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Found 8 results

  1. If India and Britain went to war which country would you side with? This is mostly for sikhs born and living in the West. Would you side with your country of birth or with India?
  2. Fear of Khalistan: India demands UK to disallow Social Justice meet News Desk - July 13, 2018 News Analysis | India has issued a demarche to the UK protesting a meeting convened in London by separatist organization Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) next month. The meeting has been called with an intention to shape the ‘Referendum 2020’ campaign in August that seeks a separate Khalistan and “independence of Punjab”. This wholesale slaughter, which led to the deaths of many Sikhs including entire families, has been widely condemned by human rights activists and has been designated as genocide by the California State Assembly. “We have taken up the matter with the UK government. We have also issued a demarche and we expect that the UK government does not allow any such group to use its country whose intention is to spread hate and which can affect our bilateral ties. “We have told them the intention of the event is the same,” the ministry of external affairs spokesperson said. He was responding to a question on what action has India taken to stop the meeting. Mr. Kumar said the ties of the Sikh community residing in the UK and other parts of the world are good with India. “Their ties, with the country they reside in, are also good. As far as the small groups are concerned, they are fringe elements and their job is to spread hate and communal disharmony,” he said. The SFJ has also offered to sponsor Punjabi youths as well as political activists to take part in the gathering next month. Read more: India fumes over pro-Khalistan posters in Pakistan The specter of a Sikh State in the form of Khalistan has scared New Delhi since India’s creation in 1947. The Khalistan Movement is a Sikh nationalist movement that wants to create an independent state for Sikh people, via peaceful struggle, inside the current North-Western Republic of India. An ignored aspect is that the concept of an independent Sikh state was originally floated by none other than Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru in the pre-independence period through a Sikh leader whose ear he had at that time. Although the term had popped up occasionally as a non-serious slogan by stray unrepresentative voices during the period leading up to the partition of the country into India and Pakistan, the concept was first given formal shape and the term Sikh Home Land first used by Master Tara Singh at Nehru’s behest as a “counterblast to Jinnah’s demand for an independent Muslim state, Pakistan. In other words, the demand for Khalistan was first raised to counter and kill the demand for Pakistan. Thus, ironically, Khalistan was invented to preserve India’s unity and integrity, and not to break it. It was used to frighten the British away from the idea of Pakistan. The Sikhs as a separate nation before British rule chose to join India by choice on promises made by Nehru. The Independence of India was not a joyful event for Sikhs and the scars of partition left Sikhs in a lot of discontentment with regard to their traditional lands being lost to Pakistan and truncated Eastern Punjab being dominated by a non-Punjabi speaking majority. These grievances were further aggravated by u turn of Nehru on promises made to the Sikh community. Further on, Indira Gandhi tried to prop up Deras of Nirankaris to counter the Sikh’s growing political clout. Nirankari Gurus desecrated the Sikh scriptures and were allowed to do it under police protection. In a major altercation, 8 Sikhs were murdered by Nirankaris while they were protesting the desecration. This was the incident that created a call for taking up arms against the Nirankaris, and thereof against the government if it protected them. The SFJ has also offered to sponsor Punjabi youths as well as political activists to take part in the gathering next month. Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale emerged as the voice of Sikhs, over-ruling the pro-State leaders like Longowal. Bhindrawale declared himself as the protector and arbiter of Sikh rights and acquired arms. A list of attacks attributed to Bhindranwale by the government but never substantiated by proof finally gave New Delhi the excuse to impose an emergency in October 1983. In June 1984, an event would happen that would ignite the flame for Khalistan. The assault on Darbar Sahib, popularly known as the Golden Temple (the holiest of Sikh temples) by the Indian military forces using tanks and artillery – known as Operation Blue Star was conducted in order to evict a group of armed pro-Khalistan activists from the temple – a claim that remains controversial to this day with prominent politicians like Subramanian Swamy asserting that this was a disinformation campaign to legitimize the attack. Read more: Khalistan factor defined Trudeau visit to India According to the Indian Army, 136 army personnel were killed and 249 injured. In all, 493 people in the complex were killed including Bhindranwale and 86 injured; the government report also mentions that 1600 people were unaccounted for, though it does not state what fraction were killed or injured. Unofficial figures go well into the thousands. Massive human right violations by Indian Army personnel took place like gunning down of prisoners and burning & looting of the Sikh Reference Library. Retaliation by some Sikhs came in the way of the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh. This act triggered the so-called anti-Sikh riots of 1984, which has been reported to be a planned pogrom by the Congress against the Sikhs. This wholesale slaughter, which led to the deaths of many Sikhs including entire families, has been widely condemned by human rights activists and has been designated as genocide by the California State Assembly. The army occupation of Punjab which followed Operation Blue Star was highly detrimental to the Sikhs. Mass human rights violations like torture, extrajudicial murders, rapes, illegal detentions, forced disappearances were inflicted upon the Sikh community by the Indian authorities to subdue resistance. Sikh groups resisted through an armed insurgency, which carried on for decades. India has been unable to suppress the demands of a separate Sikh state by both force and greed. In order to demean the struggle for Khalistan it often uses the foreign boogeyman as a tool for disinformation. https://www.globalvillagespace.com/fear-of-khalistan-india-demands-uk-to-disallow-social-justice-meet/
  3. Now that article 50 has been invoked and the UK is set to leave the EU club. What are the ramification for British Sikhs and Sikhs in the EU? What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats once the UK regains its sovereign parliamentary powers.
  4. I remember back in the 80s and 90s there was various documentaries about the political affairs of the Sikhs in the UK and in punjab/india but nowadays there's nothing. Everything to do with religion is almost entirely focused on Islam and its notorious groups and people. In 2012 an american ex-special ops neo nazi white supremacist murdered 8 people in a gurdwara in wisconsin and no documentary was made covering it. Recently we learnt that the British thatcher government had involvement in helping (in very limited capacity as they say) the Indian government attack darbar Sahib in 1984. We learnt that Thatcher also said things back in 1980s to malign British Sikhs of southall in regards to the sectarian christian/catholic northern Ireland troubles. There should be enough material out there for some clever documentary journalists to investigate the real role of the British government in the Sikh genocide of 1984. The Sikhs of punjab in 80s/90s were in a very similar situation to that of tamil hindus of present times. The british government aided the sri lanakan buddhist senalese government to cause the tamil genocide in 2009. British govt funded Channel 4 news covered it in various news bulletins and made documentary on it. However no one has done the same for the Sikhs they haven't exposed the British and other governments role in our peoples mass murder and attack on our religious institutions. Even our own so called religious leaders and organisations that claim to represent the voice of british sikhs (like sikh federation, sikh council, etc) have strangely gone gupt and silent as a mouse not said a word since 2014. It seems like some backdoor deals are being done undercover.
