Anger among Sikhs in Britain raises the heat on UK-India ties

[Manidabest]

Nothing wrong in thinking that way, everyone has a right to believe whatever they want to.

indeed ... just one needs to have a quality to agree to disagree

 

[Han Patriot]

No one is slave to anyone. India is as much a land of Sikhs as much of Hindus. Minority does not mean it's not ur land. Rest what ti be done. Leave it on us. Mind your business.

Well, it's up to you. I prefer PLA killing cow ward hindiots than good Sikh soldiers. These people are worthy of our admiration, not the sneaky cow wards. These brahmin hindiots are brainwashing you into cannon fodder. Wake up my Sikh brother, China will support you. You want to be run by a bunch of corrupted incompetent hindiot babus?

Punjab is the land of the Sikhs, is it fair how they carve up Punjab into Haryana? Do you feel happy your Sikh brothers are humiliated by these RSS hindiots? If you have an ounce of pride left, do the right thing, fight for Khalistan.

 

[Chhatrapati]

They did kill your prime minister.

Irony died when the same Congress came to power in Punjab. And have a Sikh Congress, Chief Minister.

'Khali' Stan is in UK and Canada coffee club Sikhs.

Well, it's up to you. I prefer PLA killing cow ward hindiots than good Sikh soldiers. These people are worthy of our admiration, not the sneaky cow wards. These brahmin hindiots are brainwashing you into cannon fodder. Wake up my Sikh brother, China will support you. You want to be run by a bunch of corrupted incompetent hindiot babus?

Punjab is the land of the Sikhs, is it fair how they carve up Punjab into Haryana? Do you feel happy your Sikh brothers are humiliated by these RSS hindiots? If you have an ounce of pride left, do the right thing, fight for Khalistan.

 

[Han Patriot]

Irony died when the same Congress came to power in Punjab. And have a Sikh Congress, Chief Minister.

'Khali' Stan is in UK and Canada coffee club Sikhs.



View attachment 457883

 

[SrNair]

@Politico check that's the real thing.....not some Gangadesh sponsored ads against Pakistan... @django @Maarkhoor

Really ?
She will think twice before interfere in our internal matters .

 

[Politico]

Are the Sikhs in India not seeking answers to the massacre of Sikhs which happened after the death of Indira Gandhi and Operation Blue Star? And the question which I posed in another thread, and which I hope will be answered (but which was responded to with some clarity by @Joe Shearer ..thanks Uncle Joe) ...are Christians being persecuted in India? Are media reports of rape of nuns and harassment of Christians and Dalits really true?

Hopefully I will get a better response than being accused of being a false flagging male Pakistani out to embarrass India

 

[SrNair]

If Sikhs quit the Indian army, India is a sitting duck for anybody to shoot.

If Sikhs quits Indian Army ,there is other ethnic groups including traditional martial comnunity that can take place .But none it will happen .Sikh are our brothers .

 

[Politico]

Actually the way Brexit is going, you will see British PMs doing more tap dance in New Delhi. If GB pound looses 20% of its value, suddenly nominal GDP will be below 2 trillion.


Thats canada and UK. Both nations want good relations with India. Treudo is having a bad time in Canada because of his fiasco in India and post Brexit you will see more GB policos visits to India. Neither can afford to have bad relations with India to please a minuscule community. Impact of Khalistan fiasco was so big that it became a major political storm in Canada for past few days.

You over rate the importance of your country in world affairs

 

[pothead]

Really ?
She will think twice before interfere in our internal matters .

She can't prevent "grooming" of little girls in her own nation.
The only thing she can prevent is not having loose motions and not do the boo boo Candian PM made in India.

 

[Joe Shearer]

Are the Sikhs in India not seeking answers to the massacre of Sikhs which happened after the death of Indira Gandhi and Operation Blue Star? And the question which I posed in another thread, and which I hope will be answered (but which was responded to with some clarity by @Joe Shearer ..thanks Uncle Joe) ...are Christians being persecuted in India? Are media reports of rape of nuns and harassment of Christians and Dalits really true?

