Jaspreet wrote:And Bajwa Sab, how come the proud Sikhs, the pride of all martial races in India, have all of a sudden become adherents of non-violence and turning the other cheek, kind of Gandhians and are talking about love, like the flower children of the 60s.
Absolutely. One sees Sikhs rioting, killing and murdering day in and day out wherever they live. The great Sikh PM of India wanted to make the peaceful Siachen glacier a "mountain of violence." Imagine that!
Nobody remembers the last time a Sikh was peaceful. There are no Sikh teachers, professors, mechanics, shopkeepers or bureaucrats. All one sees is sword wielding Sikhs with froth on their moustache jumping up and down wanting to kill, kill and kill.
How dare they say they're peaceful.
They have no right to a peaceful life. Why should they be allowed to raise their kids in a peaceful environment? After all, they're a martial race.
Sir,
I will accept that some thoughts expressed on this thread have been less than sensitive. I will also accept that some thoughts expressed in India during 1984 and in the peak of the Khalistan movement in India have been less than sensitive. Let me take this opportunity to unequivocally and unconditionally apologise on behalf of all Indians (Hindu, Buddhists, Jains, Animists, Athiests, Agnostics, Christians and yes, even the other Sikhs) to all Sikhs who have been undeservedly hurt by such utterances.
Having said that, Sir, you are putting words in the mouths of people on this forum and this thread. No one ever said that Sikhs are all about "kill, kill and kill" and no one ever said that Sikhs have "no right to a peaceful life". All that was implied I think was that Sikhs deserve a peaceful life while still maintaining and without abandoing their essential character and ethos, rather than having to buy this peaceful life by shedding their very essence.
You know, and I address this to everyone on this forum, all posters and administrators. Everyone, in my view, is reasonable, even Jaspreet (despite his outbursts), and everyone is well meaning and no one is malicious. I respect the moderators desire to keep this forum and thread as conflict free, respectful and sensitive as possible. But let me point out something. I have apologised for any insensitivity in this very post. I have seen over the decades, politician after politician, community leader after community leader, religious leader after religious leader, intellectuals after intellectuals, writers after writers and ordinary people after ordinary people, go out of their way and apologise to, commiserate with, and comfort the Sikhs in all possible manner. I dont say there is anything wrong with that. Even in this tragedy, other than this thread, in general all Hindu organizations I know everywhere have come out with expressions of support. Even the Prime Minister of India formally and very publicly apologised to the Sikhs.
Yet....Yet, I have never seen any apologies from anyone to the Hindus. It is as if, Hindus have historically been the biggest oppressors in the world and of all times. I have seen no apologies for any kind for years of armed invasions, atrocities and forced conversions by the Islamic hordes over the centuries. Instead, the muslims of all hue consistently claim grievences against the Hindus. I have seen no apologies from the British, French or the Dutch for any of their acts in this subcontinent. Instead, I see India continued to be treated as a second class nation and people by these ex-colonialists and thwarted in all kinds of ways through all kinds of treachery of policy by the West. When Indians try to even put up a token resistence, they are maligned by the Western media like there is no tomorrow. They lecture India as if it is their brithright. And, I have seen no apologies or regrets ever expressed by the Sikhs for all the bloodshed, for senseless killing of the innocent Sikhs and Hindus, for collaborating with the Pakis, for even the moderate Sikhs getting caught up in the "romance of Khalistan", and most of all for fracturing the very concept of India and putting deep fissures in our society, for putting brother against brother. It is always Hindus who have to apologise. The Sikhs are the prefered people of God. Even their murderous acts are beyond reproach.
Why is it that no one ever apologises to the Hindus ? I would be happy with mere acknowledgement of something wrong being done to the Hindus without the apologies. Why does even an acknowledgement doesnt happen. And when some insenstive tweet does come out of some Hindu with no tact (such as BobbyP), out comes all the indignation, the outrage, the threats of bans, outbursts of the kind that Jaspreet put out and all kinds of recriminations and retaliations. Perhaps, we Hindus are "like that, only". We are lesser humans. We are like cattle. Does anyone apologise to cattle for slaughtering them and eating them ? Anthropologists and other scientists should do a study on Hindus and conclude that we are do not quite reach the human definition.
So, let us all prepare ourselves, to perpetually be in apology mode, like I did in this post and so many others have done in the past. As Jaspreet says, let Manmohan Singhs of this world continue to promise Siachen to be a mountain of peace and let us applaud them for it, but not a peep out of Manmohan Singh about making Kashmir the valley of peace or Punjab the plain of brotherhood. Not one.
I think we Hindus really need to introspect why we are perpetually the victims and continuously subjected to "blame the victim" tirades. There is certainly something missing in us, something we carry written across our breasts, which says, "come kick me, I am a Hindu".