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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
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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.