Rfeaiu yRTfe

Guru Nanak Dev Mission Series 211

KH ALISTAN
The Politics of Passion

With the courtesy o f the Hindustan Times out o f

its Sunday Magzine dated October 4, 1981
/CTrS

GURU NANAK DEV, MISSION

P. O. Sanaur, Patiala, Punjab
I N D I A
55 P aisb
 T

,tvl / ;<

Khalsa mero rup hai khas ,

Khalse mein main karon niwas.
Jab tak Khalsa rehai niara ,
Tab lag tej dieuo main sara,
Jab ai gahe bipran k i reet , v
Main na karann in ki perteet.

—T h e K h a ls a a r e m y u n iq u e f o r m
In th e K h a ls a m y s p i r i t a b id e s .
— A s lo n g a s K h a ls a r e m a in s d i s t i n c t ,
So lo n g w ill I e n d o w th e m a ll m y p o w e r.
W h en B r a h m a n ic c u s to m s th e y p a r ta k e ,
■Then I to o w ill K h a ls a fo rs a k e ,
• r.
—G u r u G o b in d S in g h

^^^^nT^am a^iQT^^brBr^^w w ^panjabdTqUiLom «

 Punjab has been the problem State of India since inde­
depence. Even while Partition wounds were partially healed,
it was rocked by several agaitations both in favour of and
against the formation of a Punjabi-speaking State for nearly
a decade. Even after the formation of a unilingual State in
November 1966, peace has eluded it because of the Akali
demand for the inclusion of the Union Territory of
Chandigarh and the adjoining Punjabi-speaking areas of
Haryana and Rajasthan into Punjab and the refusal of a
sizable section of the Hindus to accept Punjabi as their
mother-tongue.

But during all these years there were only stray and
minor clashes between the Sikhs and the Hindus, The recent
murder of Lala Jagat Narain, veteran journalist and freedom-
fighter, the alleged indiscriminate gunning down of innocent
Hindus by some Sikh extremists at Jullundur and Tarn Taran
near Amritsar, and now the hijacking of an Indian Airlines
plane by extremist supporters of Khalistan are, therefore,
pointed indicators of the sharp deterioration in the relations
between the State’s two major religious communities.

Even before the hijacking, this was a potentially explosive

political situation. The Prime Minister, Mrs Indira Gandhi,
air.dashed to Chandigarh on September 22. met the leaders
of all political parties and impressed upon them the dire need

i
to restore communal harmony. Predicably their response
was prompt and enthusiastic.
It would, however, be nothing short of criminal compla­
cency to conclude either that the worst is over or that the
magic wand of peace committees would yield the desired
results. Experience of pre-Partition days proves beyond a
shadow of doubt that peace committees are rendered redun­
dant the moment communal frenzy grips the people at large
and the politics of passion begin to reign supreme.

Already much valuable time has been lost by successive

Central Governments, due to their ignorance of Punjab’s
problems, their naive hope that these would get solved auto­
matically with the passage of time, or for fear of complicating
them further. Because of this indecision the perfectly
reasonable demand for a Punjabi Suba within the Indian
Union has assumed the dangerous dimension of a sovereign
State of Khalistan in the space of about three and a half
decades.

The genesis of the current problems of Punjab goes back

to pre-Partition days when the Congress and the Akali Dal
had forged a united front against the Muslim League. In
pursuance of that understanding the Sikhs, under the undis­
puted leadership of Master Tara Singh, took a historic
decision in 1946. They rejected out of hand the Muslim
League’s tantalising offer of a sovereign State, comprising
areas lying in the west of Panipat and the east bank of the
river Ravi, on the understanding that the new State would
confederate with Pakistan on very advantageous terms to the
Sikhs. They also-cold shouldered the British offer “to

