Word: sikhs
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Imaginary Line. For all the gloom, there was one bright spot last week. A Sikh state was officially created out of a part of Punjab, and its birth brought forth none of the communal rioting that had earlier been feared. The new state marked the end of a 19-year campaign by India's 7,000,000 Sikhs for a territory of their own. Jawaharlal Nehru resisted the demand mainly on the ground that such a state would be essentially a religious entity. But the Sikhs argued that they were the only ones among India's 14 major...
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...
...present state of Punjab (see map). In 'the past, the demand for Punjabi Suba had been repeatedly rejected by the Congress Party on the grounds that it would establish a state on essentially religious grounds, something that India's constitution prohibits. Not so, argued the Sikhs, who claimed it was a matter of language. They are the only one of India's 14 major linguistic groups that has not been granted a separate state. Sikh Leader Sant Fateh Singh, 54, threatened to go on a 15-day fast climaxed by self-immolation unless the demand...
Drawn Swords. Meanwhile, thousands of other Hindus carried their protests to the streets. Chanting "Punjabi Suba Murdabad!" (Death to the [Sikh] state of Punjab!) and "Indira Gandhi Murdabad!" (Death to Indira Gandhi!), the mobs attacked government property and set fire to Sikh shops, causing uncounted damage. In the town of Panipat, 55 miles north of Delhi, a local Congress Party worker and two other men were burned alive when Hindu rioters set fire to the cycle shop in which they were trapped. In the old city of Delhi, turbaned guards at the main Sikh temple impassively shrugged off insults...
...Indian control of Kashmir relates to what New Delhi officials call the "fissiparous tendencies" of their country. If Kashmir could secede by holding a plebiscite, the argument runs, there would be nothing to prevent Madras or Kerala or any other state from doing the same thing. The warrior Sikhs of Punjab have long dreamed of an independent nation. In fact, a Sikh leader, Sant Fateh Singh, was scheduled last week to begin a fast that would be followed by self-immolation, to force Indian acceptance of Sikh autonomy. In deference to the war emergency, Singh has postponed both his fast...