Current Events
Where is Our Conscience?
A Wake-Up Call By Surat Singh
SIMMI KAUR
When food pipes are stitched into an 83-year-old grandfather’s forehead, and pus collects around indicating deep infection, while visitors are intimidated and his son is incarcerated, but public outrage remains muted, what does this say about us as a society?
In Punjab, since January 16, 2015, the taut-faced and blue-turbaned Surat Singh has been on a hunger strike. His demands of the government are around prisoners’ rights: he is calling for the release of all prisoners who have completed their full jail terms, and are legitimately due for release.
His fate, in response to his peaceful agitation for this common-sense demand?
Since February 26, he has been forcefully kept at a civil hospital in Ludhiana, subjected to dubious medical procedures, and heavy police presence has curtailed most from accessing him.
Surat Singh has a proven track record of non-violent protest. His resignation from government service as a school teacher in response to the attacks in Punjab in 1984, or the more recent hunger strikes in solidarity with the anti-corruption protests by Anna Hazare, speak to an honest and heroic track record.
The country’s largest civil rights organizations, the People’s Union For Civil Liberties (“PUCL“), has issued a statement against his treatment, but the ripples are few.
"PUCL believes that the arrest of people on 26/2/15 (or thereabouts) including Surat Singh's son, subsequent release of two persons and continued incarceration of two persons clearly supports the inference that these acts are meant to intimidate, silence and crush both the protest and any possibility of democratic support."
Perhaps the government's approach has worked too well? Or the lukewarm response is because we have a case of a man and his family who have not aligned with particular political personalities, or engaged in mud-slinging, or slithered away from their commitment?
As a society, our silence is exhibiting to each other and our children that we respond more to fake bravado or violence than we do to civilized, principled, resistance.
Outside of PUCL, shows of solidarity by fellow Indians, quick to quote the valor of satyagraha and non-violent protest, have been absent.
Outside of his family’s close circle, shows of solidarity by fellow Sikhs, often quick to cast other Indians as callous towards Punjab’s strife, have also been absent.
While the reasons for this cowardly restraint by Sikhs might be complex, the result is simple: a man ready to die for the greater good is suffering and dying with minuscule attention when compared against debates around, say, the movie ‘Nanak Shah Fakir’ in India or the cutting of cakes for ‘Sikh Heritage Month’ in the otherwise vociferous diaspora communities in Canada and the U.S.
The fact that Surat Singh is no one’s cause, is enough cause for a pause.
For those who think hunger strikes are weak, perhaps you can show strength to skip meals a few days and reassess? For those who think hunger strikes by devout Sikhs are dangerous, perhaps you can ask yourself what sort of resistance you are promoting when you ignore peaceful protest?
While sipping chai to the morning paper about whether comments about Sonia Gandhi’s white skin were offensive to Nigerians -- missing the point that they are in fact reflective of the shameful racism of us Indians, ever-reaching for tubes of ‘Fair & Lovely‘, ‘Fair & Handsome’ -- might we stop to turn our gaze to our own father’s and grandfather’s wrinkled skin and think of needles and pipes piercing through their foreheads?
Might we then dash off a letter to the editor of Punjab’s largest English daily, “The Tribune, Voice of the People”, asking why there is no coverage of Surat Singh’s situation? Maybe write a note in support to his family on Facebook? Or simply dedicate one of our many vital Tweets or Instas today to the old man of steel instead of the feuding men -- also silent on this issue -- of AAP?
Or, sick of all the male egos, maybe the feminists can speak in support of Surat Singh’s steadfast daughter who has been addressing any media that will listen and sitting in on painful court hearings presided by unsympathetic judges who are treating Surat Singh's situation without any urgency?
Maybe we can sign the petition for his son, who the police in the land of Mohandas Gandhi have held since February 26 only for supporting his father’s peaceful protest -- better yet, start a petition that is not appealing to his adopted country, the U.S., but the country holding him, India?
Or, for those of us of sterner stuff, sit quietly outside his hospital, even if our stuff is not stern enough to show ID to the police and walk inside, risking the screening and monitoring by the notorious khakis later?
Are we so jaded as a community that we can’t spot a courageous inspiration even when it is right there, wasting away slowly, in our faces, for 80 days?
With much more public pomp and show, and a less clear record, the hunger striker Gurbaksh Singh Khalsa begot much attention by heavy-weight Sikhs organizations and individuals. Gurbaksh Singh’s strike too furthered an unpopular agenda -- prisoners, that too political prisoners, and further, of a minority community.
