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I've heard that reading the guru Granth sahib ji should ideally be read in gurmukhi, as the English transaltion maybe slightly distorted in terms of its meaning , and may also be rather opionated by the author who imprints the translation, is this true? I'm unable to read or understand gurmukhi and my only option is to read translation in English Also I would like to ask how all you gurusikhs maintain constant love and devotion (what kind of thoughts do you have) when reading the gurubani, because I seem to lose interest if the paath is significantly long(eg sukhmani sahib paath) Lastly is it ok to just listen to the path, or must I physically recite it? May waheguru ji bless you all.

I thought I would start a thread for people to share pictures of different sikhs across the world. This has nothing to do with caste, so dont show pictures of people from different castes. This is just to show the beauty of our faith and the different colours and cultures who follow it from a variety of regions. :biggrin2:

Waheguru je ka khalsa Waheguru je ke fateh has anyone been to Mexico on holiday? any issue with kirpan and singh identity?

In other thread, while the sikhs were busy waiting about the coming back of Kalki (vishnu 10th avatar) to come and save them --perhaps because the kirpan our dasam pita gave us has rusted , hence we rather wait for the dasam vishnu (kalki) , the rss has launched a fresh attack on sikhi by its usual tactic -- distorting history and assimilation of sikhs into hindu fold. In the new hindu textbooks launched by RSS , Guru Arjan dev ji sahib is called a "Gau bhakt" (cow worshipper) and encourages all hindus to "become" like Guru Gobind Singh , as if Guru Gobind Singh ji were an ordinary mortal . Guru Arjan dev shahadat was a sacrifice for 'Sampoorna Hindu Samaj'. There are also objections to some historical facts represented in these books. Then there're books named 'Guruputra Fateh Singh Zorawar Singh', 'Guru Tegh Bahadur' and 'Guru Gobind Singh' in particular, about whose content there is unrest. Guru Gobind Singh ji , which to us is a guru/prophet has been compared to an ordinary mortal , Shivaji , the founder of maratha empire. This is blasphemy to another level. Sikhi and Khalsa has been reduced to "Hindu power house" (against invaders) in these books Now will you still say "hindus and sikhs have close brotherly relationship" ? "nau maas da rishta" my foot ! Even the author , a hindu brother himself is appaled by the kind of evil agenda and craap in these books . WAKE UP SIKHS ! WAKE UP ! they want to slowly hinduize the coming sikh generations by such education source :http://www.catchnews.com/india-news/how-hindutva-groups-are-provoking-sikhs-by-meddling-in-their-community-affairs-112771.html

Heaps of times the Admins of this website have made it loud and clear that this is a Sikh website and abusive language will not be tolerated here. This message has fell on deaf ears on some members here who have continued with their abusive language against senior members of our forum and they are not even on quality control. Admins benti to do the needful please.

Do you trust sikhs? Would you approach a sikh for help? Would you share your problems with another sikh? Personal problems, alcohol issues etc If you were short of 20p would you approach a sikh and ask for change or would you feel more comfortable approaching a gora or kala How much trust and faith do you actually have in other Sikhs however big or small the problem may be ?

Forgotten stories of the bravery of the 1.5m Indian soldiers who fought alongside the British in WWI and the racism they faced in the trenche By dallysingh101, 2 hours ago in POLITICS | MEDIA | Around 1.5 million men, mainly from remote north Indian villages fought with the British from 1914 to 1918 Fighting under the command of their colonial masters they faced racism, brutality and prejudice in the war The truth about their service is revealed in veteran interview transcripts offered to the British Library https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6325571/Forgotten-stories-bravery-1-5m-Indian-soldiers.html Hey Dal, do you seriously think the Sikh quom is in denial, therefore very reluctant to learn lessons from the past or even pass them to their future generations? Do they seriously have any desire to pass on any information, in terms of their Sikh heritage or Sikh culture or history to their children or grandchildren? I doubt it very much! They fail to perceive how our past can teach us some really very important lessons, lessons, which are not taught at high schools or universities! Shocking!

is it true?

He meditates like Sikhs, and he is a religious man, how is he viewed in the sikh community?

