1984
The Manmohan Syndrome
by PARMJEET SINGH
Ethno-political phenomena, everywhere in the world, have some common traits; one of then is thought-control strategy on subjected groups.
The dominant group uses this strategy on subject groups by applying psychological weapons. One of chief psychological weapon used thus is the co-opting of the leaders from subject groups by the dominant group.
William Safran writes, in his article published in International Political Science Review (January 1994), that "for dominance on social organizations of society, the dominant group ‘buy off' or co-opt subordinate group leaders to maintain the status-quo.
"Alternatively, the co-opted ethnic leaders may function as agents to pressure ethnic minorities to tone down their particular demands."
The dominant group will isolate a subordinate group, then negotiate with the latter's leaders, using it as a device for maintaining control by indirect means.
In almost every ethno-nationalist conflict, the dominant group not only suppresses the ethno-nationalist feelings among subjective groups by coercion but also uses reward and co-option strategy for controlling the minds of the members of the subordinate group.
For this purpose the dominant group selects some elites from the subordinate groups, appoint them to some vital official positions. The severity of the ethno-nationalist feelings among the subordinate group determine the nature of the official positions on which the co-opted leaders are to be appointed.
The containment of Sikh ethno-nationalism by India is an important example of this phenomena. It is not a mere coincidence that both dominant Indian parties, i.e., Congress and Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) whole-heartedly accepted the appointments of Sikhs to India's highest political offices.
Is it not a strange phenomena that India silently accepted a Sikh as a Prime Minister, as a Deputy Speaker of the Indian Parliament, as a Chief of Staff of the Indian Army, and as a Vice-chairman of the powerful political body known as the Planning Commission of India.
Notably, before these whole-sale appointments, India had never appointed Sikhs in such a large numbers to their highest political offices. The moot point is: what was the compulsion of the Indian establishment that led it to such whole-sale appointment?
A staunch opponent of Sikh nationalism, Harjot Oberoi's observation that Sikh fundamentalists brought India to a state of siege during the 1980-90s clarifies the Indian compulsion to co-opt and appoint Sikhs in the above-mentioned manner, for containing the further development of this ethno-nationalism.
Even in Punjab, the homeland of Sikhs, the major Sikh party; Shiromani Akali Dal's ("SAD") policy to make it a ‘Punjabi Party' by deleting the word ‘Sikh' from its' constitution, also shows the powerful use of thought-control strategy initiated by the Indian State. It is not only the leaders, SAD's religious heads and the Sikh intellectuals that become easy prey of this opprobrium.
The fact that Giani Zail Singh was President of India and the (symbolic) Supreme Commander of Armed forces in India, when thre Indian Army attacked the Darbar Sahib (commonly called The Golden Temple, Amritsar) in 1984, is a clear example of the effective use of co-option strategy in the case of Sikhs by the Indian establishment.
After 1992, which marks the trend of the decline of the Sikh armed struggle, these co-opted jugglers have been making a mockery of Sikh tenets on a large scale. Even the Indian Prime Minister is not an exception. Rather, after co-opting him as the PM of India from a compulsion to choose a weak and loyal politician, the Congress party made him a phenomena for controlling the psyche of Sikhs.
On the other hand, a large number of Sikhs are enjoying and celebrating their thrall by hailing the appointment of Dr. Manmohan Singh as PM. The Sikhs who are victims of this phenomena have failed to understand the real motives behind Manmohan Singh's co-option as the Sikh Prime Minister of India.
The Congress party, or more precisely the Gandhi family, killed many birds with a single stone: First, it quelled the staunch opposition of Sonia Gandhi as Prime Minister of India by the BJP; second, it avoided the fear of the rise of any alternative power-centre outside the Gandhi family; thirdly and mainly, through this appointment by the Congress party, the Indian State is applying a thought control strategy for containing the ethno-nationalist feeling in Sikhs.
The position of Dr. Manmohan Singh, as a hand-selected Prime Minister of India; along with his words and deeds, reflects the position of Sikhs in relation to the Indian State.
In the 2007 Lok Sabha elections, Congress used his ‘Sikh image' to induce Sikhs to vote for it. Dr. Manmohan Singh approved it silently throughout the election process for almost six months. But just before the last day of election campaign he, while in Punjab, declared that he was not in favor of asking for votes in the name of religion, and further that, he was firstly an 'Indian' and afterwards ‘anything else'.
The question arises that what was the compulsion before the ‘Sikh Prime Minister' that he did not declare, even at any secondary place, that he was a Sikh? The answer to this question lies in the understanding of the phenomena discussed here, and whatever is done and said by Dr. Manmohan Singh, to defame the Sikhs who are pursuing the legal battle for justice vis-a-vis the1984 Sikh Massacre, during his recent meetings with the Canadian PM, is just a small reflection.