Surat Singh’s letter to PM of India, explaining his protest, states he is simply committed to “fulfill the unfinished work of Bhai Gurbaksh Singh.” Perhaps if Surat Singh had engaged in some mud-slinging, we would have paid more attention?
The disproportionate attention begs the question: are we so feeble-minded as to believe that one hunger strike should have changed a system, and since it didn’t, any subsequent protest is passé?
Surat Singh is not only the "Irom Shamila of Punjab" (per PUCL), he is the Nand Singh of Punjab, the Darshan Singh Pheruman of Punjab, who quietly protested and died for their convictions in the 1960s, inspiring young people everywhere. He is the tens of thousands of Punjabis who courted arrest peacefully in response to Indira Gandhi’s Emergency in the 1970s. And, simply, he is the grandfather who has withstood our collective elder abuse and neglect without reproach.
“I call upon you to treat my dying note as a wake up call,” Surat Singh wrote to the Indian Prime Minister.
That was on February 11, 2015.
The slumber continues.
The author is an activist, accountant, avid reader and mother, and spends her time between Punjab and Canada.
[Courtesy: The Citizen. Edited for sikhchic.com]
April 6, 2015
Conversation about this article
1: Yuktanand Singh, MD (Michigan, USA), April 06, 2015, 9:03 AM.
One day my father said to me that he now believes in hell. He has seen it, he said, and it is India! Sardar Surat Singh will be remembered as a great Sikh martyr. I also remember that some young Sikh immolated himself in a city square a couple years ago to protest these false imprisonments. Sure, we can do something but India (and the Indian media) will not budge. The real solution lies in raising our own consciousness. The poet Iqbal has said: "Khud hii ko kar buland itna ke har taqder se pehle Khuda bande se khud poochhe bataa teri razaa kya hai!"
2: Gurinder Singh (Stockton, California, U.S.A.), April 06, 2015, 9:34 AM.
Baba Surat Singh's grandson was at a Gurudwara in California yesterday seeking signatures for a petition demanding justice for his grandfather and father in India, and for the cause they're fighting for. A very resolute young man in his teens. Let us support this cause as Baba ji's struggle is against persecution and human rights violations by the State.
3: Kulvinder Jit Kaur (Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada), April 06, 2015, 10:31 AM.
Sad. Futile and frustrating. The lessons that I have personally learned from the many peaceful agitations, dharnas, gheraos and fasts-unto-death: that NOTHING happens. (Pheruman ji's heroic sacrifice of fasting until Punjab was given fair/equal language rights as the other States of India, is one example.) There is virtually no reaction to our peaceful demands. Never has been. The only reaction is when people get angry, frustrated and unfortunately also violent. Then still the wrongs are not corrected but the reaction is of sheer violence, torture and imprisonment. So the cycle starts again. And again. And again. I cannot think of another solution, a solution there is bound to be but it is not the one we have tried and failed innumerable times. I don't think that people are not concerned but they don't know which alternative approach to adopt. In the meantime, until we find another way, we have to discourage our folks to unnecessarily risk their lives. Use their life instead to strengthen each other. We cannot wrench justice, compassion and solutions out of people that are totally corrupted and without conscience.
4: Harsaran Singh (Indonesia), April 06, 2015, 10:42 AM.
It is sad to note that even in Punjab people are nor fully aware of Baba Surat Singh and his fight against injustice. The reason is very simple. In India the powerful media creates issues, blows them through the roof for a couple of days while as their TRPs (Television Rating Points) skyrocket and then forgets about it for something more sensational. No news media, whether print or visual, has given space for this lone crusader because he calls for justice for Sikhs, something any ruling party in the Centre is highly allergic to. It is futile to expect any action from the BJP government. These very people are in the know while as per their own estimates billions of rupees worth of drugs are smuggled into Punjab from the Pakistan border everyday. They are hellbent on destroying our next generation.
5: Gurteg Singh (New York, USA), April 06, 2015, 9:51 PM.
The ONLY solution is military power in our own hands. As Guru Gobind Singh had warned us, without arms you are like a lamb who will be sent to the slaughter anytime at the will of his captors. Today, the plight of the occupied Sikh nation is miserable and we are at the mercy of a ruthless enemy who is guided by the racial and unethical teachings of Chanakya.
6: Kaala Singh (Punjab), April 07, 2015, 12:19 PM.
