[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 44 (Tuesday, April 15, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E663-E664]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   HAPPY 298TH BIRTHDAY KHALSA PANTH

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 15, 1997

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to say happy 298th birthday to 
the Sikh Nation. April 13 is Vaisakhi Day, the anniversary of the 
founding of the Khalsa Panth. On this auspicious occasion, I would like 
to salute the Sikh Nation on their dedication to hard work, family, 
faith, and freedom.
  Sikhism is a monotheistic religion which believes in the equality of 
all people, including gender equality. The Sikhs currently live under a 
repressive occupation by India. We have discussed some of the details 
of this tyranny many times. Let me just take this opportunity to 
express my solidarity with the Sikh Nation in its peaceful struggle to 
throw off oppression. Like the United States 200 years ago, the Sikh 
Nation will ultimately triumph because the cause of freedom is always 
the right cause.
  The Council of Khalistan has recently issued a flyer for Vaisakhi 
Day. It contains more detailed information about the Sikh struggle. I 
would like to insert it into the Record at this time, and I recommend 
to all my colleagues that they read it.

                   Happy 298th Birthday Khalsa Panth

       We are gathered to celebrate the 298th birth anniversary of 
     the Khalsa Panth, or Sikh nation. On this day in 1699, the 
     tenth and last living Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh Ji 
     stood atop a hill in Anandpur Sahib in Khalistan and asked 
     the Sikhs gathered if anyone would be willing to give their 
     life for their Guru. Five times Guru Gobind Singh Singh Ji 
     asked and five times a different volunteer would offer their 
     head. Guru Ji would escort the volunteer to his tent and re-
     emerge with bloody sword in hand.
       After Guru Gobind Singh Ji asked for the fifth volunteer 
     and escorted him into the tent, Guru Ji came back out of the 
     tent along with all five volunteers who were clad in 
     resplendent robes, perfectly healthy and unscathed. Guru Ji 
     told the congregation that these five Sikhs selflessly 
     offered their lives for their faith, and in so doing, they 
     are to be called the Panj Piaras--the five beloved ones.
       Afterwards, Guru Gobind Singh Ji prepared Amrit by placing 
     sugar in a steel bowl stirred with a double edged sword and 
     reciting prayers from Sikh scripture. Guru Ji then 
     administered the Amrit to the Panj Piaras. Afterwards, Guru 
     Ji asked the Panj Piara to baptize him. Following Guru Ji's 
     baptism, tens of thousands of Sikhs who were gathered at 
     Anandpur Sahib, also became baptized.
       Through this act of baptism, Guru Gobind Singh Ji created 
     the modern Sikh nation--the Khalsa Panth. By baptizing 
     himself, Guru Ji had taken the first step of transferring the 
     Guruship to the Khalsa Panth. Nine years later, in 1708, Guru 
     Gobind Singh Ji would proclaim an end to the era of living, 
     human Gurus. He declared that the Sikh holy book, the Adi 
     Granth--containing the writings, hymns and poetry of the 
     previous nine Gurus--would permanently receive the Guruship.
       On this day, we celebrate the fact that Guru Gobind Singh 
     Ji vested the Khalsa Panth with our modern identity which has 
     imbued us with a strong ethical and martial tradition and 
     ensured our survival and the integrity of our homeland for 
     almost 3 centuries. This identity includes unshorn hair; the 
     turban to keep the head covered as a sign of respect to God, 
     and, the carrying of a kirpan--a weapon representing personal 
     defense and readiness to protect the defenseless from 
     injustice, exploitation and cruelty.
       Sikhism is a religion anchored in service to God through 
     service to humanity. We end our daily prayer with the words 
     ``Sarbat Da Bhalla'', a prayer for the well being of all 
     humanity. Sikhs reject idol worship, Sikhs reject all forms 
     of caste and social hierarchy, and Sikhs believe in full 
     gender equality and reject religious priesthood or any other 
     intermediaries between God and humanity.


 celebrating survival in the face of genocide, freedom in the face of 
                              imperialism

