Dear Friends,
Thanks to Punjab Today here is a fuller piece on Panjab Police chief DGP Gupta’s statement published yesterday.
‘Gupta’s bias remains and shows how the Sikh aspirations remain an expendable quantity in the national discourse and are abused in the fight for the DGP’s chair in Panjab.’
Read more here …
Tags: DGP Police, Dinkar Gupta, Kartarpur Sahib, Pakistan, Panjab, Sikh
Dear Friends,
I am so glad Yadwinder Singh (Karfew) interviewed me over the split nature of narrative between what are called ‘radical Sikh groups’ and the Left in Panjab. He asked do I increase their differences or bring them closer. I said the goal of resistance in Panjab is the human struggle for dignity, equality and justice. My effort through the book is to bring everyone close and together.
Please see the interview here…
Tags: Left, News 18 Punjabi, Panjab: Journeys Through Fault Lines, Sikh, Yadwinder Karfew
Dear Friends,
here are my views on the Ayodhya verdict. Thank you Puttezhath Sunil Menon from Outlook India for seeking them.
‘An important aspect of the Ram Janmabhumi-Babri Masjid court order—itself not signed and, hence, unattributable to any one judge—is that it quotes the Sikh Janam Sakhis in great detail to establish that the disputed 2.7-acre land of Babri Masjid was indeed the place where the mythological Lord Ram was born. In the order, Guru Nanak is mentioned 14 times.
A common charge levelled until now on the Janam Sakhis is that because they were written at least half a century after Guru Nanak left for his heavenly abode, they are hagiographic and mutually contradictory. How then did the honourable Supreme Court overnight decide they are among the most reliable evidence?
The intent is even worse: using one minority religion’s sacred texts to refute a claim of another minority and establish the claim of faith of a third majority religion is insidious to the secular fabric of our nation. The Janam Sakhis should not have been used because Sikhs are not party to the claim. The court needed to test the grand Hindu faith against archaeological evidence. That it did not do. Instead it has now sowed further seeds of discord between the Muslim and the Sikh communities.’
For this I owe thanks to Kulveer Singh and Ch Monsoon who flagged the issue.
For more comments read…
Tags: Ayodhya, Babri Masjid, Guru Nanak, Janam Sakhis, Ram Janmabhumi, Sikh
Friends, senior anthropologist from Brandeis University Jonathan Shapiro Anjaria examines the matter of the turban controversy that erupts from time to time within the Sikh community in the sports arena and quotes me in his article.
The recent context is the cyclist Jagdeep Singh Puri’s petition in the Delhi courts. Another instance is of wrestler Jaskawarbir Singh Gill aka Jassa Patti, one of our best freestyle wrestlers, who opted to not contest and allowed a walkover in Istanbul recently over the head gear issue. We know about a reverse stance by famous shooter Heena Sidhu over the Hijab in Tehran in 2016.
Recently there has been resistance to helmets by Sikh women drivers in Chandigarh. Interestingly, Jon sent me links to Sikh helmets which also he quotes in piece.
Please read here …
Tags: cycling, helmet, shooting, Sikh, turban, wresting
Friends, thanks to Punjab Today for carrying my recent The Hindu Businessline piece with some additions on the discussion in Panjab Assembly over the Ranjit Singh Commission report on the series of sacrilege in the state and the new Blasphemy Law. I hold that the Congress has handed over a draconian, regressive law to BJP on a platter.
‘While Punjab looks to heal from the scourge of sacrilege, the new law now forces not only the Granth Sahib but even other religious texts behind three locks. To some extent one can understand the law in the context of monotheistic religions like Sikh, Islam and Christianity but how will it work for polytheistic Hinduism with a hundred Ramayanas, a thousand Mahabharatas, a million other revered texts and icons? My aging aunts, who find it hard to walk a few steps, habitually ask a younger cousin or their kids to get them the Gutka Sahib from the shelf at home. They sit in their chairs and doze off while praying. As they nap, they leave the Gutka Sahib in their laps, or next to the pillow. Are they committing blasphemy per the new law? Aunts and uncles in Panjab carry the Gutka Sahib, the Hanuman Chalisa, the Holy Bible in their leather purses or kurta pockets. Is that blasphemy? At village Chakklan itself, a samadh – shrine on a grave – of an unknown village elder has recently become a temple with a trishul and a shivling. Is that blasphemy? On the Pakistan border in Amritsar, at village Naushera Dhaala, the 16th Century saint Baba Jallan ji’s samadh has recently turned into an elaborate Gurdwara. Have the followers committed blasphemy? When Captain Amarinder Singh took his famous oath at Damdama Sahib in December 2015 promising to eradicate drugs, he held a Gutka Sahib in his hands. Everyone on the stage were wearing shoes. Was that not blasphemy? What exactly is a ritual, a prayer, a way of life and a blasphemy? Merely inserting names of texts into a revision of law, without due deliberation, is going to be detrimental to the way of life of the people in Punjab and the nation.’