Today marks the hindu festival Ganesh chaturti , the 10 day festival where one of the hindu gods ganesha is being worshipped by hindus all over. Well congratulations to hindus , But why the heck are Sikhs are being "begani shaadi main abdullah deewana" (the crazy <banned word filter activated> is dancing in someone else's wedding thinking as if his own) in all this festivities. What relation do sikhs have with ganesh ? nothing !! zilch . nada ! Rather Saahib e kamaal Dasam patshah said "Main na ganeshe pritham manao , kishan bishan kabhu na dhyayu . Kaan suneh pehchaan na in seo . Live laagi mori pag in seo" (I do NOT consider ganesha as the supreme , nor do I meditate on krishna on vishnu. I have only heard of them but I don't recognize them. I am attached to the lord's feet) Yet hundreds of thousands of sikhs will on this day , just like their hindu neighbors bring a lifeless idol in their homes, feed it and worship it , only to drown it on 10th day. We're doing crazy batsshit things which our gurus forbid us to . I honestly can't stand such idiocy among a section of sikh masses ! what is it that our gurus didn't clearly explain us ? yet the buffoons amongst us will go on to celebrate someone else's festival and not having knowledge of our own ! These are the same people who slander amritdharis . and despite having sikh appearances, these are some of the most dreaded people I have ever come across. Ask them when they're having next sangati sukhmani sahib paath and you probably wouldn't get as much of an enthusiastic answer as you get for ganesh chaturti !

A HINDU RELIGION PARLIAMENT WAS ORGANISED BY MR. VIKRAM SINGH YADAV AT SHREE KRISHNA MANDIR, GURGAON WHERE MANY PROMINENT RELIGIOUS PERSONALITIES LIKE MAHAMANDLESHWARS, JAGADGURU SHANKRACHARYA ji PARTICIPATED. SIKHS WERE REPRESENTED BY NAMDHARI GURU THAKUR DALIP SINGH ji IN THIS VERY PARLIAMENT. SINCE THAKUR DALIP SINGH JI DEEMS HINDU SIKHS AS REAL BROTHERS WHICH CANNOT BE SEPARATED. HE MADE A CALL FOR HINDU SIKH UNITY TO ALL THE PARTICIPATING SAINTLY PERSONALITIES. THE PROMINENT ASPECT OF THE PARLIAMENT WAS THAT EVEN BEING A HINDU RELIGION PARLIAMENT, VOICES OF "JO BOLE SO NIHAL – SAT SRI AKAL", "WAHEGURU JI KA KHALSA – WAHEGURU JI KI FATEH" REVERBRATED ALONG WITH "HAR HAR MAHADEV" & "JAI SHRI RAM" AT THE VENUE. THE MAIN BENEFIT OF THAKUR DALIP SINGH PARTICIPATING IN THIS HINDU PARLIAMENT WAS THAT ALL THE PROMINENT HINDU RELIGIOUS PERSONALITIES TOOK THE NAMES OF SIKH GURUS WITH GREAT RESPECT & HEAPED PRAISES ON SIKH GURUS. THAKUR DALIP SINGH JI MADE AVERY NICE PROPOSITION WHICH WAS ACCEPTED WITH GAIETY BY ALL PRESENT. THAKUR DALIP SINGH JI PROPOSED THAT THE "GURPURAB" CELEBRATIONS OF SATGURU NANAK DEV JI, SATGURU TEG BAHADUR JI & SATGURU GOBIND SINGH JI SHOULD BE CELEBRATED IN ALL HINDU ASHRAMS & TEMPLES. THIS PROPOSAL WAS ACCEPTED WITH GAIETY BY ALL PROMINENT HINDU SEERS AND THEY ASSURED THAT THEY WILL CELEBRATE "GURPURABS" OF SIKH GURUS. THIS IS A VERY BIG ACHIEVEMENT FOR SIKH RELIGION. THE APPROVAL OF PROPOSITION SUGGESTING CELEBRATION OF "GURPURABS" BY PROMINENT HINDU SEERS & THEIR ASSURANCE FOR THE SAME PROVES THAT THOSE SIKHS WHO OPPOSE HINDUS BY DECLARING THEM "ANTI-SIKH" , IF THEY START TREATING THEM ( HINDUS ) WITH LOVE, THEN HINDUS WILL ALSO START PLACING FAITH IN SIKH GURUS. ONLY SIKHS ARE TRYING TO KEEP THE HINDUS AWAY. AS THAKUR DALIP SINGH JI IS BRINGING THE HINDUS CLOSER BY SHOWERING THEM WITH LOVE, THEY (HINDUS) WILL SOON START PLACING THEIR FAITH IN SIKH GURUS AND THIS WILL LEAD TO HINDU SIKH UNITY. HINDU SIKH UNITY WILL FURTHER STRENGTHEN OUR NATION BECAUSE ONLY AND OND UNITY IN SOCIETY CAN MAKE A COUNTRY PROSPERROUS.

