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Sikhs of Shillong locality protest relocation decision, Dy CM says doing ‘due diligence’


Premi5
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In the whole of India, our quam's propensity for violence is probably the greatest.

Where other groups look to take to looting and killing, our quam seems to be restrained.

It seems that in comparison to other groups we have the greatest tolerance threshold. 

However, I think that this patience and tolerance will eventually wane and the quam may snap.

Once the snap happens, the carnage will be immense. 

Where other groups try to justify their atrocities, our quam will feel great guilt upon we did even though it was after great provacation. 

It is because we judge ourselves to a higher standard than other groups. It fills us with disgust to lower ourselves to behave like these other groups.

I know we should see the human race as one, but the reality humans are not equal. Some are at a higher level than others. 

Our quam is at a higher level than the other groups in India. We are not a "chosen people" per se but we are a higher standard people.

If this upsets and ruffles some feathers, then so be it.

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2 minutes ago, Ranjeet01 said:

In the whole of India, our quam's propensity for violence is probably the greatest.

Where other groups look to take to looting and killing, our quam seems to be restrained.

It seems that in comparison to other groups we have the greatest tolerance threshold. 

However, I think that this patience and tolerance will eventually wane and the quam may snap.

Once the snap happens, the carnage will be immense. 

Where other groups try to justify their atrocities, our quam will feel great guilt upon we did even though it was after great provacation. 

It is because we judge ourselves to a higher standard than other groups. It fills us with disgust to lower ourselves to behave like these other groups.

I know we should see the human race as one, but the reality humans are not equal. Some are at a higher level than others. 

Our quam is at a higher level than the other groups in India. We are not a "chosen people" per se but we are a higher standard people.

If this upsets and ruffles some feathers, then so be it.

If not humans, Gurmat is above all this Manmat. 

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12 hours ago, Premi5 said:

I think many are starting to wise up to this, hence for example, the anger at Khalsa Aid for doing so much for other groups when Sikhs are in need.

KA and United Sikhs have tried lately to defend their idiocy by showing how they are also helping Sikhs by posting some pictures and videos online. I think even they know now that Ravi Singh attempt to act like some Gurdwara Pardhan and block anyone critical of him is now not working. Either they change their actions or they will lose what support they have among Sikhs. 

My hope is that Sikh and Punjab focussed charities like YourSeva and Sikh Relief overtake their two liberal charities. They harm these two have done far outweighs what little good they have done for Sikhs. 

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10 hours ago, proactive said:

Brahvo. Lol. 

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https://www.newindianexpress.com/thesundaystandard/2021/oct/30/shillong-sikhs-likely-to-move-court-again-over-land-takeover-by-meghalaya-government-2377729.html

 

Shillong Sikhs likely to move court again over land takeover by Meghalaya government

The government wants to relocate them to another part of Shillong but they are resisting the move

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Published: 30th October 2021 05:42 PM  |   Last Updated: 31st October 2021 08:52 AM  |  A+A-

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Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong had on Friday announced that the government took possession of the land at Harijan Colony in Shillong (File photo | PTI)

GUWAHATI: A Sikh organisation in Meghalaya is likely to move court again as the state government has taken possession of a piece of land despite the Meghalaya High Court and the National Commission for Minorities passing separate orders to maintain the status quo.

The Harijan Panchayat Committee, which has for long been fighting the case, said it would soon meet and take a decision.

 

 

“We are in touch with our lawyers. We will meet soon and chalk out our future course of actions,” Gurjit Singh, who is the secretary of the committee, told The New Indian Express.

The case has been pending in the high court for the past few years.

Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong had on Friday announced that the government took possession of the land at Harijan Colony in Shillong after paying a premium of over Rs 2 crore to the Syiem (king) of Mylliem, the original owner of the land.

Some 250 Sikh families have been settled at Harijan Colony, also known as Punjabi Lane, for over 200 years. It is a prime location.

On March 31, a deed of lease was signed among the state government, the Syiem of Mylliem and the Shillong Municipal Board. As per the pact, the leased premises, measuring 12,444.13 square metres, would be handed over to the government.

Tynsong, who headed a High Level Committee that submitted various recommendations on the issue to the government, sought cooperation from the Harijan Colony residents.

The government wants to relocate them to another part of Shillong but they are resisting the move. The state’s Urban Affairs Department has plans to convert the area into a parking lot or use it to build a shopping complex. It could also be used for the purpose of beautification.

“Nobody should think we are throwing them out. We want to relocate them to a proper place,” Tynsong said.

The Opposition Congress in the state slammed him recently for his statement that the government would evict the residents whether or not his National People’s Party wins the by-elections to three seats.
 

 
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https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2021/nov/10/land-issue-shillong-sikhs-agree-to-conditional-talks-2381678.html

 

Land issue: Shillong Sikhs agree to conditional talks

Some 250 Sikh families are settled here for over 200 years now. Earlier, as the standoff continued, the Sikhs had told the government in no uncertain terms they would die but not leave the colony.

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Published: 10th November 2021 04:18 AM  |   Last Updated: 10th November 2021 08:28 AM  |  A+A-

Conrad Sangma

Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma (File photo | PTI)

By Express News Service

GUWAHATI:  An organisation of the Sikhs in Meghalaya has agreed to conditional talks with the state government on the issue of the relocation of families from Shillong’s Harijan Colony, also called Punjabi Lane.

Some 250 Sikh families are settled here for over 200 years now. Earlier, as the standoff continued, the Sikhs had told the government in no uncertain terms they would die but not leave the colony.

