Master Tara Singh

[Nalwa]

I want to know why a man who fought for Sikh rights and home land is not respected in Sikh community ? Why Sikhs have negative views about Master ji .

Please go through this book and you will know what he did for the panth http://www.scribd.com/doc/36619916/Master-Tara-Singh-Souvenir-1981, its time we should start repecting the man who raised his voice against injustice and discrimination .

[chatanga]

Unfortunately, Master Tara Singh, has been castigated for the Sikhs ending up in india, but i dont beleilve it was his fault alone. during the partition, he never had a strong hand to play with in the first place. Baldev Singh was the one who made sure we ended up in india.

The great fault of his was that he was more emotional than pragmatic, and in the field of politics that doesnt work too well. He was outclassed by the muslims and sikh leaders politically.

[HSD2]

Churchill offered Sikhs their own country. Whoever was in London in the for the negotiations in the 1940s told him that the Sikh nation werent interested. Look what happened.

[Jonny101]

Unfortunately, Master Tara Singh, has been castigated for the Sikhs ending up in india, but i dont beleilve it was his fault alone. during the partition, he never had a strong hand to play with in the first place. Baldev Singh was the one who made sure we ended up in india.

The great fault of his was that he was more emotional than pragmatic, and in the field of politics that doesnt work too well. He was outclassed by the muslims and sikh leaders politically.

True, Mastar Tara Singh was not a bad person as some have begun to make him out this way. His intention was always good for the Sikhs. He made the mistake of not insuring any safe guards for the Sikh nation just in case Hindu leaders go back on their word(as they later did). He trusted the Hindu leaders who back stabbed him after 1947. He greatly regretted his decision for blindly trusting them and not taking advantage of keeping political sovereignty while the Brits were there and more than willing to offer it to the Sikhs. Sikhs would later learn that the British were not that bad as the Hindus and Muslims were. Master Tara Singh launched agitation after agitation, went to jail repeatedly after 1947, but all this had little or no effect on the Hindu leaders.

But one thing he did do is make sure that whole of Punjab(himachal and haryana) did not go to Pakistan. When Muslims began to demand Pakistan, they expected all of Punjab would go to Pakistan since they were the slim majority of the state. But Mastar Tara Singh said, if India must be partitioned on the bases of religion, then so must Punjab, why should all of Punjab go to Muslims? Muslims tried to "put the Sikhs in their place" by launching direct action day and violent riots directed towards Sikhs in Pothohar. Most of Mastar Tara Singh's family were butchered in march of 1947 and his house was burnt, this was before Sikhs had retaliated in the summer of 47. Jinnah did not condemn the anti Sikh riots(which shows he must have ordered it). After the riots, Jinnah still thought the SIkhs would finally accept Pakistan and stop their demand of partitioning Punjab but by then it was too late. it was a trust issue, Sikhs no longer trusted Jinnah or his Muslim league.

Sindh did not have a Master Tara Singh, and despite it being about 1/3 hindu before 1947, all of it went to Pakistan and they were all kicked out anyway. Today Sindhi Hindus are a stateless people scattered all over India. Within a few generations they will assimilate into mainstream India. What little is left of Sindhi HIndus in Pakistan, they live a life of humiliation, their womenfolk are abducted and forcibly married to Muslim men.

[scali]

Baba Nand Singh ji Bachan

Tara Singh is going to make the entire Sikh Kaum a slave.

Source Anand Chamatkar written by his hazoori ragi Gurmukh Singh

[Mehtab Singh]

Sindh did not have a Master Tara Singh, and despite it being about 1/3 hindu before 1947, all of it went to Pakistan and they were all kicked out anyway. Today Sindhi Hindus are a stateless people scattered all over India. Within a few generations they will assimilate into mainstream India. What little is left of Sindhi HIndus in Pakistan, they live a life of humiliation, their womenfolk are abducted and forcibly married to Muslim men.