Often I hear like "your roots are hindu" , "you're only 500 yrs old, we're 5000 yrs old" , "we're a much older civilization" or something along those lines . They often feel pride on their primordial origins . I am really sick of hearing same arguments

My best greetings to all participants. I look for Sikhs living in Sri Lanka. Is there anybody from Sri Lanka or who knows somebody from there?

https://www.firstpost.com/india/rss-event-in-nagpur-sikh-member-in-khaki-part-of-sanghs-efforts-to-rebrand-itself-promote-hindu-nationalism-4503379.html

Imo, I think the agenda behind Dhadri and co, is to create a separate Kaum. A off-spring of mainstream, Sikhism. Similar off springs can be seen at Dera Sacha Sauda, Radhaswamis and Nirankaris. Dhadri wants to be the main leader of the "New Sikhism" with "Modern translations and interpretations" of Gurbani. What do you think?

Kabaddi and Field Hockey are the 2 most loved sports of Punjabis. We have large sikh population in countries like canada, england etc. but why dont we have sikh players representing these countries ? If we have 4-5 players in the field hockey teams of canada, england, it wil be a great parchar of sikhi and it will also give sikh role models to the young kids.

For as long as I can remember I've had a doubt about the low 'official' numbers quoted of sikhs especially since there seems to a world approach of lumping us into the OTHERS category to hide us http://www.azaadsikhmedia.com/the-real-population-of-sikhs-in-india-is-about-15-crores-2/