[The author is the National President of The Sikh Students Federation and a student of higher studies in Law at Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab.]
Courtesy: Counter Currents
July 9, 2010
Conversation about this article
1: N. Singh (Canada), July 09, 2010, 12:11 PM.
Thank you! I was beginning to think I was going insane for not buying into the 'Manmohan Singh' syndrome.
2: Taran (London, United Kingdom), July 09, 2010, 1:43 PM.
A thought provoking analysis from the writer. Good one. Indeed, the majority is playing with the Sikh psyche.
3: Irvinder Singh Babra (Brampton, Ontario, Canada), July 09, 2010, 5:49 PM.
I do not find it newsworthy that the word Sikh is getting replaced by Punjabi, and has any link with the Manmohan Syndrome article. Dr. Manmohan Singh has nothing to do with it, and he has nothing to do with both, Sikh and Punjabi. But this is the beginning of a new dangerous trend in India when the brave Sikhs are getting subjected, uprooted and firmly consolidated as Hindus in India. That is really a new gift to the Indian civilization by Dr. Manmohan Singh because the Hindus gained more from him than the Sikhs, who do not find him a good enough Sikh at all. The syndrome should go on no further.
4: Harsimran Singh (Union City, California, United States), July 09, 2010, 7:41 PM.
Very cynical article that feeds on the paranoia of most readers. The author seems to believe that Manmohan Singh has served as Prime Minister not because he can make good policy, and is therefore the right man for the job, but because the Indian government has some ulterior motive to subdue Sikhs long after the end of the Sikh insurgency. And I think the "Hindu Majority" has demonstrated that they want to move beyond communalism by voting against the Hindu-nationalist BJP in two consecutive general elections.
5: N. Singh (Canada), July 09, 2010, 8:30 PM.
Harsimran Singh: Perhaps I was asleep but did I miss the news about justice for the November 1984 pogroms and were the 'Hindu Majority' able to explain where the 'disappeared' men of 1984-1995 are to be found? I was not invited to their party celebrating their wish to move beyond communalism ... And, of course, the Gurjarat 2002 pogroms and the killings of Christians in 2009 were all a figment of my paranoid imagination! BJP ... Congress ... what's the difference?
6: Kanwar (Brampton, Ontario, Canada), July 09, 2010, 10:29 PM.
This article reeks of paranoia! How sad is it to believe that Sikhs who have achieved prominent roles in India are not there for their merit but because they are secret Hindu agents! Just how important is it for them to to control 2% of the population?! By the author's logic, the next PM will have to be a Naxalite from the tribal fringe of India. After all, how else can they deal with the Naxal insurgency. Anyone who has visited the Punjab recently is disturbed by the level of drug addiction amongst the youth there. Some NGOs even claim an addiction rate as high as 72% in rural areas amongst young men. What exactly is the Indian government afraid of? A rag tag army of pot heads marching on Delhi?! If you really care about Sikhi and Punjab, then you have to admit that there are more pressing concerns than grinding your axe over 1984. We are a progressive people. We have faced such adversity before, only to shrug it off and reach greater heights. No one is happy about 1984, but if we stay stuck on this for another 25 years, what will we achieve? I cannot imagine that our ancestors spent this much time dwelling on the two Ghallugharas of the 18th century if they went on to found an empire 50 years later. Please, let's move forward and start out-doing the competition, or we risk making 1984 an even bigger tragedy than it was.
7: Raj (Canada), July 09, 2010, 11:18 PM.
In Punjab, there's a saying: "Dujay de moday te rakh ke rifle chalana", it kills many birds with one hit. For Sikhs, whether it's the ignorant Zail Singh or the scholar Dr. Manmohan singh, it doesn't make a difference. They're all puppets of the majority to achieve nefarious designs against the Sikhs.
8: Karamjeet Singh Lamba (Ahmedabad, India), July 10, 2010, 5:15 AM.
Your article is good, but only shows one side of the coin. Forget thought control. It has been happening for ages. What I am happy about is that Manmohan Singh is an exemplary leader and being a Sikh puts the Sikhs in good light. Imagine some rascal Sikh being a leader at such a high position. And about the Gandhis suddenly putting him in such a position is ridiculous. What people don't know is that this was a long-term strategy. I had read an article in the Business Standard that Manmohan Singh could and should be the PM ... long before he did.
9: N. Singh (Canada), July 10, 2010, 10:43 AM.
Kanwar: I find it distressing that people like yourself who probably never experienced any loss in 1984 feel that instead of getting justice for the victims and standing by them, the Sikhs should just 'shrug it off'! The act of forgiveness and forgetting doesn't lie with you or other Sikhs like you; it is the prerogative of the victims ONLY and they are still seeking for justice. Regarding those 'pot heads' that you are referring to, let me remind you of the psychosis of fear that was deliberately created by the Indian government in the years following 1984 with mass arbitrary killings of innocent Sikh youth, and then the increased availability of drugs which was provided by them! Yes, by them. I was witness to Punjab police officers openly distributing drugs to Sikh youths outside colleges and schools. If the Indian government wasn't afraid, then Manmohan Singh would not have visited Canada creating hysteria about Sikh extremists. Your comments don't reek of paranoia but they reek of ignorance and complete lack of respect for others.