2
 enable them to have political feet of their own on which they
may walk into the current of world history.” Instead, the
Sikhs accepted at its face value a ’‘solemn undertaking” by
the Congress promising “a set-up in the north wherein
the Sikhs can also experience the glow of freedom.”
Their belief in the bona tides of the Congress was streng­
thened in July 1947. The resolution passed by the Hindu
and Sikh members of the Punjab Legislative Assembly at
their meeting in Delhi favouring Partition of the country,
contained the following reassuring sentence : “In the divided
Indian Punjab, special Constitutional measures are imperative
to meet the just aspirations and rights of the Sikhs.”
But no sooner did India become independent than the
solemn undertaking’* was forgotten. In spite of repeated
attempts by one of the Akali members of the Constituent
Assembly, Mr Hukam Singh, the Congress leaders refused to
honour their commitment to accord special righs, privileges
and safeguards to the Sikhs in free India. He therefore,
vehemently and unmistakably declared in the Constituent
Assembly that “the Sikhs do not accept this Constitution :
the Sikhs reject this Constitution Act.’* His basic reason
* for rejecting the Constitution was that the ruling Congress
f party had not honoured the pledges given to the Sikhs on
the eve of Independence. Mr Hukam Singh, therefore,
declined to append his signature to the Constitution as a
k token of his categorical and irrevocable rejection.
But the Sikh leadership was then in no position to start
an agitation, both for voicing its protest and for the redressal
of its grievances for three main reasons : One, almost half of

Diaitized bv Pani3b Diid ia l Library I www.DaniabdiniliiLnm.

the Sikh community was still recovering from Partition
wounds. Two, Master Tara Singh; an inveterate fighter, had
lost his pre-eminent position in Sikh politics, since most of his
ardent supporters, who were originally from West Punjab,
were scattered throughout the country and were busy rehabi­
litating themselves in extremely trying conditions and in
unfamiliar surroundings. They could spare neither the time
nor the money for the Panthic cause, as they had done too
willingly in the past. Lastly, as the Akali leaders belonging
to East Punjab, who were mostly Jats, had gained in strength
and stature, they revolted against the tutelage of the non-Jat
Sikh leader—Master Tara Singh.
Although virtually helpless due to the peculiar constella­
tion of circumstances, the Akali leaders, more especially
Master Tara Singh, never accepted the new Constitutional
dispensation and continued to make noises against it. Soon
after the formation of Andhra Pradesh following widespread
disturbances by Telugu-speaking people, Master Tara Singh
vociferously demanded the formation of a Punjabi Suba,
though in vain.
Sikh hopes were rekindled when the Central Government
appointed the States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) in
the winter of 1953. But the SRC rejected the case for a
Punjabi-speaking State on the ground that “ a minimum mea­
sure of agreement necessary for making a change” in the
existing set-up, was absent.
Master Tara Singh described the SRC report as yet
another instance of gross discrimination against the Sikhs.
Had there been no Sikhs in Punjab, he said, a unilingual

4
 State would have been conceded without a second thought.
Denouncing the SRC report as a “decree of Sikh annihila­
tion,” he threatened to launch a “morcha” for the formation
i of a Punjabi Suba.
•

It took Master Tara Singh nearly three years to execute

y his threat. On April 30, 1960 he finally launched a peaceful
agitation in support of his demand. Although over 57,000
Akali workers courted arrest, the Government remained
unmoved. Matters came to a head when Sant Fateh Singh,
a grant/zz-cum-social worker whom Master Tara Singh had
nominated as “dictator”, went on a fast unto death. Fearful
of the dire consequences, the Union Government agreed to
look into the grievances of the Sikh community. The
agitation was called off and Sant Fateh Singh gave up his
fast.
But the negotiations between the Akalis and the Govern­
ment got bogged down on the question of whether the denial
of a Punjabi Suba amounted to “discrimination” against the
Sikhs. To realise his demand for a unilingual State, Master
Tara Singh went on a fast unto death on August 15. 1961.
But he gave up his dubious fast after 48 days. It marked
■1
the political death of the veteran fighter because he committed
an unpardonable sin by violating his oath.
Before the Sikhs could recover from this terrible shock,
the Government pressed home its advantage. A three-
i member high-powered commission was appointed under the
chairmanship of Mr S. R. Das, former Chief Justice of India,
to hear “the grievances of the Sikhs” . The Akali leaders
asked the Sikhs to boycott the commission on the ground