Tisarpanth 6 mins · Here are some interesting excerpts from a report, published in 2009, by Operation Mobilization (deceptively shortened to "OM"). The report's author, one Sabu Mathai Kathettu is a Christian evangelist who is a prominent member of the Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and is "celebrated" (by evangelists of course) for his "fieldwork" in the Punjab. What is humorous about his report, however, is that not only does he admit to the theological inferiority of Christian doxa vis-a-vis Sikhi, but also provides an insight into how Christian missionaries are employing deception to fool the illiterate and mistreated Punjabis in a bid to convert them. 1.) Kathettu admits the incompetency of Christianity with Sikhi when he highlights the philosophical difficulties which missionaries encounter in explaining the gospel to Sikhs and Hindus: "The missionaries preached that all people are sinners, and Christ is the true savior. The concept of all people as 'sinners' was objected to by the Hindus and Sikhs because it was different from their philosophy. For them it is difficult to recognize that they are sinners!" -pg. 73. The presence of the exclamation mark, it seems, is to indicate that non-Christians are intellectually inferior to Christians and thus impaired by some learning difficulty- essentially failing to comprehend that they are sinners. 2.) The very purview of the Sikh Sri Akal Purakh and the Christian God are at odds with each other. Here is Kathettu's humorous take on the matter: "...the Sikh doctrine of Ik Onkaar, the absolute Oneness, rejects the Bibilical concept of Triune God." -pg. 113. If Sikhs can mobilize and set up their own missionaries, then their task is effortless because the Christians themselves have handed us the very material required to refute their tribal ideology. 3.) Despite the British take-over of Gurudwaras, initiated famines and other atrocities the Sikhs still remained immune to evangelism. The end-goal of all aid, rendered to non-Christians, is conversion: "Evangelism was the ultimate goal of mission societies and ministries such as education, medical care and literature were seen as channels towards evangelism.... Progressively, the missionaries changed their strategy and adopted the ingenious methods to present the gospel." -pg. 73. Are these people truly selfless as they claim? 4.) This change of strategy, mentioned on pg. 73, also annihilates another myth: that the evangelists are truly concerned about the poor and the downtrodden: "They realized the importance of reaching the Hindu high caste people in Punjab. Stock says that the Christian missionaries were convinced that winning the high caste was the key to evangelizing the country as a whole.... Later the missionaries turned to Chamars and Mazhabi Sikhs of the lower castes." Again, no humanism but only a change of tactics. 5.) Even the Indian media is co-opted in the battle against the Sikhs: "Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) is screening gospel programmes through the national channel Doordarshan in Hindi. In Punjab churches and mission agencies use Jesus or Dayasagar films in outreach programmes. Sikhs respond to these programmes well. At present a few FUNDAMENTAL (because defending your faith against lies is of course "fundamentalist; interjection ours) Hindu and Sikhs are fiercely opposing the screening of these films." -pg. 97. 6.) But problems persist, particularly where the Sikhs are concerned: "The pattern of worship, customs, and church buildings are not inculturated and are the same as the missionaries left behind. Therefore the Sikh community does not understand the core of the gospel message. The churches of Punjab should modify their mission strategy to reach the Sikhs effectively. The gospel of Christ should be incarnated in the context of the Punjab. The pattern of the church and worship should be inculturated in a way the Sikhs can understand." -pg. 98. 7.) And here is the most crucial part of the report, how to destroy the self-confidence of the Sikhs: "Most Sikhs are well settled and secure as they feel satisfied with their own religion. Wealth is a great hindrance to them for accepting salvation. ... Because of wealth they have developed strong personality and personal security that has instilled in them a kind of pride that they can survive anywhere in the world. The Christian worker, or the church, must make a strategy to witness to the Sikhs regarding their appetite for the material things." -pg. 99. 8.) And how should this deceptiveness be put into play? Kathettu has all the answers up his sleeve: "... for effective inculturation, satsang style of worship services should be conducted in the local languages with kirtans accompanied with local music. Also singing Bhajans should be included in worship. Bhajans and Kirtans are the appropriate method for communicating the Word of God effectively to the Sikh community. ... Every morning and evening the scripture should be broadcasted from the church as is done in the Gurudwara.In such cases laws regarding the use of microphones and loudspeakers should be adhered to in government restricted areas. ... And after the worship service the believers should share fellowship around a communal meal like the langar." -pg. 107. 9.) In the above, advice is given as to how to escape legal constraints and appropriate Sikh practices. In the below, we see a continuation of the latter but this time involving linguistic and infrastructural identity: "Christian workers should also learn and use Punjabi terms. The church can be called Kristh Gurudwara or any appropriate words can be used. ... Also the term ‘pastor’ or ‘priest’ can be replaced by ‘Granti’ or ‘Giani’. It is best for believers to be called Isa da Sikh." -pg. 108-9. 'Isa' doesn't deserve Sikhs. Men who weep before death and make false pretenses of divinity rarely do. 10.) Now in the below, please note the condescending supremacist tone: "The most important ceremony is that of pathul or baptism, usually administered at puberty. The initiate takes amrit nectar and is admitted to the Khalsa fraternity. The concept of pahul in Sikhism is similar to Christian baptism. Therefore the Pastor should be able to critically evaluate it and adopt the good elements of it." -pg. 110. 11.) And even festivals are not spared (if they were we would be sorely disappointed in Katthetu): " The Sikh festivals are the best examples of inculturating the meaning of Hindu festivals into Sikh faith by their Gurus. The same way, the Christian missionaries can inculturate the Sikh festivals with Christian meanings." -pg. 111. Of course he forgot to add, "and fool the Sikhs..." 12.) And here comes Christian supremacism in-toto: "The Christian worker must evaluate whether the concept of Sat Guru can be used or not. Also after a careful study the term Sat Guru can be adapted for Jesus as he is the only way to the Father. Jesus claimed himself as the truth, so he is the Sat Nam. ... the title Waheguru also can be adapted to accept Jesus. ...Therefore, Jesus Christ is the only Satguru who provides salvation and he can also be described as the fulfillment of Guru Granth Saheb." -pg. 113. Khalsa Ji, battle was declared by evangelical supremacists once before. At that time not a single samprada broke the wind to answer them. Rather it was a group of few young men, today dismissed as being anglophile and reformist, which forced them to flee. Today we have again fallen in the thrall of pseudo-sadhs and atrophied sampradas. The Christian strategy is evident for all to see; the main question is what will we do? Organize ourselves or wait from some gyani to lead us? Now is the time to rise and fight back. We succeeded once before; if we rise now, we will succeed again. Their ideology aside, their entire stratagem is based on deception. Is the Christ deceptive? Going by the actions of his missionaries, it seems so. Sikhi is increasing globally, lets also increase it in the Punjab. Courtesy of Tisarpanth.