@5: Military power comes when one has a state of one's own and the modern wherewithal, you can't fight tanks and drones with swords and the Sikhs don't have that as of now. It is easy to control and manipulate uneducated people who can't look beyond their noses and know nothing about the world and do not know how to protect their interests. This is true today and this was true in 1947 when the Sikhs were being handed their own state by the British, extending right from Panipat on the outskirts of Delhi to Nankana Sahib (now in Pakistan) with an extended access to the sea, but the Sikh leaders of those times chose not to take it! Now, how did that happen? The Muslims took their own country and the Hindus took their own but the Sikhs chose not to have theirs! This is not surprising. As I have said earlier, Muslims were led by Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan, both were British educated lawyers who had seen the world and same was the case with Nehru, Gandhi and Patel who led the Hindus but the Sikhs were led by pathetic illiterates like Tara Singh, Baldev Singh and Swaran Singh and I can imagine what must have happened during the negotiations with the British. If the Sikhs had taken that state, the mass slaughter of Sikhs in West Punjab would not have happened in 1947 and the genocide of Sikhs would not have happened in India and East Punjab in 1984. Sorry to say that but the Gandhian method of "fasting unto death" will not achieve anything as the the other side only understands the language of strength.
7: Sunny Grewal (Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada), April 07, 2015, 2:46 PM.
This is hardly surprising. Would we really rely on, or expect help from a media that spent over a decade unquestioningly publishing news reports sourced by police officers who themselves murdered tens of thousands of innocent people in Punjab?
8: Yuktanand Singh, MD (Michigan, USA), April 08, 2015, 12:50 PM.
We could petition the BJP to do something. May be they can set up another commission, to do a rather thorough investigation over the next five, even ten years ...! On a serious note, even though I do not believe that a Prime Minister should ever use the power of his office to selectively help one's own people, now is an opportunity for Sardar Manmohan Singh to use his clout (if a former Sikh Prime Minister has any) as well as prove his Sikhi. He could go and see S. Surat Singh and start working feverishly to end these imprisonments.
9: Gurteg Singh (New York, USA), April 09, 2015, 12:59 AM.
#8 Yuktanand Singh ji: When the Indian Government "bestows" any title on a turbaned Sikh, they make sure that they choose someone who has lost all self respect and dignity and who will act more Hindu than a Hindu to prove his loyalty. Most Sikh ministers are given clear directions and are told to say all kind of defamatory things against Sikhs. Not too long ago both Parneet Kaur and Manmohan Singh on a visit to Canada repeated verbatim the script given to them by their masters and shamelessly called Sikhs as separatist, extremists and terrorists ... contrary to facts and reality.
10: Kulvinder JIt Kaur (Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada), April 09, 2015, 9:01 AM.
I have no recourse but anyone out there who has access to S. Surat Singh or his family, please, please save this elderly man from an agonizing death. Just save him. Please. Believe me, no one is going to budge (including the Sikhs) if he sacrifices his precious life. A Sikh's life is of no value in that country. Just let every Sikh understand and remember this simple fact so that they can make their future decisions accordingly. We have a horde of Sikh organizations doing some kind of seva or the other, let there be one that educates the Sikhs at large as to what or what not to do while making their demands. Fasting unto death was never a part of Sikhi. It was adopted during the "Quit India" movement led by Gandhi. The British were ready to quit India anyways, it was just a matter of time, w Whether Gandhi and others had fasted unto death or not. Please save this elderly Sikh, if someone can. His last years spent praying for the Sikhs' future will be more productive.
11: Kaala Singh (Punjab), April 09, 2015, 10:50 AM.
It is heart-breaking to see what the Sikhs have been going through since 1947 when they lost another chance to be sovereign due to an incompetent leadership. We have been enslaved by people who themselves were slaves for more than a thousand years and, having suffered the worst kind of slavery, have now become ruthless masters. With their increasing power and wealth, they are becoming more arrogant and cruel. Things will only get worse for the Sikh community if they don't focus on building their internal strength, a competent leadership and independent institutions dedicated to protecting Sikh interests.
12: Baldev Singh (Bradford, United Kingdom), April 09, 2015, 10:03 PM.
Commentator #10 Kulvinder Jit Kaur ji ...Should we not have a 'Quit Punjab' movement? We were instrumental in freeing the subcontinent. Why not Punjab, then?
13: Harcharan Singh (Singapore), April 10, 2015, 3:10 AM.
Baba ji, the sangat has spoken. Stop fasting and tell this to the police. We will fight another day, differently. Don't waste your life for these idiots. Fasting is not Sikhi. Sikhi is life-affirming, not life denying. We wish to see you healthy and alive, helping us against these monsters.
14: Kaala Singh (Punjab), April 10, 2015, 11:47 AM.
Dear Baba ji, please end your fast and have a hearty meal. Please take care of yourself and live to see the day when an army of Sikhs will destroy the arrogance of these fiends, we have done that in the past and we can do that again ... and the other side knows it.