Ta^JiQi
Diaitized bv Paniab Diaitat Librarrv I www.Dani3bdiaUib.orc
that no Sikh had been nominated to it.
Their appeal did not fall on deaf ears. Only five Sikhs
appeared before the commission and listed the privileges
which the Sikhs enjoyed under the Nehru Government. All
of them were political non-entities. Their spokesman, Dr
Gopal Singh, had a tainted communal past and was notorious
for his negotiable political beliefs. (He has been rewarded
amply and repeatedly by the successive Congress Govern­
ments ever since for the services rendered by him in their
hour of trial. Currently, he is being considered for the post
of a governor.)
Until his death on May 27, 1964, Jawaharlal Nehru
refused to give in to Akali bluff, bluster and threats. In
fact, in the wake of exposure of the hollow nature of the
Akali threat, Nehru took the offensive. He told the corres­
pondent of The Times, London, in an exclusive interview on
October 2, 1962, that he would rather face a civil war on the
issue of the Punjabi-speaking State than concede it. Lai
Bahadur Shastri continued the policy of his predecessor.
Sant Fateh Singh, who had replaced Master Tara Singh
as the leader of the Akali Dal. decided to launch a “morcha”
once again for the formation of a Punjabi Suba. But before
he could execute his threat, Pakistan invaded India on
September 1, 1965. Instead of cynically exploiting the situa­
tion, Akali leaders promptly declared their unqualified
support to the Government thereby giving a lie to the
accusation of disloyalty to the country levelled against them
by communal-minded Hindus over the years,

Greatly impressed by the role of the Sikh community in

Digitized bv Paniab Digital Library I M M jL

 the Indo-Pak war, Mrs Indira Gandhi (who had become
the Prime Minister following Lai Bahadur Shastri’s death)
conceded the demand for a Punjabi Suba in March that year.
The expert committee, which was appointed to determine the
Punjabi-speaking areas, recommended the inclusion of the
districts of Jullundur, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana, Ferozepur,
Amritsar, Patiala. Bhatinda, Kapurthala and parts of
Gurdaspur, Ambala and Sangrur in the new State. Punjab
was to have an area of 20,254 square miles and a population
of 115.84—lakh, of whom about 56 per cent would be Sikhs.
What was even more significant, 85 per cent of the total Sikh
population in the country would be residing in Punjab, and
on a live border. The new State was formlly inaugurated in
November 1966.
The boundaries of new Punjab did not satisfy the Sikhs
in general and the hotheaded Akalis in particular, as these
did not strictly follow the linguistic distribution of the
populace. Moreover, Chandigarh which was especially built
as the new capital of Punjab by the Nehru Government, was
not awarded to Punjab. It was to be the joint capital of
Punjab and Haryana, pending agreement between the two
? States on several ticklish issues.

To get redressal of these and other “ wrongs” done to

the Sikhs, Jathedar Darshan Singh Pheruman began his fast
unto death on August 15, 1968. He carried out his threat and
died after 74 days, on October 27. But his self-afflicted
ordeal neither moved his co-religionists, who happened to be
governing the State then, nor the Central Government whose
members swore by Gandhism at the slightest excuse or pro-

DiqTdze^^ania^iqT^^bmi^^www^DaniabdTaiUb^m
 \

vocation. This made the Sikh masses angry beyond words,

with both.
To retrieve his position, Sant Fateh Singh went on
another fast on January 26, 1970 declaring that he would
lay down his life if Chandigarh was not handed over to
Punjab and the contiguous Punjabi-speaking areas were not
merged into it. to
!
Realising the gravity of the situation, Mrs. Gandhi
announced an award on January 29,1970. Under its terms,
she gave Chandigarh to Punjab, and promised the appoint­
ment of an expert committee in the near future to examine
the question of merging Punjabi-speaking areas into it. But
much to the chagrin of the Sikhs, she gave a part of Fazilka
tehsil and Abohar to Haryana. The final takeover of
Chandigarh and the transfer of Fazilka and Abohar was to
take place by January 1975. The award is yet to be imple­
mented.

Mrs Gandhi’s award was unacceptable to the Sikhs for

two basic reasons. One is that Fazilka and Abohar are not
contiguous to Haryana. Hence, a corridor through Punjab
would have to be provided to connect them with Haryana. ^
The other reason is that when Mrs. Gandhi had, in her award
also announced the appointment of a high-powered expert 1
committee in the near future for redemarcation of the
Punjabi and Hindi speaking areas, it was not correct on her
part to grant the two rich cotton growing areas of Punjab to
Haryana.

