Hindus Object To State For Sikhs

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31006, 11 March 1966, Page 11

Hindus Object To State For Sikhs

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

NEW DELHI. March 10.

Hindu leaders in the Punjab today bitterly opposed India’s ruling Congress Party’s proposal to create a separate Punjabi* speaking State for the Sikhs, the Associated Press reported.

The general secretary of the Punjab’s extremist Hindu Party, Jan Sangh, Yagyadatt Sharma, began a “fast unto death” to oppose the proposal. A.A.P.-Reut-er reported.

He said in Amritsar be would drink only the water of the sacred Ganges, mixed with salt and lime juice. The Punjab Chief Minister, Ram Kishan, said he felt the State’s unity should be maintained, the Associated Press reported. But a Sikh spokesman said the proposal was “a very fair and just deal to the Sikhs,’’ A.A.P.-Reuter reported. The Congress Party decision to split the Punjab follows years of pressure from the Sikhs. In recent months, tension from the Sikhs built up. A Sikh leader, Sant (meaning saint) Fateh Singh, threatened self-immolation just before Congress decided to yield to the demand. Physical Constitution j

Congress left unresolved the crucial issue of the new State’s physical constitution. In the Punjab, Punjabi and Hindi are allied languages and many Hindus in the Punjab speak Punjabi at home. But Punjabi has its own script called Gurmukhi, in

which the Sikh holy books are written and the Hindu political organisations have objected to the imposition of this script as the official language.

They fear that a Punjabi State, formed according to Sikh demands, would be dominated by this bearded and turbanned religious community.

35,000 Square Miles

As envisaged by the Sikhs, a State which they will call Punjabi Suba would cover an area of 35,000 square miles adjoining West Pakistan, where the Sikhs constitute 54 per cent of the population. In the present Punjab State the Sikhs form about

one-third of its 20,000.000 people.

The significance of the Congress Party’s recommendation is that after years of trying to spread the use of Hindi as the national language and do away with the artificial boundaries of India’s many language areas, at least some of the nation's leaders are prepared to give in on yet another language demand, the Associated Press reported. The Sikhs are followers of a 500-year-old religion which adapted parts of South Asia's two great religions, Islam and Hinduism. The Sikhs became warriors and at times have been at odds with both religions.