THESE BRAVE PEOPLE KILLED A BITCH


Pre-Independence :
Sikhs Contribution to Freedom & Promises Made

The Sikhs played a pioneering role in India's struggle for independence from the British. They made sacrifices wholly out of proportion to their demographic strength (the Sikhs make up less than 2% of the Indian population).


Out of 2125 Indians killed in the atrocities by the British, 1550 (73%) were Sikhs.

Out of 2646 Indians deported for life to the Andaman Islands (where the British exiled political and hardened criminals) 2147 (80%) were Sikhs.

Out of 127 Indians sent to the gallows, 92 (80%) were Sikhs.

At Jalliawalla Bagh out of the 1302 men, women and children slaughtered, 799 (61%) were Sikhs.

In the Indian Liberation Army, out of the 20,000 ranks and officers, 12,000 (60%) were Sikhs.

Out of 121 persons executed during the freedom struggle, 73 (60%) were Sikhs.


The Sikhs, who had thrown themselves, heart and soul, into the Indian independence struggle, were the third party with whom the British negotiated for the transfer of power. However, due to inadaquency of Sikh leadership, misplaced trust and false promises made by Gandhi and Nehru, the Sikhs lost their claim to power.

In 1929, following a huge peaceful Independence rally was held by Sikhs in Lahore; in the words of The Times, the 500,000 strong procession "put the Congress show into shame and shadow," Gandhi and Nehru met the Sikh leaders and put forward the notion of Sikh-Hindu unity, a unified India where all Sikh sentiments (social, economical and religious) would be catered for.

The following solemn assurances were made:


"Let God be the witness of the bond that binds me and the Congress to you. Our Sikhs friends have no reason to fear that it would betray them. For, the moment it does so, the Congress would not only thereby seal its own doom but that of the country too. Moreover, the Sikhs are brave people. They know how to safeguard their rights, by the exercise of arms, with perfect justification before God and man, if it should ever come to that" (Young India 19 March 1931)

"No Constitution would be acceptable to the Congress which did not satisfy the sikhs." (Collected works of M K Gandhi Vol.58. p. 192)

"The brave Sikhs of Panjab are entitled to special consideration. I see nothing wrong in an area and a set up in the North wherein the Sikhs can also experience the glow of freedom. (Jawaharlal Nehru, Congress meeting: Calcutta – July, 1944)


The Sikh homeland Panjab was divided and the Sikhs suffered great loss. Sikh shrines such as Nankana Sahib, Panja Sahib and many more along with the capital city of Lahore was given to Pakistan, over 70% of the most fertile land owned by sikhs was taken by Pakistan and over 500,000 men, women and children lost their lives during the partition.

Operation Blue Star, 1984

Gandhi's later years were bedeviled with problems in Punjab. In June 1984, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale's separatist Sikh freedom fighter group were camping and amassing weapons within the walls of the Golden Temple, Sikhism's holiest shrine. Despite the presence of thousands of civilians in the Golden Temple complex at the time the army opened fire resulting in civilian casualties. Gandhi's order to approve Operation Blue Star was highly condemned by international media. Government and independent accounts differ in the number of military and civilian casualties. Government estimates include four officers, 79 soldiers, and 492 sikhs; independent accounts are much higher, perhaps 500 or more troops and 3,000 Sikhs, including many women and children caught in the crossfire. While the exact figures related to civilian casualties are disputed, the lack of decent records and the timing and method of the attack were widely criticized. Most of the criticism was directed against Indira Gandhi, claiming that she used the operation as a personal attack on Sikhs. Ms Gandhi justified the attack by stating that the aim was to flush out the terrorist Bhindaranwale who was creating animosity by preaching anti-government ideas such as the independence for sikhs, and idea of forming a separate state called Khalistan.

Indira Gandhi had numerous bodyguards, two of whom were Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, both Sikhs. On 31 October 1984 they assassinated Indira Gandhi with their service weapons in the garden of the Prime Minister's Residence at No. 1, Safdarjung Road in New Delhi. As she was walking to be interviewed by the British actor Peter Ustinov, who was filming a documentary for Irish television, she passed a wicket gate guarded by Satwant and Beant. According to information available immediately following the incident, Beant Singh shot her three times using his side-arm and Satwant Singh fired 30 rounds, using a Sten submachine gun. Beant Singh was shot dead and Satwant Singh was shot and arrested by her other bodyguards.

Indira died on her way to the hospital in her official car but she was not declared dead until many hours later. She was taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences where doctors operated on her. Official accounts at the time stated as many as 29 entry and exit wounds and some reports stated 31 bullets were extracted from her body. She was cremated on 3 November near Raj Ghat.

After her death, sectarian unrest, created by congress politicians[citation needed] loyal to Indira Gandhi engulfed New Delhi and several other cities in India. The violent crowds killed thousands of innocent Sikhs, looted and burned their homes and property (see Anti Sikh Riots). Gandhi's friend and biographer Pupul Jayakar would later reveal Indira's tension, and her premonition about what might happen in the wake of Operation Blue Star. Gandhi's Sikh bodyguards Beant Singh and Satwant Singh acted in response to the attack on the holy shrine the Golden Temple.