Why didn’t Sant Bhindranwale wave his hands in the air?

I recall watching very rare footage of Sant Bhindranwale traveling to Bombay to address the congregation there, the scene was astounding. Arriving with a convoy of jeeps and trucks, flanked by numerous motorcycles on either side, with the police struggling to control the crowd as they gushed forward to catch a glimpse of him. The jeeps then stop at their destination, Sant rises from his seat, and is bestowed with thousands of flowers thrown at him, it looked as if a Prince had returned to the victorious Kingdom. This is Bombay we are talking about, the heartbeat of the Hindu community. If this was the reaction in Bombay, we can only begin to imagine what Sant Bhindranwale’s presence had done for the people of Punjab.

Yet some ignorant, uninformed oblivious individuals claim that Sant Bhindranwale did not enjoy any popular support, and headed a marginal movement that had no place in society. More than this, many even go to lengths to say that Operation Bluestar, the personification of decades of fascism, could have been avoided if Sant Bhindranwale had come out of the Akal Takht when the Indian tanks, planes and troops were ready to roll. The distressing thing is that this view is commonplace in many homes, Gurdware, intellectual discussions, news reports and radio debates.

Why? Because we are told by people who have a vested interest in suppressing peoples thought so that they continue to accept their down-trodden status. It is imperative for the Indian government to slander Sant Bhindranwale, because it was his spirit that initiated the dynamic surge towards freedom by the people of Punjab during the late Seventies to the early Nineties. However, we must not become targets of the Indian government and lose sight of reality by internalizing the view that Bluestar was initiated and could have been prevented by the ‘obstinate’ Sant Bhindranwale.

From a personal perspective, the need for this article to answer the title question has been long overdue. I have been itching to write this piece, since it is one of the most prominent questions ever asked when discussing Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and Operation Bluestar, but rarely receives an adequate reply. This is one question that some people (including many ‘Sikhs’) ask when attempting to malign the character of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, and in turn justify the genocide that occurred in the precincts of Harimander Sahib in 1984. Below are just a selection of prevalent views that are crudely used by people with tunnel vision, and the type of thinking that just barely hits the surface.

‘ He may have been a saint, but if he’d come out, the army would never have attacked’

‘He was the reason for all the death and destruction, his stubbornness desecrated the Akal Takht’

‘He could have saved thousands’

‘He just wanted to carve his name into the history books’

For all those who fall into this school of thought, here is a response:

The assault, which the Sikhs themselves call the Ghallughara (Holocaust) was not only envisioned and rehearsed in advance, meticulously and in total secrecy (Ram Narayan Kumar,The Ghalughara: Operation Blue Star - A Retrospect)[* ], it also aimed at obtaining maximum number of Sikh victims, largely devout pilgrims unconnected with the political agitation. The facts should speak for themselves.

  • There was no warrant for Sant Bhindranwale’s arrest. There was no judicial verdict of guilt against any of the 11 accused who were on the government ‘hit list’. All weapons carried by Sant Bhindranwale and his entourage were licensed by the Indian government, so on what basis was the attack planned and coordinated? Sant Bhindranwale was not engaged in any criminal activity. Even after his arrest in 1982, no concrete charges were leveled against him. His only crime was that he lived a puritan way of life, and possessed the charisma to espouse everyone else to follow suit.
  • Sant Bhindranwale declared weeks before the attack that an army invasion of the GoldenTemple will not be tolerated, and repelled by any means necessary.
  • The army shot first, drew first blood on May 31st, when the Central Reserve Police Force fired at the roof of the Langar Hall where daily congregations took place. Therefore Sant Bhindranwale had no choice but to defend its sanctity.
  • Perhaps the most striking of all is that the Indian army had been practicing on a model of the GoldenTemple and seeking expertise from the London based SAS in 1983, almost a year before SJ had moved into the GoldenTemple. Clearly the attack would have taken place whether Sant Bhindranwlae was there or not, he just became an ideal excuse. Striking a blow at the heart of a whole community, to the place where they receive their strength and and inspiration was the real motive, Sant Bhindranwale could not let that strike take place. Dr. J. M. Pettigrew, a Scottish anthropologist, who spent much time in Punjab doing independent research on the Punjab problem, writes in "The Sikhs of the Punjab"

"The initial crime (Operation Bluestar) was calibrated and indeed had been planned for a year beforehand. The Darbar Sahib complex, a place of a great beauty, the spiritual and political centre of the Sikh way of life and of the Sikhs, as a whole, their historic home through years of invasion from the West, had its sanctity shattered. The army went into Darbar Sahib not to eliminate a political figure or a political movement but to suppress the culture of a people, to attack their heart, to strike a blow at their spirit and self-confidence".

Evidently, the sole purpose of Operation Bluestar was to destroy the Sikh morale, and force them into submission. If the army really only wanted to flush out those who ‘wrote and sanctioned death warrants’, then why did they choose to invade the holiest shrine on a highly religious day, when pilgrims were arriving from ever nook and corner of the globe? Punjab was littered with government intelligence throughout its anti-Sikh policies in Punjab, are we really lead to believe that the government failed to realise that it was a holy day?

