Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: Notesfiles $Revision: 1.7.0.8 $; site uiucdcsb Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcsb!swami From: swami@uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU Newsgroups: net.nlang.india Subject: Re: Response by a Sikh Message-ID: <141700046@uiucdcsb> Date: Fri, 4-Oct-85 10:37:00 EDT Article-I.D.: uiucdcsb.141700046 Posted: Fri Oct 4 10:37:00 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 6-Oct-85 15:06:06 EDT References: <643@decwrl.UUCP> Lines: 26 Nf-ID: #R:decwrl.UUCP:-64300:uiucdcsb:141700046:000:1547 Nf-From: uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU!swami Oct 4 09:37:00 1985 first, thanks for responding at such length. i, for one, did not really have a good idea of how educated SIkhs who support the agitation feel. i have difficulty swallowing just one thing about all this - that india's media is quite *that* stifled. i know, certainly, that the press is not entirely free, and that publishing anti-Govt material gets papers into trouble. But what about traditional anti-Govt papers like the Express, and somewhat neutral papers like Statesman? I don't remember reading anywhere about attacks on several other major temples during Bluestar, or of several hundred pilgrims being killed - surely not the kind of thing that can be kept secret for long? the attacks on Sikhs after Mrs.Gandhi's assassinations was understandable, (not justifiable of course) given mob mentalities, and that by then there was already a great deal of activism among the Sikhs. there is no doubt that the indian govt has never been fair, but many minorities (and perhaps some majorities too!) have suffered equally. I felt that the articles quoted ignored that aspect, and tended to project Sikhs as the only people discriminated against. in that respect, it is not at all comparable to the Nazi holocaust. if every affected minority began agitating, it would lead not to a revolution but to chaos - violent agitation changes few things, i would say that is the reason why there is usually little support for terrorists, however just their cause (South Africa is an exception). So should we just lie down and take injustice? i don't know.