Today, India marks it’s 65th Republic Day. Whilst the pomp and ceremony takes place in Delhi, almost all the world’s leading Sikh organizations have announced Indian Republic day as ‘Betrayal Day’, many took to the streets of Punjab with black flags by way of protest.
On January 26th 1950, India became a ‘Republic’ when it’s Constitution came into existence. But, most importantly for the Sikhs, the Constitution failed to recognise Sikhs as an independent and separate religion. Instead Article 25 of the Constitution stated ‘Hindus shall be construed as including persons professing to the Sikh religion’. The Indian ‘Republic’ treats Sikhs as second class citizens even though 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).
• 1550 out of 2125 (73%) Indians killed in the atrocities by the British were Sikhs
• 2147 out of 2646 (80%) Indians exiled for life to the Andaman Islands were Sikhs
• 92 out of 127 (80%) Indians sent to the gallows were Sikhs
• 799 out of 1302 (61%) men, women and children slaughtered at Jalliawalla Bagh were Sikhs
• 12,000 out of 20,000 (60%) rank & officers in the Indian Liberation Army were Sikhs
• 73 out of 121 (60%) persons executed during the freedom struggle were Sikhs
The Sikhs were betrayed by their own leadership who placed their trust in the false promises made by Mohandas Gandhi and Nehru who put forward the notion of Sikh-Hindu unity in a unified India where all Sikh sentiments (social, economic and religious) would be catered for. Mohandas Gandhi said, “no Constitution would be acceptable to the Congress which did not satisfy the Sikhs.” Jawaharlal Nehru, who was the father of Indira Gandhi, went further to state “the brave Sikhs of Punjab are entitled to special consideration. I see nothing wrong in an area and set up in the North wherein the Sikhs can also experience the glow of freedom.”