Enjoy if you didn't get to see the whole episode on CNN

Maharaja Ranjit Singh is the greatest military leader the sikh kaum has ever seen. But in a way he's also the worst. Maharaja united all sikh misles' and formed Sarkar-E-Khalsa while being outnumbered by the mullahs and even managed o break mullah stronghold over Punjab / Kashmir and at his peak the sikh empire controlled undivided Punjab , Kashmir , Uttarkhand , KyberPukhtoon tribal region of pakistan aka the greater Peshwar region , former Afgan capital. A decent sized empire ripe to grow and had maharaja planned for it , would have been a modern day superpower and have had annexed all of Afganistan , sindh, balochistan , and chunks of persia & central asia . So what happened . Maharaja lost sight of the greater goal and welcomed snakes into the sikh kaum. He gave control of Kashmir to the dogra scum , who were causes of Sikh downfall , it indulged in non sikh practices by having brahmans in his court and taking parts in hindoo traditions and most importantly of all , he did not layout a plan for his death and the future of the sikh empire. That was the biggest flaw. He did not test his son khartak Singh's abilities to manage a kingdom and his son was nothing like him in leadership qualities. He should've have had picked out a strong willed warrior years before his death to replace him when the time comes. Worst thing though were the dogra scums in the sikh raj . The second Ranjit Singh died, they put their plans into action, assassinating Khartak Singh , and the rest of his Maharaja's sons . Worst parts came when those dogra scums , the " leaders " who were sending out Sikh soldiers to fight the anglo sikh wars were the same leaders who fed critical info to the brits , so that they could own Kashmir for themselves. WOW. Had the Maharaja made Punjabi the national language and had forcefully converted the non sikhs in our kaum , we could've had strong leaders who would've taken over reigns in the empire and kept it from failing ... In the end , putting trust in snakes , the absolute snakes " dogras " , really did it . With power and wealth, maharaja lost his way and caused his and our downfall. I fully believe , if the Maharaja only trusted Sikhs , REAL SIKHS in high positions like the NIHANGS like Akali Phoola Singh and not in snakes who pretended to be sikhs just for their gains, we would all be living in Modern day Sarkar E Khalsa and not in Canada or US or UK .

any takers ?

Hello, I would like to get SikhSangat's observations on the number of dastar-wearing Sikh women compared to the number of dastar-wearing (non-trimming, sabat surat) Sikh men under the age of 40 (I am most interested in the younger generation). It will be very interesting to see what Sikhs who live in the different part of the world have observed. Please state where you live, and whether your observation pertains to your locality, or if you believe it to be global (or over a wider geographic range than the area where you live). Please state your answer in the following format: "My observation is that for every non-trimming young Sikh man who wears a dastar, there are three young Sikh women who wear dastars" or "My observation is that for every young Sikh woman who wears a dastar, there are four non-trimming young Sikh men who wear dastars" You get the idea