Even a loyalist like Dr. Gopal Singh could not stomach

8
 this dispensation. In his keynote address to the All India
Sikh Intelligentsia Convention in New Delhi on July 5 this
year, he said : ‘*A State based on the Punjabi language has
been carved, but many Punjabi-speaking areas were left out
for wrong and I should say blatantly communal reasons
He was also critical of linking “the question of Chandigarh
with the transfer to a neighbouring State of our cotton-
producing belt of Abohar and Falzika...”

Six years later, in March 1976, Mrs Gandhi gave anothers

award, this time on the sharing of the Ravi-Beas waters.
Under it, both Punjab and Haryana were allocated 3.52
million acre feet of water each and 0.2 m.a.f. of water was
given to the Union Territory of Delhi. Had this award been
implemented, around nine lakh acres of cultivated land in
Punjab would have been denied the irrigation facilities which
they had enjoyed for over half a century. This would have
spelt economic ruin as the State’s prosperity rests largely on
agriculture. (When the Akali-Janata Ministry came to power
in the summer of 1977, it filed a writ petition against the
award before the Supreme Court. It is awaiting disposal.)

The Sikhs have several other complaints of alleged

* discrimination. For instance, they feel sore over the ridicu-
, lously low Central investment totalling not even Rs 900
^ crore out of the public sector investment of nearly Rs. 40,000
crore since the commencement of the planned economy in
* 1951. In fact Punjab’s share is considerably less, because in
almost all the hydel power projects and multipurpose dams,
one or more of its neighbouring States—Haryana, Himachal
Pradesh and Rajasthan—have a substantial share, thus

Digitized by Panjab Digital Library I www.paniab.dMihjmL

reducing its actual percentage share to around one per cent.
The Sikhs in general refuse to accept the official argu­
ment that it would be an act of fool-hardiness to make huge
investments in a border State like Punjab for two main
reasons. One is that but for Madhya Pradesh, every other
Indian State is vulnerable to a hostile attack either from land
or from sea. Secondly, there is no target in the world today
which can be said to be truly immune from an attack by
guided missiles.
The Sikhs also complain that Punjab was being bled
white because of the Centre’s refusal to grant licences for
setting up big industrial units in the State. Nearly 70 percent
of its cotton and about 60 per cent of its molasses are
“exported” to other States rather than being put to industrial
use within its own territories, with the result that it has to
‘ import” finished goods for which it pays “ value added
prices.
The absence of any gigantic industrial complexes in the
State has resulted in industrial stagnation. Of the Rs. 360
crore bank deposits per annum, on an average, for the last
two decades, Rs. 250 crore are used outside Punjab. Had
these deposits been invested within the State over the years,
Punjab’s industrial economy, which largely consists of
medium and small scale units, would not have become
stagnant The situation is likely to worsen in the years to
come because of the severe competition its products will have
to face from the up and coming local manufactures in other
States and because of the absence of any big industrial units
within its territory to encourage ancillarisation.
The Sikh peasantry too, is disgruntled because of the

10

Digitized by P a n ja bD ig i^ U bja ryJ

Central Government’s refusal to give a green signal to
Punjab to go ahead with the construction of the Thein Dam,
unless it concedes beforehand Haryana’s demand for an
unreasonably high share of water and electricity. Thus, while
the Ravi’s water continue to flow freely to Pakistan, Punjab
continuously suffers from acute shortage of water and
power.
A majority of educated Sikhs are also of the considered
opinion that the Constitution is heavily tilted against their
community. For instance, the word Hindu, whenever it
occurs in the Constitution, is meant to denote Jains,
Buddhists and Sikhs as well, except when its Articles pertain
to the grant of special rights, concessions and privileges to
the Scheduled Castes, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs are then
put outside the purview of the word Hindu. The exclusion,
they assert, is aimed at using economic sanctions, induce­
ments and official patronage to attract the Scheduled Castes
belonging to other religious communities back to the Hindu
fold.

