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April 30, 1998
SPECIALS
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How Readers reacted to Rajeev Srinivasan's last column
Date sent: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 14:01:40 -0500 The article made good reading. It will be interesting to see a similar piece on the contribution of Muslims to the Indian freedom struggle and the plight of those who decided to stay back, especially in the wake of blunders like the Babri Masjid demolition, which has easy and deep parallels with the Golden temple anecdote. Akram Khan
Date sent: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 20:28:51 -0700 Sure he has a point, but what good does it do? Sure mistakes were made in the past. Is this to say that after the white man and the Nehru dynasty, India has not made mistakes? We are on the brink of a new millennium, the world is looking forward. and I am a patriotic Indian -- but these words do not give me anything. I would like to see what can be done now to solve the problems of today and tomorrow, not an outcry about past deeds by a misguided imperialists
Date sent: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 16:21:19 -0700 Dear Rajeev, More pieces like this are needed to bring peace and harmony. Thousands of people have sacrificed their lives for India from all religions. Some have used religion for inspiration. That is perfectly all right, but our Communist friends are trying to rewrite history. In the Gadar Hall in San Fransisco, our leftist friends are making speeches and even taking away Sikhism from Bhagat Singh. I am talking about Ved Vatuk, who gave a speech saying Bhagat Singh did not believe in Sikhism! Gaurang R Desai
Date sent: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 21:55:44 EDT Rajeev Srinivasan's article brought tears to my eyes. I have been a great admirer of Bhagat Singh, whose portrayal in films by Shammi Kapoor and later by Manoj Kumar were the masterpieces of yesteryears. Sar faroshi ki tamana ab hamare dil me still echoes in my ears. Rajeev has done a tremendous job in putting together this article. I salute him. Ramesh Kapoor
Date sent: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 02:16:56 +0530 Dear Rajeev, I notice you are rather bitter about the Jallianwallah Bagh tragedy. But please consider this. The British were our lord and masters; we were their slaves. They were not elected by our people for them to have our interests at their heart. The background of the Jallianwallah Bagh tragedy is also not being highlighted. I'm not sure of this info, but please check: The Rowlatt Act had been passed, and meetings were forbidden by the British. To protest against this, a rather surly crowd of people had marched towards the British officers quarters, demanding the instant repeal of the Act. They were turned back. On the way back they became a violent mob and set upon a 60-year-old English woman by the name of Sherwood. They put her in hospital with broken bones/back. (Please check this up. I don't remember where I got this -- probably from Dominique Lapiere's Freedom at Midnight. If I'm wrong/right pls e-mail me the details.) The very next day, they assembled in the square, again violating the Act. This was when the British acted the way they did. Looking from their point of view, I would probably have exterminated these brown skinned vermin in as deadly a fashion as they did. He wanted to show the might of the British and set an example. I think it was the correct military/administrative decision keeping in mind the situation which was developing. You were absolutely right when you said "Clearly Indian lives meant nothing to the British." Why do you expect them to mean anything to the British? Did you consider another inconvenient question? Who are the people who actually wielded the guns? Were they all Britishers? No, they were all our own brown skinned variety. Very efficient too. Very high kill ratio. They could have aimed to miss -- or shot the general. No hint of patriotism from them... Why the hell should the Queen apologise for them? What satisfaction would you get out of it? Some 4,000 Sikhs got killed in Delhi alone by Congress workers, and it is explained by the Big Tree Falling theory! Fourteen years down the line, the party's president just about acknowledges that this was probably not a good thing -- and that too, while canvassing for votes! Clearly Indian lives do not mean anything to ....? Is this not more obscene and sickening? Rather than make hysterical demands to the British queen to apologise, please look at our own faults. To criticise the British over the incident shows lack of perspective. The British were the best thing that happened to India. They were not despotic rulers. They united this country gave us law, language, a system of governance, the concept of democracy and culture. What they gave us inadvertently was a thousand-fold more valuable than what they took away from us. Hope I am not treading on any toes here.
Rajesh V J
Date sent: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 16:53:51 -0400 I am touched that there is at least one Indian who appreciates the centuries of struggle of an "insignificant vote bank." The burden of wars, invasions and freedom struggles is borne most by the people on whose land they are fought. The all-powerful USA has not fought a war on its land for years and thus is incapable of understanding the devastation a war unleashes. From the invasion of Mughal kings to the present era, the Sikhs have seen the worst, but have risen again and again to rebuild their lives. The worst was when they were all branded as traitors by a still unrepentant Congress/Nehru-Gandhi family. The Sikh still struggles to rebuild that tarnished reputation all over the world. Thank you, Mr Srinivasan.
Gurjeet S Bedi
Date sent: 13 Apr 98 12:24:05 -0500 Great, Rajiv Srinivasan. I agree with you. Our Bharat is indebted a lot to our Sikh brethren. Thank you. R Pazhani Kumar
Date sent: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 11:14:16 PDT Rajeev, that was excellent. Keep it up.