  5. AMRITSAR: Sikhs in the UK have blamed the government for ignoring the incidents of hate crimes directed at the community. "The Sikh Federation, UK was dismayed when the Hate Crime Action Plan was issued in July, which appeared to have been written as though the estimated 750,000 British Sikh community did not exist," said Gurjit Singh of the Federation to TOI on Thursday. He said the body had written to Prime Minister Theresa May, UK home secretary Amber Rudd and secretary of the state at the department for communities and local government Sajid Javid about the hate crime directed towards the visible Sikh community. He said for Sikhs it was not a new phenomenon following the Brexit vote, but something that raised its ugly head at the national and international level more than 15 years ago post 9/11 and had not been properly acknowledged by the successive British governments. Chair of Sikh Federation, UK, Amrik Singh said, "More than 30 years ago Sikhs were legally recognized by the law lords, the highest court in the country, as a 'race' and afforded protection. However, whilst individual Sikhs have been successful to prosecute in cases of direct and indirect discrimination, the community as a whole has continued to suffer in silence." He said PM May announced in late August that 'race audits' would be conducted within 12 months. "Given the way the home office and others have dealt with hate crimes directed towards Sikhs, we expect the home office to come up short and give new meaning to term 'institutional racism,'" he said.Network of Sikh Organizations, in its letter to the home secretary on November 30, stated, "At the beginning of the year we uncovered some important statistics. Twenty-eight percent of the victims of so-called 'Islamophobic' hate crime were in fact non-Muslim - Sikhs, Hindus, Christians and those of no recorded faith." http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/UK-Sikh-body-says-British-govt-ignoring-hate-crimes-against-community/articleshow/55736611.cms
  6. Since she is the new prime minister of the UK now and going to be in office for another 4 years unless another general election is called. Is she going to be good thing for British Sikhs or bad? Judging by her track record she has done a reasonable job as a home secretary keeping the UK safe but she seems to have an agenda that is very dangerous in terms of spying by the state on all citizens and bringing in legislation that discriminates against men. She also was in charge when those "go home" vans were going around and raided a Sikh gurdwara in luton looking for illegal immigrants just after the very short and whitewashed report on thatchers British govt collusion with indira's indian govt in organizing operation blue star against the Sikh religion. She also brought in new home office rules that discriminated against non-EU citizens coming into the UK especially if you wanted to marry someone outside the EU but now have to earn over £18k and have £10k in savings. I see very real prospect of riots and social disorder coming in the short to long term with oppression and tension rising in the UK between different communities due to the authoritarian agenda people like Theresea May have.
  7. British bearded lady in new photography exhibition showcasing the world's best facial hair
  8. Three-quarters of the UK's Sikhs have experienced racism but 95% are proud of being born or living in Britain, a survey suggests. The first British Sikh Report (BSR) has been launched in Parliament. The report is based on an online questionnaire of 650 Sikhs, who were asked about issues including politics, religion and culture. It is one of the largest studies of Sikhs in Britain and gives a more in-depth insight than the 2011 Census. Britain's only Sikh MP, Paul Uppal, welcomed the report. The Conservative MP for Wolverhampton South West said: "It is great to see a proactive approach being taken by the British Sikh community to highlight their concerns, wants and needs in such a comprehensive way. '' Labour leader Ed Miliband said: "The British Sikh community has made and continues to make a huge contribution to our nation. "I welcome the British Sikh Report in its attempt at engaging politicians with the British Sikh community." Asif Sadiq, chair of the National Association of Muslim Police, said: "It is clearly shocking that such high numbers of British Sikhs have been victims of racism. "Maybe Sikhs are being targeted because they are perceived to be Muslim by some people, it is therefore very important to understand the nature of the racist incidents that Sikhs are facing." Jasvir Singh, chair of the BSR, said: "Sikhs have a rich history in Britain. There has been a Sikh presence in Britain for almost 160 years. "The aim of the report is to develop an understanding of the key needs and issues within the British Sikh community. "It also provides an invaluable resource for government and Sikh and other faith organisations to help them understand the views and opinions of Sikhs living in Britain." One of the central tenets of the Sikh faith is equality for all, including gender equality. But the report suggests only 55% believe there is gender equality within the Sikh community. Among the women questioned, 43% said they had experienced discrimination based on their gender, compared with 14% of men. Mr Singh said: "This study gives Sikhs an insight into their own community and raises some important issues and concerns that Sikhs need to address themselves. "It's hoped we can use this information to take positive steps and changes." The report suggested a high degree of political engagement within the Sikh community - 70.9% said they voted in the 2010 general election, while 23.6% said they had not voted in any elections during the last four years. The inaugural report has been put together by a team of Sikh professionals and academics. The BSR will now be published annually with the aim of highlighting the changing attitudes and concerns of the British Sikh population. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22782524
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