We read with great interest the article, “Sikh heart with Dalits and DV”, by Gurbhajan Singh Gill of Sikh Vichar Manch. (DV Nov. 15 1991 p.16). The article describes the exact situation. According to Sikh teachings and also those who live according to these teachings, there is no room for discrimination on the basis of caste.
In fact, after the Amrit ceremoney all Sikhs become the children of the Khalsa Guru Gobind Singh and they are not supposed to use their caste name except Singh and Kaur behind their first names.
Many of the Sikhs claim to accept the Guru’s teachings but are not Amritdhari. Specially those who got converted to Sikhism from Hinduism do not let go their old Hindu baggage. They are in fact Hindus in half Sikh uniform. They go for all the fake rituals and superstitions that the Hindus used to exploit the masses to this day.
Dilemma: Some Sikhs here were discussing supporting Dalit Voice, but they are in a Catch 22 situation. They do want to help DV but at the same time they do not want to help India’s Hindu rulers who are hungry for foreign exchange dollars
Besides, there is also a great obligation on the part of Sikhs to support those whose loved ones have been brutally tortured and killed in Punjab and do not have any other support.
Looking at the numerous deaths of Sikhs by torture and fake police encountera, a total genocide of the Sikh community is taking place. We have to resist this genocide at all costs according to the Guru’s teachings which said that one must keep his honour nour and self-respect at all costs and at all times. Lifa without self-respect is a curse and greed can never be satisfied. A victim that tolerates oppression is equally guilty of oppression as the one who commits oppression.
Hindu oath on cow: It is sad that the elders of Ramesh Parmar of Chitrobipura, Bihar (Ret, front page report in the Washington Post and Ottawa Citizen Dec. 3 1991) are not the kind of people that will help root out the evil of torture in India.
There is a saying ‘once burnt twice shy”. And the Sikhs have been burnt many times now right from Guru Gobind Singh’s time when Hindus took false oaths on cow and betrayed them.
Even now many of the Dalits do associate themselves with Hindus. This does not bother us, but when they Join the Hindu machine of torture and oppression against their own kind, we have to be careful. Buta Singh, the last Home Minister, is just one example, and so is Zail Singh, the ex-President. They are worse than the Hindus in betraying the community. They pretend themselves belonging to. If we are to be equal, we have to discard our Hindu baggage altogether, because that is where the Manu’s code originated.