Read full story here …
Tags: Badal, Blasphemy Law, IPC 295A, Ranjit Singh, sacrilege, Sikh, Sumedh Singh Saini, Tript Rajender Bajwa
Friends, on Tuesday when the news of activists being arrested drove the country into an uproar, a lot was going on in the Panjab Assembly. A marathon discussion took place on the Ranjit Singh Committee report that probed 157 incidents of sacrilege in between 2015-17 and focused on the role of the Badals and the police in the state – a force that has enjoyed unparalleled impunity ever since the days of militancy.
While the Akalis walked out, the Assembly (Congress and AAP) passed two historical resolutions unanimously – one on SGPC and another on taking back cases from CBI. To my mind these will have great ramifications in robbing the Akalis of the Panthic (Sikh religious) agenda and centre-state relations.
These developments were important for Panjab. However, at the same time, for the nation, the Congress committed a blunder by passing an amendment to the Blasphemy Law – Indian Penal Code 295 and placing texts from Hindu, Muslim and Christianity in it. The amendment to the law was an Akali face-saver in 2016, this Congress government could have just let it slide. But it did not.
Thus the Congress has now handed over a ready-made, draconian revision of law to the BJP on a platter. Beats me why Congress shot itself in the foot. The Bill only needs the Presidential nod now to become a nation-wide law. Its ramifications are massive and dangerous.
Here is my piece. I have tried to sketch the background but print media with word restrictions does limit how much one can say at a time.
Please read more here …
Tags: Badal, Blasphemy, Ranjt Singh, sacrilege, Sikh
Friends, over the last few days a photograph of a Sikh police man from Uttrakhand saving a man from a lynch mob has gone viral. I wrote about it on Facebook. The post was shared many times and picked by media. Putting up links below.
DailyO picked up the post, please find here …
The Quint picked up the post, please find here …
Punjab Today picked up the post, please find here …
Tags: love, lynch, mob, Sikh, Sub-Inspector Gagandeep Singh, Uttrakhand Police
Friends, rarely one finds that a student of history going through material which remains problematic with the community yet is the best illustration of a case. Journalist Adrija Roychowdhry explored the reasons behind the Sikh stance against the movie Nanak Shah Fakir. She also quoted me.
Please read …
Tags: ban, movie, Nanak Shah Fakir, SGPC, Sikh
The article in Punjab Today condemning Shekhar Gupta’s lies has evinced greater interest in the Diaspora. Recently Punjabi Radio USA interviewed me and we discussed how media mis-represents Panjab. In fact, even more than that how Panjab has been steadily mis-represented. Thank you Harvinder, Gurjaspal, and Arvinder. Chardi Kala.
Please listen here …
Tags: Amrajit Sohi, Canada, Justin Trudeau, Punjabi Radio USA, Shekhar Gupta, Sikh
Friends, my review of Ranbir Singh Sidhu’s novel ‘Deep Singh Blue’. What struck me immensely about the writing was that it is without crutches, the writer creates and inhabits a world within language alone yet it is deeply rooted in the human experience. Kudos! Thank you Omair Ahmad for the opportunity.
‘DSB is a dark bildungsroman – a coming of age novel – about different types of unbelonging: in cultures, in the community, in the family, in relationships, in place and in time. The protagonist is lonely, immensely lonely, but the novel is not about loneliness or about an emotional or cultural pain. Instead, DSB explores the deep angst of being and a human’s relationship with the world.’
Please read …
Tags: America, Deep Singh Blue, Diaspora, Migration, Ranbir Singh Sidhu, Sikh, US