Hopefully I will get a better response than being accused of being a false flagging male Pakistani out to embarrass India

I don't think that we should avoid the truth; only acknowledging it and dealing with it will work.

The crimes of 1984 are still crying out for vengeance. Someone very close to my family made a brilliant film about it; she is Brinda Karat's niece, Shonali Bose, and the film is Amu. Watch it if you can; deeply moving. Not the Sikhs, every decent, aware Indian citizen is seeking answers. Incidentally, the massacres happened in Delhi and numerous places in north India, not, as the Sikhs mistakenly try to project it and manage to muddle the case, in the temple itself.

About the Christian oppression issue, in fairness, I would like other Indian members to answer. After all, there are many who have divergent views.

And I think that in normal circumstances, you should not have to apologise or make excuses for asking; it's just that relations are so hostile these last few months that civilised people feel the need to make explanatory preambles. No offence taken, at least from my side, and I hope my fellow countrymen and women will understand and engage with your question as they should.

 

[war&peace]

@war&peace @Maarkhoor @django

The same UK Parliament debate also discussed issue of forced religious conversion in Pakistan and plight of Ahmadis in Pakistan. Multiple MPs spoke on them.The UK foreign office agreed to raise those issues with Pakistan during commonwealth meet next month. In fact India was mentioned only 20 times in the debate whereas Pakistan was mentioned 40 times.

https://twitter.com/x/status/969488941815648256

I'm not saying they are our best friends but a few days ago Gangadeshis sponsored some ads about a false persecution of Xians and some idiots/false-flaggers were buying it, however the reality is totally opposite and this article shows that.

 

[SrNair]

Resentment simmering since the violence of 1984 threatens to spiral out of control and do lasting damage to the Sikh community’s relations with New Delhi

The Indian state’s ties with the Sikh community in the United Kingdom have hit a new low – at a time when Canada has been accused of supporting Sikh separatists.

Three days before Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s trip to India began, an umbrella body of Sikh groups in Britain announced that 225 of the 270 Sikh gurdwaras – places of worship – in the UK were barring entry of Indian officials on political grounds. However, their announcement was lost in the din surrounding the Trudeau family’s visit.

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Nonetheless, after fierce lobbying by Sikh groups, the Theresa May government told Parliament last week that it would take up the issue of alleged persecution of Sikhs and Christians in India with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is scheduled to visit the UK next month for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

The Sikh community, both in and outside India, has increasingly grown hostile toward Indian authorities after several contentious incidents in recent months.

Unending hostilities
A critical factor was the incarceration of Jagtar Singh Johal, a British Sikh national, in November last year by police in the Indian state of Punjab. Johal has been charged with involvement in targeted killings of Indian leaders of different faiths over the last three years.

Sikh groups in Britain rallied against Johal’s arrest, noting reports of alleged torture, which have been denied by the Punjab police.

Last September, sections of the community launched a major campaign calling on the UK government to stop identifying them as ‘Indians’ in the UK Census. Instead, campaigners demanded that a separate ‘Sikh’ ethnic category be created for them. The campaign snowballed into a major galvanizing issue which was backed by over 140 British MPs.

Supporters say the demand is aimed more towards ensuring greater attention towards the development of Sikhs and cornering more funds in the budget. But the actual problem goes deeper than that.

There has been a deep-rooted angst among Sikhs in the UK, which was revealed by a survey in 2016. The Sikh Network, a body of activists and professionals, surveyed 4,500 community members and found that 97% of them said had little or no faith that the Indian state would deliver justice for killings during anti-Sikh riots in 1984. Given this, 94% wanted to do away with the ‘Indian’ tag in the census.

Similarly, last year, Sikh bodies strongly opposed any move by Britain to return the Kohinoor diamond to India.

This long-running underlying communal resentment explains why Johal’s arrest in India and New Delhi’s strong responses to Canada’s alleged sympathy for Sikh extremists have inflamed tensions. Some Members of Parliament have also raised the Johal matter in the House of Commons.