This section is also greatly exercised over Government

interference in the personal law and religious affairs of the
Sikhs. According to it, the Hindu Marriage Act has
supplanted the Anand Marriage Act which was enacted in the
first decade of the current century with great d ifficulty for
legalising the Sikh form of marriage with the exclusion of
Hindu rituals. Contrary to one of the basic beliefs of Sikhism,
which regards marriage as an indissoluble bond the Hindu
Marriage Act provides for divorce.
Again, the Sikhs are angry over the promulgation of an

11

Digitized by Panjab Digital library I

ordinance in January this year amending the Delhi Gurdwara
Management Act, without consulting the Shiromani Gurd-
wara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), Amritsar, in gross
violation of the Nehru-Tara Singh Pact of 1959. The pact r
clearly stipulates that no changes shall be made in the f
Gurdwara Act without prior consultation with, and the
consent of the SGPC. They are also unhappy over the
decision of the Union Government to bypass the SGPC in
the selection of Sikhs going on a pilgrimage to their historic
shrines in Pakistan.

Their other complaint is that no Sikh has been appointed

Chief of the Army Staff so far. The claims of such distingui­
shed officers as Generals Kulwant Singh, Harbakhsh Singh
and Jagjit Singh Aurora were ignored. What is worse, the
Central Government has gradually and systematically
reduced the proportion of Sikhs in the armed forces from
over 33 per cent on the eve of independence, to less than 12
per cent today. To reduce the Sikh share further, the Union
Government in 1974 fixed Punjab’s share in recruitment to
the armed forces to a mere 2.5 per cent. Of this, the Sikhs
share works out to around 1.3 per cent.

Every Sikh is now asking : “Why should quotas be fixed

for each State in a country where voluntary recruitment is in
vogue, unless it is meant to shut out the Sikhs from the
armed forces with a view to adversely affecting their economic
position and social status further ?”

The Akali leadership as well as the Sikh masses also

attribute the refusal of the Central Government to hand over
the management of the Bhakra Dam to the Punjab Govern-

12

Digitized by Panjab DjgitalLibrary / www.panjabdigiiib.org

ment and to set up a separate High Court for the State, to
communal considerations
The cumulative effect of all these real and alleged acts ot
discrimination against the Sikhs has been compounded by
the fact that the Green Revolution has reached a plateau and
Punjab’s comparative prosperity is increasingly becoming
precarious.
In the circumstances it is not at all surprising that some
hot-heads among the Sikhs have begun to ask : “ Hindus
have got India, Muslims have got Pakistan. What have we
got ?•’

13
E x c e rp ts f r o m ‘I n d ia T o d a y ’ d a te d N ov. 30, 1981
GANGA SINGH DHILLON

“ Dhillon holds an American passport. But, as he said

in the course of two days of interview with India Today,
“ My flesh and blood are made from the soil of India and
nothing can change that........... ”
He demands neither a separate Khalistan nor does he
advocate secession. Yet he has panicked the Indian Govt,
into denouncing him, declaring him persona non grata and
denying him a visa to visit India .....
There is not a shred of evidence to support the charge
of CIA connections being levelled against Dhillon .............
He makes no bones about his personal and abiding friendship
with Pakistan’s Zia.
“ Am I a foreign agent ?” he asks, his piercing eyes
narrowing, his lips pursed,” “ 1 am an agent, yes. I am an
agent of Guru Gobind Singh, of Guru Nanak, and no one
else. I don’t need Zia or the CIA to tell me to do what I
must do” . He is a deeply religious man, whose flawless
English is peppered with quotes from the Granth Sahib . . . ”
..... He supports designating a Punjabi speaking aiea to
be declared a cultural homeland for the Sikhs, ‘‘where we
can preserve our identity, our cultural economic inheritance,
but within the Indian Union.”

