At times, poignancy of simple, human actions denotes feelings, emotions and perspectives much larger than any one action can bring out. Little Sikh kids holding candles earlier this month near the Gurdwara Sahib, Fremont, the Sikh youth engaging the world at some of most exciting places for battle of ideas, be its Berkeley or Harvard, Jarnail Singh throwing a shoe at the face of Indian establishment, they all said the same thing. If India was dumb at reading it, the world was not so. When all across the world, the spirit of Yuletide is at work, taking away some of the recession worries, shame has come visiting India, and it is cowering to find a hiding place. The Washington-based much respected Pew Research Center has said that social hostility in India is so intense that the country figures only below Iraq. Even Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan fared better than India in the study titled `Global Restrictions on Religion’ that took into account the situation in as many as 198 countries.
Sikhs in 1984 and the complete lack of justice after that, the killings of Muslims in Gujarat, the assaults on Christians, and the marginalization of the people of the northeast have long convinced the minorities that the social hostility in India has the blessings of the government. But now, New Delhi has gotten a slap in the face from an intellectually giant institute.
The Pew Research Center study comes at a time when new forms of hatred are being peddled by India’s right wing politics. The RSS is talking of making the entire country ‘Sanghmayee’ and its chief Mohan Bhagwat is openly claiming that anyone who lives in India is a Hindu, and will have to identify himself as such.
For good measure, the saffron lobby has dragged even love into it. A whole new bogey of Love Jihad is being raised. It has listed the new terror items which is making, as per the saffronites, Hindu boys trembling with fear and Hindu girls weak in the knees: pricey sun glasses, flashy mobile phones, shiny i-pods, s{censored}y mobikes, and lustful boys. Just how deeply entrenched the hatred agenda can reach is clear from one reading of the special report in this issue of the World Sikh News.
As for Punjab, just read Amrik Singh Sacramento’s detailed analysis of how our Sikh as well as Hindu politicians slip for small gains and narrow interests, upping social hostility levels to such an extent that a majority community wants to completely sublimate the minorities.
In times like this, India tilts the way the power does. So it enters into a deep-rooted conspiracy, turns its back on the poor nations of the world, and makes the final shift, shunning G-77 to identify itself with the rich and the elite. At Copenhagen, as you will read in a special report on page 15 inside, New Delhi’s role has been so negative that the country will fall in the eyes of some of the bravest little nations which have refused to be cowed down even by superpowers. We dedicate this edition to the theme of hostility in India against the minorities. That we have been compelled to do this when the world is hailing out a Merry Christmas to even those who have lost all hope is a measure of how desperate things are for Sikhs. So, as India covers itself in shame, Merry Christmas!
Sikhs in 1984 and the complete lack of justice after that, the killings of Muslims in Gujarat, the assaults on Christians, and the marginalization of the people of the northeast have long convinced the minorities that the social hostility in India has the blessings of the government. But now, New Delhi has gotten a slap in the face from an intellectually giant institute.
The Pew Research Center study comes at a time when new forms of hatred are being peddled by India’s right wing politics. The RSS is talking of making the entire country ‘Sanghmayee’ and its chief Mohan Bhagwat is openly claiming that anyone who lives in India is a Hindu, and will have to identify himself as such.
For good measure, the saffron lobby has dragged even love into it. A whole new bogey of Love Jihad is being raised. It has listed the new terror items which is making, as per the saffronites, Hindu boys trembling with fear and Hindu girls weak in the knees: pricey sun glasses, flashy mobile phones, shiny i-pods, s{censored}y mobikes, and lustful boys. Just how deeply entrenched the hatred agenda can reach is clear from one reading of the special report in this issue of the World Sikh News.
As for Punjab, just read Amrik Singh Sacramento’s detailed analysis of how our Sikh as well as Hindu politicians slip for small gains and narrow interests, upping social hostility levels to such an extent that a majority community wants to completely sublimate the minorities.
In times like this, India tilts the way the power does. So it enters into a deep-rooted conspiracy, turns its back on the poor nations of the world, and makes the final shift, shunning G-77 to identify itself with the rich and the elite. At Copenhagen, as you will read in a special report on page 15 inside, New Delhi’s role has been so negative that the country will fall in the eyes of some of the bravest little nations which have refused to be cowed down even by superpowers. We dedicate this edition to the theme of hostility in India against the minorities. That we have been compelled to do this when the world is hailing out a Merry Christmas to even those who have lost all hope is a measure of how desperate things are for Sikhs. So, as India covers itself in shame, Merry Christmas!