10: Harsimran Singh (Union City, California, United States), July 10, 2010, 12:24 PM.
N. Singh: First, the perpetrators of the 1984 pogroms escaped justice because they had the power to undermine India's feeble judicial system. It was not because all of India has something against Sikhs. Second, blaming India's Hindus for acts committed by Punjab Police from 1984-1995 is like blaming me as an American, for the atrocities committed by my country's troops during the Vietnam War. It just doesn't make any sense. Third, although 1984, Gujrat, and other pogroms were horrible happenings, blaming them on all of Indian society/ civilization is like blaming the entire Sikh community for the killings of Punjabi Hindus by Sikh militants from the 1980's to mid 1990's.
11: Nindi (New Delhi, India), July 10, 2010, 5:47 PM.
Harsimran ji: if you've done your homework, you would know that most of the so-called killings of Hindus by Sikhs in the mid-1980's and 90s have now been proved to be done by Indian government operatives, disguised as Sikhs by wearing turbans and false beards. This has been found to be a fact by independent inquiries. The Hindu majority of India is as guilty of the outrages against the Sikhs as the German populace was of the crimes by Nazis against the Jews of Europe. Moreover, the majority may not have participated in the crimes, and they could even get away with saying that it did not know of their full ambit or import then ... but now that it is public knowledge, what is it doing to correct the wrongs committed in its name ... wrongs that are going to haunt and splinter the country for as long as it fails to deal with them. Harsimran, I'm sorry to say but you make a great apologist for the desis. Wish you'd do some research and understand the full extent of what really happened, and not rely on Indian government propaganda.
12: Kartar Singh Bhalla (New Delhi, India), July 12, 2010, 7:36 AM.
I share the following quote from Devinder Singh Chahal, Canada, on Dr Manmohan Singh: "Since his appointment Dr Manmohan Singh has done very well for the uplift of India and Indians irrespective of their religions ... Although the Nanavati Report has fallen short to do full justice to the Sikhs, Dr Manmohan Singh still came forward courageously and conscientiously when he declared: "MY HEAD BOWS IN SHAME NOT BEFORE THE SIKH COMMUNITY BUT ALSO BEFORE THE ENTIRE NATION. ... I have no hesitation in apologizing not only to the Sikh community but to the whole nation, because what took place in 1984 is a negation of the concept of nationhood enshrined in our Constitution. So, I am not standing on any false prestige. On behalf of our Government, on behalf of the entire people of this country, I bow my head in shame," Dr. Singh said, in his intervention in the debate on the Nanavati Commission findings in the Rajya Sabha ... "The past is behind us. We cannot change it, but we can write the future. We must have the will power to write a better future for all of us," he said, urging the members to concentrate their debates on the "quest for a better future in which the people feel honourable members of a nation and live a life of dignity and self-respect."
13: Kanwar (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), July 12, 2010, 9:56 AM.
N.Singh: All I am saying is that we should put a greater focus on the dire problems of today. Your position about police brutality in Punjab may be morally correct but consider this: whenever there is a long and bloody struggle such as in the Punjab, Kashmir, Israel, Sri Lanka, etc, the winning side will never ever turn around and serve justice upon its subordinates for the bloody deeds which won them the victory. I cannot think of a single example where this has ever happened in the 20th century. In fact, I will go so far as to say that had Sikhs gained a separate homeland, we would not go on to prosecute our own monsters (a.k.a. heroes) for rights violations against others. Yes, there were instances when fake beards and disguises were used to malign the Sikhs, but if we're honest, we must acknowledge that no insurgency lasts a decade without a fair share of innocent blood on everyone's hands. My position is not one of disregard towards injustice and I feel that justice for victims of Delhi and Gujarat riots would benefit not just the affected communities but India as a whole. However, I'm a realist at heart and I know that justice after the fog of war is a rarity. Meanwhile, the problem of drug addiction in Punjab is looming large and will definitely take a far greater toll on all Punjabi communities than the Indian government's crimes in and following 1984. Nor can you blame the Punjab police for it (despite what you may have witnessed once) since the flood of drugs is a result of the chaos following the U.S invasion of Afghanistan and it now afflicts all of Punjab. History dictates that might is right so either we face the problems we have today and work towards getting back to a position of strength or we can hold out on getting justice while the world moves on and avoids looking us in the eye. It's a bitter pill to swallow but if you look back at our history, that is the primary lesson our ancestors have taught us.
