A4 - Friday, June 15, 1984 - North Shore News India’s October crisis N A SITUATION where there may be as many as 1,200 British Columbians trapped in the middle of a civil war in a distant country, you’d think the ground would shake. Yet it is an interesting reflection on just how un- worldly the majority” of Canadians are when it comes to goings-on outside Europe, North America and strictly personal Bob Hunter the Mid-East, that the strug- gle for control of India’s Punjab region seems so mysterious. I hear people make remarks like, ‘‘Oh, are they still sticking swords in each other?’’ It is of course a good deal worse than that. And if ever religion and nationalism have blended to create a cruel historic irony, it is in the Punjab. Recent demonstrations that flared into an armed at- tack on the Indian con- sulate’s office in Vancouver remind us that the battle for | the Punjab is as close to the bone for B.C.’s 60,000 Sikhs as the troubles in Ireland are for another famous group of immigrants — although it is the French-Canadians among us who should be able to feel the greatest degree of em- pathy with the Stkhs. There are plenty of political parallels between the Punjab and Quebec. In the nouon of a ‘‘pure’’ indepen- dent state to be known as Khalistan there lies buried the old Pequiste dream of a geopolitical entity dedicated to the preservation of a distinct culture, language and religion in the midst of an alien society. The Sikhs in the Punjab complain of ‘‘second-class citizen’’ status compared to the dominant Hindu majori- ty. Out of 680 million people in India, only 12 million are Sikhs, and it is only in the Punjab that Sikhs constitute a bare 52 per cent majority of the population. Something else to bear in mind if you have trouble relating to the anger express- ed by Sikhs here when they learned the Indian Army had closed in on Sikhism’s most holy shrine, the Golden Tem- ple at Amritsar: India’s equivalent of the War Measures Act has. been declared, effectively abolishing democracy in the Punjab. And while there are indeed Sikh extremists who are not above assassination — some 600 people have been killed in the last two years in the Pun- jab — there is also good reason to suspect, judging by accounts by reporters who “B.C. Is becoming an oasis”’ got into the area prior to it being sealed against foreigners a week ago, that some of the claims about an insurrection in the works made by the central Indian government rate in terms of credibility down there with certain Liberal cabinet ministers’ hysterical out- bursts at the time of the FLQ crisis in 1970. For that’s what the attack on the Golden Temple means India is having its own ‘‘October crisis,’’ the worst turmoil since the bloody par- tition of Pakistan in 1947. Sikhism goes back to India under the Moghul emperors about the time Columbus was sailing the ocean blue. It was Just when you thought it was safe to let your sweet tooth wander the North Shore... COOKIES BY GEORGE has crossed the Bridge 4 opened its doors on Lonsdale at Indulge in George's famous Cookies made with the finest Belgian chocolate. Veorge also hus alot of arecat itt WAS COrEN , Oth ORY ACY OSS bron Vad Would love LONSTALt Ohana Ltd batdy 4 real LAYS AWEtRK (her baton Hyon AVENUt tw Noa Aovicand, founded as a new faith designed to bridge the gap between Hindus and Moslems. Essentially, it was a reformation. The founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, appointed a successor, who appointed so- meone after himself, rather like the early Christian popes. In due course, the Sikhs built up an alphabet of their own and acquired a sacred book, called the Granth Sahib, which is guarded all] the time so that not even a fly may land on it. The Golden Temple at Amritsar is dedicated, by the way, to people of all religions. It expresses a belief in one invisible (and indivisi- ble) God. Yet somehow, through the vagaries of history, this shrine to spiritual unity has become a battle field. Children's Hospital. Please write to us at - 4480 Oak Street Vancouver, BC V6H 3V4 the sun! 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