In a letter to Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, Harijan Panchayat Committee secretary Gurjit Singh said the Sikhs would participate in the talks but the government should first recognise their presence.  

The statement comes days after Sangma had said the government was open to talks. 

Recently, Deputy CM Prestone Tynsong announced the government had taken possession of the land at Harijan Colony after paying a premium of over Rs 2 crore to the Syiem (king) of Hima Mylliem, the original owner of the land.

The government plans to convert the area for commercial use

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.scroll.in/article/1010008/shillongs-dalit-sikhs-were-vital-to-its-growth-but-are-being-written-out-of-its-story

Shillong’s Dalit Sikhs were vital to its growth – but are being written out of its story

The Meghalaya government has taken possession of Punjabi Line, home to the community since the 19th century.

Ipsita Chakravarty
2 hours ago
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Punjabi Line is a densely packed strip of land on the edge of Bara Bazaar, the commercial hub of Shillong. On October 30, the Meghalaya government took possession of this land and handed it over to the urban affairs department.

Several ideas have been floated about what to do with the 2.5 acres – maybe build a flyover or a parking complex, the deputy chief minister mentioned “beautification”. The verdict was that the strip of prime real estate could not be occupied by squalid homes. Especially if many of those homes belonged to “illegal settlers”, as a government-appointed committee claimed.

The takeover had been enabled by a tripartite agreement signed last month by the Meghalaya government, the Shillong Municipal Board and the Syiem of Mylliem, the head of the tribal body that controls land ownership in Shillong.

The actual residents of Punjabi Line, often referred to as Sweepers’ Colony, were not consulted. Most are Dalit Sikhs, or Mazhabis, a community that has traditionally worked as sweepers in Shillong. The government has extended the offer of talks to them only now, after having taken over Punjabi Line. As they face forced relocation, the local Harijan Panchayat Committee has vowed to fight back.

It will not be easy. Many stories of marginalisation intersect in those 2.5 acres. Maligned as “outsiders”, they have been the target of hostilities from communities considered indigenous to Meghalaya. As Dalits, they have faced exclusion within Shillong’s Sikh community. They may have been intrinsic to Shillong’s growth as a city, but now the Mazhabis of Punjabi Line could be displaced by new patterns of urbanisation in the same city.

Colonial city

The residents of Punjabi Line claim the land was gifted to them by the Syiem of Mylliem in the mid-19th century, around the time the village of Yeodo became Shillong, a colonial town central to British interests in the region. 

In 1874, the province of Assam was carved out of Bengal. Shillong became the political and administrative headquarters of the new province. Over the next few decades, it would also be fashioned into one of the many “hill stations” that served as summer retreats for Europeans in India. The burgeoning Township needed, among other things, adequate sanitation and a waste management system if it was to keep the title of “Scotland of the East”. 

While the British got Bengalis to man the administration, Mazhabis were brought in from Punjab to clean the city, sweeping the main thoroughfares, ferrying out the night soil. By the late 1910s, they were on the rolls of the newly formed municipal corporation, writes historian Himadri Banerjee. They were settled around the Bara Bazaar area, then a sparsely populated part of town. Over the years, wives and families joined the original group of workers settled in Shillong. As their numbers swelled, some were accommodated in Gora Line.

Their Dalit identity meant they were ghettoised in these localities, even if they spread into jobs outside the municipality. “In spite of the rapid expansion of Shillong, they were strictly advised to reside within their restricted areas,” writes Banerjee. So Dalit Sikh settlements remained two small pockets of the city, surrounded by other ethnicities. Poverty and population pressures meant these were congested, poorly heated, poorly sanitised places

 

In the shadows

The squalor of these localities, the grim work that their residents had to do, struck a discordant note in the idyllic urban spaces they were supposed to preserve. Banerjee notes how colonial officials stuck behind processions carrying night soil out of the city complained about being exposed to the “uncivilised” demeanour of the municipal workers.

The city’s higher caste Sikhs also echoed these ideas, abusing Mazhabis for their “dirty and unclean style of living”, excluding them from sacred spaces and community groups, continuing practices of untouchability.

These prejudices, of Mazhabis sullying the city with their living habits and their anti-social behaviour, have also surfaced in more recent articles written in local papers. Take this piece from 2018, where the author complains of the “filth” of Them Mawlong, the Khasi name for Punjabi Line. While he acknowledges the practices of untouchability and rebukes the Syiem for not spending money on improving local infrastructure, the author also complains about the “brigands” of Them Mawlong who allegedly lurk in the shadows to harass passers-by, especially women. If chased, they will disappear into homes “built like rodent holes”, the author claims. He also laments that the Mazhabis have erased the Khasi name, Them Mawlong, and christened the area “Punjabi Colony”.

The article was published shortly after Khasi groups – triggered by social media rumours – closed in on Punjabi Line and clashed with security forces as they tried to break into the Sikh colony. Members of Khasi civil society groups claimed the clashes could not have been communal – why else would Sikhs in other parts of the city be spared?

These claims do not acknowledge the way faultlines of caste and community have converged in the marginalisation of Mazhabis in Shillong.

Outsiders’

As Shillong grew post-Independence, so did tribal animosities towards “dkhars”, outsiders, usually people who did not belong to communities considered indigenous to the region. Much of the urban growth and overcrowding was attributed to waves of migration into tribal land. This anger was initially turned against Bengalis living in the region. Other communities would also face these resentments.

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