How the taliban are successful against the invading western forces

[acsap]

Only one thing killed Khalistani movement and that was the construction of electric fence between Punjab and Pakistan. After the construction of the electric fence Sikhs have no place to hide or get weapons. Otherwise, there is no way in hell that the Indian government would have won this war, in fact, before the fence Inian govt. was almost ready to give everyhting to Sikhs (remember PM Chandershekar and his words) I am not saying that Pakistanis were always our friends, but Sikhs were able to use that area for many purposes. My understanding is that the fence idea was given to India by Israel. Even Israelis are able to stop most Palestinians actions by constructing the fence.

[genie]

Regarding parchaar. I think thats long term goal you looking and alot of effort with minimum return, even then you are not doing the right parchaar. What you need a parchar that destroys the myth that you cant be sikh if you dont have the 5ks and become amritdhari. Imagine in 1946 when dalits were offering to become Sikhs so that Sikhs could have a country but the castist Sikh leaders rejected their brothers because they did not like lower castes, imagine had SGPC not drawn up the disasterous rehat maryada that state unless you have kesh and other k's you are not a guru's Sikh and had not isolated millions of hindu punjabis who called themselves Sikhs. Imagine all this how our kaum would have faired.

All these diasterous decisions have been made by enemies within who call themselves Sikhs but their actions are not of those of Siikhs.

[Jonny101]

Genie jee, doing parchar does not mean we have to compromise on sikh principles. Just look at the recent news of a hundred Dalits who became sikhs in madhya pradesh. They are now full keshadharis, their women also wear dastars, they wake up at amritvela keeping full rahit. Hundreds more are said to want to become amritdharis, because of which another Amrit sanchar will be conducted soon in the summer.

[VanHelsingh]

Genie jee, doing parchar does not mean we have to compromise on sikh principles. Just look at the recent news of a hundred Dalits who became sikhs in madhya pradesh. They are now full keshadharis, their women also wear dastars, they wake up at amritvela keeping full rahit. Hundreds more are said to want to become amritdharis, because of which another Amrit sanchar will be conducted soon in the summer.

I don't agree with Genie Ji's assessment of who is or isn't a Sikh, but I can appreciate the perspective from which he's presenting his argument.

I'm reminded of something I read quite recently regarding the issue of Dr. Ambedkar and the millions of Dalits (known as Mahars) who were on the verge of becoming Sikhs back in the middle of last century. Apparently they all converted to Buddhism, and one particular journalist from the West has been back to chart their progress. From a purely secular perspective they are doing well; they're educated, empowered, and basically each generation is improving on the progress of the previous generation, and are becoming staunch middle-class Indians which is mind-blowing progress considering their origins. They live in mostly Mahar urban neighbourhoods, but even then they note there's still a fair amount of discrimination from non-Mahars as a result of their past, despite their obvious progress and the passage of time.

However the village-dwelling Mahars are surrounded by Hindus, and these rural Hindus haven't forgotten who these Mahars were, and unfortunately with the passage of time, there's a lot of confusion that has crept into their thinking, as well as undercurrents of discrimination which the Mahars report is still present. The journalist notes how in the houses of these rural Buddhist Mahars there's the obvious Buddha statues, but there's also idols and paintings of Vishnu, Shiva, etc., and they even greet each other with the salutation 'Ram Ram'. It's a tragedy that despite unshackling themselves from the Hindu caste system, on account of simply being in India and being around predominantly Hindus and the Hindu way of life, they are gradually being absorbed into the traditional hierarchy once again.

If we try to transpose this to Sikh systems of living back home, we'd be kidding ourselves (and being deliberately myopic) if we said caste was no longer an issue amongst us. It's all good and well congratulating each other on the Dalits who converted to Sikhi a few months ago, but the true test will be to see how well are they actually treated from now onwards, i.e. will they be allowed into places of worship or other institutions where they were barred from entering on account of their previous caste status, etc?

Anyway, the thing about parchaar catering to non-5K wearing Sikhs - by conceding the point they ARE Sikhs - will never happen. It will send completely the wrong message, and undo years of parchaar which tried to join patits to Gursikhi. That's not to say alienation of patits is the correct option, but I don't see the problem in becoming a baptised Sikh. The unnecessary vilification - occasionally bordering on hate - which seems to be encouraged by some quarters is not needed. We simply don't know what dwells in the hearts of individuals when it comes to Sikhi, and at what stage they may find themselves on their personal spiritual journey.

In the West I can see a point in time when spiritually-attuned folk who are born into Sikh families but not adhering to Gursikhi will turn to the likes of Buddhism if all they hear is how they're sinners for not taking Amrit. That's where the level of sophistication needs to be ramped up when it comes to parchaar in order to hold onto these individuals with great spiritual potential, and not give them the impression they are being turned out on their ear for being patits. But I don't think the capability and will is present amongst the learned in our faith to engage with people who perhaps aren't sinners or missionaries, but nevertheless have deep, probing questions that will help them comprehend whatever it is about Sikhi they wish to know.

Of course, patits who consider Sikhi a joke, and have no intention of changing their ways are not the kind of folks I'm referring to.

[ThunderousDominator]

Not all the kharkus urged for a boycott shaheed baba manochal called the boycott a mistake

[Jonny101]

Not all the kharkus urged for a boycott shaheed baba manochal called the boycott a mistake

who came up with the idea of boycotting the elections. What good did they expect it to do?