  • Why were 40 other historic shrines attacked? Was Sant Bhindranwale sitting in all of them? Did the people of Punjab miraculously clone 40 and put them in each one, which warranted the assult against them? Or was the army simply hell bent on destroying the psyche of the Sikhs.
  • Sikhs have always fought battles in a defensive position in lieu of an offencive position i.e from a fort. Guru Gobind Singh Ji fought from the fort of Chamkaur Sahib, so how can anyone say this tactic was naïve and self destructive? Sikhism does not divorce saintly characteristics from those held by a warrior, the two are intertwined and create the ideal human eulogized by Guru Granth Sahib. Thus if the precincts of the holy Harimander Sahib had to be turned into a military fortress then no blasphemy or irreligious act had been committed, since it was spurred by self-preservation.
  • The fact remains that the majority of deaths occurred AFTER the Akal Takht and the Golden Temple had been militarily secured and occupied, so why the bloodbath? Based on this, if Sant Bhindranwale had come out, are we really supposed to believe that the hell unleashed on the GoldenTemple would have been prevented? A military operation, which human rights activists have denounced as "Genocide in practice." The statement of Devinder Duggal, custodian of the Sikh library at the GoldenTemple testified that:

‘During those three days, more than 4000 people must have been killed….90% were pilgrims…children were asking for water again and again. The elders were suppressing their thirst to meet the needs of the children. A stage came when we just put a small amount of water to our lips to save ourselves.’ (Investigation Team : A. Rao, A. Ghose, S. Bhattacharya, T. Ahuja, N.D.Pancholi, Operation Bluestar : The untold story)

A.R. Darshi, a Hindu Secretary and Magistrate to the Government of Punjab stated that:

‘I saw these buildings about two weeks after the terrific bombardment which were raised to the ground. I was shocked to see the extent of cruelty and barbarity committed by the army on their own people.’ (AR Darshi, The Gallant Defender (Punjab, 2001) p. 112.)

  • The attack was injudicious, avoidable, unnecessary and unjustifiable. Despite the presence of the Police Border Security Force (BSF), Army, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Research Analysis Wing (RAW), the Third Agency, Indian Intelligence Service (IIS) and Black Cat Commandoes,National Security Guard, Special Frontier Force, the President’s Rule (which has the power to suspend the right to life for anyone merely suspected of ‘terrorism’), as well as the easily accessible Harimander Sahib complex and the tapping of all its phones, the Indian Government used the same weapons and men that it had used in the Indo-Pak wars just to get 11 men out of a small temple complex, the holiest Sikh shrine on earth.
  • The number of murders that occurred in Rajasthan were many times higher than in Punjab. Why didn’t vijayanta battle tanks, howitzer helicopters, machine fire, shell, mortar with a personnel of 180, 000 troops led by a control room in Delhi march into Rajasthan instead of Amritsar? Evidently, it was not a law and order problem, it was a religious one.
  • The government of Indiahad been given red alert by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Asia Watch, so why should we dispute Sant Bhindranwale’s decision to combat them?
  • The Sikh nation repeatedly affirmed that they wish to remain in India, but only if they were granted human and civil rights. The most vocal being Sant Bhindranwale, who declared that ‘we will reside in India, but only if you treat us as your brothers.’ This a very cooperative settlement from a man dubbed as the most fanatical and uncompromising hard-liner India has ever seen.
  • General Brar, one of the four chosen to lead, co-ordinate and execute the attack visited the deputy commissioner of Amritsar in April 1984, and conveyed his intentions of attacking the GoldenTemple. The deputy commissioner warned that although he loathed the Sant, he will not be defeated with ease. Brar, arrogantly remarked that ‘when tanks rattle and planes roar, even generals quack in their boots’. Are you not proud that Sant Bhindranwale proved him wrong? ‘He fought back like a tiger’ said one political commentator.
  • If Sant Bhindranwale had walked out waving his hands in the air, Sikh across the globe would have held their heads in shame and dismay. The one man who was leading the Panth, who had awoken a sleeping lion and spearheaded a revolution, epitomized the saint soldier of Guru Granth Sahib, come out like a coward? Sant Bhindranwale knew that the reputation, honour and pride of the turban was now resting on his shoulders, he had no choice but to fight. There was more than Sant Bhindranwale’s pride at stake, all of ours depended on it.
  • This may seem controversial, but a lot of Sikhs would rather the Akal Takht come under attack than to see a foreign power invade and infiltrate it by appointing puppets who would ultimately kill the Panth through irrelevant ‘hukamname’ that create disunity and internal bickering. The Akal Takht is bricks and mortar, marble and gold, what it symbolizes is crucial to Sikhs, and that is independence and freedom of thought, action, speech and existence. We cannot let a foreign power take these away from us, particularly when they have overtly admitted that they want to destroy Sikhism root and. No son of the Akal Takht, especially those who have sworn to protect it (i.e Sant Bhindranwale, Bhai Amrik Singh and Co) can ever submit to a foreign ruler.

Like any other icon, Sant Bhindranwale’s impeccable and pure way of life has been tarnished by many groups, organizations and individuals. The sole purpose for this is simple, to dampen and quell any spirits that may be inspired by him. Nevertheless, what these people cannot conceal is that Sant Bhindranwale lived his life carrying the pain of every Sikh in India on his shoulders, and with it showed that Sikhs as a people were as formidable as their forefathers. Regardless of the whitewash to tarnish this lion’s name, his roar will echo in the annals of world history.

Sarbjit Singh

‘Soothing winds will once again blow in Panjab, the Kesri Nishan Sahib will be hoisted, flying high’

[* ]*Eminent writer and analyst, author of The Sikh Struggle and The Sikh Unrest & The Indian State, Ajanta Books International, Delhi, 1997. He lives mostly in Vienna and London. Excerpted from the author’s monopraph submitted to GreenCollege, Oxford, UK (Reuter Foundation Paper 128)