14

byJPgnj^^jgjtaJJ^awJ www.panjabjdigUib.org —
 \

Some historians such as J.D. Cunnigham trace the origin

of the cultural separatism of the Sikhs and their demand for
an autonomous region to the Baisakhi of 1699 presided over
by Guru Gobind Singh. Dhillon claims that the “establishment
of the Sikh commonwealth in 1799 was another milestone in
this direction and the quest for re-establishing our national
identity has been strong ever since the end of Sikh rule over
Punjab and Kashmir in 1848. Sir Gokal Chand Narang, in
his book ‘The Transformation of Sikhism’ used the term
“Sikh Nation,” as did Mohammad Latif in his history of the
Punjab, and Mohsanfani in Dabistan.”
“What have I said that is so terrible ?” Dhillon asks
with wounded outrage “When Sikhs assert their distinct
national identity within the Indian Union, their aspirations
are labelled as communal or separatist. But when the majority
raise the slogan ‘Hindi Hindu Hindustan’ that is called,
somewhat paradoxically, ‘nationalistic.’ Except for defence,
currency and foreign affairs, the rest should be left to the
Sikhs and their Hindu brothers in Punjab to decide. Sikhism
is secular. Punjab will be open to all” .
“ If the Sikhs call themselves a nation, like the Tibetans
the Kurds and Palestinians, and call Punjab their homeland,
it should not mean a partition of the country. Recognition of,
India’s rich cultural and regional diversity is not likely to
weaken its unity. At the same time, the denial of the
existence of a cultural mosaic is not likely to strengthen it ”
He then repeats what has become a Dhillon stock phrase;
‘Whenever the Sikhs asserted their right of distinct cultural
identity and autonomy, the mass media controlled by the
majority screamed ‘Partition’ ! If one cries “ wolf too often

15
 it is likely topay a visit. Those who raise the spectre of
partition over every Sikh demand are the ones who are
unwittingly doing the greatest harm to the very cause they
claim to espouse If the majority persists in using these crude
tools, India’s balkanisation would be their responsibility. The
issue of the Sikh nation cannot be wished away or washed
away. We are not asking for the moon, but only a place
under the sun, where we can lead a life of dignity worthy of
the Khalsa Panth and in our own, little cultural republic ”
...Aside from his perception that publicly expressed Sikh
yearnings for a cultural homeland have been treated as
treasonable and suppressed by governments for hundreds of
years, Dhillon also expresses an admixture of economic and
political grievances that are regularly bandied about at global
Sikh conferences They include the following : Rs. 200 crore
have flowed out of Punjab for two decades with less than
10 percent being re-invested in the state; there have been no
government investments of heavy industry in the Punjab
which causes a drain of skilled labour out of Punjab;
under a ‘'planned conspiracy” labourers from Uttar Pradesh
and Bihar are brought into Punjab to build roads, and the
Sikh population of Punjab has dropped by 10 per cent
during the last 14 years to 52 per cent of the state,
Chandigarh “built on the flesh and blood of Sikh farmers
who were ejected from their lands, is not being given to
them.
He (Ganga Singh Dhillon) formed the world-wide
Nankana Sahib foundation in order to preserve the (Sikh)
shrines (in Pakistan) and assure the access of all Sikhs to
them. During several meetings with Zia which later blosso­
med into personal friendship, Dhillon was able to obtain

16

D ig it iz e d P a n ja b Digital Library / www.panjabdigiLib.org

from the Pakistani President not only an oral but also a
detailed written commitment pledging that the Pakistan
Government would take care of the shrines and facilitate
free access to, and freedom of worship at, these holy
places. ,
But Dhillon’s main quest is to place the management
and maintenance of the shrines under an international body
of Sikhs as is done with the sacred shrines of other major
religions of the world. Zia said in a letter to Dhillon that a
statutory mandate would be required to achieve this and it
would have to be routed through, or initiated by, the
Government of India. “ And the Government of India has
failed to do this.” Dhillon charges “ Repeated efforts have
failed to stir the Government of India” .

(Referring to some of his patriotic services rendered to

the Government of India) Dhillon says, “ When they needed
me they thought of me as a great patriot. I was all right
then, but today I am not even allowed to go to Amritsar.
They have imposed these restrictions on me to frighten
Sikhs in India, to frighten Sikhs abroad, and to frighten
Pakistan into not dealing with me.”
Dhillon weeps, applying a forefinger and thumb to his
eyes to hold back his tears. “ I’d never do anything my father
would be ashamed of. I am not answerable to Mrs. Gandhi
or Zia or Reagan. My greatest power is my Akalpurkh. If
in the memory of my father my tears roll, why should I hide
them ? If in the cause of Nanak I am overwhelmed by
emotion, why should not the tears roll? But you won’t see
tears in my eyes in battle : I am a sportsman.”