Why do you feel a need to say this, bro? The people who don't have a 3 hour Nitnem are not "Punjabi Hindus". I don't know what circles you inhabit, but there are vast numbers of people who aren't in complete Rehit, but are not Hindus by any stretch of the imagination. They do not worship idols, they don't go to mandirs, and when they encounter difficulties or happiness in life (like the birth of a child), they go the the Gurdwara. They may not recite Sukhmani Sahib every day, but they definitely don't recite Gayatri Mantar, either. As far as the definition of a Sikh as per Gurbani, there may only be a handful of people in the entire world that meet that definition. I.e., people who recite the Naam with every single breath: ਗੁਰ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਕਾ ਜੋ ਸਿਖੁ ਅਖਾਏ ਸੁ ਭਲਕੇ ਉਠਿ ਹਰਿ ਨਾਮੁ ਧਿਆਵੈ ॥ Gur Sathigur Kaa Jo Sikh Akhaaeae S Bhalakae Outh Har Naam Dhhiaavai || One who calls himself a Sikh of the Guru the True Guru shall rise in the early morning hours and meditate on the Lord's Name. ਗਉੜੀ ਵਾਰ¹ (ਮਃ ੪) (੧੧) ਸ. (੪) ੨:੧ - ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ : ਅੰਗ ੩੦੫ ਪੰ. ੧੬ Raag Gauri Guru Ram Das ਜੋ ਸਾਸਿ ਗਿਰਾਸਿ ਧਿਆਏ ਮੇਰਾ ਹਰਿ ਹਰਿ ਸੋ ਗੁਰਸਿਖੁ ਗੁਰੂ ਮਨਿ ਭਾਵੈ ॥ Jo Saas Giraas Dhhiaaeae Maeraa Har Har So Gurasikh Guroo Man Bhaavai || One who meditates on my Lord, Har, Har, with every breath and every morsel of food - that GurSikh becomes pleasing to the Guru's Mind. ਗਉੜੀ ਵਾਰ¹ (ਮਃ ੪) (੧੧) ਸ. (੪) ੨:੫ - ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ : ਅੰਗ ੩੦੫ ਪੰ. ੧੯ Raag Gauri Guru Ram Das So if you missed a breath, you're not a Sikh.

