Sikhs Are Dying Out In India

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Sikhs are dying out in India

Something subtle and sad is occuring in the Indian state of Punjab. Sikh's are flooding out of India in record numbers, often with the tacit approval and encouragement of the government of India. Why?

Well for one, they will leave India, go and work abroad. Then send their remittance back to India helping the Indian government economically and distancing themselves from the violence and disenchantment plaguing Indian punjab.

Those few that remain, will be offered services in the Army & Police and put into active duty where they can worry about Nuclear war with neighbooring Pakistan rather than troubles closer to home in their home Indian province. The remaining unlucky ones, will be rounded up, tortured as usual or simply made to dissapear.

ALso, The former province of Punjab has already been carved up and reduced in size from its previous shape at independence reducing it by more than 30%. Whats left of the original punjab, has experienced a massive efflux of SIkhs, particulary males to other parts of the country or abroad. To compound this problem, Punjabis also practice female infanticide whereby this region has the highest discrepency in the Male to Female ratio (@ 1000 males to 750 females) meaning that 25% have to marry out.

Since the 1970's, a large influx of low caste hindu labourers have been moving in and altering the ethnic make-up of the Punjab province. Couple to this that due to the sex ratio discrepency, SIkhs are intermarrying with non-punjabi blood lines like the aforementioned hindu labourers but often from as far away as the province of Orissa is proving very disturbing. It is forecasted that by the next generation, The Sikh will no longer be able to maintain a strong link to the Punjab in view of his/her changed racial and genetic markers.

With the large efflux away from their province, and equally large influx and higher growth rate of hindu labourers in punjab, the SIkhs will lose their majority stature in this province within the next 10-15 years. Currently they represent @ 60% of the provinces population, down from 81% just after independence. in a few decades they will become a minority in their former province.

Cultural assimilation of the SIkhs has already started with many of their wedding customs following Hindu traditions(walking around fire) and even socially with Sikh women adopting the bhindi and wearing Sari outfits both strongly linked to Hindu culture. Whereas just a few years ago, Sikhs proudly announced their Punjabi heritage, the newer generation, rather unkowingly, confusingly and perhaps unwittingly states that he is Indian only.

We are now witnessing the sad demise of the once great Sikh people, who may become an extinct people and a thoroughly indianized people in a few decades. A sad farewell

Copied and pasted from another source (not news)

[mann_kaum_layee_qurbaan]

This is obvious. After our own people betrayed the singhs of the eightees this was expected to happen. The punjabi sikhs betrayed the khalistan movement and betrayed their kaum. Now they will lose ther homeland, the culture and their roots in PUnjab. You reap what you sowe.

Who in their right minds thought betraying the jhujaroo singhs was going to lead to a golden age of sikhi in Punjab? KPS Gill?

Any nation which does not respect their shaheeds will never prosper. People in Punjab call Sant ji a terrorist and the likes of gen shubeg singh a traitor. Any nation which treats its martyrs in this way will fail as a people, and as a state.

I'm glad sikhs are moving out of punjab. I have noticed that punjabis in the west learn more about sikhi than the hinduized version they teach in Punjab.

I think when sikhs lose all of punjab then they will wake up. After they wake up, they will claim what is their's as a soveriegn sikh homeland. Sometimes you have to lose it all to realize the worth of what you once had.

Right now, everyone in punjab is a chela of gurdas mann, not of Guru Nanak Dev Ji.

[Guest DKI]

This article is pure propaganda and reads more like the open insecurities of a diaspora born Punjabi than something written by a Sikh from Punjab or by someone who actually knows what is going on in Punjab.

There has been a large migrant influx into Punjab since the 1970's, this is true. But they cannot be all labelled as "low caste Hindus". This is the first indication that the author of this article does not know what he or she is talking about; and for a Sikh, what does it matter what "caste" a Hindu migrant belongs to? A huge number of migrant labourers in Punjab are infact Muslims from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. They have concentrated themselves in urban areas like Ludhiana, but have also spread over the countryside. It is these Muslim migrants who have caused more of a disturbance across Punjab than their Hindu counterparts. The recent rioting by them and their previous attempts to grab control of properties under the Punjab Waqf board clearly show this. There is no evidence at all to suggest that local Punjabis are marrying with migrant labourers. This is actually news to me. Yes, some people from Punjab and Haryana "buy" brides from eastern India but this is hardly a significant number in the larger picture of the demographics of both states.

Genetically, there is little difference among the peoples of India, so there is no chance at all of any "changed racial and genetic markers". There have been genetic studies conducted on Indian and Pakistani populations (including Y-chromosome) confirming that the large majority of the people belong to a common stock. Even without reviewing any genetic studies on Indians, you can see with your own eyes that people from Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab are racially of the same type (I know this because i have been to all 4 states) and lead similar life-styles. And just as there are UP migrants living in places like Ludhiana and Amritsar, there are plenty (and i mean plenty) of Punjabi Sikhs living in UP cities like Lucknow.