17

Digital I ihrarv I wwW.Daniabdwilib.om

 MOTHER OF KHALSA MEMORIAL TRUST

Guru Nanak Dev Mission has constituted a Cultural

Trust entitled ‘Mother of Khalsa Memorial Trust’ to create
interest of the college students in the Sikh way of life and to
help educate them in the field of Sikh Religion, Sikh Ethics
and Sikh history.
The objectives will be attained by holding periodical
contests in items like (a) correct reading of Gurbani (b) ren­
dering into simple language specified portion of Gurbani
(c) speaking and writing on Sikh ethics and history (d)
Shabad kirtan and (e) reciting poems on the lives of Sikh
Gurus and eminent Sikhs.
To begin with, the Trust will serve the region comprising
the whole of Punjab and districts of Ambala, Karnal, Hissar
Sirsa, Kurkshetar and Sri Ganga Nagar. The entire area will
be divided into seven zones as detailed below and contests will
be held zone-wise and item-wise and prizes awarded to the
winners.
ZONES
(i) Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts.
(ii) Hoshiarpur Jullundur and Kapurthala districts.
(iii) Ludhiana and Ropar districts including
Chandigarh.

18
 (iv) Patiala, Ambala, Kurkshetar and Karnal districts.
(v) Bhatinda Sangrur and Hissar districts.
(vi) Ferozepur and Faridkot districts.
(vii) Sirsa and Sri Ganga Nagar districts.
The first contests will be held in Oct. or Nov. 82 and
subjects of contests notified ahead
For further details correspond with Secretary Guru
Nanak Dev Mission.

19
/
 CONTRIBUTED BY

1.Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Patiala.

2. Sri Guru Kalghidhar Sewak Jatha, Bikaner.
3. S. Indar Singh Shastri Nagar, Dhanbad.
4. S. Gurcharan Singh Parminder Singh, Tehsil Rd. Jagraon.
5. S. Baldev Singh Harkirat Singh, Tehsil Rd. Jagraon.
6. S. Gurcharan Singh Indian Automobiles, Kurnool.
7. Brigadier Kushalpal Singh, Nabha.
8. S.S. Baba Teja Singh Trust W. Patel Nagar, New Delhi.
9. S. Darshan Singh, Sudarshan Park, New Delhi.
10. S- Kartar Singh, Fateh Nagar, New Delhi.
11. Capt. Hargobind Singh, Gobind Nagar, Dehradun.
12. Giani Jit Singh Hon. Missionary Khar, Bombay.
13. S. Sher Singh, Edmonton (Canada).
14. Dr. Surjan Singh, near Water Tank, Jagroan.
15. Bibi Harkirat Kaur, teacher Govt. Hr. Sec. School,
Jagraon.
16. S. Hardayal Singh Agwar Gujran, Jagraon.

Tract on 212 will be Japji Sateek Part II (Punjabi)

Printed by Royson Printers for Guru Nanak Dev Mission and published
by the Secretary of the Mission from Sanaur Distt. Patiala
in March, 1982.

Digitized by Panjab DigitaLLibrary / www,panjabdigiUb.Off

 It b e g a n m o d e s tly a s a d e m a n d f o r a
P u n ja b i S u b a , a n d h a s n o w a s s u m e d th e
g ig a n tic d im e n s io n s o f a m o v e m e n t fo r a
s e p a ra te , s o v e re ig n S ik h S ta te o f K h a lis ta n .
T ra c in g th e h is to r y o f S ik h g r ie v a n c e s a n d
r e s e n tm e n ts , w h ic h h a v e a c c u m u la te d a n d
f e s te re d o v e r th e y e a r s s in c e in d e p e n d e n c e ,
S. SIN G H a n a ly s e s th e c ir c u m ta n c e s —r e lig i­
o u s, p o litic a l a n d s o c ia l— w h ic h h a v e a llo w e d
e x tr e m is ts to ta k e o v e r th e S u b a m o v e m e n t
a n d c o n v e rt i t in to a c ru s a d e f o r se c e s s io n ,
w ith i t s a p p e n d a g e s o f m u r d e r , v io le n c e a n d
te r r o r i s m .