       Due in part to romanticized visions of India, fostered by 
     movies like ``Gandhi'' (almost 40 percent of the film's 
     budget came from the Indian Government and they retained 
     editorial control), India continues to enjoy an international 
     reputation as the ``world's largest democracy.'' However, for 
     outcaste Hindus and non-Hindu peoples and nations, India is 
     not a democracy, but a totalitarian state far more ruthless 
     than its British predecessors. Since 1988, Indian police and 
     security forces have killed 43,000 Kashmiris. Indian 
     government forces have murdered over 200,000 Christians since 
     1947. Tens of thousands of Assamese and tribal peoples have 
     also been murdered by the Indian State.
       In addition, the aboriginal people of South Asia, the 
     Dalits, whose indigenous roots and black skin color has 
     relegated them to the status of outcaste untouchables in 
     Indian society, are subjected daily to subhuman treatment 
     which has not changed for millennia. Unlike ``Gandhi'' the 
     movie, Mohandas Gandhi did not represent India's untouchables 
     but instead represented the Oxford-educated Brahmins of the 
     Indian National Congress. Gandhi, who fervently believed in 
     the Hindu caste system, went on a hunger strike when Daht 
     untouchable leader Dr. Ambekdar demanded full and equal civil 
     and political rights for Dalits. When Congress Party members 
     threatened Dr. Ambekdar that they would start mob riots that 
     would target Dalit communities throughout South Asia, he 
     relented in his demands.
       The Sikh homeland Punjab, Khalistan (from the Arabic root 
     ``sovereign country of the Sikhs'') face similar threats in 
     India. The attack on the Sikh's holiest shrine the Golden 
     Temple, on June 4, 1984, was the beginning of a bloody and 
     calculated attack to destroy the Sikhs politically, 
     culturally and morally. Baptized Sikhs, Amritdhari Sikhs, 
     were reclassified as terrorists as revealed in an excerpt of 
     `Batchit' [Military Order] Circular No. 153, which contain 
     the official Indian military orders issued for July of 1984.
       ``Any knowledge of the Amritdharis [baptized Sikhs] who are 
     dangerous people and pledge to commit murders, arson and acts 
     of terrorism should immediately be brought to the notice of 
     the authorities. These people may appear harmless from the 
     outside but they are basically committed to terrorism. In the 
     interest of all of us, their identity and whereabouts must 
     always be disclosed.''
       With this military order, and the Draconian laws that 
     followed, the Sikhs have faced its darkest period in 300 
     years. According to the Punjab State Magistracy, the group 
     representing all of the local court judges in the Punjab. 
     Indian police murdered over 200,000 Sikhs from 1984 to 1992. 
     According to Punjab/Haryana High Court Justice Ajit Singh 
     Bains of the Punjab Human Rights Organization (PHRO), over 
     50,000 Sikhs have been killed since then.
       It is not surprising, therefore, that international human 
     rights groups like Amnesty

[[Page E664]]

     International have not been allowed in Khalistan for almost 
     20 years.


   even as the Sikh genocide continues, so does the freedom struggle

       A quarter million Sikhs murdered since 1984 has not 
     deterred the Sikh nation from our commitment to establish an 
     independent and democratic Khalistan. Unlike what is reported 
     by the Indian government and its media outlets, the Sikh 
     struggle to re-establish our homeland as an independent state 
     is not a violent one. We are committed to the Sikh tradition 
     of peaceful, nonviolent civil and political disobedience 
     called Shantmai Morcha, or peaceful agitation.
       The Sikh Nation of Punjab was the last South Asian country 
     to fall to British imperialism in 1849. The Sikhs ruled 
     Punjab for almost a century before the British conquest. A 
     century later, Sikh national sovereignty was expressly 
     recognized by both the British and Indian leaders. Nehru 
     assured the Sikhs that they would enjoy the ``glow of 
     freedom'' in the Sikh homeland. Mohandas Gandhi told the 
     Sikhs that if the Congress should ever betray them ``. . . 
     the Congress would not only thereby seal its own doom, but 
     that of the country too. Moreover, the Sikhs are a brave 
     people. They know how to safeguard their rights by the 
     exercise of arms, if it ever comes to that.''
       In the intervening 50 years of Indian government rule, 
     Sikhs have faced its darkest period in history. Even toddlers 
     who have been baptized into Sikhism are not spared. Last 
     December the Chandigarh court found that the police had 
     murdered 3 year old Arvinder Singh, along with his father and 
     his uncle, and labeled them as terrorists. Under Indian law, 
     police can kill Sikhs, identify them as terrorists and 
     receive cash rewards for the killing. In 1994, the U.S. State 
     Department estimated that 41,000 cash bounties were issued 
     between 1991 and 1993.
       Throughout this horrible period, we Sikhs have never 
     surrendered our right to national sovereignty, and we have 
     never surrendered our rightful claim to a pluralistic 
     democracy in an independent Khalistan. The Indian government 
     genocide campaign, a campaign in which all baptized Sikhs are 
     considered terrorists, is just the latest form of oppression 
     set upon the Sikh nation; and is part of a larger pattern of 
     Indian government imperialism over numerous nations and 
     peoples in South Asia.


            U.S. responds to Indian oppression of the Sikhs

       In response to the continued subjugation of the Sikhs in 
     Khalistan, Congress has just introduced legislation, House 
     Concurrent Resolution 37 (H. Con. Res. 37), which recognizes 
     and supports the Sikh nation's right to national self-
     determination. The bipartisan resolution, co-sponsored by 
     Gary Condit (D-CA) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), urges the 
     implementation of an internationally sponsored plebiscite so 
     that Sikhs themselves could decide, by free and fair vote, 
     whether or not they want to remain with India.
       If India is the democracy that it claims, then it should 
     allow the people of Khalistan to decide for themselves 
     whether or not they want to be a part of India, just as the 
     U.S. has done with respect to Puerto Rico and Canada has done 
     with respect to Quebec.
       Please join us in celebrating this auspicious holiday of 
     the Sikh Nation, it is a time of feasting and festivity. But 
     please also remember that there are millions of Sikhs in our 
     homeland Khalistan who do not have much to celebrate. And 
     think about them the next time you read something about the 
     ``world's largest democracy'' and call your Member of 
     Congress and ask them to co-sponsor H. Con. Res. 37--because 
     everyone deserves the kind of freedom that we enjoy in the 
     U.S.
       Happy 298th Birthday Sikh Nation.

                          ____________________