Word: sikhs
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Evidence of prejudice is widespread; in a 1966 survey, a large majority said subsidized housing should be reserved for "our own people"-i.e., whites. "Britain is fish and chips," a woman in Birmingham explained, "not curry and rice." The Wolverhampton Bus Corporation until recently refused to allow Sikh bus conductors to wear their turbans while on duty; Moslem girls at some schools have been forbidden to wear their traditional shalwar (baggy trousers...
...November 1966, after savage rioting, the Punjab was split in two, creating a predominantly Hindu Haryana state and a Sikh-dominated Punjab state. Both communities demanded exclusive possession of the capital city. Premier Indira Gandhi promised to settle the matter as soon as the 1967 elections were out of the way, and in the meantime allowed Chandigarh to remain the capital of both states...
Three years passed. Last October, an 83-year-old Sikh, protesting the division of Chandigarh, died on the 74th day of a fast. In the ensuing crisis Sikh Leader Sant Fateh Singh, who had been threatening self-immolation off and on since 1966, vowed to go through with it this time unless Chandigarh was given unconditionally to the Punjab. He set Feb. 1 as the date. As if to underline the Sant's resolve, his attendants had collected kerosene and firewood at their holiest shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar. To complicate matters, a Hindu named K. K. Toofan...