Dr Satwant Singh Rissam
The history of Sikhs in J&K takes you back to the partition of India in 1947 and the pain associated with partition. It took the entire community many decades to progress and prosper here again. They were put in a situation where they always looked back but continued moving forward. From one generation to another Sikhs in J&K took small steps to become an important part of the social system. This wasn’t easy and came at many crossroads for many families where they faced many challenges and still survived. That is a clear example of Sikh spirit, which is wonderful and till today doesn’t need any proof as the entire community, be it here or anywhere in the world is hardworking and believes in ‘Sarbat Da Bhala’.
Despite social presence and being great contributors to many sectors of society, the Sikh community in the last seven decades wasn’t successful in the political circles of J&K. Because Sikhs kept fighting for their social survival, they were largely content and never tried to play a vital role in the political field and as a result were just used as a vote bank by the political parties. There could have been many people from the community who could have achieved political prominence. Still, they didn’t take political direction and operated only in the fields of academics, science, bureaucracy, law and business. These ‘non-interested’ intellectual minds of the community gave a chance to some people within the community who have had financial success to make inroads in the political field of J&K. This was witnessed both in the Jammu and Kashmir regions.
The entry of such people into politics never proved fruitful for the political empowerment of the community. They were not ‘leaders’ who began their career by participating in dharnas, sit-ins, marches, petitions or fought for political causes of the Sikh community in the last many decades. More so, because there were challenges faced by the Sikh community and a lack of will on the part of ‘learned minds’ to take political roles, these financially sound people were able to fill in the ‘political void’ for the community temporarily. Such a scenario for J&K’s Sikh community was a pure case of ‘internal’ and ‘external’ factors that blocked the emergence and growth of any political leader.
The internal factor for Sikhs was that they gave precedence to wealthy people over someone having an intellectual mindset or having grown due to participation and struggle in the political process. This preference shift from ‘political leadership’ to ‘socio-religious leadership’ led to the failure to develop Sikh political leadership in J&K. These so-called socio-religious leaders presented a poor model on many occasions and youth rejected them as they made the political needs of the community subservient to personal needs. Then came some moments where instead of joining hands on issues that erupted and needed a unified approach for handling, these socio-religious leaders walked in different directions all for individual survival and further eroded the Sikh cause.
The community started facing external challenges when political parties realized the approach adopted by the J&K Sikh community. This posed a new threat to the Sikhs in J&K. All the political parties then started grooming socio-religious leaders while eyeing control over Sikh social and religious institutions by accommodating these leaders in their political organizations. This step never turned advantageous for the Sikhs in any way. This led to more struggle and conflict within the community to gain control of Sikh institutions and emerge ‘bigger’ in front of these political parties for further personal growth. This process hasn’t finished even after the era of some of these socio-religious leaders ended.
A new group of such socio-religious leaders has suddenly emerged in the past few years, and all these are very much again inclined to fill the political void for the community. This continuous pattern has caused a lot of damage and the growth of many political problems for Sikhs. All because we don’t walk the talk, instead we just talk the talk on community lines, the internal and external factors continue to harm the political interest of Sikhs in J&K. It’s tough enough to change but when will the steps to change start? When will we see an elected representative from the community in the Assembly or Parliament? Will delimitation of constituencies be of any use for Sikhs? Let’s not forget that just relying on these socio-religious leaders always contradicts our message to have a ‘political leader’ and makes us powerless in political circles.
If we continue to use socio-religious leaders as a ‘label’, we will never be empowered politically in J&K. Only doing press conferences, back-channel talks, or third-party mediation on Sikh political matters will not lead us anywhere.
To gain something out of the political circle, Sikhs need to end the search for political leaders by electing Sikh representatives at all levels in the democratic system to lead the community always on political causes. The community needs to wake up especially the youth who hold transformative power and are fundamental to the growth of political leadership. This is nothing based on emotions but on ideas tried, tested, and proven by philosophers, and political and social scientists for centuries to improve the status and political standing of different classes of people. Still, before that, the need is to develop a united thought and then act!
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