes, it is true
that the World Sikh News needs to ramp up its coverage of Diaspora
affairs and concerns. We need to be better cued into community
concerns in various other parts of the globe. How are our children
faring in schools and college admissions is a serious area of
concern, and we need to cover it. For that, we need massive
cooperation from our readership. We invite you to send in
suggestions and advice, criticism and thought points.
And we seek your
continued engagement with the project that the World Sikh News is
all about. It is not just a newspaper. It is a work in progress. The
Sikh community outside India needs to majorly develop a notion of
emancipated pedagogy for our future generations, and this task will
only be possible by a wholesome knowledge about the Sikh struggle,
the Sikh mindscape, the Sikh experience in
Punjab
and in
India and the challenges that the Sikh Nation faces in various
regions of the globe.
30
September 2009
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