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Khalsa’s Deathly Hallows
 The Indian establishment has pronounced
the death verdict upon two of our bravest warriors, Bhai Balwant
Singh and Bhai Jagtar Singh Hawara. And others have been sent to
jail for life. But apart from snatching away our brethren, there is
more to this pronouncement. This is a statement from the Indian
establishment to the Sikh community. This statement makes it clear
that the existing Indian power structure is an unalterable reality,
incontrovertible truth. The Sikhs have but one choice – to adapt
themselves to this reality in order to co-exist peacefully. Any
demand by the Sikhs to make changes in this structure will not be
acceptable at any cost. And any attempt or refusal to not follow
this line will be countered and it will be justifiable on the part
of the state to then prop up rogues like Beant Singh against the
Sikhs and indulge in genocide. The Sikh quom will not have the
legitimate right to deliver a cruel macabre ruler to justice, send
such a one to hell who was responsible
for blindly murdering Sikh young and old men, sisters and daughters
and children of the Sikhs, simply because the Constitution of India
does not recognize the independent identity of the Sikhs.
If Sikhs are to live under the Indian power structure system then
they will to forget and give up the claim and idea of their respect,
ego, and unique identity and live with social, economic and
political injustice. In case they are not ready to do so, the Indian
government will have the right to kill them, the means be
constitutional or un-constitutional. For the Indian rulers, to issue
such a statement is neither new nor surprising for the Sikhs, but is
rather very natural. Natural not because it is not the real issue
that the Sikhs have to face such a statement, but rather the issue
is that the Sikhs are in a situation that someone can issue such a
statement about them. The situation has come to such a pass that a
quom like the Brahmins can issue such a statement about the quom of
Sikhs.
It has been more than a century and a half that the Sikhs have come
to such a pass. The annexation of Punjab by the British with the
help of the Hindus is one of the most significant milestones of
history. This happening changed everything for the Sikhs. The Sikhs’
destiny took such a turn as a result of this turn of history that
till date the Sikhs are acing the same situation. What was this
strange turn in the Sikhs’ destiny? This turn was that the British
rule is an unalterable truth, that the British reign has been
established, and that the Sikhs have to somehow carve out an
honorable situation within this paradigm. Somehow they will have to
live within the parameters of this new situation. Of course they
have to struggle for their unique identity, for the right to
administer their own shrines and take their control but while
remaining within the British system. This means only and only
peaceful struggle. These were not the words of the Sikhs; this was
not the Sikhs’ voice. The Sikhs had lost their voice in the
vicissitudes of the time. This was a journey of some fellow
travelers who were in search of the voice of the Sikhs. Travelers
who were very simple, very pious, but whose inner glow had been
overshadowed by the shadows all around. The footprints of the
yesteryears had hardly remained visible. The sight had got stuck at
the dust that had settled on those foot prints. The sight did have
the desire but the ardas lacked the aggressiveness of the ‘teg’.
This is true that the Panth had not died. Panth had never died. So
at one or the other place the slogans were surely raised. And there
was no dearth of the full throatedness in such slogans. But for the
large swathe of Panth, its voice had lost its tinkling timber since
1849 tragedy. The Panth had lost its voice. Till 1925 the Panth was
being seared in its search for this voice.
 After this, the Akali Dal started lugging the darkness in the belief
that it was joining in the search. Panth had reconciled itself and
drooped in a corner, but the Akali Dal lugged the shadows till 1966.
After 1966, thieves took benefit of the darkness and hijacked the
Akali Dal. Till 1992, the thieves benefited from the friendships of
thievery and then changed their religion. The thieves then started
sporting a janyeu and thus became recognized thieves.
But the Panth had still not died. In the dreadful nights of fear and
death, the Panth had remained alive. The Panth had regrets that its
voice had been lost. The Panth was passing through a purgatory
because it had been deprived of the voice of the Guru. The ‘Hijar’
and ‘Vasal’ have always matched steps, and it is because of the
acuteness of ‘viyog’ that the two come together (sanjog). The
Panth’s inner being was almost alone in the myriad deserts of such
hopelessness when Sant Kartar Singh Bhindranwale brought to it the
realization once again of the power of the ardas. He added to it the
tinge of the sword. The ‘katha’ of the ‘Gurbani’ that he used to
organize, the delineation of the Sikhism and the fact that he lived
his preaching himself revived in the Sikhi the truth of the sword’s
edge and the power of the prayer. Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale
took it forward with a certain aggressiveness. He brought an urgency
into the footsteps of the Panth, an urgency of purpose, as it moved
forward and brought to life the voice and the language which the
Sikhs had forgotten and were therefore feeling lost.
The Sikh quom went through a convulsion, and the history made
anabout turn. The Panth had stood uponce again, its head held high.
The Panth was now on its own feet, and once again had the shelter of
the Guru (Guru Di Aut). The Panth tended to its destiny so much that
many a tear satiated its earth and many a youth happily suffered.
They achieved martyrdom so that the Panth could live. The Sikhs
satiated the soil of Punjab with their blood. The Sikhs’ houses were
uprooted,but their dreams were rehabilitated.The rehabilitation of
dreams at the cost of uprooting one’s house has never been a bad
bargain in the history of mankind, but in order to live through such
times it is necessary that a Sikh remembers the great sacrifice of
the Guru who sacrificed his entire family for the quom. What was
unique to Sant Bhindranwale was that he was living in the yearning
to meet this great Sarbansdani as his path to salvation. So what the
Sants did for the Panth was not born out off any special effort, but
rather all of this came naturally to him and was so naturally passed
on to the Panth. The Panth got a moment in history, a moment which
gave the quom a chance to once again live the spirit that prevailed
at the time of Khalsa Sajna. It was the spread of this moment which
became the reason for unleashing the movement to underline the
unique identity of thee Sikhs.We cannot leave aside the life and
times and the way of living of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale if we
want to envisage this crucial moment and the way it was stretched to
become a movement. For any quom, the effort to live a life true to
its ideals becomes the cause of finding the many paths hidden
underneath the dust of times.
