Word: shrine
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...This minority (see accompanying story) forms a disproportionately large block of military leadership; with only two percent of India's population, Sikhs fill almost 15 percent of the military's officer billets. A Sikh general led the attack (which Indira Gandhi ordered) on the Golden Temple, the Sikhs' holiest shrine, and now rumors abound that this catalyzed a high-level conspiracy in the army to assassinate Gandhi with the help of two of her Sikh bodyguards. Finally, the bulk of the unrest has occurred in Punjab, the Sikh homeland...
...party of right-wing Sikhs. Wanted for arrest due to his directives to kill given Hindu leaders and Sikh moderates. Bhindranwale sought protection in the Golden Temple. There, he sent out directives to kill more individuals, organized military training exercises preparing the extremists for war, and converted the sacred shrine into a veritable fortress, with sophisticated weapons and supplies smuggled in from outside sources (some of these sources have allegedly been connected to India's neighbor and greatest security threat, Pakistan...
...seemingly the extremist Sikhs, not Gandhi, who bear the burden for the escalation of violence in the Sikh separatist movement. Moderate Sikhs had, until the Golden Temple incident, disowned Bhindranwale's extremists as fanatics and madmen, but in their united anger at the army takeover of their shrine, they came to look upon the same fanatics ar martyrs. Such a view betrays the fact that the moderate Sikhs had had no real voice prior to the Temple confrontation, due not to the doings of Gandhi and her party, but rather the extremist Sikhs themselves: It was no secret that...
...mounting fanaticism, and reports of the alarming military build-up of the Golden Temple, Gandhi and the center can hardly be accused of intentional brutality in calling in the Indian army. Sikhs and Sikh supporters loudly condemned the army move, outraged by the government's desecration of their holiest shrine. But does this not skirt the sacriligious behavior of the Sikhs in using a place of worship revered by millions as an arsenal and sanctuary for murderers. Furthermore, the charge made by some of Western observers, the New Yorker for example, that Gandhi was guilty of choosing a military solution...
...iron bowl with a double-edged dagger. Sikhs pray together on equal footing in gurdwaras, or temples, through which reverberate chanted verses from the sacred book known as the Granth Sahib. The holiest of holies is the Golden Temple at Amritsar, some 250 miles northwest of Delhi, the shrine that was stormed by government troops five months ago. Rejecting all idols as false, the Sikh (the name means disciple) draws his inspiration from ten religious teachers, or gurus...