Cultural assimilation of Sikhs into a pan-Indian/Hindu identity is a big threat faced by Sikhs in India. But likewise, the largely Hindu origin culture of the Punjabis themselves is a threat to Sikh ideology and identity. The author cannot state that Sikhs are at risk of being "Indianized" because first of all, Sikhs are largely Indians. You can call Sikhs as Punjabis, but Punjabis are Indians and popular culture of India reflects the Punjabis more than any other Indian community. This cannot be denied because it is the plain truth. Aside from use of the Hindi language, Indian pop culture is strongly influenced by Punjabis.

There is no doubt that Sikhs are entitled to an independent Khalistan and that India is made up of many nations. However, the only thing that makes Punjab distinct from the rest of India (particularly the Hindi-belt) is because of Sikhism, and that the majority of the modern Punjab state is Sikh. Not because of some 'Punjabi bloodline or culture'. Khalistan was not about Punjabis, it is about Sikhs and Sikh sovereignty. It is clear to me that so-called 'Punjabiat' is as big a threat to Khalistan and to Sikhs as Hindutva and the Indian state is.

[Lionchild]

another reason why we need to spread out into other lands and teach interested people on sikhi. It's the only way it was done in the time of the gurus, no reason why it couldnt be done today.

[mann_kaum_layee_qurbaan]

Khalistan was not about Punjabis, it is about Sikhs and Sikh sovereignty.

That is a false statement. It is this perception that alienated all hindus in Punjab during the Morcha of the 80s. If one reads the Anandpur sahib resolution, many demands are Punjabi demands such as river water issues, chandigarh as the capital of punjab and reincorporating punjbai speaking areas back into the punab state. If sikh farmers have better access to river water, then hindus obviously prosoer as they purchase the wheat rice etc. Many of the demands of the morcha were to right the wrongs done to Punjab. This propaganda cannnot be allowed to alienate the punjabi hindus.

As for paranoid disapora, I must say that diaspora has better access to unbiased information than the communist like media in india. Also it is the diaspora which visists Punjab the most, check out the airport next time and see how much the diaspora is connected to the land of punjab. You'd be surprised how many of those schoos, hospitals etc are made with NRI money.

peace.

[Guest DKI]

The Anandpur Sahib Resolution is an altogether different issue from Khalistan. ASR is the (or was) the demands of the Shiromani Akali Dal, which has never supported Khalistan but has always stood for the unity of India. Indeed, ASR is not solely about Sikh demands, but reflects the desire for a truly federal India which is also shared by south Indian parties like the DMK. The demand for Khalistan on the other hand is simply the demand for an independent Sikh state, not an independent "Punjabi state". The declaration of Khalistan made by the Panthic Committee explicitly mentions that Khalistan will be a Sikh state, so this is not propaganda by me, this is me just stating the facts of history. Everything in that declaration makes reference to Sikhs and to Sikh sovereignty, not to Punjabis.

Punjabi Hindus have isolated themselves from the Sikhs, politically speaking, since the 1950's when they (as a community at large) did not support the cause of Punjabi language. There is no benefit for Punjabi Hindus to live separately from India so they will never support Khalistan and have always stood against even autonomy for the states. Punjabi Hindus are by and large supporters of a strong centralist system for India. The very notion of an independent Punjab, whether it is in the form of Khalistan or a secular state, is enough to alienate the Punjabi Hindus. Again, this is just a fact, not propaganda.

Sikh diaspora can be paranoid of anything, but it should be based on something which is actually real. Making claims that lots of "low caste Hindus" are migrating to Punjab and intermarrying with Punjabis (so as to somehow change the 'racial and genetic markers' of the locals) is false and there is no use in promoting lies like that. There is a migrant problem in Punjab, the negative effects of which are primarily economic, then social. Nothing racial about it at all.

[mann_kaum_layee_qurbaan]

DKI,

The whole stroy starts with the dharam yudh morcha. sant jarnail singh ji khalsa said thaw e will accpet nothing short of teh anandpur sahib resolution. The resolution is not an akali only perogative as can be seen from the fact that it was the akalis who betrayed it. The resolution was agreed upon by all panthic minded people durig the dharam yudh morcha. The siksh movement was never a separatist movement as is evident from numerous speeches by sant ji at that time.

The ASR came first. Sant ji was no power fanatic and thus left the politics of getting the ASR acccepted, in the hands f the akaalis(longowaal). Instead of negotiating over teh ASR, Indira sent in the army. This completely tyrannical act laid the founadtions of what is now called teh khalsitan movement.

We can't ignore this. Without the ASR, there is no movement which today is knwon as the khalistan movement. As for punjabi hindus, the ones who betrayed Punajbi in the 1950s are in haryana, Punjabi hindus are a big part of present day punjab. You can't ignore their influence.

My point, the whole idea of ASR was muddled y Indian propaganda to make sikhs look like separatists, which alienated the hindu punjabis and isolated the siksh who were not just waging a sikh struggle but a punjabi struggle, for the betterment of all punjabis.

peace.