Harish
Date sent: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 08:21:13 -0700 Mr Srinivasan makes a powerful point in this article. There are innumerable people who helped make India with their sweat and blood. Their honourable deeds need to be recognised. Their sons and daughters should feel proud to be of such blood. Wahe Guru
Date sent: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 11:40:09 -0400 Oh God! Rajeev Srinivasan, thanks for the great great article. Last night I went to the Washington National Airport for some work. While coming out of the parking lot I was surprised to see a Sardarji appointed to collect parking charges. After paying the charges, we took off on the 495 North interstate and some guy in our car made many jokes on Sardars. We all laughed. But now, after reading your article, I am ashamed of myself. Why do we make such jokes on Sardars? Who the hell started this against such a responsible community who lives and dies for India? We must do something against this stupidity. Sanju Burkule
Date sent: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 09:18:11 -0400 Why are you referring to Sikhs as a 'tribe"? They are just like the Hindus, Muslims, Christians etc. Why refer to them as a tribe? Suresh Balachandran
Date sent: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 10:42:27 -0400 Excellent! Absolutely beautiful! Very appropriate and honest. Truly secular, in the sense that it addresses the often-ignored concerns of the Sikhs in a land where nationalism is usually confused with religion and culture.
Date sent: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 23:18:04 +0800 It is one of the best articles I have read in a long time. Appearing on this special day, it made my day. Thanks, Rajeev.
Date sent: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 10:16:59 -0600 Mr Rajeev Srinivasan, I read your article. It truly reflected the passion in your concern for Sikhs. I identify with those concerns, 'cos I myself have some very close Sikh friends who have been through all this As I know my Sikh friends, they are not the ones to demand any concessions being a minority or a majority. In fact, they would probably just like to be respected as equals. The Golden Temple operation and the '84 riots were major setbacks, but they would like those problems to be dealt with promptly and the guilty brought to book. So, rather than wailing about not having words to express your sorrow, it would have made more sense if you could have put up a case for speedy trials, and rationally discuss the practical difficulties in handling cases of mob violence. Please realise that you have just revived the old wounds of the victims without doing anything constructive to provide a healing touch. The Sikhs know it's not you and I who have been responsible for the riots. So our apologies hardly mean anything. However, we have become partners in crime by not having moved fast enough to bring them to book and making sure that the wounds suture year after year. I vividly remember my grandma calling Tamas a cruel joke. She did not want to just recall those days without having a proper perspective to the presentation. Please note that history is just a recall of events without any corrective or contemporary perspective to it. It is more subversive than anything else. I hope I have been able to convey my point adequately and hope that the articles from your newsdesk would be matured enough to realise that for some of us, and even some non-Indians, you are probably the only window to India. So you are vested with an enormous responsibility in what you write. Vineet PS: I am not sure, if Baisakhi is just a Sikh festival. I believe it is an occasion for Punjabis in general. Consequently, Jallianwallah Bagh had a large number of non-Sikh Punjabis too. Please realise it is not really a religious festival but a festival of the farmers.
Date sent: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 10:38:05 PDT Rajeev, Thanks for such a beautiful article. I wish I had words to explain how much agony the Punjab problem, Operation Bluestar, and the 1984 riots have caused us. The only question which comes to my mind is WHY? WHY did these things happen? There are many WHYs but there is no one to answer them. Everyone was silent then and everyone is silent now. The silence is deafening and heart-breaking. Instead of punishing the guilty, the first thing the BJP government does after assuming office is to ban the book on the 1984 riots! Balvinder Singh
Date sent: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 09:43:09 -0400 Rajeev's article was great. He has a lot of courage to admit the mistakes of the Indian government when dealing with Sikhs. Bravo Rajeev !!
Date sent: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 18:16:21 -0400 Hi Rajeev, Nice article indeed. Very direct and simple. Allow me to join you in thanking the Sikh community for everything. The Sikhs have really sacrificed for India. The Sikhs wanted autonomy, but it was denied to them. They compromised due to a strong Centre smug in its brute majority. Your idea of trying politicians for crimes against the Sikhs is good. We, the people, can also take part of the blame for being so intolerant. In that sense all of us have blood on our hands since we helped this intolerance in some way or the other. When the Sikhs were suffering, a large majority among us (the people) felt that the nation comes first and the Khalistan rebellion has to be put down by force. K P S Gill became a big hero. Once the people becomes more tolerant and are ready to grant individual states autonomy, the attitude will filter through to the politicians. Else, your great grandson 100 years from now will be writing an article about :
1. imposition of Hindi and languages
like Marathi, Gujarati, Oriya etc.
Date sent: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 18:59:51 -0400 This article... well, it SUCKS. It is incoherent, factually incorrect and morbidly biased. The author says "Sikhs bore the brunt of the freedom struggle." May I ask how he comes to that audacious conclusion? Does he have any clue what literally millions of people went through all over the country during that tumultuous period of 1920 to 1947? Someone from my family was hanged with Bhagat Singh. May I ask what the author's grandpa was doing that morning? What was the point of quoting O V Vijayan? Is the author trying to prove that the Sikh gurus are great enough to be referred by a well known writer? I do not think the gurus need any help on that account. I may add that I'm not a Sikh. But I have the greatest respect for some people of that community. Unlike the author, I evaluate people on personal merit and not race. He displays parochialism of the worst kind. FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE LEAVE THE PAST ALONE. Andy
Date sent: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 12:17:04 -0500 Why should we expect the British monarchy to apologise for the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy when our own politicians are indulging in unscrupulous activities? Our politicians have been raping India's economy and civilian structure ever since the 1950s. Why don't our writers expose the deeds of Indira Gandhi during the Emergency? Have our politicians bothered to apologise or even tender a semblance of apology for what they have done to India since 1947? Is it because the British monarchy is white that everybody is gunning for their apology over the Jallianwallah Bagh incident. Well sir, our own Indira Gandhi was involved in numerous Jallianwallah Baghs during the Emergency in the 1970s. Why don't you ask her descendants to apologise about it first? Think about it. Ramsundar Lakshminarayanan |
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