Word: hindus
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...were quietly posted around the darkened Sikh temples to protect them from attack. From Amritsar, the five Sikh high priests at the Golden Temple expressed their "shock" and "deep grief over the assassination. In the hours that followed, the calm gave way to fights and rioting between Sikhs and Hindus all across India...
...Sikh, a member of a casteless religion that combines elements of Hinduism and Islam but scorns both the caste system of the Hindus and the historic expansionism of the Muslims in favor of monotheism, unembarrassed materialism and, where necessary, militarism. Though the 15 million Sikhs represent only about 2% of India's polyglot population, their influence is considerable. They account for 15% of the nation's army and an almost equally high proportion of its civil servants. Their efficient farming in Punjab, India's richest state, has helped make the country virtually self-sufficient in food production...
With partition and independence in 1947, India went to the Hindus and Pakistan to the Muslims; the Sikhs were left in the middle. The Sikhs' home state of Punjab was cut to a third of its former size, and many Sikhs, finding themselves landless, became urban teachers, doctors and engineers. By now the vast majority of Sikhs are the very picture of middle-class respectability. Yet a small band of extremists has continued agitating, with ever more fervor, for a separate Sikh state that would be called Khalistan...
Maulvi Farooq, an Islamic zealot whose followers are fervent admirers of Pakistan. Mrs. Gandhi has long feared secessionist tendencies in the strategic state, where Muslims outnumber Hindus by 3.9 million to 1.8 million. The Prime Minister's anger increased when Abdullah joined with politicians from other states whose intent was to form an anti-Gandhi alliance for the national elections that she must call by January...
...divided among Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and others. Over the past year there have been riots or incipient rebellions in places as scattered as Assam in the northeast, Kashmir and Punjab in the north, and Maharashtra in the west. Only a month ago rioting broke out between Hindus and Muslims in the shantytowns around Bombay, leaving 258 dead. The Assamese are upset about the influx of refugees from West Bengal and neighboring Bangladesh. Every tribe has its nationalists, every community its zealots. For every insurrection, there are a dozen more waiting to be born...