India vs Sikhs
The antagonism toward India by Britain’s 430,000-strong Sikh community is partly shaped by historical distrust and a growing nervousness over the rise of Hindu right-wing influence in their homeland.

Dr Opinderjit Takhar, a senior lecturer at Wolverhampton University and an expert in Sikh studies, said: “No Sikh can overlook the events of 1984 and the atrocities that the Sikh community has suffered. Hence, many in the diaspora feel that they must do more towards seeking justice.”

Successive Indian governments have been apathetic about bringing to book those accused of orchestrating the mass killings of Sikhs in 1984 in response to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards. Three decades after the bloodshed, the Supreme Court of India appointed a fresh team – earlier this year – to re-investigate 186 cases of rioting and massacres.

This lack of a proper closure for the community seems to have fueled much of the anger. Many feel that the Indian authorities have misread these demands for justice as support for Khalistan, the idea of a separate Sikh nation-state carved out of India.

But the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Hindu right in India has also played a role. “The Hindu right-wing has traditionally believed that Sikhs are Hindus and hence, there can’t be an independent Sikh identity,” says Dr Subir Sinha, a senior lecturer in development studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London.

“According to the Hindu right, being Indian means being Hindu. These attempts to redefine the Indian identity have caused the Sikh community to reassert itself and its distinct identity,” he said.

London-based commentator and writer Sunny Hundal agreed, adding that the rise in attacks in India targeting Dalits and Muslims had upset the Sikh community. “Many felt Sikhs would be next. There is a real fear within the community that right-wing Hindu organizations want to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra and Sikhism will be subsumed.”

Fundamentalism within the Sikh diaspora
Hundal, however, believed that antagonism toward the Indian state was also spurred by the rise of Sikh extremists in the UK. He said it was worrying that younger Sikhs had increasingly been taking to extremism.

Takhar said the Khalistani movement was now increasingly spearheaded by Sikh youths, who see Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the slain militant leader and head of the Damdami Taksal killed in Operation Blue Star, as someone who stood up to injustice.

There have been instances of young Sikh men storming gurdwaras and disrupting interfaith marriages. In fact, prominent Sikh groups have defended these disruptions by simply stating that the Sikh religious ceremony — Anand Karaj — was only meant for Sikhs.

Sukhwant Dhaliwal, a London-based academic who has closely followed the Sikh diaspora in the country, believes there has been a resurgence of Sikh fundamentalism. “Fundamentalist groups are increasingly positioning themselves as guardians of the community. Anyone who doesn’t agree with their position on Khalistan will automatically get de-legitimized through this,” he said.

More turbulence ahead
Resolving these issues is likely to take considerable time and effort from both sides, so the acrimony is expected to intensify before things improve.

To make matters worse, a British tribunal is due to rule on a plea filed by an author on declassifying files which contain details of the UK government’s role in Operation Blue Star. The UK government has opposed this move so far to safeguard its relationship with India.

Prominent Sikh groups have also threatened to disrupt PM Modi’s visit in April with mass protests unless Johal is released from prison. So, the turbulent relations between the Indian government and the Sikh community look likely to continue.

They can do whatever they want in London.
Noone in India effing cares about it .
In India we have patriotic Sikh people that can protect our land and integrity .
For Britian ,let them decide the some immigrant minorities personal emotion is greater than their national interest or not

 

[Shajida Khan]

You over rate the importance of your country in world affairs

When you are sixth largest economy with highest growth, it’s hard to overstate importance.

i think sikhs are too strong in canada

Not exactly. Treudo is having hard time explaining why he is courting them while compromising pulses export to India.

 

[SrNair]

They did kill your prime minister.

Nothing to be surprised there considering the cruelty she and her party against innocent Sikhs

 

[xyxmt]

If Sikhs quit the Indian army, India is a sitting duck for anybody to shoot.

no we need more Sikhs in Indian Army, when they turn their Guns on their own...and that if not not very big