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Art Exhibiton Commemorating 365 Days Of Bapu Surat Singh Khalsa's Hungerstrike


singhbj singh
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Hunger strikes are extremely powerfull tools. Extremely powerfull.

Arguably, it was the hunger strike of the Irish nationalist Bobby Sands in 1981, and the subsequent deaths of the other Irish hunger strikers, that led to Britain conceding defeat in their fight against the concept of Irish nationalism because the British government's harsh reaction to those deaths was eventually seen as inhuman, much as the Indian government's and the Punjab government's would also be seen. The fact that we are not having the same effect....and in essence not having any positive effect whatsoever in comparison with historical facts about all hunger strikes can best be summed up thus: The first hunger striker died after 43 days and the last hanged on 'till the 73rd day.

We, the Sikhs, salute and stand alongside baba Surat Singh because his struggle is our struggle but....sometimes, we should take a step back and analyse why our struggle gets us nowhere and we are, arguably, in an even worse position today with regards to political rights than we were 30 years ago. Is our struggle merely to reassure and garner support amongst ourselves or is it to convince our oppressors that we are serious about what we do ? I ask this because headlines such as "Babu Surat Singh on his 365th day of hunger strike" means alot to me, as a Sikh already part of the cause but to the people we're trying to reach.........the Indians we're trying to teach about human rights and dignity....it just comes across as another example of what they percieve as the uneducated backwardness of Sikhs. They, who already have jokes about their stereotype image of us, look at those kind of headlines and wonder why they shoud take seriously a community that doesn't realise it is articulating a hunger strike day tally that is not only physically impossible but also 4 times greater than what has ever been achieved by a human being.

To get freedom.......to get our human rights........we need to step inside the shoes of our oppressors and understand what they're thinking. Some of them have been to Cambridge, some of them have been to Harvard. Even those that haven't know what the words 'Hunger Strike' mean. We, the western born educated sons and daughters of the Sikhs from Punjab need to understand that we are fighting a war with an enemy....we ARE at war, but this is not a war being faught with guns and rocket launchers. THIS, is a war of intellect. A war where reason will prevail. Reason, is with us. Barbarity is with them. '365 days of a hunger strike' is not an expression reasonable, educated......the wining side of an intellectual war....uses.

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Hunger strikes are extremely powerfull tools. Extremely powerfull.

Arguably, it was the hunger strike of the Irish nationalist Bobby Sands in 1981, and the subsequent deaths of the other Irish hunger strikers, that led to Britain conceding defeat in their fight against the concept of Irish nationalism because the British government's harsh reaction to those deaths was eventually seen as inhuman, much as the Indian government's and the Punjab government's would also be seen. The fact that we are not having the same effect....and in essence not having any positive effect whatsoever in comparison with historical facts about all hunger strikes can best be summed up thus: The first hunger striker died after 43 days and the last hanged on 'till the 73rd day.

We, the Sikhs, salute and stand alongside baba Surat Singh because his struggle is our struggle but....sometimes, we should take a step back and analyse why our struggle gets us nowhere and we are, arguably, in an even worse position today with regards to political rights than we were 30 years ago. Is our struggle merely to reassure and garner support amongst ourselves or is it to convince our oppressors that we are serious about what we do ? I ask this because headlines such as "Babu Surat Singh on his 365th day of hunger strike" means alot to me, as a Sikh already part of the cause but to the people we're trying to reach.........the Indians we're trying to teach about human rights and dignity....it just comes across as another example of what they percieve as the uneducated backwardness of Sikhs. They, who already have jokes about their stereotype image of us, look at those kind of headlines and wonder why they shoud take seriously a community that doesn't realise it is articulating a hunger strike day tally that is not only physically impossible but also 4 times greater than what has ever been achieved by a human being.

To get freedom.......to get our human rights........we need to step inside the shoes of our oppressors and understand what they're thinking. Some of them have been to Cambridge, some of them have been to Harvard. Even those that haven't know what the words 'Hunger Strike' mean. We, the western born educated sons and daughters of the Sikhs from Punjab need to understand that we are fighting a war with an enemy....we ARE at war, but this is not a war being faught with guns and rocket launchers. THIS, is a war of intellect. A war where reason will prevail. Reason, is with us. Barbarity is with them. '365 days of a hunger strike' is not an expression reasonable, educated......the wining side of an intellectual war....uses.

longer hunger strikes have been performed. Mohamed Soltan lasted longer and that was just last year
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