Word: sikhs
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RECENT EVENTS, at first glance, would seem to cloud this hopeful prognosis. In particular, the role of the Sikhs in the past few months of turmoil throws new variables into the role of the army in India's volatile democracy. 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...
...evidence exists indicating the decay of India's apolitical, non-sectarian military; throughout the recent crisis mixed Sikh-Hindu battalions have struggled to prevent violence both in Hindu and in Sikh communities. Even if investigations into the alleged military conspiracy come up with substantive charges there is still little likelihood that the disease will spread throughout the bulk of the army. Institutional soundness, a dedication to peace and duty, and above all a sense of subordination to civilian authority have every chance of survival in Indian democracy's most valuable pillar--the military...
Amid the shame and shock, however, there were a few reassuring stories. Some Hindus, at great risk to themselves, organized units for defending Sikh dwellings; some gave sanctuary to their Sikh friends; others offered medical aid to the wounded. Moved by such gestures, 13 prominent Sikh writers and intellectuals issued a statement to "put on record our gratitude to our Hindu brethren." Rajiv also pledged that the government would pay fixed amounts for every Sikh wounded or killed and for every home damaged ordestroyed...
While trying to heal his nation's wounds, the new Prime Minister had asserted his power skillfully. But he had also, in his first week in office, acquired the problem of wide-scale Sikh homelessness to add to the burning fuse of Sikh restlessness. After all the tributes paid to Indira Gandhi, the finest, he knew, would be a resolution to the Sikh problem that had ended his mother's life, and that, if unresolved, could end many more. -By Pico Iyer. Reported by Dean Brelis and James Willwerth/New Delhi
...polite language of diploma cy only partly disguised Washington's fury over the Soviet press's accusations that the Central Intelligence Agency was behind Mrs. Gandhi's assassination. The day after the Indian leader's death, the So viet news agency TASS reported that Sikh "extremists and spies" had admitted being trained by the CIA. Pravda, the Communist Party daily, also contended that the CIA had stirred up the separatist movement in India. An angry Shultz spent the first half of the meeting with Tikhonov complaining about the news accounts, adding that the U.S. would hold...