Often Shiv sena in punjab are dismissed as rats as clowns as fools who run away from brave Sikh warriors. However what our Sikh youths dont know is that the people who belonged to those organisations at the time had their role in the genocide and mass murder of Sikhs in 1980s/90s how they were part of the same false flag Indian state terrorist machinery that operated black cats, alam sena, virk sena,etc Below a short extract from " Truth About Punjab, SGPC White Paper, Gurdarshan Singh Dhillon " --------------------------- Siege of the Sikhs : State Terrorism in Punjab Logic of KPS Gill was that the police were dealing with people who did not believe in any laws and so unless the police too was lawless it could not really fight them,"^ Gill justified the policy of creating under cover squads. He said, "The security forces in Punjab can do nothing without special spotter's parties and there is no question of doing away with them."^ He was reported to have prepared his 'elimination lists', with instructions from the I.B. When a team of the Punjab Human Rights Organisation (PHRO) who had a long interview with Sumedh Singh Saini, Senior Suprintendent of Police, Bhatinda, asked him to comment on the armed vigilante groups created in many districts of Punjab, he too is reported to have said, "What was wrong if they were organised to assist the state to neutralize terrorists?'" Besides vigilante squads, there were other squads also who were responsible for deadly intrigues and murders. In a revealing letter written to the Lok Sabha Speaker Rabi Ray, Simranjit Singh Mann, while submitting his resignation from Indian Parliament, drew attention to the other hit squads called the "Black Cats"and "Indian Lions", who were operating in the State in a clandestine manner and were responsible for murdering and pillaging." Mann complained that three members of the executive of his party, including Jagdev Singh Khudian MJ*. were done to death by the "Indian Lions" outfit.^ Mann regretted that even though the Justice Harbans Singh Rai Commssion appointed by the government had indicted the Punjab DGP, K.P.S. Gill, in connection with the Khudian murder, yet no action was taken against him.' '^ ' "The state is actively involved in killing and murdering Sikh leaders and I have been threatened by the "Indian Lions" which has several other names - 'Vaidya Commando Force" (VCF) and "Lala Jagat Narain Tiger Force".' said Mann. The Tribune reported the formation of a secret militant organisation called the "Indian National Army" which recruited commandos to fight terrorists m Punjab. The report said, "Mr. Dayal Singh Chief General of the army said to-day that commandos were drawn from the Army, the BSF, the CRPF and the Punjab Police. He also introduced a commando to newsmen, who, he claimed belonged to the BSF."' All India Hindu Shiv Sena also trained its own commandos to carry out clandestine activities. 'Current' weekly in its issue dated August 5-11, 1987, brought to light a story which described a camp "somewhere in Amritsar district", where the AH India Hindu Shiv Sena was training about 1,000 of its young followers in the use of arms and commando tactics. The boys let their hair and beards grow and assumed the appearance of Sikh youth. The Sena president Surender Kumar BUla managed the camp and told the reporter that the idea was that these young men would act as agent provocateurs, attack the Sikhs and thereby create an aversion among Sikhs for the militants. A group photograph of Surender Billa and his fake Sikhs was also shown in the Weekly. There were reports of nine similar camps located all over Punjab. It is obvious that these camps could not have operated without the patronage of those in high places. These commandos indulged in looting and extortion's. According to a Tribune report (August 13, 1991), "instances of miscreants, some belonging to the Hindu Suraksha Samiti, having written letters in the name of the Dashmesh Regiment demanding ransom from members of the minority community have come to light in Bhatinda district recently. In police records Surender Kumar BiUa was shown as a man' wanted by the police but actually the government made no effort to nab him. He and his cohorts were allowed to go ahead with their mischievous plans. 'Frontline' reported (14-27 May, 1988) that 'in Punjab it is an accepted view that at least some of the death squads have been unleashed by the government.' This was a comment on a story reported by a freelance journalist that RAW was using imported AK 47s and RPG - 7 anti - tank rocket-propelled grenades in the Punjab in order to justify the 59th amendment to the Constitution, by which government can impose an emergency on the state and suspend the right to life.' Economic and Political Weekly' in a news report of April, 16, 1988, had asked 'Are the killings in Punjab the handiwork of the extremists ?' The report observed that 'strategic' killings by officially planned agent provocateurs may help the government to precipitate further authoritarian control by assuming more military powers.' The intention was to create an atmosphere of anarchy and violence so that, out of frustration, the people absolve the state for its direct use of violence and other means of repression. Such activities added an ominously new dimension to the tragic scenario and led to an atmosphere of terror and insecurity. Chandan Mitra observed, "The police under-cover operations have added to the confiscation over genuine and fake militancy."^ The Washington Post reported that the Indian security forces conducted a highly realistic mock hijacking of an airliner that fooled many people into thinking that it was a genuine terrorist action by Sikh militants. The purported hijackers issued a number of demands in the name of a Sikh extremist group. The exercise ended peacefully at an airport in West Central India but not without spreading alarm throughout the country.^ Such obnoxious tactics were used to blame and defame the Sikh community, to stoke up communal fires and to bring about reprisals in order to divot attention fix)m the real issue

While it is good to see sikhs moving to various countries and apparently it leads us to believe sikhism is "spreading". However , back in our homeland of punjab , our numbers are dwindling at an alarming rate. By our numbers , I mean basic "turbaned kesdhari youth who doesn't trim beard". While punjabi sikhs leave for foreign countries, the population void is swiftly replaced by immigrant HINDUS ! Slowly our punjab and its culture is becoming more hindu than sikh. Give a couple of decades on this path and punjab would be hindu dominated and these are going to have serious ramifications for sikhs and panth politics. While youth tread on this path of patit-puna , what is even more shocking is callousness shown by the parents and elders. Apparently , as long as your son is successful , you as a coconut sikh parent couldn't care less about whether he keeps his hair unshorn, trims his beard or wears a turban. And I am sure his prospect wife also doesn't care. Infact he might as well get more rishtey because he doesn't have a "bushy beard" and apparently that translates to "better looking" . We seriously need to consider where we're heading to before we become like the Jains ( they don't have any political power or majority in any state in india) . Fortunately , there's an easy solution to this problem : have more kids per couple. Atleast 3 kids , the very least. Start orphanages and slowly bring orphans to sikhi . And so on Unfortunately , sangat always scoffed at the idea of more kids and we barely run orphanages We need to stop moving out of our homeland for "better" pastures. Cutting off from our root can never make us thrive