There is ONLY ONE solution to fight the tyranny of Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan, and that is the Amrit of Sahib-E-Kamaal Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji Maharaj! I hereby call upon and request ALL those communities who want to live with dignity and honor to become Singhs and Kaurs if they want their future generations to live with dignity and honor. Whether its the Hindus of Afghanistan, or the Hindus of Pakistan (Sindh/Balochistan), or the Kashmiri Pandits, or the Dalits, or any other community suffering humiliation by these two countries. Guru Sahib called out in 1699, He has been calling out ever since! Become Khalsa, unite, and no one will dare to inflict any misery on you ever again. If you don't trust me, read up on history. Read about the Shaheeds of Chamkaur Sahib, they included Singhs from Dalit and Kashmiri Pandit ancestry. See how they became ferocious lions after taking Amrit! Even in ripe old age they stood with weapons in front of 10 million bloodthirsty Mughal troops. That is the power of Amrit. So, take Amrit, become Khalsa, live with dignity.

[chatanga]

. He made the mistake of not insuring any safe guards for the Sikh nation just in case Hindu leaders go back on their word(as they later did). .

That was what he did try to work for, but the date of british withdrawal was brought forward by a year whoch completely caught him off guard.

MTS had an agreement in May 1947, that the Sikhs only would decide which state they wanted to be in, but Baldev Singh blew that agreement up in June 1947, in London, whgen he said the Sikhs wish to be part of India.

[proactive]

It was mainly after 1984 that many Sikhs started the question the decisions of Master Tara Singh in 1947. I am quite skeptical that the British were concerned about the Sikhs and were offering them a Sikh state and it was Master Tara Singh who refused it. The British have a reputation for using one people against another and then leaving them in the lurch when they leave the country. They did the same with the Karen people in Burma and a host of others throughout their empire. The only people they stood by were the Ulster protestants and even engineered the partition of Ireland by giving large chunks of Catholic majority areas to Ulster in order to make it viable. They could, if they wanted to have done the same for the Sikhs considering the loyalty the Sikhs had shown to them. The partition line was to be demarcated based on population majorities but there was a clause in the terms of reference given to Radcliffe that 'other factors' could be taken into account when considering the demarcation line. The Sikhs held on to the hope that this meant land ownership and Sikh Gurdwaras but they were betrayed by the British. Had land ownership been taken into account then districts like Lahore, Montgomery and Lyallpur would have come to East Punjab.

Master Tara Singh did the best that he could. The Sikhs weren't united in 1947 with many supporting the Congress and the Communists. Had the Sikhs been united then he could have given Jinnah, Nehru and Mountbatten an ultimatum. Accept a Sikh state from Ravi to Jamuna or the Sikhs would make sure that the Punjab would be ungovernable. With over 200,000 Sikh troops available and the troops of the Sikh states, the Sikhs could have turned the Punjab into a battlefield. Using the Sikh states as a base the British districts could have been taken over.

The only option that the British offered the Sikhs was to join either India or Pakistan. Joining India has been a disaster but joining Pakistan would have been a nightmare. We would be like the Copts of Egypt with the Pakistan government encouraging us to emigrate so that Muslims could become a majority in the Sikh districts.

[Jonny101]

That was what he did try to work for, but the date of british withdrawal was brought forward by a year whoch completely caught him off guard.

MTS had an agreement in May 1947, that the Sikhs only would decide which state they wanted to be in, but Baldev Singh blew that agreement up in June 1947, in London, whgen he said the Sikhs wish to be part of India.

Sirdar Kapoor Singh Jee writes in Saachi Saakhi that at the time the Brits were willing to offer the Sikhs some sort of arrangement for the safe guard of the Sikh nation. But at the time Sikhs were extremely anti British. They did not trust the Brits for even a little bit. The reply of the Akali leadership was that whatever we want we will get it from the Congress leaders after Independence, whatever you need to say, say to the congress. After the so called independence when the Akalis reminded Nehru of his promise, he replied "circumstances have now changed" because by then the HIndus had everything, and Sikhs had nothing to bargain with. Baldev Singh played a horrible role. He was a business man and most of his business was located in other states of India. So for the sake of his business he made the Sikh nation into Ghulams.

[proactive]

The biggest mistake that the Sikh leadership made was to agree to a accept the Radcliffe award in advance like the Hindu and Muslim leadership had done. Since the Sikhs had the most to lose they should have made sure that the 'other factors' in the terms of reference explicitly meant Gurdwaras and Land ownership. By accepting it in advance, the British did not feel the need to make any concessions to the Sikhs in the Radcliffe award. The so-called neutrality of Radcliife is a lie. Mountbatten's main concern was the British interests would be protected in the future India and Pakistan.