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About time some of the ‘self-appointed’ leaders of the Sikh diaspora, realised they’ve been performing for the organ grinder!
Yes, having annexed Punjab after successful devious cloak & dagger tactics with successors of Maharajah Ranjit Singh’s kingdom, having ‘kidnapped’ Maharajah Duleep Singh, British did recognise us as a separate martial race worthy of a regiment dedicated to us where only those following 5 K’s would be initiated on taking an oath to our spiritual & religious guru SGGS ji.
Did it not occur to our spiritual/political ‘leaders’ that whilst the colonial masters were initiating us into the British Khalsa Army, they were offering a bounty for those that handed it in the NIHANGS dead or alive for they didn’t take too kindly to the rebellious nature of these warriors Sikh guardians of our holy shrines who would not accept anybody but SGGS as their master!
Why did we allow ourselves to be so deceived and bought off, that we even helped the British crush a freedom rebellion by our own countrymen in 1857. Our self appointed leaders in those early days of British raj in Punjab bent over backwards to appease our newfound masters in the hope of being granted Jagirdari of a smallholding allotted to us along with a nice pension pay off. Ok we may have had some scores to settle with the Mughal Durbar in Delhi historically, hence helped the Brits slaughter Bahadur Shah Zafar’s sons into quarter pieces before placing them in his lap, then sending him off to exile in Rangoon. But what qualm did we have with Maharani of Jhansi further south…except to pick up some brownie points and perhaps a doggie biscuit or two!!
An early observation of SIKHS made by a British Army Officer Capt R.W.Falcon as described in his 1896 handbook:
“manly in his warlike creed, in his love of sports and in being a true son of the soil; a buffalo, not quick in understanding, but brave, strong and true” (R. W. Falcon (1896).A Handbook on Sikhs for the Use of Regimental Officers, PioneerPress, Allahabad, Preface.)
Did it not occur to our Khalsa panth that we are being recruited for our obedience to the colonial master and bravery in the battlefield with minimal risk of dissent as seen by them? ie FOR BRAUN NOT FOR BRAIN!
Did the Komagata Maru incident of 1914 with Gadar activists & their banishment to ‘Kala Paani’ in Andamans after being shunted from port to port teach us nothing?
So fast forward to present day Britannia……a few gongs & titles.. for loyalty to crown, followed by members of Royal household or even the PM himself paying homage at the Golden Temple had us believing they were now lapping it up!
Did we forget how that other loyal soldier from the raj ….generation after generation from tiny enclave of Gorkhaland in Nepal has been treated despite serving her majesty with valour time and again….did we forget how a celebrity grandaughter of a former Gurkha Commanding Officer had to take up their longstanding campaign for equal treatment along with British servicemen from the mother country…ie their right to bring their immediate family to the barracks…or even to have the right to retire in the country for which they had given years of service! Did we forget how successive UK governments tried to fight their pension rights in courts, even taking it to appeal, only conceding limited rights after Gordon Brown became aware that Gov was on the wrong side of the Public sympathy wave for these loyal soldiers who had given so much to the country!
Finally, are we really so naïve to believe Margaret Thatcher, the PM who had allowed Northern Ireland dissidents on her own doorstep to rot in prison instead of conceding political prisoner status to the likes of elected MP Bobby Sands and his 9 colleagues who perished one after another on hunger strike instead of Maggie conceding even one inch to their demands for political prisoner status which merely asked for:
1.the right not to wear a prison uniform;
2.the right not to do prison work;
3.the right of free association with other prisoners, and to organise educational and recreational pursuits;
4.the right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week;
5.full restoration of remission lost through the protest
Why is it such a shock to our UK Sikh leaders that a PM who treated her own dissidents as above, would have any sympathy for dissidents of a commonwealth country, when Indira Gandhi asked her assistance in the form of SAS advice?
We have to question the gullibility of our own leaders!
Manmohanjit Singh (Coventry)