THE SIKH CONFLICT

In a congregation in Vienna in a Gurdwara where Sant Niranjan Dass and Sant Ram Nand were holding a sermon, at least six persons belonging to a rival Sikh group attacked the preachers injuring 30 people, nine of them critically. Sant Rama Nand later died in the hospital during operation. Sant Niranjan Dass who is head of the Guru Ravi Dass Gurdawara in village Ballan on Jhalandhar-Pathankot road was injured but out of danger, reports said.


Shri Guru Ravi Dass acknowledged the oneness, omnipresence and omnipotence of God. According to him the human soul is only a particle of the Divine; the difference between the two is like the difference between gold and the ornament, water and the wave (GG,, 93). He rejects distinctions between man and man on the basis of caste or creed, for, as he says, in the world beyond, no such differentiation will be acknowledged( GG, 345). To realize God, which is the ultimate end of human life, man should concentrate on His/Her name, giving up mere forms and rituals (GG, 658, 1106). Birth in a low caste is no hindrance in the way to spiritual development. The only condition required is freedom from duality; all else including pilgrimage to and bathing in the sixty-eight centres is in vain (GG, 875)/>


The neglection of cast and status is the cause of the conflict, since higher cast Sikh cannot accept Dalit Sikh to be equal in rang.


The clash in a Vienna gurdwara and the mob fury are yet another manifestation of simmering discontent that Dalits in Punjab feel due to increasing social inequality and oppression in a society that was supposed to be free of it.
Even as Punjab and booming city centres like Ludhiana clock impressive economic indicators, caste prejudices and biases remain steeped among followers of Sikhism, with Jat Sikhs and Dalits facing-off in a festering, endless dispute over rights, rituals and religion. Rising prosperity levels among sections of Dalits, especially in the NRI-rich belt of Doaba Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Nawashahar has deepened the polarisation.
While the so-called lower castes want equality and recognition as full Sikhs, those in the upper echelons still resist. And with a large population of Dalits, a substantial 29% and with a high 45 to 50% in prosperous Doaba, the reactions to incidents of harassment, or even a hint of it, are fast and furious.
To get an indication of just how insidiously the caste equation has played out in Punjab, the gurdwaras themselves have bifurcated, with separate gurdwaras for separate castes, sometimes up to five in one village.

Till a few months ago, Vienna had just one gurdwara on Rudolphsheim Street, controlled by radicals loyal to Khalistan, a separate Sikh homeland.
With the Dera Sach Akhand, a Jalandhar-based sect that follows the teachings of guru Ravidass (the 14th century founder of the Ravidassia sect) setting up a gurdwara on the same street, radicals saw red. The new shrine took away a chunk of devotees and offerings.
Tempers frayed when sect head Niranjan Das was attacked on Sunday, allegedly by pro-Khalistan Sikhs.
The bloody clash in the temple in Vienna provoked a violent backlash by low-caste Sikhs in Punjab on Monday.

Two people were killed and scores injured as mobs blocked rail tracks and highways.
Authorities clamped curfew in four cities — Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Phagwara and Hoshiarpur — and called in the Army at Jalandhar as protesters set fire to train coaches and buses and clashed with police.



One person was killed and four injured as soldiers opened fire in Lambra village, near Jalandhar, and another died in police firing on protesters at Jalandhar Cantt railway station. Army and police had to resort to firing in at least five places in Jalandhar and Phillaur. As violence spread to Haryana, Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal said he had sought 25 companies of paramilitary forces from the Centre.


Now the violence is entering in Haryana and I am once more afraid