I am trying to stress that from 1849 to 1978 the Sikhs tried to grip
the terra firma by way of negotiations but the ground continued to
slip underneath their feet. In 1978, when Sant Jarnail Singh
Bhindranwale rejected the way of negotiation which was without any
self respect and made popular the experience of enjoying one’s
unique identity, the Sikhi was revived in its old glorious spirit.
The ‘bani’ and ‘bana’ were seen together in their true glory.
 A new ecstatic wish to adopt the ‘bani’ and ‘bana’ took over, and
this spirit was no different from the spirit of dying for the
movement. The realization that was born of this spirit was that if
there was something eternally valid, it was the identity of the
Khalsa, not the constitutional superstructure of Hindustan.
The nationalistic structure born out of the negativist European
mind’s exertions could not be an unalterable reality, but the Khalsa
born out of the sharp edge of the Khanda was an eternal unalterable
reality. The Khalsa realized the force of its own existence, and it
was bringing about certain developments at the grass roots. The
Sikhs are now becoming independent as a result of these
developments. The real achievement of the Khalistan movement is that
it showed us that once the mind dives into a bigger flow then the
doubts and dark shadows recede back automatically.
In a nut shell, this one turn of history made clear the reality of
the past phases. Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale’s voice ended the
freeze of an entire century. The Sant issued a statement about the
independent existence of a unique Khalsa identity. This statement
was tinged with the thrill of the ‘nagara’ of the battlefield,
adding an exhilarating urgency to the steps of the quom for a decade
and a half. When after this decade and a half, because of the acute
torment and some other reasons in Punjab the martyrdoms of the Sikhs
has become a rather constant and unending affair, then hired goons
of the Indian establishment, the likes of Beanta-style touts start
feeling as if the earth too spins due the twitch of their finger.
One who was nurtured on the left overs of the Delhi government
issued a statement that he has finished the last of India’s
Mohicans, the Sikhs who were fighting for Khalistan. Not one has
been left. The Government of India tried to turn such a claim into
golden words. The Hindu fraternity made this statement into its
folklore. Across Punjab celebrations started punctuating the life to
mark genocide of Sikhs. Massive efforts were mounted to make a hero
out of the
coward that Beanta was, his cowardly eyes hidden behind dark
glasses.
This Beanta was still ecstatic in the pat received from his Delhi
masters when the Sikhs issued their statement. The deliverance of
Beanta to final justice was not among the biggest achievements of
the movement but was a message that no, this does not go on like
this. It cannot.Lies cannot rule the world for long. Not for all the
time. The crests and troughs of any quom’s life are not the last
battle. The centers of power are not the ones that are visible to
the people. The ruling dynasties are a lie, they will one day
vanish.The center of power is the inner glowing flame inside human
beings. This flame glows brightly in its glory when blessed with the
word of the Guru. The kirpan of the Khalsa is washed anew everyday
in the ‘amrit sarovar’ of the ‘Panj Banis’ (the five compositions).
The sword puts an end to doubts. The perception that the power of
Beanta was unassailable was a mere doubt and the sword of the Khalsa
put an end to that doubt. Bhai Dilawar Singh showed that when
juxtaposed with one moment of Godly glory, the long human life was
meaningless. Bhai Balwant Singh and Bhai Jagtar Singh Hawara showed
that the traders of death cannot live with pride borne out of their
ability to torment. When confronted with the awe of the Khalsa, they
will be powerless. If one day Bhai Harjinder Singh Jinda and Bhai
Sukhdev Singh Sukha were proving that on this earth the legacy of
the Sikhs had still not become outdated and obsolete
because the truth never becomes too old, then on another day you
find Bhai Balwant Singh and Bhai Jagtar Singh Hawara just around the
turn with the kesri nishan in their hands. Bhai Balwant Singh’s
silence, devotion and patience is bigger than any achievement. The
wait for death carries within itself the belief that I am, and will
be. This is the realization of self, the ‘id’,which submits before
the Guru. Bhai Jagtar Singh Hawara
 personifies the never stopping
footsteps of an independent man, of a warrior who is saying that the
floods in the rivers are but a ripple, the mountains are but pebbles
and the steps of a human being are bigger as they can surmount all
difficulties. Bhai Gurmit Singh, Bhai Lakhwinder Singh, Bhai
Shamsher Singh, Bhai Naseeb Singh and other Singhs are the ballads
of ‘Sikhi Sidak’ which will forever be sung in every age and era.
On the other hand the Indian establishment is confused, worried.
Every time the horse bejeweled by the Indian establishment tries to
join the real race of life, it gets lost in the dust of time. The
establishment had created these threatening shadows with great
fanfare but now such apparitions were shot out of existence. The
fact that the Singhs showed that even the jail’s walls were
meaningless for them has only added to its worries. The
establishment knows that even the Hindu majority which it represents
gets worried at the prospect of such a scenario. After all, the
establishment had done a lot of hard work to build such apparitions.
Therefore it is trying to send a signal that the superstructure of
Hindustan is not so brittle, and its end is not so near. That is why
the latest shower of death. It is an attempt to complete this
message by sending the Sikhs to the gallows. This is the statement
that the Indian government
is issuing to the Sikh nation. We, the Sikhs, will issue our
statement in its response. Brahmins may wait for it, and we wish
them bravery. Catch you on the battlefield!
8 August, 2007
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