Word: sikhs
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Dilemma in the Punjab The scene at the holiest of holy Sikh temples was an improbable mixture of medieval pageantry and contemporary political protest. At the gates of the compound in the old city of Amritsar, 278 miles northwest of New Delhi, stood hundreds of blue-turbaned Sikh guards; their scimitars and steel-tipped spears were at the ready. On a rooftop across from the Golden Temple, helpers placed scented wood in immolation vats...
Dramatic Entry. Only last March, the threat of Sikh violence helped pressure Mrs. Gandhi into splitting the Punjab into separate Sikh and Hindu states...
What bothered the Sikhs now was that she also divided the capital city of Chandigarh and its Le Corbusier-designed secretariat building. Sant Fateh wanted the whole place. And this time, the lady was unbending. It seemed as if the Sikh leaders would have no choice but to make good their threats to put themselves to the torch...
...time for the first immolations drew near, chains were made ready to hold the martyrs in the flames, and many of the 2,000 Sikhs in the temple compound began to weep. Then, with only 30 minutes left, the speaker of the lower house of Parliament strode dramatically into the compound. Himself a Sikh, Speaker Sardar Hukam Singh announced that he brought new proposals from Indira Gandhi for a settlement...
Nehru's daughter was more sympathetic. Last March, when she approved the Sikh request, the issue provoked bloody riots by Hindus in Punjab. Last week all was peaceful. Under the solution, Hindus and Sikhs alike were given a separate part of Punjab, and will share the city of Chandigarh as a joint capital. An imaginary vertical line runs through the Corbusier-designed secretariat building so that both sides...