14: N. Singh (Canada), July 12, 2010, 12:03 PM.
Kartar Singh Bhalla: Yes, "we can write a better future for all of us" ... let's begin with the indictment of Jagdish Tyler, Kamal Nath and others, and this would include having the death penalty on the table. Yes, Manmohan Singh cannot fix the past and undo the killing of thousands of Sikhs but he can fix the future by bringing these people to justice. I fail to see how he has uplifted all Indians with over 50% of the population living in poverty, human rights violations occurring in Kashmir and the North East and ghetto-ization of the Punjab by the Central Government. Perhaps you have gained from his selection personally. That I understand but please do not speak for the rest of the us. Also I suggest that you view this link as posted by another writer: http://thelangarhall.com/india/the-great-sikh-hope/
15: M.K.S. (New York, U.S.A.), July 12, 2010, 5:01 PM.
I don't understand why, whenever India's Sikhs demand justice from their government, (particularly for the genocide of the Sikhs) - something that is guaranteed under Indian law, the following arguments are hurled back at them by the Government of India apologists: 1) The Sikhs need to forget the past and move forward. The Sikhs as a community cannot move forward if they continue to 'look back' - Implying that asking for justice is 'wrong', 'unpatriotic', 'holds our community back' and responsible for all the ills that have befallen us. I say that if a festering boil is not dried and the puss removed, it could lead to amputation of the limb. I feel that Sikh-Indians and their supporters, by asking their government to deliver justice - albeit long delayed - still say that there is some hope for them within the Indian system. How much more patriotic, just, large-hearted and forgiving could a community be? 2) The killings of Hindus by the 'nationalist' is shown as an example of where crimes were committed on both sidea. I say, all killings in Punjab between 1977 to 1993 should be investigated. I would venture to say, an unbiased investigation would prove the GOI's hand in most killings. I say to all Sikhs, press for the investigation of Hindus in Punjab too.
16: N. Singh (Canada), July 13, 2010, 12:34 AM.
Kanwar: Please be reminded that these were 'pogroms' and not 'riots'. For your information one definition is as follows: "A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack, either approved or condoned by government or military authorities, directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious, or other, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes, businesses, and religious centers, property ..." I am assuming that you genuinely don't know the difference and that no lack of respect was meant by you.
17: Mohan Singh (Toronto, Ontario, Canada.), July 13, 2010, 11:20 AM.
Forgive, forget and let's move forward. We have forgotten our language, Sikhi and all those "Jinna Singhaa(n)-Singhaniaa(n) ney dharam heyt sheesh dittey, bandh bandh katwaa-ey, khoparriaa(n) lawaahiaa(n), charkhiyaa(n) tey charrhe gaye, arrhiaa(n) naal cheerey gaye, dharam nahin haarya, Sikhi kesaa(n)-swaasa(n) naal nibaahi". What for? To move us forward. During the British rule, in 1860, police superintendent Sardar Jodh Singh of Amritsar orderd Darbar Sahib to stop 'Gurbani Vichaar'. He also ordered to stop Dohra after Ardas - 'Raj karega Khalsa' and Jaikaara, 'Bole so nihal', he asked all rababi preachers to recite shabads related to 'living in Hukam, Bhana manana and Mangana' and stop reciting on 'Rosh-Josh' or 'Kurbani' so as to detach Sikhs from gurbani, because the British wanted it. Even today, there are efforts to detach us from gurbani by our own community leaders. There are over 5000 shabads in Guru Granth Sahib, and our preachers in gurdwaras around the world recite hardly 500 of them. Out of these, hardly 50 shabads are popular and from that Sikhs have selected only 5 shabads to recite in their home. 1) Lakh khushiaa(n) ... 2) Mera Ghar naya ... 3) Jo maange thaakar apne ... 4) Poota maata ki asees ... and 5) Waheguru Waheguru. If you feel for the panth, learn about Sikh history and learn from Guru Granth Sahib.
18: R. Singh (Canada), July 15, 2010, 4:02 PM.
For a change, there is some semblance of reality in this article instead of the usual, blindly-lauded greatness of the officiating Uncle Toms. Any person who is merely an Indian or any other nationality first before his personal conviction and faith, kills the ethos of the Sikh religion, where one is part of the 'human' race, before becoming anything else. if one cannot conform to one's affiliation to humanity, how is one going to be a great "Indian'?
19: Bharat (San Francisco, California, U.S.A.), October 06, 2010, 7:59 PM.
As some of my brothers and sisters have correctly noted, this article "feeds on the paranoia of most readers." The fact is, Manmohan Singh had the calibre to become a Prime Minister. Your "thought-control" conspiracy theory is ludicrous at best. Although a small percentage of India's population, Sikhs have always been an influential part of building the nation and its culture, way beyond their proportion.